On today’s episode, I’m chatting with Brianna Battles about strength training and adaptations for the pregnant and postpartum athlete!

Fed and Fit podcast graphic, episode 139 pregnancy and postpartum athleticism with Brianna battles with Cassy Joy

We’re back with our 139th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to “subscribe.”

Episode 139 Sponsors

  • ButcherBox – for $15 off + free bacon (!!) with your order
  • Real Life, Baby! – For a limited time, get 10%-off with the discount code “Cricket10”

Episode 139 Links

Use code “fedandfit” for 20% off of the following: 

Postpartum Athlete Training program: coming in early Feb!

Episode 139 Transcription

Today’s show is brought to you by Real Life Baby! Real Life Baby is a fabulous online resource where you will find a variety of tips on baby and toddler well-being in addition to the most thoughtfully sourced baby gear eco shop. Real Life Baby is a great resource for parents looking to surround their little ones with the safest, most nurturing materials available.

I’m personally a big fan of the humanely sourced wool products. You can explore the Real Life Baby shop by heading to their website at www. reallifebabyecoshop.com. And for a short period of time, you can even get 10% discount by using the code “Cricket10” all one word; discount code inspired by my own little bun in the oven.

Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. My name is Cassy Joy Garcia; I am your host. Welcome to our weekly 30-minute mindset, health, fitness, nutrition all that good stuff, we like to cover it all show. Today, bringing back an encore guest. I’m really excited about this. Her name is Brianna Battles. And if you caught episode number 126, you were first introduced to her there. She has a wealth of information. She’s a pregnancy and postpartum strength and conditioning coach with just a solid outlook when it comes to preparing our mindset for pregnancy and postpartum.

One of my favorite quotes from the first podcast is a really good reminder that pregnancy is temporary, postpartum is forever. And to really make sure that we’re intentional about nurturing our bodies and making sure we’re set up for long-term success for the health of our selves and for our babies.

So I’m really thrilled to welcome you back. We have so much more to cover, Brianna. Welcome to the show!

Brianna Battles: Hey, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be on here again.

Cassy Joy: Absolutely. I’m excited to have you. And if you guys are sitting at your computers and just eager to Google right away, you can find her on the web at BriannaBattles.com. But today we’re going to cover a couple of different topics. Since posting that podcast, I think both Brianna and myself were reached out to by a bunch of folks who listened to the episode and just confirmed how much it resonated with them. And the story of how to really listen to our new body and what that really means. It’s not something that’s necessarily intuitive. And I really wanted to invite her back on so we could follow up on that conversation. Sort of a part two.

So we’re going to talk about that today. I also went and saw my very first pelvic floor specialist. I’m running a couple of minutes behind, and it’s because I just got home from my appointment. So it’s really fresh. So I’ve been talking about pelvic health all day! {laughing}

Brianna Battles: Oh boy! {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh boy. It’s actually really excited. I got home, and I told my husband; I can’t wait to tell you all the things I learned! {laughing}

Brianna Battles: Oh my gosh. I know my husband things I’m so crazy. He’s like; I’m pretty sure I know more about the pelvic floor than any man ever should. And I’m like; I don’t think so. {laughing} You definitely should know.

Cassy Joy: Oh that’s so funny. He definitely should know. It’s good stuff. It’s really good information. Oh my goodness. So anyway, I figure we could share that. And Brianna, remind me how old your youngest son is now?

Brianna Battles: He is a little over 3 months old.

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, such a little baby!

Brianna Battles: I know. He is. Except he’s giant, so it’s awesome. {laughs}

Cassy Joy: {laughs} A giant little baby.

Brianna Battles: The little baby that looks like a 9-month-old, so it’s so funny.

Cassy Joy: I love it. He’s so stinking cute. Well, anyway. Welcome back to the show. I’m really excited to chat. So today I would like to zero in on; I’m sure we could talk about this extensively. But this is such a really good question that has come up in follow up conversations since our last, is the concept of the advice that pregnant and postpartum women are told is listen to your body. When it comes time to; when do you know when to go back and work out? What movements to do? Oh, just listen to your body and your body will tell you.

But how? How do we listen to our body? The cues are going to be different. And how do we interpret that? So I would love it if you could kind of give us a little overview of what all is involved there.

Brianna Battles: Right. So while listening to your body is just such a generalization; it’s something that our doctors tell us, our midwives, even our coaches. And then mom to mom; everyone is like, well just listen to your body and take it easy. But we have really; this is not a body that we know. When we’re pregnant, and even when we’re postpartum. We’ve gone through some significant changes, and it just makes it really hard to know what exactly we’re listening for. What exactly we should be doing or not doing?

And even if something feels fine. Even if there’s no obviously symptoms, it’s walking this line of risk versus reward of the movement. Like; is this exercise going to be conducive to what I want to be doing a year from now after I’ve had the baby, or am I walking that line where it’s maybe pushing the envelope too much where what I’m doing now could set me back potentially postpartum?

And that’s when it; let’s go with impact. So impact for example. This could be running or box jumps or double unders. Whatever. Maybe you feel totally fine when you’re pregnant doing them. You’re like; well yeah, I can keep doing them. I’ve always done them. I feel fine, nothing is bothering me. So when people always ask me, what should I do, what should I not do? I really just try to emphasize the risk versus reward.

Because obviously, if you’re a runner, you feel good running; yeah, you’re going to want to keep running. But, if you want to keep running a year from now, knowing that that could potentially have some implications on your pelvic floor and you would need to really be working with your coach and structuring your training and the volume and intensity of all these things really well is so important. Because I see a lot of people who are like; I ran through my whole pregnancy and I want to sign up for a half marathon when I’m 3 months postpartum. And it’s just wear and tear on an area of your body that has taken a beating. Just by the nature of carrying a baby for nine months and then delivering a baby; regardless of how that baby comes out. And then that desperation to get back.

So that’s why listening to your body isn’t always the best cue. Some things that we can listen for and I guess watch for would be any kind of incontinence. Peeing when you sneeze, or laugh, or run. Or if you do 20 double unders, but number 21 you start peeing. This is all super, super common in the pregnancy and postpartum athleticism circle. Where it’s like; I feel fine. Sometimes I just pee a little bit. Or I feel fine, but now it feels like a tampon is falling out. Or something is up with my pelvic floor; I don’t know what’s wrong. And that can happen in pregnancy and postpartum. So being aware of prolapse symptoms.

Because we’ve always been told that any kind of pelvic health symptoms. Or I guess our culture has told us that pelvic health symptoms are something that’s reserved for being 90, when you need a diaper. But what we’re ignoring is we just see so many women that at the bottom of a clean they pee. Or when they’re doing double unders, they start peeing. Or they have a prolapse, and now have to restructure their entire style of training and intensity and all these different things. And they just have to be really mindful.

So, my goal, I guess, is to equip as many women as possible to make really quality training decisions when they’re pregnant so that when they return postpartum, if they are managing symptoms, they aren’t debilitating symptoms. And if people are having symptoms, knowing; what is my symptom threshold, and how can I walk that line of knowing what to do, how much to do of it, and reintegrate with quality. Gosh I just rant. That’s just me, I guess.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} I love it. It’s so fascinating. That’s really interesting. And you said; when it comes to listening to our body, for example. So one of the reasons I’ll kind of share my personal story. I can’t remember how much I shared on the last episode. But I had suspected really, really and truly Brianna, not until I think I came across your work did I really suspect that I had; what is it, over engage? Or what is the actual term?

Brianna Battles: Hypertonic.

Cassy Joy: Hypertonic pelvic floor. So it’s essentially the opposite. I’m too engaged, all the time. And I think it probably started happening maybe; gosh, 6 or so years ago when I really started working out a whole lot, ran a whole lot, and just started walking around kind of. I don’t want to say sucking my belling in all the time, but just constantly being engaged is what it felt like.

And what I did without knowing it is trained my pelvic floor to be in this constant state of engagement. And I didn’t realize. Because I could get through a workout fine. I was doing yoga. I was still pliable and flexible and doing all these things that I thought everything was really, really healthy. But at the end of the day, there are some symptoms as it relates to my posture. Some little subtle things that could have been signs I was not looking for. Because I didn’t have major pains. And I didn’t have anything that was really obvious.

So now that I’m getting ready to have a baby, I’m starting to pay attention to certain things and I want to make sure everything is really healthy down there. And that as far as the pelvic floor goes, it’s relaxed enough to be able; with the trauma and pain of all that, I’m able to disengage it to the point where the baby can pass through without any major trauma or damage further. But it’s been interesting.

So I went and saw this specialist, and she really confirmed a lot of what I had suspected. And it is; some of the things she has me looking for now, it feels like I’m speaking a different language. As far as sitting on an exercise ball with a noodle between my legs {laughs} we’re really getting in the TMI zone. For some of the more sensitive listeners. But sitting with a noodle between my legs so that I can actually tell when I’ve disengaged my pelvic floor. Because I am so disconnected with the manual control of it.

Brianna Battles: Right.

Cassy Joy: And that’s just one tiny example, but I wanted to throw that out there. Because if someone said, “Just listen to your body” I would have gone on ignoring this.

Brianna Battles: That’s exactly it. Because also, talking about pelvic health. Especially when you’re an athlete. It doesn’t seem like something you need to really care about. And trust me, my career as a strength and conditioning coach, I never thought it would take that kind of turn into talking about pelvic core and pelvic health and women’s health considerations. But it does have to be part of the conversation if we care about our long-term health and fitness as athletes and as moms who want to continue our fitness and athleticism postpartum.

And what you were talking about with having a hypertonic pelvic floor is so incredibly common with athletes. Because we’re always sort of; I call it we’re always high and tight. You know. Our shoulders are up. It’s really hard to relax when you are an athlete. It’s just very, very hard. Because we are always kind of in that contracted state of being. And sucking in our stomach. Things like that. That all is part of our; I don’t know. That’s just part of what we are and what we do.

So sometimes when people come to me and they’re like, “Well I think I have plantar fasciitis.” Or “My knee is kind of bugging me.” Or my hip or back or whatever. And they recently had a baby, or they’re pregnant, I always default to saying; ok, what’s up with your pelvic floor. {laughing} And they laugh, because it’s like; what are you talking about. What does that have to do with anything? And it really is like the command center of our body. Again, especially when we’ve had a baby, or we’re pregnant. Even if it was 5 years ago. It all matters. It really does. So the relaxing is just as important; knowing how to relax your pelvic floor with breath is just as important as being able to contract it.

So in my circle, people are like, “I just want some pelvic floor exercises to do.” Or, “I want a strong pelvic floor.” You probably already have a strong pelvic floor. It’s just getting that control and training to automaticity, where your pelvic floor is responsive to your breath and diaphragm rather than having to do; people think, “I’m just going to do 100 Kegels a day and that’s what’s going to give me a strong pelvic floor.” And that’s just not good enough information. That’s not it, either.

Because we don’t do 100 biceps curls every day to make sure we have strong biceps. We put it into every other movement that we’re doing. Your biceps get stronger by deadlifts. Our biceps get stronger by pullups, right? So we have to train our body. Our pelvic floor is a muscle, just like any other muscle in our body. To be responsive to the demands that we’re throwing at it. And if you want to run, you shouldn’t be doing a Kegel the whole time that you’re running. If you want to do box jumps, you can’t just try to hold everything in.

Because as anybody who is listening to this knows, if you are afraid that you’re going to pee your pants when you’re doing double unders, you’re basically squeezing your vagina as much as you can the whole time that you’re jumping. Or you’re bracing for that before a box jump. And guess what? You still pee. {laughs} Right? Or even if you go to the bathroom halfway through, you come out; you’re still going to pee. It doesn’t really matter. There’s always that reserve.

So yeah, it’s knowing that our breath and the relaxation of the pelvic floor and the contraction of it needs to build to automaticity. But in order to do that, we have to kind of scale back and make it more of an intentional effort at first, where we are even aware that our vagina has to function in ways that we didn’t really think it needed to function prior.

Cassy Joy: Yeah. It seems like such an ignored muscle group in general when it comes to health and fitness. Because when I go to a CrossFit class, I’m not thinking about how I’m going to engage anything down there.

Brianna Battles: Right. And honestly, I don’t like to even talk about it that way, either. Because I think it makes people kind of uncomfortable, and thinking; “I don’t want to have to think about my vagina when I’m working out.”

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Yeah.

Brianna Battles: We all think about our glutes. We all think about our abs. And we have to know that that whole system works together. You cannot talk about having strong abs or a strong core without also having a pelvic floor that’s working with you instead of against you. So what I will try to dial back in more so is our positioning in lifts and are we holding our breath for everything. Are you taking a big breath before you jump? Are you holding your breath through the full range of motion of your squat? Are you in a really tucked; butt tucked under position with your ribs really rung up when you’re doing double unders and you’re peeing that way? Probably. That’s what I tend to see a lot.

So then it’s repositioning the body in certain movements and just cueing breath. And really just that exhale. Because the exhale leads to the contraction. The inhale leads to the relaxation of the pelvic floor. And it has to work, like timed together. And again, you might be thinking about it a lot at first, because you have just been giving this awareness. But after a while; our brain is so amazing. This is a neuromuscular strategy.

We catch on, and it starts to happen on its own without having to be like; oh my god, what is my vagina doing right now when I lift? It should not be like that because it’s too distracting. We just need it all to work together. So having that awareness first, practicing with that awareness will lead to it just sort of being able to happen on its own for a lot of people.

I can’t make a total generalization, because there’s a wide variety of symptoms. But for the majority of my pregnant athletes; man, this is the stuff I want them to be aware of right away so they’re not having to learn when they’re in survival mode with a baby and they’re wanting to get back and their body has just gone through the trauma of childbirth, however it comes out. Even if it’s an amazing, beautiful, whatever deliver. Trauma is trauma is trauma to our body. And we have to just respect that and not try to go in doing it trying to kick our own ass.

Cassy Joy: Yep. Ignore it away.

I think this is a great spot to stop and hear from one of our sponsors.

Today’s episode is brought to you by my friends at Butcher Box! Butcher Box delivers grass-fed, grass-finished, pastured beef, chicken, and heritage breed pork to your door each month. The animals are humanely raised, and are never introduced to hormones or antibiotics. I have been a loyal fan and customer of Butcher Box for over a year now, and love my monthly Butcher Box delivery, because it helps me get healthy, nutrient packed protein on my table with ease. To order your own Butcher Box, head to www.ButcherBox.com/fedandfitpodcast where you can get $15 off plus free bacon with your order. Again that’s www.ButcherBox.com/fedandfitpodcast for $15 off and free bacon with your order.

Cassy Joy: That’s so interesting. And something you just said, I heard really for the first time recently. But that we relax the pelvic floor with an inhale, and then contract it with an exhale. Did I say that correct?

Brianna Battles: Yep.

Cassy Joy: That’s backwards. When I practice that, I want to do the opposite.

Brianna Battles: Right. But, it’s funny though, because this isn’t like something that I’ve made up or anything like that. It really is our human physiology. I mean, in your spare time, if you’d like to look at an MRI of the human body.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Brianna Battles: You can see the diaphragm descends. And that’s on inhale. And in order for the diaphragm to go down in our body, the pelvic floor has to kind of expand and relax, broaden, whatever, to make room for our organs as there is that downward shift because of the structure of the diaphragm. And then when we exhale, the diaphragm goes up behind our ribcage, and our pelvic floor also rises in that response.

So why it feels opposite is because we are a master of compensators. Especially athletes. And you add pregnancy on top of that; that’s why we hold our breath. That’s why we’re always sort of tight. We’ve sucked our stomachs in, pelvic floor kind of follows suit. And then we add load, and we add intensity on top of that. So it does feel super reverse because we are in this; really, just this contracted state all the time. So it’s really hard to think about relaxing when we feel like even when we are relaxing we’re still sucking it in. Or we are relaxing, pelvic floor is still gripping and holding on.

So it is definitely multifactorial. But it really is our physiology. And it’s retraining our brain to be aware of; ok, inhale pelvic floor relaxes. Exhale, slightly lift. And not like a crazy over contraction, but like a 3 out of 10. Because again, we’re training for it to happen on its own without having to think; ok, exhale lift. You know what I mean? In the beginning you will, but we don’t want to over-recruit, either.

Cassy Joy: Right. That makes a lot of sense. And if anything, I feel like a good analogy for this, from anybody who is having trouble their minds around it. It’s kind of like retraining good posture. Correct me if I’m off the mark here, Brianna. But thinking about posture is something that everybody can get behind. And we can very easily visualize, right? If we’re sitting down right now you can think about pulling your shoulders back a little bit, aligning your spine to a more neutral position. And something like that takes practice. And it takes rewiring of the subconscious and the muscle groups and training everything to the point where you don’t have to think about it if you really intentionally practice it. You do your own sort of homework in that regard. And I feel like this is a similar concept.

Brianna Battles: Oh, totally. And then you can take it in another direction, it’s like; think about when people are wanting to learn the Olympic lifts. How long do we drill with a PVC pipe, you know what I mean?

Cassy Joy: Yeah.

Brianna Battles: Or an empty bar. Because we’re drilling patterns. And we’re making our brain know what to do in each stage of the lift. We’re training those small pieces in order to put it all together. And then to put it all together under a load. It is the same thing when it comes to trying to prevent whatever pelvic core symptoms that we can during pregnancy.

And then postpartum really making sure that we’ve dialed in a rehabilitative strategy into our movements so that our brain and body are working together, and not just overcompensating for; “Well, a baby came out of me 3 months ago, so I’m just going to try to jump right back into what I’m doing.” And our body will try to let us. Because it is so good at compensating. And it’s sort of pushing through.

Because that’s what we’ve trained. We’ve trained our bodies to push through and keep going. Don’t stop. I feel good enough. Or it’s hard to take a step back and honor symptoms and honor what our body is really ready for because we so desperately want to be able to keep doing the stuff that we love doing during pregnancy, and make a full return to it postpartum. And I’m an advocate for that, 100%. But there is a way to do it, and there is a way that will make it a lot more challenging.

Cassy Joy: That makes so much sense. Ok, so speaking of which. We kind of touched on a few of these things. If someone is listening; and we barely touched on this last time. But if someone is listening and they’re thinking; gosh. I wonder if I have something that I should be looking for. Or some form of dysfunction. What would you recommend people zero in on listening for and watch for specifically?

Brianna Battles: Any leaking. Any peeing at all. Or if you feel like you need to pee all the time. Or you feel like you’re not going to make it to the bathroom sort of thing. If you’re peeing on impact. If you feel pain or pressure in your vagina. You feel like maybe a tampon is falling out or something similar to that. If you have pubic bone pain; like it hurts to step. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I had a giant baby in there. He was just sitting on my pubic bone, so I had pubic symphysis dysfunction, which is also really common. But a lot of women get that; a lot of my runner moms get that really kind of early on and then we have to manage that.

So any kind of sharp shooting pain. Any; people often, I hear, they try to just blame it on round ligament pain because that’s deemed normal. But there is so much help for any kind of symptom that you’re having in and around your pelvis. And just getting a better strategy. Talking to a pelvic floor physical therapist and just saying; hey, I’m having this, I’m having that. They can help kind of guide your training. Or at least guide scenes of your training. And then also give you a strategy of; ok, when you’re getting out of the car, if that what hurts you, why don’t you exhale, slightly lift your pelvic floor, see if that helps. Or do we need to really relax more? Work on relaxing your belly down. Relaxing your pelvic floor.

So it’s really individual. Any kind of coning of the abdomen. Because there’s already a baby growing there. This is a really important point. Because I get so many messages of people that are freaked out about diastasis recti. And I want everyone to hear that it is a very normal part of pregnancy. Our body is made to expand and grow this child. And the baby has to go somewhere. So the baby is going to grow into that fascia of the linea alba. And that’s that line of the 6-pack abs. So as you get bigger; and if you’re like me, and you just have this giant belly, of course you’re going to have a diastasis. Your stomach has to expand to make room for that baby.

But now, if we are rowing, for example. We’re on the rower, and we have this 36-week pregnant belly, for example. And you’re cranking back and you’re in that full extension, what you’ll see on the majority of pregnant bellies is this coning effect down that line of the 6-pack abs. So that’s why I don’t suggest doing ab work during pregnancy. Because we don’t want to exacerbate a symptom that’s already being created just from the effort of growing a baby. We don’t want to exacerbate and stretch out that fascia any more than what is already being stretched by the baby.

Cassy Joy: I caught myself on a rower. Sorry to interrupt you. But I did. I thought; I’ve been very conscious of trying not to do core specific workouts for that very thing. Trying to look for coning. I eliminated kipping pullups really early on, because I looked down and saw the coning happening and decided no more of those. But a rower, I thought, would be benign.

Brianna Battles: Well a rower can be great. Again, positioning is everything. And synching our movements with our breath is also so important. So for example, on a rower. And if we’re like; yeah, I’m rowing. This is awesome. Because I’m not running so therefore I’m eliminating impact. That is awesome. But there is a row where we’re managing our core symptoms, especially if we’re coning. So it’s staying a little bit more upright, even when we’re pulled back when we have the cable pulled back. Not leaning all the way back like we would if we were almost in a sit-up position. You just want to stay a little bit more stacked. And yeah, it’s going to shorten your pull. But that’s ok, because we are not trying to; we have nothing to prove during this chapter.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Right.

Brianna Battles: So just keep saying that over and over. There is absolutely nothing to prove to yourself or others during this chapter. So just staying in that stacked position. Being able to pull to your chest, where you’re not exacerbating that pressure, really. Because when you lean back, all the pressure goes forward out into that linea alba. So staying stacked, and then exhaling on the pull, and inhaling forward tends to be a really pretty good strategy, I’d say, for the majority of people.

And again, there’s not a one size fits all. But at least I know, as we exhale we’re decreasing pressure in our core and pelvic health. And so if we’re decreasing pressure on the hard part of the movement, that seems to be a pretty helpful strategy for the majority of athletes.

Cassy Joy: I can definitely see that. It’s really interesting. And there’s people listening who they are not pregnant, haven’t been, don’t think they will be for a while. And there’s other folks who are expecting and folks who already have kiddos running around. It is so interesting how our approach to physical fitness evolves over time as our bodies change. Especially as women.

Brianna Battles: Right. And a huge point I want to put out there. This is not just a pregnancy and postpartum conversation. Because I have 15-year-old girls that are contacting me because they’re peeing when they land at their volleyball game. You know what I mean? After, whatever, they spike the ball. I was not a volleyball player. {laughs} So they’re peeing when they land there. Or collegiate basketball players are doing box jumps and they’re leaking. You know what I mean? And maybe women in their 50s who had babies 20 years ago are saying; oh wow, that’s what this is? And with their abdomen or their pelvic health.

Fortunately we have different platforms now to be able to talk about this aspect of being a female athlete without shame and with some better guidelines. Where we’re saying yeah; keep working out. We want you to be an athlete your entire life. But if you have a vagina, that is something worth honoring. And worth integrating in a really positive way to your workout. And because pregnancy and postpartum is a bit of a vulnerable time in a woman’s athleticism, let’s talk about smart ways and proactive ways to train through those chapters. So that when you are 60, you are deadlifting. Or whatever. You know?

Cassy Joy: Yeah. That’s a wonderful point. It’s almost as if things come to the surface; bubble to the surface a little more easily during this phase. But you’re right. It’s definitely for everybody.

Brianna Battles: Right.

Cassy Joy: That’s really fascinating. Man, Brianna! I just love it. I love chatting with you. This is so wonderful. It’s almost like; we don’t know what we don’t know. And there’s no shame if you’re listening and you’ve pushed through. I’ve been there too. When we know better, we do better. And I’m just so grateful for your work and what you do and how you put it out there and how you deliver that message is very empowering. So thank you for doing what you do.

Brianna Battles: Oh, thank you. And like you said, there’s no shame. Because nobody really is talking about this too much. And unfortunately, and fortunately, I learned through a series of really challenging events with my own first pregnancy and postpartum experience. Desperately wanting to keep being an athlete. Healing a really significant diastasis. And now I’m in the trenches again healing a significant diastasis. You know, our bodies are all different, but there are common themes that are worth honoring. Even just being aware of so that we can be full advocates for mom’s health and baby’s health. We just can’t get forgotten about and act out of desperation. So act out of awareness, instead.

Cassy Joy: Absolutely. So I think that if you suspect there may be something going on, maybe reach out; do some Googling. See if there’s a local pelvic floor physical therapist nearby that you can drop in to see. Do you have any other recommendations as far as resources?

Brianna Battles: Yeah. So I actually just made a free eBook, and I go over 5 common mistakes that pregnant/postpartum athletes and their coaches make. And in that eBook, there is a variety of basically it just sorts it out. Click here if this is something you want to learn more about. Or if this resonates, click here. So I try to make a guide book for that; almost as a very glorified FAQ page. But really I just want it to be a resource that at least gives us the general things to be aware of when we’re training through pregnancy and postpartum. So I launched that a couple of weeks ago. And it seems to be a good resource for a lot of the women and athletes that I work with.

Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. Where can folks get their hands on it again?

Brianna Battles: On my website. Definitely my social media. My website is actually kind of going under some construction right now, so I’m trying to see if it’s up there right now. But on my Instagram, Brianna.Battles. and on my Facebook page, Everyday Battles – Brianna Battles. It’s all there.

Cassy Joy: Awesome. Perfect. That’s a great resource. Brianna, thank you again for doing what you do and putting out such great information that empowers these wonderful women. Really, really appreciate it. And I appreciate your time, coming back on the show.

Brianna Battles: Absolutely. Thank you for being such an advocate and resource, and being so vulnerable and forthcoming with your process too. We definitely need more of that out in this space.

Cassy Joy: Oh, you bet. {laughs} With this baby coming, everybody better get ready for TMI corner! {laughing}

Brianna Battles: {laughs} It’s all good. We all need that. We’re all in this together, girl.

Cassy Joy: We are. We are. I have very few secrets. {laughs} Well I really appreciate it. I hope that everything continues to be wonderful with your sweet boys, and with you in this postpartum period, as well. If you ever need anything, please reach out.

Everybody else listening, you can find Brianna over at BriannaBattles.com. You can find her on social media, as well. I’ll link to all of this in our show notes where you can also find a complete transcript of today’s show where you can review and read something that we may have talked about. Thanks everybody for joining us. As always, we’ll be back again next week.



About the Author

Cassy Joy Garcia, NC

Cassy Joy Garcia, a New York Times best-selling author, of Cook Once Dinner Fix, Cook Once Eat All Week, and Fed and Fit as well as the creative force behind the popular food blog Fed & Fit.


More Like This

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Comments

  1. Loved this episode so much! This was such a great follow-up to your initial conversation with Brianna and had so much great information. Hope you’re feeling well and that Cricket is too!