Become a Pre & Postnatal Fitness Specialist

Explore the historical evolution of childbirth to gain insights into effective strategies for preparing and supporting clients through this most complex and taxing journey.

Discover the benefits that research has uncovered about the effects of exercise during pregnancy (on parent and child). Then, understand why we believe that a Performance Training Approach is the most effective way to prepare clients for this journey.

Understand the eight significant physical and physiological changes of pregnancy that have the greatest impact on physical activity.

Examine the stresses placed on the body during childbirth and early parenthood that you’ll want to prepare your prenatal clients for.

Now that you understand the demands placed on the body during pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood, learn how to prepare your clients for all of these using the ProNatal Fitness 3-Stage Prenatal Programming Framework. This module introduces you to the framework and covers Stage 1 (Foundation) in detail.

Then delve into the details of Stage 2 (Strength) and Stage 3 (Birth Prep). By the end of each module, you will have a good sense of the objectives you’ll need to accomplish with your prenatal clients and the order in which to do so. More detailed programming guidance comes in Module 10.

A critical component of prenatal program design is understanding your client’s starting point. This module introduces you to the ProNatal Fitness 3-step assessment process and covers the key questions to ask your new prenatal clients.

Another component of the 3-step assessment process is the Movement Assessment. Discover a unique and powerful goal based assessment strategy that will give you deeper insight into how your clients move outside the gym.

Before we get into the detailed programming guidance in Module 10, it’s important to understand the common pregnancy pains and injuries, as the movements you select will play a significant role in the degree to which your clients experience these. Learn eight of the most common ones (including Diastasis Recti, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, SI Joint Pain, and more). Understand their causes and learn strategies to help mitigate or manage them.

Now you have all the pieces of information needed to develop your prenatal training programs. This module covers the details on how to design training programs for clients of all stages, starting points, and fitness levels—including how to structure your sessions, how to select movements, guidance on what moves to avoid or regress by trimester, and case study practice.

In this final prenatal module, explore important psychological considerations when working with prenatal clients. Learn how to support your clients in the best way as they navigate this major life transition, and how to manage the difficult situation of a pregnancy loss.

In this first postpartum module, delve into the physical considerations of the postpartum body, covering aspects such as the implications of vaginal and Cesarean births, weight loss, and healing of skin and fascia. Learn strategies to share with your clients to support their recovery during the initial weeks before they resume exercise.

While a new baby brings many wonderful changes, it also brings a fair share of challenges. Discover coaching strategies for some of the most common challenges postpartum clients face. This module also includes an overview of Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders (PMADs), including how to spot and manage them.

Similar to prenatal, in this module you will learn the ProNatal Fitness 3-Stage Postpartum Programming Framework. Dive into Stage 1 (Foundation). Since there are many similarities to prenatal, we’ll focus on the biggest difference in the Foundation Stage—the Core Recovery Protocol that you will take all postpartum clients through.

Understand the objectives of Stage 2 (Strength) and Stage 3 (Performance)—learning strategies for gradually progressing core work and a step-by-step process for introducing impact and higher-intensity activities.

The postpartum assessment process is nearly identical to prenatal, but adds in one additional assessment —the Diastasis Recti (DR) check. Learn how to check for DR in a manner that improves your testing accuracy and gives you a clearer understanding of your client’s core integrity.

Finally, just as in prenatal, learn how to design postpartum training programs for clients of all stages, fitness levels, and starting points. Since there are many similarities to prenatal, we will focus on the specific differences with postpartum, and conclude with case study practice.