Birthfit Twente

09/12/2017

Poos, wees and s*x: Hard enough to talk about when things are going well!! Pelvic floor pain and discomfort is something many of us experience, but rarely ta...

24/10/2017

Our continual commitment to understand performance has us diving into persistent questioning and challenging of common practices. The latest under fire has specifically been the idea of the sit up as a purposeful exercise to develop a functioning trunk (or not). While we've never taken a surface-lev...

23/10/2017

On Friday I have a BirthFit fitness class with a group of 11 women. Although most have had babies, there are also women working on addressing issues often connected to pregnancy and giving birth like urine loss when sneezing, running, jumping, lifting, lower back pain, diastasis, etc.
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In the process of helping them on their road back to fitness, we go through the basics: functional movement assessment, breath work, alignment, floor work before moving on to lifting things.
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Yes we do lift because the goal is to help women develop bodies that are able to deal with the physical challenges of everyday life like: lifting babies, toddlers, groceries, exercising, lifting heavy, running etc.
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Here in particular, we were working on testing whether what was learned on the floor was being implemented while lifting.
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I would be rich by now If I had a coin for the times I found women bearing down and or holding their breath in order to stabilize their core. This is a conversation I feel strongly about and believe that it should be had with Amy and everyone that walks inside a Strenght and Conditioning facility.
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It is a journey of awareness, implementation, and daily practice. There are no tricks. It takes patience and willingness to be super vulnerable, open to new things and do the works.

22/10/2017

Interesting read

Hospital stops telling women to lie on their backs and “push” during childbirth, reduces instances of severe vaginal tearing by 700 percent Nine in ten women suffer some form of vaginal tearing during childbirth. In severe cases, they are left to suffer from incontinence and lifelong nerve problems....

12/10/2017

A great video on how we may be raising our children, both girls and boys.

11/10/2017

From this week onwards, every Friday morning you will find me at Sport and Health Center Body Check where I will give a class for women only.
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The class will focus on
teaching women how to use their diaphragm, TA, pelvic floor etc as one system to create intra abdominal pressure which is the basis for our stabilization, our daily movements, our fitness and keeps us dry when we jump, run or sneeze.
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Fitness in our opinion should be functional, I.e it should translate into a woman's everyday life.
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I am passionate about helping women attain their definition of fitness. For some it may be to go away on holidays and having a body that is able to deal with the demands of caring for a running toddler, a new born without being in pain. For another it may be to run 5 km or jump rope without wetting herself.
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There are no tricks, rather strategies to help women in their own personal journey. I cannot wait to start and hope to see you there.

07/10/2017

An amazing morning full of smiles and some tears. It is always so humbling that people are willing to come and listen to what I have to share and that they themselves are so willing to let themselves be seen in what they felt was a safe environment.
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fully immersed in a conversation about birth, postpartum, recovery, stress incontinence, etc.
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we dove further into a how the "core" isn't just about abs but includes the diaphragma, the transversus abdominis,the pelvic floor muscles, etc. that they work in synergy as one system and that in order to recover, one needs to look to take a multifaceted approach. There are in fact no one-size-fits-all and most of the work is done by the woman herself. There is no magic, no trick.
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Personally, I am particularly interested in the conversation regarding, mindset because in order to address pelvic floor issues there too needs to be a change in said mindset.
All we can as coaches is do just that, coach. At the end of the day recovery entails personal changes in how one stands, moves, lifts which the woman herself may chose to implement in her daily life. 1 hour of work does not fix what we do in the remaining 23.
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This was the start of a long conversation in movement, mindset, nutrition and that all important self care. I can only hope to be a useful and supportive piece in that puzzle.
Thank you for allowing me to facilitate that. 🙏🏽

21/09/2017

I don't care about the product lol but that mom life is real haha which one are you?

18/09/2017

A beautiful conversation. So worth it.

Marie Forleo sits down with cultural icon, Brené Brown, to talk about her new book, Braving the Wilderness. We cover so much ground in this episode, but part...

15/09/2017

The day before the 2010 Dextro Energy Triathlon in Hamburg, Germany, pro triathlete Jenna Parker broke out in hives for no apparent reason. But because of anti-doping rules, she couldn't take the necessary medication. So even though she was "completely covered in hives [from the neck down]," she rac...

12/09/2017

Q: OK, here’s my question that I have been thinking about for a while. Is the goal to make the prolapse go away, is that possible or are we aiming to have no symptoms. Without a doubt these principles have alleviated symptoms ( many years past delivery) but I still have a stage 2 prolapse. …

07/09/2017

Pulse rate may not be the best measure for intensity in regards to a workout, pregnant or not. Pulse rate, heart rate, is equal to the number of times your heart beats per minute. In my opinion, using one’s pulse...