Part 2: How my first year of motherhood is shaping where Materra Method is headed next
Before becoming a mother I had the enormous privilege of spending the entirety of my working days with expecting, new and seasoned moms as their trainer.
Between squats and stretches I listened intently to their experiences of motherhood and did my best to absorb their advice for the day when I’d become a mother.
Even with this incredible prep I was still naive to the enormous way that becoming a mother changes every aspect of your world.
While I could write an entire blog post on that idea alone, I want to zoom in on how motherhood specifically changed the way I exercise. In one sentence—it got way harder to fit exercise into my days!
The confines of motherhood (in particular early motherhood) made it challenging for me to consistently exercise in a way that nourished my body and mind.
Here are a few of those challenges I ran into in my first year of motherhood and how I’m now adapting what we do at Materra to truly meet moms right where they are.
CHALLENGE—getting out of the house
In this season of life I’ve found that working out from home is much more attainable. While I love an in-person class, the convenience of working out in Magnolia’s room while she plays or in the basement during nap time is so valuable to me. This experience has led me to invest more resources into the app so you can take our classes anytime, anywhere! This means new programs, class types and app features coming your way.
CHALLENGE—finding time in the day to exercise
Of the Materra moms I talk to this is the most common challenge mentioned. I hope to make this challenge a little easier to overcome by offering new app workouts that are always 30 minutes or less. This will allow you exercise efficiently and effectively without carving out a full hour+ of your day.
CHALLENGE: decision fatigue to. the. max.
If you’re anything like me, you find yourself facing decision fatigue fairly often. Motherhood requires so many choices, both big and small, on a daily basis. I want to remove a tiny part of that load—your workout. We have a host of new programs in the pipeline that will give you daily workout videos to follow based on your stage of motherhood (TTC, pregnant, and each stage of postpartum) or specific issues you are dealing with like DR, pelvic girdle pain or even morning sickness. In addition to developing new programs, we offer an all levels workout of the day on our monthly calendar so all you have to do is hit play.
CHALLENGE: unpredictable energy levels
I get it. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re going to be sleeping for 7 hours straight or waking up every 2 hours. For me this was true at the end of pregnancy as well as the first 6 months or so postpartum and it greatly impacted my energy levels. This unpredictability can make it hard to commit to a specific type of workout. By offering cardio, strength, stability and mobility based workouts we want to make sure you always have a movement modality that matches the level of energy you have to give on any given day.
In conclusion—
While these four elements, the ability to workout from home, time efficient workouts, stage specific programming and varying class types, have always been part of our offerings at Materra, my personal journey has renewed my commitment to focus on improving these aspects of Materra to better support mothers.
The adage movement is medicine has been more true than ever for me this year. There have been moments in my first year of motherhood where I felt completely overwhelmed or like I couldn’t catch a break. In many of those moments it was exercise, intentionally moving and breathing in my body, that helped me move forward.
This commitment isn't just about fitness, it's about giving moms the tools they need to confidently prioritize themselves while nurturing their families. Together, we're redefining what it means to support and uplift moms through every stage of their journey. Thank you for being with me on the journey.
