The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

247. Exercise, Fertility, and Pregnancy with Dr. Hannah Ryles

• Kristy Castillo

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In this episode, I’m joined by obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Hannah Ryles to talk about exercise, fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum recovery.


We cover how the right kind of movement can support fertility, hormonal balance, and metabolic health, as well as when exercise can become too much stress on the body. We also talk about what types of workouts are safe while trying to conceive, how to train during each trimester, and what advice around pregnancy fitness is outdated or overly fear-based.


We also dive into postpartum fitness beyond “bouncing back.” We talk about the six-week clearance, pelvic floor and core recovery, returning to strength training, and how postpartum movement can support long-term reproductive health.


This episode is full of practical information for women who want to feel strong, supported, and educated before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after birth.


In this episode, we cover:

  • How exercise can support fertility and reproductive health
  • When exercise may become too much stress on the body
  • Whether you need to modify workouts during the two-week wait
  • How workouts may change in the first, second, and third trimester
  • Pregnancy fitness myths that need to go
  • What to know about the six-week postpartum clearance
  • Why postpartum fitness is about more than weight loss
  • How to rebuild strength safely after birth
  • What women need to understand about long-term fitness


**Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is NOT meant to be taken as individual or medical advice. These conversations are for educational purposes only. Please seek the advice of your physician or healthcare provider regarding any medical condition or treatment.


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SPEAKER_00

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode. I am so excited for you guys to listen to the episode that I am going to be talking about here for a moment before we dive in. I work with so many women, obviously, and a lot of them are wanting to become pregnant, thinking about what that's going to look like in terms of health and fitness. I work with a lot of clients who are currently pregnant and some that come to me, you know, post-pregnancy and are wanting to work towards that baby, that post-baby body, and that feeling of just getting their body back and getting back to the person that they were physically before becoming pregnant. And there's so much that goes into that. And I am just really excited to have someone on the show to talk to you. So on today's show, I have on Dr. Hannah Riles. She is an OBGYN practicing at the University of Chicago. And she is just the sweetest human being. I'm pretty picky about who I have here on the show. And she genuinely cares about women, genuinely cares about health and pregnancy and fertility and the postpartum journey and what all that looks like. So we dive into a lot here, a lot of the mindset, a lot of physically what you should be doing, what you can be focusing on previously before before becoming pregnant in terms of fertility and the first, second, and third trimester, and then when you can start getting back to physical activity post-pregnancy and what all that looks like. And she just seems like such a genuine, genuine human being. And I'm honored to have her on the show. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy this conversation that I had with Dr. Hannah Riles. And I hope you learn so much. Hi, Hannah. Welcome to the show. Should I address you as Hannah or Dr. Riles? I feel like we're friends now that we've talked for two seconds. Hannah's fine. Okay, it's fine. I am so excited to dive into our conversation today. I'll be honest, when I was coming up with, well, actually, when I listened to you on another podcast, I realized not, I should have known this was such a deep topic, but I realized that this is such a deep topic. So much, yeah. Yeah. I thought Rika, I could just have you on so many times to chat about all of the things that go into this. Again, should have known that. But as you were talking, and I'll I'll link that other episode as well in the show notes. But yeah, I just thought this is why I get so overwhelmed when clients ask me these questions. And I think that is a lot, not to mention all the complications and even the specialties that you focus on. So I am super excited to chat with you today. So welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself, of course.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So um I am an OBGYN. Um I'm currently in University of Chicago, practicing at the University of Chicago. And I actually specialize in something called complex gynecologic surgery. So more treating patients with endometriosis, fibroids, um, and have complex surgical needs as well as chronic pelvic pain. But I originally got into um this world where I actually had a friend who um contacted me. They're like, hey, I know you really like fitness. And at that time I was also going through my first pregnancy in residency, and they were like, We are starting this company called Expect Fitness, where the premise of the company is amazing. The uh founder, Dara, she just really saw how people who were fit had better pregnancy outcomes. And she's like, This is amazing. No one's really talking about this. Why why are we not talking about this as a society? Why aren't doctors kind of uh encouraging this more? And so she created this whole company called Expat Fitness that is an app based where you can it basically provides pregnancy safe workouts through all the different trimesters, but they've also expanded it now to pre-conception as well as postpartum. And so that's I consult for that company because I truly believe in what they're doing. It's just amazing. I think that I was fortunate to be able to stay fit in my pregnancy, my first pregnancy. Um I did like spin and uh like kind of not CrossFit, but like strength training exercises and things like that. And I truly think it helped made my labor much more smooth and my postpartum recovery much smoother as well. And then my second pregnancy, I was a little bit less, I had a little bit less time, but I definitely felt like I was staying close with like just running around chasing my other chasing my toddler. But it's just something I feel really passionate about because I think there, as we kind of talked a little bit before the show, there's a lot of questions about it. People don't really know what's safe, what's not safe. I get questions from my friends all the time about it. And so that's that's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that. It's so true that there is, I'll be honest, I didn't have a lot of, I didn't start my pregnancy fit. I mean, I shouldn't say that I wasn't fit. I I was a runner all through high school and after high school until I got pregnant. So I didn't realize until I got into the fitness world that that was such a big question. And I kind of just thought, if it feels okay, go ahead and do it. You know, I'll run until I'm like big enough to where it's hard to run. And then I just won't do that anymore, which is probably I don't know. Like, you know, that's it's probably okay eventually. Yeah, I'm probably gonna push through a little bit, but I'm not gonna do that when I'm pregnant. I'm not gonna push through pain or something. Um, but yeah, I didn't, you know, have that. So I I think that's amazing. I think the app experience that you're talking about is amazing. I think that would be really good for people because I mean, the whole premise of my show, Unfuck Your Fitness, is for them to not to think and to know what they need to know about the topic. But if there is someone that they can trust to create a something for them, then just do that. You know, I think that's great too. So I really like that side of things. But yeah, that's amazing. Let's first dive into because this is something that I didn't think about before becoming present pregnant is fertility and fitness and how you can prepare yourself for that. I do have a couple clients right now that are that came to me and said, Hey, I want to get fit and get my body in shape and understand this and have the knowledge with the preparation of becoming pregnant. So I think this will really help them. So let's talk about that first. When we're talking about supporting fertility with fitness, what does that even mean? And how can we, how can we help that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think this is super important because as people are delaying childbearing more and more, women are having children later in life, they are having more, we're seeing more patients with fertility struggles. And so, fitness and exercise is one of the best things, natural things that you can do that is in your control to help support your fertility. So we tend to think about it from the medical side as like, how do we kind of optimize your health prior to conceiving? And so that prior to conceiving and also to help you increase your chances of conceiving. And so that just means that exercise, we know, helps to create a hormonal metabolic state that is healthy in your body. Kind of fertility really kind of revolves around that. And I do want to make one caveat that uh a lot of women who are struggling with infertility often blame themselves. So I don't want you to think the converse is true. So if you're unable to get pregnant, I don't want you to blame yourself and think like, oh, it's just because I'm not healthy enough or things like that. There's infertility is a whole complex issue, but some things that are within your control are exercise. And so it's building a safe exercise program when you're trying to conceive is just super important. It just makes your body more healthy. There are certain conditions. So PCOS is one of the most common causes of infertility in America. Um, and it's actually renamed recently to PMOS and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. And the reason it got renamed is because it's, yeah, it does it's a huge overhaul. It just happened like a couple of months ago, but it re got renamed because it's such a metabolic condition. It I I always explain it to patients as if as that it is your body working against you to lose weight. Uh it makes it harder to lose weight, it makes it harder to get your sugar under control, your testosterone is higher, it's just more challenging for those patients. But there's really good evidence that strength training in particular for those patients with PCOS, now PMOS, can really help to reverse some of those signs. And so whenever I see a patient with PMOS, I tell them, you know, strength training, building your muscles and aerobic exercise actually is shown to help improve your metabolic function almost as much as medications. Okay. And so from a fertility standpoint, like it's just kind of working with either with a coach or not, uh to just improve your exercise. And then one thing I just want to mention is that the prior adage was like, if you haven't been working out, people are nervous to start a new exercise program. But there's actually a lot of evidence to say that it's if you're a low-risk person and you don't have, you know, conditions that you need to get checked out by a medical professional and kind of get clearance from, then you should be able to just start any kind of exercise program. And that would be likely helpful from your fertility journey.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. Good to know. I think that's so nice in just keeping it simple, you know, just start resistance training. Yes. I'm assuming the app you were mentioning, the expect, is it just called Expect app? It's we locally call it just Expect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. We just call it Expect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah. And that has a program, I assume, to walk them through, get them started as well. Perfect. It does.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And it actually has a phase for pre-conception and fertility. Okay. Great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's really good to know. I think people do struggle with, you know, maybe even just that knowledge of how muscle and resistance training even helps metabolically. So I think that the correlation there is really important. You know, I think I didn't know the rebranding or whatever you called it of PCOS is like, but it makes sense. I really like that part of it. It makes it, even from my standpoint, thinking of my clients that, you know, have PCOS, for me to think of it metabolically is really helpful. And even for them as well. And then how do I change and increase metabolism or how do I just work on that? I think is really important. So totally. I love that. And then just the simplicity of not that, not that there's not a wrong way to do it, but the simplicity of just start resistance training, start putting on some muscle is really helpful because I think, you know, in the fitness world, like there, you said there's spin, there's yoga, there's so many different types of exercise. None of them are incorrect. But if you're just going to start going to a spin class, maybe that's not going to help you metabolically. You need to help, you know, work on something else. So yeah, I think that's that distinction was very helpful. Awesome. Yeah, that was one of my questions was kind of like, what would that look like? But you have it in the app. And I think just going, I always tell, I mean, I just did a gym confidence series here talking about how to be confident in the gym. Yes. But I think that's still really it's like once you do, what do you get? You know, once you get to the gym, what do you do? Or we're just doing bicep curls, you know, things like that. So it is nice to have overwhelming. It is very overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01

It's like you go in and you just it's uh decision fatigue where there's like just too many decisions to make. And so that's one other thing about the app, which is really nice, is like you just don't have to think about it. You just like go onto the app and you just choose an exercise that you know is OBGYN approved and safe for that that trimester or preconception, et cetera. Yeah, perfect. One safety thing, I just want to, yeah. One safety thing. Sorry, I just want to mention about the preconception, is that the data shows that moderate um intensity exercise does seem to help support fertility. You can overdo it. Um so you don't want to be doing like high, high intensity activities if you're trying to conceive, and especially if that's a new regimen and you're underfueling. So you don't really want to be losing weight when you're trying to conceive. You uh if you are in a healthy weight already. Sorry. So if you are already in an elevated BMI category, that might be beneficial and helpful. But if you're in a healthy weight where you risk going into the underweight category, that would uh hinder your fertility, obviously. And so some of the studies show that kind of high you can overdo it in the early phases when you're trying to conceive if you're going, you know, from zero to marathon.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that makes sense. That in my head, that kind of just translates to supporting your body. Like you don't want to go in and think about completely overdoing it, starving yourself. It's more of do some exercise to support your body, make sure you're eating enough to support your body.

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Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like getting your body in a healthy, calm state would be ideal. So yeah, that's very helpful. Yeah. So people aren't going to the gym and doing every single exercise and trying to sweat and get their heart rate up. That would be bad. Uh perfect. So okay, I love that. Let's move to pregnancy and the different trimesters. Are there different ways that you should exercise in each trimester? And if so, break those down a little bit for us.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. So the big overall picture though is that exercise is generally safe in pregnancy. I think that we kind of touched about this earlier as well. I think there's so much unknown. And so a lot of patients kind of aren't sure. A lot of people, a lot of women are not sure. And so they either just don't exercise at all, or they stop exercising, or they don't start it, or they uh do things that possibly could be unsafe. And so, but the big picture is that most moderate exercise is safe in pregnancy throughout the different trimesters. I think what you had mentioned earlier is super key is listening to your body. And so pregnancy is not the time at which you want to push past that pain or push past, you know, exhaustion. But those the internal cues that your body is giving you are super, super important. And so I kind of like to think about it too is like this is the first exercise in uh listening to your body and really paying attention to it. And so that will guide your for the pregnancy, um, guide you through safe exercise through the pregnancy. So the different modifications, just quickly, is that for the second trimester, it's the gravid uterus, so the pregnancy and the uterus start to press on the aorta. So you want to be careful with supine positions to like lying down flat. So think bench presses, uh, you know, uh things that you're lying down, um leg stands, things like that. You don't want to be lying down flat for maybe more than like 30 to 45 seconds. But some women can tolerate a little bit more and you can do like a left lateral shift uh to just decompress the pressure onto your aorta. The reason is it decreases your blood return, uh, it can make you dizzy. Some women have a risk of passing out as well. And so, and then the third trestomer trimester, it's that plus more. So you also just want to pay attention. You don't want to uh overdo it. I think of the third trimester exercise as really two things strength training and and also preparing for labor. So labor in and of itself is very hard work. And so you want to go into it. That's why it's called labor. Um, and so you want to go into it prepared and think of that you're working out in the third trimester as like preparing yourself for that.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. That's a good distinction, I feel like, just to kind of prepare yourself mentally too, as far as am I is what I'm doing for exercise supporting the air, you know, the I guess the trimester that I'm in, like what's upcoming for that. That's a good idea. Again, I didn't exercise during my pregnancy in a weight, you know, perspective like that, or even or running, I guess is all I did was run. So I completely stopped that later on in my pregnancy. But as far as just lifting weights in those positions, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you can. And I I know you had mentioned this before, too, that your doctor, I think, had told you to stop lifting weights. There's old evidence that pregnant women should not increase their heart rate, not do activities that increase their heart rate over 140 beats per minute, and that they should not lift anything above 25 pounds. But that's actually super outdated evidence from like 1985 that is not actually even well supported anymore. Okay. So really, it goes back to if you've been exercising and or you are starting a new exercise program, as long as you're listening to your body and again not pushing past fatigue, not uh doing things that feel unsafe to you, not being unbalanced, or um, you know, there's a couple caveats, but generally it is actually still okay to lift weights. I was doing deadlifts uh up until like I own like a couple days before I delivered with my first cave. It's amazing. And I remember the people in my class were like looking at me, they're like, I don't think she should be doing that. And I but it's it's really just listening to your body. Um, I do think it's hard. The the caveat is that if you're starting a new exercise regimen, it that does get a little hard because you don't know what is normal for your body and you don't, yeah, you do have to like work hard when you're exercising. So it's challenging, but I think the big thing is that in my big message is that you're not fragile. When you're pregnant, you're changing. But I hate that our society treats pregnant women as so fragile and like they're breakable. But no, you are creating new life and you're strong. You just have to be more in tune with your body during that time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's such good advice. Did everyone hear that? Please tell me you all heard that you're not fragile. You can work out during your pregnancy. I know it's so scary. I I guess I didn't really think of it that way. I don't know. I'd ever again I wasn't even into it. It wasn't that my doctor told me to not lift weights, maybe. Oh, okay. But I just had not lifted weights before that. I was only a runner. I didn't start lifting. We started with beach body programs when my son was six months old. So I had not even worked out. I wouldn't, I had no idea even what that what that was. That was 18 years ago. So it's been a while. But I yeah, I just ran and then I thought, well, this is it's probably what happened was it was just getting too hard for me. So I thought I'm not really gonna do that anymore. And I was pregnant in with my son, I gave birth in July. With my daughter, I gave birth in February. So my first pregnancy, I was pregnant more in the winter. So what was I gonna do anyway? And I was too young to know any better. But so yeah, I feel like it just became like, well, I'm just gonna sit around and eat and yes, you know, not do anything, which I guess was also okay too. But yeah, I think the you're not fragile message and listening to your body, your intuition is so good. And go talk to your doctor. But I I remember seeing as I got into the fitness world, because again, I didn't really think about it much. I wasn't in the fitness world when I was pregnant, but I would see women doing CrossFit and you know, lifting weights while pregnant. And I thought, well, that is interesting. Again, I don't know anything about that, so I probably thought, well, that's I don't know if that's safe or not, but it they're doing it. Also, though, it's not like they just picked up CrossFit while they were pregnant. Exactly. That's that's a key point. Yeah. Yeah. So you were saying, you know, if you've already been lifting and working out and you have proper form and you're aware of what your body feels like, it's okay to continue doing that. Exactly. Your intuition will be better. So yes, I definitely, as I'm talking, need to make that distinction that that they're lifting, you deadlifting, you didn't start doing that when you were pregnant. So that's very important to know how your body feels and to have proper form. I know a lot of ladies will ask me about core work specifically while pregnant. Can you touch on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01

Because I don't know. Yeah. Absolutely. So that is a key question as well. So it that was one of the other outdated advice, too, is to avoid all core work, but we actually recommend it because one common complication of pregnancy is something called diastasis recti, which is I'm sure you're familiar with it, but it's where the rectus muscles kind of just have a little bit more separation. It's not a true hernia, but it can almost look like an abdominal hernia. And so that can be, I don't want to say completely prevented, but you can reduce your risk of that by working on your core muscles during pregnancy. And it's actually totally safe. The caveats are that again, in the second starting in the second trimester, you want to try to avoid laying on your flat on your back for too long. But there's other ways, and I'm sure you're more of an expert at this than me, of like working on your core muscles without laying flat on your back. But it is totally fine to work on your core muscles and actually encouraged.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. Okay. I think that's great advice. And that's helpful for me to know too. Yeah. As I was already, I think I had already assumed that laying on your back just would be uncomfortable. So when I sleep more upright, things like that would be better. And it just is, I think it's it is a little scary, you know, to have a baby there and to be crunching and working on that. So I understand, even though anyway, they're not really related, of course. Inside there, your muscles are completely different. But I do understand that. But that makes a lot of sense that having, I mean, obviously, yeah, you're going through labor. So your entire body can be strong and to have your core muscles, you know, being stronger is very important. Do you work on in the postpartum? And I know we're not really to that section yet, but in the postpartum, do you work with a lot of women who have experienced that diocese recti? Or yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So a lot of women will have the diastasis recti. And it's anecdotally, if you're not sure if you have it, it's like my sister's going through her third pregnancy right now, and she's like, I just showing so much more with this pregnancy. And it's because she probably has a little bit of diastasis recti, your muscles are not holding your uterus back as much. And so it's very, very common. Um, it's not dangerous, is the other thing I just want to mention. It's not dangerous. A lot of women just, you know, notice it. But yeah, one way to help prevent it or reduce the risk of it is again core work. And then you can resume core work postpartum as well. And so I know that we're gonna. Get into this as well. But really for postpartum, you can resume that core work when you feel ready to do so. For postpartum, I kind of segueing into it a little bit. I just want to say is like the emphasis should not be about weight loss. It should not be about aesthetics. It I love your questions. I think that it should be really about function.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. That's a good again. I think the mental piece there too, carrying over into postpartum, the mental piece of, you know, your first trimester kind of adjusting to pregnancy and then what is coming. You are going to be growing a baby. You are going to be, you know, getting your body prepped for that, for housing the baby for nine months, for the labor, for then what's coming after that. So I think the mental piece of that, I'm I'm big on mindset over here of just like thinking about what's coming and thinking about how to really get your body ready for what's coming if you have the opportunity to do that, which obviously when you're pregnant, you do. Even if you didn't prepare, you know, in the fertility part of it and before having the baby, now you're pregnant. So just thinking, okay, now how can I set myself up and my baby up for the most healthy pregnancy and the most healthy postpartum experience? So I think it's never too late. If you are like, oh shoot, I wanted to lose 20 pounds before I got pregnant and you didn't. No, we're not focusing on weight loss while being pregnant, but just super, super healthy. And then as far as moving your body, do it mindfully. Don't start a new program. But if you have been working out, please continue, you know, use good form and listen to your body. I think that's fantastic. So I really love what we've covered so far. And then yeah, preparing for that, you know, postpartum and then getting your body back is what a lot of people will say is now I need to get my body back.

SPEAKER_02

And so it's back or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

You know, kind of like I can't wait to, you know, work out again and work on getting my body back. So I think, and yeah, there's nothing wrong with maybe saying it like that. I think some people mean it, like I want to get it back right away. And some people are like, I just gotta work on getting my body back now. Like that's you know, along with having the baby and taking care of the baby and relearning literally everything about yourself. It's a lot going on there. But speaking of into postpartum, quickly before I forget to ask, do we still have the six-week window for exercise or is it longer now? Shorter now.

SPEAKER_01

No, that's a good question. So the six-week window is kind of historical. It's just actually when we decided that you should see your OBGYN again after you've given birth. It's the postpartum check is at the six-week mark. And so there's good data to show that again, listening to your body, you can start it a little bit sooner, um, probably two to four weeks. Um, you can probably start working on core uh core and pelvic floor exercises. Okay. And so um pelvic floor strengthening exercises are gonna be really important in that time frame as well. But you don't have to start it that early, but you can if you want to and you felt like uh that was something that would help. And so the sixth week is usually when as long as you've had an uncomplicated pregnancy and your OBGYN says it's okay to start working out again, usually at the sixth week, they kind of do give you the clearance to go back to what you were doing before. But I would say kind of take it slow because six weeks is a long time if you did stop working out for those six weeks. Six weeks is a long time to be out of a fitness regimen. And so you don't want to tear something right when you have a new baby to take care of as well. But yeah, so it's it's a little bit nuanced. Uh I think from my perspective, it's really just again about listening to your body and mindfulness. If you want to start, you know, light exercises at the two to four weeks and you had an uncomplicated delivery, that's generally okay. But with the caveat of uh, if you've had a C-section, you might need to wait that full six weeks. Uh, generally they don't want you lifting anything for four to six weeks because of the risk of hernia or things like that. But if you had a vaginal delivery, uh, you know, kind of listening to your body at that two to four weeks, you can start. And I think one thing is with the pelvic floor exercises, you can start that again at probably at around the four-week mark, even if you've got a C-section. And that would be really helpful to help reduce the sensation of like pelvic organ prolapse or urinary incontinence. Really frequent issues that women see postpartum.

SPEAKER_00

That's really good to know. I wouldn't have thought about separating the two, kind of getting back into core work or pelvic floor work, and then, you know, instead of waiting that entire time. So I think that's important just for people who are like, I'm itching to get back to it. Yeah, because we're letting you get back to it. You can just do whatever you want, but to really focus on certain muscle groups. I think that's really important. So that's good to know. I hadn't really heard that. And I just, we've all just kind of waited the six weeks in my world when I do have clients because yeah, usually, I mean, that is a while. But I love, I can, I'm thinking back to like, you know, having a baby. Like, yeah, it would be fine for me to get on the floor and do some core work and yeah, while I'm still maneuvering all of that and still taking my, I'm still, I was taking naps when my kids were napping, when they were little, like I'm still, you know, trying to get my brain back as well. But also it's good to, you know, segue into that too. But then also remembering, yeah, to start slowly. That's something that again, I didn't have. I have a lot of clients who, you know, have worked out for years and years, and then they're like, oh my gosh, now I have to modify, which we just call it pivoting around here. Control what you can, pivot. It's not a, it's not the end of the world that you're pregnant or that you just gave birth and you can't work out. The time's gonna pass, it's okay. But also just thinking about like, yeah, what can I do to support my body? What can my mindset be? Food, you know, all of that. I didn't have that opportunity. Oh I remember, I remember being so happy I could breastfeed for a little while because my abs would come back sooner, or just like those really messed up things, you know, that you think of like, oh, thank God she latched because I've heard through my friends or whatever that, you know, my abs will come back faster and I'll lose weight faster and I'll bounce back faster. And now being on this side of it, having clients, I'm like, no, who cares? Like, we do not care about that. It's just crazy. But I didn't have any of the knowledge to even really eat enough to support my milk, or you know, I didn't have any of that information, which is crazy when I think about it because my doctor really didn't support me in that area because I just didn't know any of that. So I'm like, I'm really thinking, I didn't starve myself, mind you, I've never done I love food. So I was eating, but I was also my abs did come back really fast. So, and she didn't, my daughter didn't breastfeed long because I did all of that. So there were definitely downsides to that as well. Definitely. So I think that's really important to just again control what you can and have your body and your baby be the most important thing. Everything else will come with time. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And I love that, and I love your messaging too, and listen to some of your podcasts. It's about like mindset and intentionality, and working out should be about making the healthiest version of yourself. And so, especially in the postpartum period, it's it's yes, hopefully, you know, you can feel like yourself back and feel like yourself in your body again and hopefully, you know, fit back into those genes if that's a goal of yours. But that's really the goal should be about function, as I mentioned before. Do you feel comfortable lifting up your baby now? Do you feel comfortable like getting in and out of bed multiple times a night, which you'll have to do with a newborn? Like, yeah, those are the things that I tend to focus on and I think are more important. Are you eating enough to support breastfeeding if that's a goal of yours? Are you making sure to take care of yourself? And the uh that to me is so much more important to focus on for the postpartum phase because it's so hard. And women are just so alone. And I think that if exercise, exercise should never be something that's stressful. It should be something that is incorporated into your life as something that actually should and has been shown to help relieve stress, actually.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, very true. I remember doing that pivot, not even related to pregnancy, but just I hate these workouts. I'm tired, I'm sweating, I'm not getting better at that, you know, it's just more of a cardio hit, a little exhaustion, hated it. Yeah. And then going into like what I do now, I'm like, this is just no, do I love it every moment? Absolutely not. But is it helping my life and is it easier to get through than a 30-minute hit workout? 100%. It should definitely enhance your life. And yeah, I mean, I think about even just daily functions that I do. We were moving a piece of equipment into our gym, and I'm like, okay, I can like squat down and pick it up in deadlift form. And it's very functional to be able to benefit my life. And my kids are old and I can play with them and hang out with them and squat with them. It's just like, it's so nice to be able to have that. But yeah, that does start with how can I eat now to support my post-baby body? And your post-baby body is it still needs food, it still needs love, it still needs sleep, it still needs all those things. I have clients will come. Usually, clients will stop my workouts, which is totally fine. Could they be done in fit club? I have what's called the Fit Club membership and they're one size fits all, but you know, you could just scale back on reps and weights and all the things they're very foundational workouts. But it's fine if people don't want to do that and they want to go to something like the Expect app. Totally fine, because mine are not for pregnant. They're not created for that reason. But when they come back, it's always, yeah, have my baby, I'm cleared to work out, and it's I'm always bumping their calories up 500 calories to make sure for breastfeeding, you know, all of those types of things now that because I'm like, okay, and they they fully know that if they've been along with me long enough and have, you know, good support in their pregnancy, they're like, I know you're gonna bump me up to support breastfeeding, and I need to start slow. And I'm like, yes, you know how to do the workouts, but do two sets instead of three or lift half as heavy as you think, you know, just to kind of get back into it. So slow. But I love that I think just to touch on that outdated, you know, marketing kind of part of it. It's like, yeah, I don't have as much time and I'm gonna be tired, but I'm gonna show up for myself and I'm gonna get my body back whenever that happens, and I'm gonna work towards it and I wanna be a strong mom for my babies. And it's such a different mentality that I feel is it's so much more beneficial than just totally trying to get my abs back.

SPEAKER_01

Like I have exactly and the mental health component, because we kind of touched upon it, but it's huge. Like I think that exercise is so important for supporting our mental health. And again, in that postpartum period, that is just such a tenuous, fragile that is a fragile time for your mental health that I think exercise should only be seen in that time frame as supportive. I would hate for anybody to start an exercise um program and be more stressed out about it and more um distraught by the idea of like, you know, having to exercise. It's more important for you to just focus on function and like getting through that period. And hopefully exercise can be a support in that time frame as well. It actually has been shown to decrease rates of postpartum depression, um, postpartum anxiety as well. And so it should really be a positive light if you're starting to see it in a negative light. Really, I think it's a reframe that needs to happen.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that. When do you see women currently? Are you seeing women all the way through their pregnancy journey yourself?

SPEAKER_01

I actually don't do OB anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, okay. I wonder. That's what I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, within the last couple of years, yeah. Cause I have now specialized in the complex kind surgeries. Yeah. Gotcha. I wondered.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, when you did, when you would see them at that six-week checkup, were you clearing them to work out and kind of giving them, I guess, how were you making it not so much about weight loss? Was there like a lot of encouragement there about just getting habits back and you know, healthy talk? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think in this is even in that six-week period versus whenever I see a patient, I kind of first just ask, like, are you where you want to be with your um kind of lifestyle goals? Are you where you want to be in terms of your weight? If I if I am seeing a patient who has an elevated BMI, I'm like, I first kind of open it up to them because I think it's really important everyone has different goals. And so some people are more focused on that number, and some people are more focused on like their health conditions, and some people aren't quite ready yet to discuss weight loss. And so we call it kind of call it motivational interviewing. And so some people are pre-contemplative about losing weight, they don't really want it addressed at that visit, and that's okay. Um, I'm here to support them. And so I usually first start like, how do you feel? And again, it's going back to that function part. So at the six-week postpartum visit, when I saw patients then, it was more about function. Like, how do you feel? Like, are you feeling fatigued? Are you in is that fatigue more physical, or is it because you have a newborn baby that's not sleeping? Like, are there things that we can do to help support you and support your body?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then in terms of clearance, it's generally like if you've had a low-risk vaginal delivery and you're feeling well, most I would say 95% of people are cleared to go back to exercising after six weeks. But again, that's kind of older, uh, an older model where you had to wait for clearance um from your doctor to go back to exercising. I think really it's kind of just listening again, listening to your body. I think, you know, if you feel like slowly integrating something like light weights at that four to six week mark, as long as you were kind of low risk, you probably can.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Good to know. That's good to know. It's good to wait for your doctor, but it's also good to know your body too, and yeah, what you're capable of. I wanted to ask too about postpartum fitness in relation to long-term fertility and reproductive health, you know. I mean, we talked about obviously not it just being about aesthetics and what you look like and getting your abs back, as my own journey was. But it, you know, is that just kind of all come with it as far as long-term fertility? I mean, if women are obviously thinking about maybe getting pregnant again, is it important to really focus on, you know, those types of things, just being more healthy, controlling what you can?

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. Yes. And I think that one nice thing is that pregnancy is often a touch point in which women are thinking about their bodies, not just in terms of what they look like again, but in terms of their function of like, I'm able to create new life. That's awesome. And I want, if that is a goal of theirs to create life again, just you were doing yourself a favor by staying fit. Staying fit and continuing staying fit or getting fit and increasing your exercise capacity so that you are at a higher chance of being able to get pregnant when you want to the next time, especially if you're starting a little bit later in life. And continuing your fitness throughout pregnancy has again been shown to improve your labor outcomes, decrease pregnancy complications, and improve postpartum depression. So it's all around just a really good thing. And so I would say if pregnancy and postpartum was the spark that made someone interested in getting fit in different ways, I think that that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. It just kind of makes me think about fitness. There's so many times that I hear things and you think about, I mean, I think we all start a fitness journey because we want to look differently or feel more confident or lose weight. It's always like one singular thing. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. But there are so many times that you will in your life need to be fit for a different reason than just to look good and fit in your genes. And when you were talking, I'm like, that is like amazing. And it made me like emotional, actually. I know to think like you can like you can create life and grow a human is just insane that your body can handle that for once. So, like, we're so strong. And like to be fit just to grow life, or to be fit just because you can, and just and then that kind of drives your I find that will drive it's kind of the same thing as like, okay, you're, you know, wanting to get your body prepped and strong enough to have a baby. You're wanting to get your body prepped and strong enough to run a marathon or to do a long hiking event. You have to it has to be strong and willing, like and able and healthy. And I think that's just so cool rather than shrinking ourselves and doing whatever it takes to be smaller and to look exactly a certain way that we want to. Like, we're just so we're capable of so much more than that. And I think that's just absolutely this is just a great way to think about it. Pregnancy is awesome. I think it's amazing. It's so cool. Yeah. I'm I often get jealous of my clients when we'll talk about them being pregnant. And I'm like, oh, I wish I could go back and have I do not want to be pregnant right now. I always knock on wood. I'm 45 years old. I do not want that. But man, like what I would like what I would be capable of if I had that opportunity. If you knew what you needed, yes. I'm like, oh my gosh, like please work out and please lift heavy. And if you feel great in your first trimester, which I throw up every single day in the morning, but I'm sure in the afternoons I felt great. Like when you feel good, get a workout in and just take advantage of that because you are gonna be uncomfortable and tired, but it's so cool. Like it's just, I would give anything to go back, go back, not now, and be able to, man, lift weights during the pregnancy. I would be like, I'm pregnant and I lift weights. I actually saw a girl in, I was getting groceries yesterday, and she was younger, probably in her 20s. So cute. She was so strong, she was huge pregnant, cute pregnant, but she was huge, and she just had a sports bra and like some little workout shorts on. And you could tell she just came from the gym, so strong. And I'm talking, she could have given birth like that day. Like she oh my gosh, yeah, she was like the perfect little pregnant fit body. And I'm just staring at her like, oh my god, what I wouldn't be to like have that right now. That is so cool. I thought it was awesome.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, there definitely was a part of me. Yeah, well, there was a part of me when I was in those classes because I used to do like class paths when I was pregnant, and I there was a sense that you're it's funny because other people are so freaked out, but you're like, I know my body, I know I'm not good at the delivery right now. I'm not having contractions, I'm not pushing through pain. Like, but everyone was definitely like freaked out. Thinking, man, are you okay? I'm sure. How old are your kids? Yeah, I have a three-year-old and a nine-month old.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my goodness. Okay. So you're speaking from the thick of it direct experience right now. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's so cool. How often do you go to the gym now?

SPEAKER_01

Now it's so rare. And actually, honestly, I just I think about this a lot. Like I exactly, I think that like I fortunately was able to stay fit in my second pregnancy just by chasing my toddler around. Honestly, I I bike to work sometimes and then like I I think about fitness in terms of incorporating it into my life because I just have a very busy life. And so, like, I'll bike to work, or if I haven't worked out in a while, I'll take the eight flights of stairs to my own like to the floor that I need to get to. And so I incorporate it that way just because I know that I'm struggling to build fitness into my life, but I do actually really want to get back into resistance training because I have really let that part go. And I I I can see the difference. Like I my back is hurting more, like I am more tired. I just need to get that back in into my routine.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I definitely asked that for that reason because I wanted people to hear that if you're in the thick of it like that. Yeah, I mean, when I started doing beach body programs and started my fitness journey, my daughter was three and my son was like six months old, you know, it's like two and a half, and then like he was like six months old. But yeah, I mean, and we definitely had to like set aside the time and life had to like line up for us to be able to get that in. So I exactly definitely I wanted people to hear like if you are you have two little ones, that's just the stage of life you're in, and you don't always have time to carve out and go to the gym. And if you do, there's a sick baby or a sick child or a work dilemma, it's like you can plan for it in life, and I still do that, and it still messes up my schedule. So that part will never go away. But I think the extra flights of stairs, riding your bike somewhere. If your kid wants to go for a bike ride, go with them or go jog next to them or something and just fit in any kind of movement. We've been talking a lot with clients and just steps and whether it be running, if you need to get them in quickly, go do some sprints. And if you need to take your time, walk, you know, just kind of looking at what you have available to you. And there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with taking time off either. It'll it'll come back. It's not the end of the world.

SPEAKER_01

That's what I tell myself. And I've I've just been a lot better at this post-partum frame about like giving myself grace because I just know that it's I everyone tells me I'm in the thick of it. And I'm like, yeah, I am in the thick of it. Believe that you are. Yeah. Yeah. And so um, some days are harder than others, but I I yeah, just going back to it, I think it's just so important to promote movement in every what whatever way you can. So like sometimes I'll just try to put my laptop off if I have to do work and like stand and do work and like do like leg lifts while I'm standing and doing work and just fitting in the movement. While you're standing there, actually, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. No, I and that will always be part of life. I think that's another part of having kids that I learned like, oh, everything is just kind of messy now. It's not yes just my schedule anymore. It's even now I have a 20-year-old and an 18-year-old, and now we have baseball, and my daughter's in college. You know, it's always she was in college and there was some licensing issues, and so then she wasn't going to college for a couple weeks, so she's home. And it's it's not that that's terrible, it's just a change of routine that I'm still dealing with. It's like, well, pivot. Yeah, and like always pivoting. Like now she's on a call. That was my workout hour, and I'm like, okay, I'll just have to do it later or tomorrow. So yeah, we're big pivot is a huge word over here on the end of like your videos. Pivot and control what you can, it's fine. Yeah. Perfect. Well, is there anything I want to kind of ask you some one thing questions, some rapid fire questions? But before I do that, is there anything that I missed or that you think is important that we we covered a lot? So there may not be, but I feel like we covered a lot.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Perfect. I think one thing is that the app is really nice. The Expect Fitness app is really nice if you want to just like take away something to a mental component of exercising. So if you're kind of worried about starting a new regimen, if you're worried about what to do in the different trimesters, it takes away that mental component because you just go on there and you can select your trimester and you can just do an overdoing an approved workout, which is really, really nice. I think, especially for patients who, you know, aren't sure or want to start an exercise program. It actually is safe to start a new exercise program in pregnancy as long as you're again listening to your body and not overdoing it. And so that's just the one last point that I want to make.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that. Is there gym workouts and home workouts? Are they modifiable on the app? It's it's actually mostly just videos.

SPEAKER_01

Um like home workout videos. Yeah. I don't have quite like what to do at the gym, but I'm sure that's my love idea. They could probably increase that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I just wondered if people are gonna ask. Yeah, come on ask. Yeah, no, yeah. I think that's perfect. I think a lot of people are probably working out from, I mean, obviously there are people that go to the gym. If people are going to the gym, they might not need as much help anyways, knowing what to do, you can still kind of do what you're doing and scale it back. But I just wondered how that looked. I'm just kind of thinking for I have a yeah, clients that I will absolutely I'll look into the app myself, of course, and then recommend because I think that's perfect. Like you said, just one less thing to think about or worry about because you have so much going on. I'm I'm always up for take something off your plate, you know, if it's exactly if you can, if you can, if you can take something off your plate. That's good advice forever. So please write for everything. No, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. I'll put the links and everything to that app for everyone who's wondering uh in the show notes, so you can check that out as well. So I just have a couple questions that I wanted to ask you quickly, just to kind of pick your brain on. What is one thing you wish every woman woman knew about exercise and fertility?

SPEAKER_01

So the big thing is that it can help support your fertility. And so I think a lot of women feel again nervous to either start a new exercise regimen or continue their more rigorous uh exercise regimen. So the number one thing I want people to know is that it is likely going to help support your fertility. Again, with the caveat that you can overdo it. So the listening to your body and not underfueling. But aside from that, exercise has been shown to support fertility.

SPEAKER_00

Perfect. Love that. What's one thing you wish every pregnant woman knew about movement in general? Or maybe we can even do workouts in general because it's like lifting heavy, maybe for the sake of this podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I guess just that it's good for you. Like again, as we were talking, like strength training is has been shown within you know the last couple of decades to be really what's really helpful with exercise. Of course, we will we all think about exercise as like aerobic activity, like running until you're out of breath or spinning and all those things. But more and more data is showing again that strength training and resistance training, building those muscles is going to be beneficial from a metabolic standpoint that will help you in your fertility journey as well as your pregnancy journey, but also function. And so if you have stronger muscles, you're gonna feel be stronger, you're gonna be able to do more things.

SPEAKER_00

And the labor component too. I think I love when you talked about that. I asked you one thing and then I'm adding on to it. Yeah. I think that that would have helped me too, is just knowing, like, okay, my labor will probably be yes, probably be, maybe be. And that's just doing everything in your power, I think, to maybe prepare for that and make it a little easier. We never know, but it's hard work. It is that I underestimated that for sure. So that was just awful. Yeah. And then what is one thing you wish every postpartum woman knew before returning to fitness?

SPEAKER_01

That I think I I I think I harped up on this a lot, but the one thing I wish they knew was that it's not all about aesthetics and it should really be about function and how you feel. Um, and that you should be able to return again a little bit sooner, probably that that six-week visit, as long as you were low risk, and you know, maybe if you're not sure, reach out to your OBGYN. But the one thing is that you should feel empowered to return back to your exercise uh regimen slowly, but as a source of power for you to regain your body's function.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I love that. I love that to kind of end on a mind piece or mindset piece. I love how you just approach that with so much, it's just calmness and just thinking about your body and not so much staying a certain weight or thinking about. I know a lot of women will say, Well, I don't want to gain more than this amount because I have to lose it, you know, right after. And I think just kind of thinking about it from a again, as women, we're always thinking about everything from a weight perspective, or I outgrew my genes, you know, perspective, and that being in a negative way. So I think looking at it as supportive and healthy and just being strong and overall that will support. So I think that's a really good mindset to have going into all of this. But I love that. I love the overall message too of just you're not broken, you're not fragile, you are growing a human, you you know, take care of yourself, which is always yeah, what we're focusing on over here. So I think that's very, very helpful. And this was all very helpful for me too, going and talking to my clients more confidently about yeah, not as someone who's not you. I cannot give you that kind of advice, but just having that knowledge and knowing you know for sure what I'm talking about is is helpful too. So I think that was this was good. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing all of your expertise. Yeah, it was really great. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, you guys, everything will be in the show notes for the app and all of Dr. Hannah, my friend Hannah now. Her information will be there as well if you want to look her up. Have you share where everything is? Are you on social media?

SPEAKER_01

A little bit, but not really actually. I have a Twitter account. Okay, perfect. Yeah, HT Ryles, I believe.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, great. I'll put your stuff in there. I know I saw some of your TikTok videos too, which were yeah, just more about the app and stuff. But but thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. And I will talk to you guys next week.

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