This workshop will provide the fitness / health professional with basic leadership and technical skills to provide safe, effective, functional and motivating exercise programming and coaching for the pregnant client wishing to exercise in conventional settings. Screening techniques, physiological, anatomical and psychological changes, cardiovascular exercise, strength training and basic nutritional concerns of the pregnant exerciser will be addressed.
Course Learning Outcomes:
(learning outcomes must be clear, concise, and measurable.)
- List 3 goals of a perinatal fitness program.
- List 3 physical and 3 psychological benefits of maternal exercise.
- List the absolute and relative contraindications to exercise according to the latest ACOG Guidelines.
- Describe the contents of an effective screening tool for prenatal clients.
- Identify warning signs to stop exercise for prenatal clients.
- Briefly discuss physiological changes of pregnancy with regard to the circulatory, respiratory and musculoskeletal systems and their exercise implications.
- Briefly describe 4 anatomical changes of pregnancy and their exercise implications.
- Define diastasis recti and its exercise implications and demonstrate the procedure used to check a pregnant client for this condition.
- Briefly discuss cardiovascular conditioning modifications for the pregnant client with respect to frequency, intensity, duration and mode.
- Identify 2 methods of monitoring exercise intensity that may be utilized by pregnant clients.
- List 3 benefits of beginning or continuing a strength training program prior to or during pregnancy.
- List 6 “Mommy Movement Patterns” and exercise examples.
- Briefly discuss the importance of a pre-exercise snack for the pregnant exerciser and give 2 examples.
- Describe and demonstrate “core breathing” and cite the importance of teaching this technique to your pregnant clients.
- Define pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and 3 symptoms that mom may experience that might indicate this condition.
Course Instructor:
SHEILA WATKINS, MLSci. E-RYT, RPYT is a perinatal fitness specialist with over 30 years of experience training 3000+ pregnant and new moms, and educating hundreds of fitness instructors, health professionals, and childbirth educators on the rapidly changing field of perinatal fitness and wellness. In 1987, she created Healthy Moms® Fitness Programs to provide safe and effective group exercise classes and personal training for new and expectant moms as well as education and training in the field of perinatal exercise for fitness professionals, childbirth educators and other health professionals.
Sheila holds a Master of Life Sciences degree in Human Physiology and Nutrition and is a Registered Yoga Teacher (e-RYT 200) and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher (RPYT) with Yoga Alliance. She has been certified as a perinatal fitness instructor by Moms on the Move®, Positive Pregnancy and Parenting Fitness®, Dancing Thru Pregnancy® (Basic), Maternity Fitness, Inc®. and Moms in Motion®. She is also certified as a Holistic Core Restore® Coach with Burrell Education, a MUTU® PRO with MUTU Systems® and a Postnatal Fitness Specialist with Jessie Mundell’s Postnatal Fitness Specialist Academy She holds prenatal and postpartum yoga certifications through Baby Om®, Yoga for Two®, Janice Clarfield’s Prenatal Yoga and YogaFit®. She is a former instructor in the Division of Nursing at Winston-Salem State University (University of North Carolina System) and the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Sheila holds “Gold” Group Fitness Instructor and “Gold” Personal Trainer certifications from the American Council on Exercise (ACE), and a Personal Trainer certification from the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA). She is also certified by the Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA) as an aquatic fitness instructor and is a Resist-A-Ball CORE “Circle of Excellence” Master Trainer. Additionally, Sheila holds a Certificate in Exercise and Pregnancy from The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research and is an “ASPO-Lamaze Breastfeeding Support Specialist.”
