General News

28 February, 2022

Pre and postnatal fitness comes to Horsham with FEMFit

Stephanie Winfield is bringing women's fitness to Horsham with FEMFit training.

By Tony Curran

WHEN Horsham-based former body builder Stephanie Winfield fell pregnant with her first child, she found that people suddenly treated her as though she was delicate and breakable.

“When I was pregnant with my son I got sick of people saying, ‘You have to take it easy, don’t work out too hard,’” she said.

“Even the doctors and midwives said take it easy. I said I’m pregnant, not broken.”

Winfield attempted to find an appropriate exercise class she could take while pregnant and throughout her postnatal recovery.

“I couldn’t find anyone,” she said.

These experiences motivated Winfield to start her own business, FEMFit - Training with Steph.

At the time Winfield was studying for her Certificate 3 in fitness and went on to study a Master Female Programming course and Certificate 4 in fitness.

Through this she started to realise how little people knew about pre and postnatal fitness.

“The (Master Female Programming) course enabled me to do pre and post natal, menopause, adolescence, mental health, and things like polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis,” she said.

Operating out of Snap Fitness Horsham, Winfield now offers postnatal classes and is aiming to expand the business to prenatal classes, as well as other women’s health training including PCOS and endometriosis.

“I can do pregnancy classes, post-natal classes, one on ones, and home visits,” she said.

Now a mum of two herself, babies are welcome at her classes, and Winfield may bring her own children to classes and one on one sessions.

Winfield emphasised that she wants to make things as simple as possible for mums so they can prioritise their health and wellbeing, and meet other mums.

“For my classes here they don’t have to be a member of Snap,” she said.

“They can just pay $10 a head and come along. I will add more classes as the demand grows.”

Winfield also offers small group training for those who want to work out with a friend.

“There are heaps of options; just message me and see what I can do.”

The case for pre and postnatal exercise

Winfield lists numerous reasons to exercise during and after pregnancy.

“Fitness during pregnancy can shorten your labour, help you recover faster, reduce your risks of tearing, pelvic floor issues and muscle separation post-birth,” she said.

“And then of course you’ve got your postnatal training. I ideally will only take on clients once they’ve had their six week check with their doctor.

“Hopefully they all see a physio as well … then I can work with what the physio has said.”

Grampians Health -  Horsham Campus women’s health physiotherapist Megan Byrne said the key for pre and postnatal people was undertaking appropriately modified exercise.

A 2019 study found that many women were returning to vigorous exercise too soon.

“Something we’ve found in this region prior to this research coming out is that a lot of women thought that once they go to their six week check with their doctor, they would be cleared to return to all exercise,” Ms Byrne said.

“Sport - particularly netball - is really big in the region so we had lots of postnatal women returning to netball, which is really vigorous and hard on the pelvic floor at around six weeks postnatal.

“We know that that’s really dangerous for the pelvic floor and can lead to some lifelong continence issues.”

Ms Byrne said people who are zero to six weeks postnatal should focus on pelvic floor strengthening and going for walks, and then from six to 12 weeks, go for low impact pelvic floor and core strengthening.

“If you get to three months postnatal and you’re not having any leakage and you’ve been doing your pelvic floor strengthening, then you can get back to everything,” she said.

In terms of prenatal exercise, Ms Byrne said there was a persistent myth that exercise could harm the baby.

“It’s actually the opposite,” she said.

“Gentle exercise is definitely advised for pregnant women, as long as they don’t have any conditions.

"The recommendation is at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise for five days of the week.

“So for the average person who hasn’t done much exercise in the past we would normally recommend going for a walk five days a week.

“But for people who have been more vigorous with their exercise, we can say they can pick up a bit of higher intensity exercise, but we still don’t recommend running, jumping, or really heavy weights beyond 20 weeks.

“Keep your exercise intensity moderate. That’s more about the pelvic load, more than anything.”

To determine what moderate exercise is, Ms Byrne said apply the talk test.

“You want to be able to maintain a conversation while you’re working out,” she said.

“If you’re huffing and puffing so much that you can't maintain a conversation then we’d say that’s more vigorous exercise, and we don’t really want to advise that too much in pregnancy.”

For people who were already lifting weights or exercising vigorously before they were pregnant, they don’t have to give it all up for nine months.

However, they should maintain good technique and breathing, Ms Byrne said.

“When you are weightlifting or strength training, it’s really important to get your breathing right,” she said.

“On the hard part of the move, you want to exhale and squeeze your pelvic floor. If that’s a squat, it’s on the way up against the load.

“You do have to be mindful of your pelvic floor and focus on your breathing and bracing the pelvic floor and abs to make sure you’re not straining too much; that’s one of the risk factors for prolapse.

“We don’t recommend that kind of exercise for people who have never done it before pregnancy because getting technique and breathing right is hard for a non-pregnant person to do, let alone a pregnant person.”

Ms Byrne said that the hospital now offers a pelvic floor health appointment with a women’s health physio.

“What we’ve done at the Horsham hospital is anyone who delivers here will be offered a pelvic floor women’s health physio to help give them that education and screen for really common pelvic floor conditions,” Ms Byrne said.

“Then we can educate them, help them treat these issues, and help them get back to their regular exercise as well.”

To make an appointment with a women’s health physiotherapist, contact reception at the Arapiles Building at the Horsham hospital.

 To get in touch with Stephanie Winfield, visit her Facebook page here.

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