Sporty Moms & Babies

“Making friends with Exercise”

Every week the new moms in my Sporty Moms & Babies fitness class trudge through snow dressed in winter coats, hats, mitts and boots, arms laden with their babies in car seats, diaper bags, toys and other paraphernalia to gather for an hour of exercise.  The real workout for these moms is actually in just getting to class! They have good reason to make the effort though and it’s not just for the exercise. They also come for their sanity. Getting out of the house and sharing time and conversation with other moms contributes to their mental health just as much as the exercise contributes to their physical health.

I have to confess that I get my own heaping dose of mental health by spending time with the babies. There is real sense of renewal that comes from interacting with a delicious, smiling, adorable new baby. Time stands still and you have no choice but to be fully present, captured in the moment, enjoying every coo, every open-mouth, toothless smile, and every gesture.

I have been teaching the Sporty Moms & Babies class for 13 years now, since my eldest son, Tyler, was a baby. I started up a class in our local church basement in North Toronto, a neighbourhood that is still a hotbed of new, young families and babies. Every eight weeks the program would fill up with 15 new moms and their babies. I now live in Stouffville and I have been leading the program here for 8 years. The Sporty Moms & Babies program has grown to include Stroller Fitness, Mambo Mama Classes and Yoga and Pilates for new moms and their babies.

Week to week we experiment with a different class format, including low impact, kickboxing, boot camp, ball, muscle conditioning and Zumba. Every class includes parachute and puppet time for the babies, which means the moms feel good about doing something for themselves and also for their babies.  The class is also a safe environment to talk about anything from incontinence to mastitis as we address issues not always comfortable to talk about!

It appears that many of the health benefits of fitness classes for post-partum women like these, including improved cardiovascular fitness, improved muscular strength and endurance, better posture and enhanced flexibility actually only scratch the surface. Psychologists and scientists alike are discovering the healing power of female friendships, including lowering blood pressure, boosting immunity, and promoting healing.

The women in my classes are starting a new chapter in their lives, probably one of the most challenging life stages they will encounter. Getting support from other women who are going through the same issues as them creates a comradely that is rare and invaluable. I often run into women from my classes over the years and repeatedly hear that the women not only keep in touch with one another, but that they consider each other their core group of friends.

In June 2001, the renowned Harvard Medical School's Nurses' Health Study concluded that women's social networks play an important role in enhancing her health and quality of life. The study went so far as to conclude that not having at least one good confidante is as detrimental to a woman's health as being overweight or a heavy smoker.

The cardiovascular exercises, and muscular strength and conditioning  we do in our Sporty Moms & Babies classes are important for improving fitness post-partum, but it’s the element of female bonding that makes the Sporty Moms & Babies classes vital to overall health and wellness!