New Lily

My 300th blog post: Thank you Today’s Charlotte Woman!

Thank you to Dawn Liles and the editors at Today’s Charlotte Woman for profiling 9 Kid Fitness last month in their wonderful Charlotte-based magazine.  I’m honored! I also wrote my 300th blog post last month.  And #301 and #302… When I started 9 Kid Fitness, I never imagined how much writing I would do (I’m happy to be putting my undergraduate degree in Journalism and English to use)! Thanks everyone for supporting me and joining in on the conversation about fitness, family, and life!

Pregnancy and Weight Gain (or Weight Loss)?

Wendy Powell from MuTu System pregnant with her second child

Wendy Powell from MuTu System pregnant with her second child

Today I am posting an article by Wendy Powell of the MuTu System about pregnancy and nutrition.   Wendy decided over ten years ago to take her health seriously and that decision has been life-changing.  She became qualified as a personal trainer in 2001, and has founded a system for new “mums” and not-so-new-mums (she’s from the UK!) to help them stay in shape, get back in shape, and develop overall core strength.  Wendy has been a great resource 9 Kid Fitness as I am always researching the newest in fitness for women of all ranges and ages.  Hope you enjoy her post!

Pregnancy and weight loss are jarring concepts because you can’t deny your body food when you have a baby depending on you for its nutritious breakfasts, lunches and dinners! [Read more…]

Exercises to Prevent Pelvic Organ Prolapse

 

We can’t ignore the pelvic floor!

As I approach the second half of my forties, I realize that in order to stay fit and to continue to do the exercises, workouts, and other physical activities I like to do, I need to be proactive about strengthening my pelvic floor muscles.  I have talked about this before at 9 Kid Fitness, and I will continue to look for up-to-date information about the pelvic floor because I know just how crucial it is for women to be well informed.  The following is an interesting article from 9 Kid Fitness follower, Elizabeth Carrollton, who talks about some of the preventative measures women can take before having to do more invasive procedures such as surgery, etc. Elizabeth also writes about defective medical devices and dangerous drugs for Drugwatch.com.

Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) often can be prevented with proper exercises. In fact, many of the exercises d to prevent the condition can also be used to treat mild to moderate cases of POP. Surgical intervention has become a common treatment for moderate to severe symptoms of POP. This is unfortunate because surgery is an invasive procedure that has inherent risks. In fact, one of the most common types of surgery used to treat pelvic organ prolapse uses a high-risk medical device called transvaginal mesh, which has been linked to severe health complications in as many as 10 percent of surgeries. [Read more…]

Do Not Ignore the Pelvic Floor (and Here’s a Website to Help)…

The pelvic floor is crucial to our core.

I recently came across a great resource I would like to share with my 9 Kid Fitness readers (at least the women in the group)! As you might know from reading my blog I am always seeking ways to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and I believe those muscles are a crucial part of our core.  As I get older and continue to exercise, pelvic health has become even more important to my overall health and especially to my ability to stay functionally fit!  What do I mean by  functionally fit?  My fitness is so much more than simply my daily workouts … I need to be “fit for life” and that means for all of the different roles I have and for the many daily demands that I face (#9 is three and as the baby of the family…still loves to be held)!  Although the “demands” may change, they  will only continue to be varied as I get older. In other words I need to be fit for all of my life, not just for the hour or so a day that I workout. [Read more…]

A Few More Exercises For the Pelvic Floor and the Core

womanI have written about the pelvic floor on this website before. As I research and talk to professionals about this topic, I am amazed at the importance of this complex group of muscles, especially for women. Most of us know about Kegel exercises, and are hopefully already doing them regularly. I know I need to be even more consistent about doing them! However, there are many other exercises that can be done before or even during other core exercises that target the pelvic area as well. The following are some that strengthen the pelvic floor and the core, and can be done in just a few minutes while you are working out, or even right before bed: Core/pelvic floor exercises.

You Can Laugh without Leaking

woman laughingYou Can Laugh Without Leaking was the name of a talk that I recently attended. Lead by a gynecologist and a physical therapist, the subject of the talk was stress incontinence, something lots of people would rather avoid talking about. I was one of only a few women there under the age of 60. However, according to both speakers, stress incontinence is not an issue reserved for older people. Plenty of women in their 30’s and 40’s have some symptoms of stress incontinence. And frankly, I think it is a shame that more women my age are not hearing this valuable information. Maybe it’s the dirty little secret of the mommy world. However, I believe knowledge is powerful, and in this case, the sooner we gain this essential knowledge about the pelvic floor muscles, the sooner we can do something about it!
There was such an abundance of important tips given at the talk, that one blog post can not do it justice. But I will be writing a lot more about this subject in posts to come.