Heather Hesington

While I am a certified personal trainer and now specialize in Women’s Fitness (including pre and postnatal precautions and modifications), I’m not your personal trainer, and it’s important to note that what worked for me won’t necessarily be the best routine for everybody. While some shy away from workouts like OTF while pregnant, it’s actually the perfect workout for most pregnant women. Since you want to be conscious of your heart rate and make sure it isn’t raising too high, I highly recommend using the green zone (71-83% of your maximum heart rate) as your new orange zone and try to avoid the orange/red (84% or higher) as much as possible (i.e. goodbye splat points). Definitely let every new (to you) coach know that you’re pregnant (even if it’s early) before a workout, and let them know how open you are to receiving feedback throughout the workouts.

We weren’t sure that we were going to have a party for him, but since Scott’s mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nieces were in town, we wanted to take advantage of them being present for such a big milestone in our lives! We didn’t go too extreme on purchasing things for the party, but ordered enough to make it special just for our little king. My mom and aunt came town for a visit the day after Skyler’s actual birthday, and they loved seeing them, too. We invited our friends who live in New York City, family in town, and the majority of the guest list came from our church’s dinner party.

While this post isn’t about before and after photos, my intentions of reviewing the program are to share my thoughts on the workout, how I feel 3+ months in, and what I like or didn’t like about each type of format at Pure Barre, along with how I feel overall. Pure Barre offers 45-50 minute total body workouts that feature a series of low impact, isometric movements using a ballet barre and other light equipment. Pure Barre Classic is a fast-paced, full-body workout that involves equipment like , mini bands, and balls with repetitive movements, The 50-minute class guides you through a series of low-impact, high-intensity movements that result in lean muscle gain. While I miss traditional strength training with heavy weights if I strictly do barre classes without anything else, I really love the low-impact endurance training that comes along with doing the same movement for an extended period of time.

I always knew that I wanted to sign up for an intense endurance obstacle race like the Tough Mudder, but I didn’t know I would be doing so at six months postpartum. Opting out wasn’t my goal, of course, but it was comforting when I found that out, as I wasn’t about to twist an ankle from falling from an all upper body strength obstacle (as I’m still slowly getting that back postpartum). The Tough Mudder Challenge is broken down into three different levels: Tough Mudder Full – 10 miles and 20 obstacles (our course was 12 miles! ) I wasn’t sure what to wear to a mud obstacle course that required running a long distance.