Just 7 weeks ago I started my journey of learning about and practicing prenatal fitness. In seven short weeks, I have learned from multiple online resources, tried various different workouts offered from various different platforms, most of which were helpful, and a few that were not. Throughout these 7 weeks of prenatal fitness, I have also pushed myself outside my comfort zone in the documenting process of creating and editing a video, learning how to screencast, create an e-newsletter and how to successfully blog in general. Below is an account of my journey, week by week.
Week One: So Many Choices and So Little Time….
This first week I really struggled with picking what to focus on for my learning project, I had so many ideas it was very hard to narrow it down to just one. Once I reluctantly decided on picking just 1 project, I went straight into research mode, as well as creating a plan of action! I started off by creating a few different Pinterest boards where I could build up a solid foundation of information that would be accessible to me quickly and conveniently through my phone:
- For Motivation: The benefits of prenatal exercise
- For Safety: The do’s and the don’ts of prenatal exercise
- For Efficiency: Quick and Easy Prenatal Workouts
Week Two: If At First, You Don’t Succeed, Try and Try Again
I had researched, prepared and cleaned the workout room….now it was time to put my plan into action. My first step was to see where I was at physically, which I quickly found out was not great! I struggled to finish each move and often had to set down weights and or take breaks. I did really good for one day….then I failed. What I learnt this week was that when we fail we need to get up and try again! I used the following resources this week:
- The workout: 4-week pregnancy workout
- For monitoring my workout stats: The Fit Bit Tracker App
Week Three: EARLY MORNINGS, MOTIVATIONS AND NEW EXPERIENCES!
This week I got out of my comfort zone and I tried out the Smore’s App. I found this app very user-friendly and I enjoyed the template options that it provided! I documented this week’s learning project post by creating an adorable newsletter that could be sent digitally or printed out! What I loved about having this newsletter is it created a workout schedule that I could easily repeat without any extra work! This week I really got into using Youtube to find a variety of different workouts:
- ADVANCED PREGNANCY STRENGTH WORKOUT: Advanced Pregnancy Workout: 30-Minute Full-Body Pregnancy Strength | Safe for ALL Trimesters
- PREGNANCY FRIENDLY LOW IMPACT WORKOUT: 15-Minute LOW IMPACT HIIT Cardio Workout
- PREGNANCY YOGA: Pregnancy Yoga Morning Stretch | Relieve Pregnancy Symptoms
Week Four: Time Saving Workout Tips for A Jam-Packed Schedule!
Everyone has those weeks when it seems there is no leeway at all, where you wonder how in the heck you are going to accomplish everything while maintaining your sanity. This was one of those weeks for me. As a result, I focused on a shorter workout, which I repeated every day, opposed to trying to learn new ones. Not only did I maintain my sanity, but I also tackled three things:
- How to fit workouts into a really busy week: for this I concentrated on 15-minute workouts that made it easier to incorporate into my day. I used the following video: 15 Minute Pregnancy Workout
- I tackled my fear of being recorded while working out.
- I attempted my first ever video editing using iMovie.
Week Five: Steps Forward In One Area = Side Stepping In Another….
I began this week by making room for the baby which consisted of kicking the two older kids into the basement, lots of painting and way too much moving of furniture…. downstairs. This resulted in some setbacks in my learning project as the moving took a toll on my body, particularly my back. Instead of giving up, I decided to use this opportunity to explore pregnancy yoga and stretches.
The following resources were useful:
- Yoga video: Pregnancy Back Pain Relief
- Stretches: Healthline Parenthood
- Food for thought: How to beat academic burnout
Week Six:(Bonus Post) Rainy Day Reprieve
The previous week of exploring Yoga was successful for me, I found a new state of mind and easing of body pains. After a rainy Sunday of reading classmate’s posts and catching up on homework, I was inspired by Dani K’s Learning project, to not only complete an extra post on yoga but also to try out a pregnancy meditation. The following are the resources that I used:
- Yoga workout: Pregnancy Yoga Morning Stretch
- Meditation #1: Pregnancy Meditation for Connecting to Your Body
- Meditation #2: Pregnancy Meditation with Pregnancy Affirmations
Week Six: TikTok……or NOT!!
After sending Sunday reading many of my classmate’s learning project blogs, I noticed a re-occurring theme: TikTok. This inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and give TikTok a try. After an unsuccessful and disappointing experience with TikTok, I turned to something familiar: Beachbody on Demand. Although this learning project is coming to an official end for the class, I do have another 12 weeks (hopefully) of prenatal fitness, and returning to a workout instructor that I know and love will be the perfect way to continue on my prenatal fitness journey.
Here are the resources that I used this week:
- TikTok video: 25-minute full-body pregnancy workout
- Beach Body On Demand
- My favourite trainer: Autumn Calabrese
A Look At Me Then VS Now:
| Then | Now |
| -Insecure and inactive | -Confident and physically active |
| -Knew Nothing about Blogging | -Lots of knowledge and practice blogging |
| -Uncomfortable being filmed or talking about myself | -comfortable talking about myself, however still not comfortable being on-camera…I guess you can’t win them all! |
| -I seen no value in You Tube…just ask my kids | -I can see the value in youtube, how it has so much to offer and can bring people together. However, I still feel my kid’s choices on youtube are stupid |
| -never created or edited a video before | -experience using i-movie |
| -I had no idea what Screencastify was | -Love Screencastify now, and I plan to get some more practice in! |
| – I had no idea what it meant to embed a link, or hyperlink something. | -I am a pro at this now!! |
| -I had no idea how to properly insert and cite images | -The knowledge of creative commons and familiar cites to help with this! |
My Top 3 Recommendations for Learning and Practicing Prenatal Fitness Online:
- Beach Body on Demand. While this is an online learning tool, it is not free, however, I feel that it is worth every penny and I will continue to use this online source for the remainder of my pregnancy.
- Youtube. I did find a few different instructors that post to youtube regularly, who offered good classes and good advice. I did appreciate the versatility of YouTube.
- Pinterest. Almost all of my successful workouts on Youtube were originally found through using Pinterest. I also really appreciated the ability to have different boards to keep track of different styles of workouts and information. And I really loved that all the information was easily accessed from my phone!!
While my journey of blogging about my prenatal fitness comes to an end tonight, my prenatal fitness journey will continue for another 11 weeks….give or take, depending on this little nugget decides to make his entrance! From this experience, I will take with me the knowledge and benefits of blogging and I plan to pass these skills on to my future classrooms. I can think of nothing better than incorporating a classroom blog into my everyday teaching!
Hello Brandy, This was an amazing post and I liked how you introduced your learning project as well the weeks of your process of learning of prenatal fitness in your post. By doing this it helped me to see understand where and how far you have come throughout your learning project and I would like to say congratulations on your completion of finding resources, learning of the many views on online learning and excelling in your learning project. I as well found that my few main resources were through Pinterest and YouTube. You did an amazing job and I also liked how you gave a bit of an insight or information under the weeks and provided links to your posts/blogs. We all have come a long way in this course and I am happy that I got to know everyone through their learning journeys and through zoom. Thank you for sharing your learning process and good luck in your future learning of your prenatal fitness!
Brandy, what a great overview of your journey! It was great to hear that even when you had tough weeks where you felt like it was all to much, you stuck to your commitments, and you even got a bonus post in there! The great thing about this assignment is we have all grown so much and we all have got to see each others progress. I hope you continue with this journey (it sounds like you will) and I wish you and your family all the best in the future!