How This Trainer Secures Consistent and High-Quality Lifting and Exercise Time as a Mama
Motherhood is demanding. It’s a 24/7 role. Your time is limited now. How do you take care of yourself in a way that allows you to put your best foot forward? How do you ensure your needs are met and that your cup is being refilled consistently?
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that, like me, working out is one of the things that fill your cup. It helps you:
✔️ to feel grounded, centered, and refreshed
✔️ to be in great shape
✔️ to move + function freely without pain
✔️ to feel attractive to both yourself and your significant other
✔️ obtain the energy, mental clarity, and the strength that consistent movement provides
✔️ to model what it’s like to take great care of yourself
As a wife, mother, and Holistic Lifestyle + Exercise Coach I’d love to share with you what works for me with the intention that it will inspire you to make whatever changes you need to make to get that high-quality workout time you need.
1. TIME BLOCKING PROVIDES THE STRUCTURE I NEED SO I CAN FLOW WITH MOTHERHOOD.
There's a time and place for all the different tasks of the day: taking care of myself, mothering, running the home, and focused work. For example, for the last five years, mine has looked like this:
6-7: morning meditation time
7-8:30: breakfast, get dressed, prep for the day
8:30-10: my workout time
10-12/1:30: snack, outside/activity with my daughter
12-1: lunch
1:30-3: rest, work time, mother work/computer, emails, etc.
3-4: snack, transition, walk outside
4-5: outside activity with my daughter
5-6: prep dinner
6-7: dinner/evening activity
7-8: bedtime and close up the night
8-9: my wind down, bath, or time with my husband
9:30 lights out
I love time blocking because it takes the guesswork out of when and what my workout will be for that day. That space is there and I hold to it, and I don’t let the other tasks of the day bleed into it.
Time blocking limits chaos, alleviates decision fatigue, eliminates the potential frustration that my needs aren’t being met, reduces stress, helps me to avoid rewriting the playbook every day, and it helps me to know when I’m wearing what hat in motherhood.
Time blocking gives me a basic framework and structure that allows me to be flexible throughout the day. It helps me be present to the moment rather than wondering if I should be focusing on something else.
Okay, so we’ve covered the value of time blocking. Now, let’s talk about setting healthy boundaries with your children. I get my workouts in, consistently, not only through time blocking, but through setting (and upholding) healthy boundaries with my daughter.
2. I RELY ON SETTING AND UPHOLDING HEALTHY BOUNDARIES WITH MY DAUGHTER TO TAKE GREAT CARE OF MYSELF
My daughter knows when it’s mama’s workout time. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at around 8:45 a.m. (after breakfast and getting dressed) I go down to start my lifting workout. I’ve set a boundary around this time and I uphold that boundary.
During this time my daughter is occupied. Over the years the way I have handled this has changed. When she was younger, I slotted my lifting workouts during her morning nap. As she grew older there were times she was playing nearby but she knew “mama is not playing right now.” Later on, I hired help, and now she typically free plays and/or does an activity with our helper. The common thread is I set the environment and the expectation for her.
Another example: my daughter knows that it’s mama’s quiet time every morning before she wakes up. If she wakes up before 7 a.m. she comes to give me a hug and a cuddle before she goes to do her morning things. She knows I am not available until 7 a.m.
My quiet morning time is sometimes my yoga workout, other times it’s for journaling, breathing, or reading. Whatever I choose: It’s my time to fill my cup before I start giving for the day and I choose to protect that time.
I set these boundaries to protect my well-being, to ensure my needs are being met consistently, and to ensure I’m putting my best foot forward as a mother. You can (and should) set boundaries to protect the time you need for yourself, too!
I believe in choosing daily self-care during motherhood rather than ignoring my needs and having resentment build. I believe this daily self-care is preventative: I don’t feel like I need to escape the demands inherent in this role to get my core needs met because I’m addressing them on a daily and weekly basis.
Another important point I need to make…
3. I DON’T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF “SNEAKING IN” QUICK WORKOUTS. I TAKE MY NEEDS SERIOUSLY. I PRIORITIZE GETTING IN REAL WORKOUTS THAT GET ME RESULTS AND LEAVE ME REFRESHED.
It’s common to see “15-minute busy mom + baby” workouts promoted all over YT, Pinterest, and IG and while there’s nothing wrong with getting a workout in with your baby or toddler within arms reach… I’m curious: is that working for you?
✔️Are your needs truly being met?
✔️Do you feel recharged afterward?
✔️How’s your nervous system?
✔️Did that mom-baby workout add to your stress or reduce your stress?
✔️Has 15 minutes become the standard for you?
✔️Is this type of workout giving you the results you want?
The cons of the “sneaking it in'' mentality are simple: you’re not truly and consistently getting the time you need to decompress and make the progress you want to make because you’re scattered, distracted, and rushing. You’re also setting yourself up for frustration when the workout doesn’t go your way and you don’t get to finish. You know what I mean.
Imagine this: instead of trying to get through a frequently interrupted workout session with your child while feeling scattered and stressed by that, what if you had 60-90 minutes protected for yourself, two or three times a week? How would you feel? What if you knew you could depend on that time being there for you to take care of yourself?
I’ve rocked many workouts with my daughter by my side, but most days I need quiet uninterrupted time to focus on my workout. It recharges me. I don’t rush through my workouts and I don’t attempt to “squeeze them in.” I know enough about weightlifting to know that it requires a certain time under tension, reps, rest, and sets to elicit the responses I want.
When I show up for my workout, it’s all business. I’m fully present to the workout.
I recommend giving yourself the full space that you need for your body and mind to unwind and receive the other results you’re looking for. It takes effort to retrain yourself to see your self-care time as a true priority and not as something you should “squeeze in.”
4. I RELY ON HAVING AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE
Diet and an active lifestyle will take you 90% of the way. Are you eating high-quality whole foods? Are you resting well? How are you spending your day in motherhood? What are you prioritizing? Are you on your phone or computer a lot? Do you have an active lifestyle?
I have my protected workout time (as mentioned above) three times a week and I rely on that time to implement specific weight lifting and corrective exercise sessions. But I don’t want you to think that’s the only movement/exercise that’s part of my week or routine!
I’m committed to daily movement. That movement might be a hike one day, it might be breathing and stretching the next, or it might be jumping on the rebounder before my daughter gets up.
The key takeaway here is this: once you have established your protected solo workout time 2-3x a week and have anchored that into your schedule, you can weave some movement in on the remaining days with your child or children nearby: long walks, bike rides, hikes, at-home yoga sessions, etc.
I’m not saying the daily movement should take the place of your protected 60-90 minute solo workouts 2-3x a week. These two types of exercise are very different! One is purely and 100% for you only, and the other is movement that is more woven into the fabric of your day!
Alright mama, that’s what I have for you today. I hope this post…
✔️inspires you to take your needs seriously
✔️ helps you set aside and protect the time you need to meet those needs
✔️ And inspires you to create the structure you need to experience your best flow in motherhood.
— Cynthia
P.S. If your world has been rocked by motherhood and you feel overwhelmed by all the decisions on your plate (decisions about how to best meet both your needs and the needs of your child) consider booking a Compass Coaching Call with me, today.
The Compass Coaching Call is for the woman who is:
+ struggling to find her fitness rhythm in motherhood
+ not sure how to prioritize her health and fitness while meeting her baby’s needs
+ can’t figure out why her core isn’t healing right
+ having an erratic and unpredictable menstrual cycle postpartum
+ is curious about HOW to live in harmony with her menstrual cycle and wants to know what that looks like on a day-to-day basis
+ experiencing new health challenges
+ needs help deciding what to eat, and when to eat it, while breastfeeding and implementing a workout rhythm
+ not sure what she needs to do to heal up and feel better, but knows she can’t continue trying to figure it all out on her own
Get all the details and book your call here: cynthiaspenla.com/compasscoachingcall
Cynthia Spenla
is a Chek Certified Holistic Lifestyle and Exercise Coach who Specializes in Health and Performance for Women.
She designs fitness programs that centralize both the female hormonal cycle and the complexities of motherhood while supporting her clients to create the sculpted, strong, and attractive bodies they desire without destroying their health, increasing their risk of injury, or disrupting their hormones in the process.
Her prior experience serving women who’ve struggled with eating disorders, exercise addiction, and body image issues, in addition to her transition into motherhood, has helped her adopt an approach that addresses the mental, emotional, physical, and nutritional components of a woman’s life.
Cynthia accompanies the women who’re ready to go off the beaten path — women who’re beginning to recognize that mainstream health + fitness advice isn’t working for them. She lights up an alternative pathway for new mothers — a pathway that leads to restoration, vitality, and healing after the life-altering Rite of Passage that is pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.
