Episode #21: Athlete Brain with Brianna Battles
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In this episode, we get the exciting opportunity to chat with one of our mentors, Brianna Battles!
Brianna Battles specializes in coaching pregnant and postpartum athletes, as well as educating coaching professionals on how to help athletes navigate the physical and mental considerations of training during these chapters in a woman’s life.
She is a relentless advocate and relatable resource for women who want training during pregnancy and make a sustainable return to performance, lifestyle, function, career, and activity postpartum (and postpartum is forever)! This effort is what led to her creating a curriculum for coaches and practitioners who also want to support athletes through this process.
Brianna has well established, successful online education, programs, and resources for both fitness professionals, practitioners, and athletes. She has built an international team of P&PA Coaches who are equipped to work with pregnant and postpartum athletes in their communities and online.
Bri has so much wisdom to share from her years working with pregnant and postpartum athletes. We touch on many important topics including:
🔹 Her journey as a strength and conditioning coach and her transition into motherhood
🔹 What sparked her interest in pre/postnatal fitness
🔹 Her journey with managing diastasis
🔹 What athlete brain means to her
🔹 How her mindset shifted in regards to focusing less on her aesthetics after her 2nd pregnancy
🔹 How her focus has shifted over time in her fitness journey
🔹 Her shift into being a “coach mom”
🔹 Her biggest piece of advice for pregnant athletes
We’re excited for you to listen to this episode and hope you get as much out of this conversation as we did.
Reach Brianna here:
Instagram
Website
Practice Brave Podcast
Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism links (for coaches):
Instagram
Website
Follow Bri’s mom, Sharon here:
Instagram
➡️ Click here to learn more and purchase Rhonda’s 2 for $22 Strong at Home Membership Trial!
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Episode #21 - Athlete Brain with Brianna Battles
Hey podcast friends, Rhonda here. Before we get into the episode today, I just have a little announcement. So if you're listening to this episode when it drops, it's March 14th and it is the first day of March break for many of us, including myself. And it's the last week to purchase my 2 for 22 deal for my strong at home membership.
And this is a two week, no strings attached offer to check out my strong at home membership. see what it's all about for only 22. So the door is closed for that offer this coming Friday. So make sure you get onto my website to check that out. And the trial itself will start this coming Monday, which is March 21st.
And so, like I said, no strings attached. You don't have to continue on with the membership afterwards. If you don't want to, if you do, that's amazing. And your membership would continue. for the beginning of April. So I'll put the link in the show notes here to check that out and to purchase and also if you check out the link in my bio on Instagram at Rhonda Chamberlain PT, you'll find it there as well.
I would love to have you. All right, let's get into today's episode with Brianna Battles.
We're excited to have you join us for this episode of Pelvic Health and Fitness. I'm Dayna Morellato, Mom, Orthopedic and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. And I'm Rhonda Chamberlain, Mom, Orthopedic Physiotherapist and Pre Postnatal Fitness Coach. On this show, we have open and honest conversations about all phases of motherhood, including fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, menopause, and everything in between.
We also provide helpful education and information on fitness, the pelvic floor, and many aspects of women's health, including physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Please remember as you listen to this podcast that this is not meant to treat or diagnose any medical conditions. Please contact your medical provider if you have specific questions or concerns.
Thanks so much for joining us. Grab a cup of coffee. Or wine. And enjoy!
Welcome everyone to episode 21 of Pelvic Health and Fitness.
And today I am so excited to chat with one of my mentors, Brianna Battles, and she is the owner and CEO of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism, which is a course I took and loved and basically is what led me to shift gears in my career. And I'm just super thankful to have you here, Bri. And I will say Dayna couldn't make it today because she is working.
So just Bri and I today, and yeah, we can't wait to chat with you. So before we get into it, I would love, so I I'm familiar with your story. I've followed you for a while now. Um, but just for our listeners, I'd love to get just a bit of a background on who you are and what got you into the space. Yeah, cool.
Thank you so much for having me. I love being able to connect with all the coaches that have gone through the certification and just see what you're doing. And it's incredible that you have a podcast out there in the world and you're doing a great job. So I just want to leave with that. I appreciate it.
Well, I'm Brianna Battles. I am the founder of Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism, and that business looks to support coaching professionals and practitioners through an online certification, which is Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism, what Rhonda has gone through. Um, but then I also have a lot of different services for pregnant and postpartum athletes, which is where it sort of originated, was getting better information out there for that population.
I coach a handful of athletes and just really try to. be the hub for all things pregnancy and postpartum athleticism because there is nobody else who is offering this specific language, messaging, and information. But that evolved quite a bit over the last, um, Well, I had my son eight years ago, and that was really what catapulted me as a career strength conditioning coach.
My education is in exercise science and coaching. My master's is in coaching, and I've kind of done everything connected to that exercise science world, from being in corporate wellness to coaching collegiate athletics. Um, and I just knew, though, after Doing a lot of different things and having my son that I was ready to bow out of the collegiate athletics realm.
And I just wanted to coach again. I just wanted to coach and kind of coach on my own terms. But as I was navigating the changes to my own body postpartum with Cade and my brain and my lifestyle, I realized there was a significant disconnect for athletes like me, where I would never gravitate to pre and postnatal language.
That would make me roll my eyes and I found it so annoying and dogmatic. That did not apply to me. But the other end of that spectrum is athlete brain. I know we're going to touch on that. Yeah. That was kind of this attitude. Like, well, obviously this doesn't resonate. So I'm going to do my own thing. I am qualified.
I'm experienced. I have a great athletic foundation. I know what to do. Well, like ego only leads you so far until you kind of crash and burn. And that was what I realized through my own process of pregnancy. And postpartum and rebuilding a pretty athletic foundation. And I realized if I didn't have this information as somebody who technically should as a coach, as a high level athlete, someone who is, was pretty smart in that realm, if I didn't understand the adjustments to programming and approach during pregnancy and postpartum, well, no one did.
So I started sharing a bit more. online, and it turns out that hypothesis was correct. There was a lot of people who also felt similar. Like, why didn't I know? Why isn't there better information out there? And we really, back then, only saw extremes. Like, don't do this, don't do that. Really, like, modified approaches, or the other end of the spectrum of, like, I don't know, just, just.
kind of being praised for being a badass. So it was easy to kind of fall into that badass camp by default because, well, clearly I wasn't just doing yoga. That wasn't right for me. And that led to a lot of years of just, um, really trying to learn more from a lot of different people and truly walking the talk myself.
And then with coaching hundreds of people in my community, building up a business that way, coaching locally for Honestly, probably five or six years before going just fully online come COVID in 2020. Yes. Um, or 2019, I don't know, whatever. Yeah, it's, it's kind of a blur now, right? Yeah. Um, so yeah, I spent a lot of years coaching in person that became a hybrid.
model with offering some online programs and courses and it's just truly evolved and then offering the certification and really building out this umbrella brand. That's so cool. So was it more so postpartum after your first son that got you into this world or did you also have an itch for it when you're, when you're pregnant with your first son?
No, when I was pregnant with my first son, I just was in that camp of being exempt or whatever from the meeting. I was really kind of set on Wanting to maintain athletic ability because I thought that that would save me postpartum. Like, I would just kind of be able to integrate back into that a lot easier if I was able to, like, not take a step back.
And look, that is so counterintuitive. Like, it, it is. Like, I, like, that's the part that's funny is, like, as coaching professionals, as practitioners, as, um, anyone who understands, like, progressive overload and injury and rehab and whatever, like, We know that trying to push boundaries during a season where things are different, like that's not going to lead anywhere super positive, right?
But for some reason we have a different thought process when it comes to pregnancy. When it comes to postpartum, there's a lot of like fear and kind of wanting to prove something to yourself or to others that comes into play, especially for somebody who is naturally more competitive or more athletic or identifies a lot with that being part of their routine and their lifestyle.
So it was kind of taking that into account and It wasn't until postpartum after a pretty traumatic birth experience when I again had that thought process of like, well, I'm fit. I'm strong. I like know about the body. So therefore I'm definitely going to have a vaginal natural birth and it's going to be awesome.
And then I'm going to bounce back and it's going to be great. And I'll be super fit again, fit mom life. And, um, like this shit just doesn't go to plan, you know? And again, it's some of the best lessons come from a lot of those struggles. Um, even if we can't see that for a while. So I had a pretty traumatic emergency C section with my son, Cade.
And postpartum just felt like I was just getting, like, punched in every direction. Like, breastfeeding was hard. He was just, like, kind of a tough baby. Like, he was pissed off all the time. Like, really just, like, needed a ton of attention. I felt like I sucked at everything. And I was used to being kind of good at a lot of things.
Yes. Or like if I work harder, then it'll, then it'll just be better. Yeah. But like mom life doesn't work like that. You don't, you don't work harder and get a better like result. Sometimes you just gotta like deal and figure out like, well, what do I do with this unique situation? This unique baby, this unique body or this unique brain state I'm in.
And so it's just a lot of. Like there's a lot of struggles there, a lot of shifts in identity and trying to prove something to myself, a lot of ego. And then like that only, again, it only takes you so far until you're kind of forced to sit and learn, right? You're forced to take that step back and readjust and, um, figure out like, what do I actually want?
What do I want this to look like? And for me, that came to a head with. With resigning from the position I was in, it came to a head with postpartum depression. It came to a head with a pretty significant diastasis. All of these things were like, clearly what I have been doing in the way I have been doing them is not actually serving me.
It is only making everything worse. So, um, it was about a year postpartum where I was really able to get a grasp on what has just happened to my life. And then what do I want to take? back. And that's interesting you say that because a year postpartum, we are sold that that, you know, we should bounce back and we should be back to normal, quote unquote, by six weeks, right?
That is sort of that arbitrary number that's given to us. And I will say like, I was drawn to your story and your program because I, Have a very relatable story as well. Similar to yours that for me was actually, so my first pregnancy and postpartum experience was very textbook and did really sort of like reinforce my bias that because I was fit, because I was strong, I was a physiotherapist.
I had the knowledge I was able to get back to CrossFit. Pretty quickly with my first daughter. And so at truthfully, I'll be honest with you. I came across all of your information and I loved it, but I still had a bit of an ego and a bit of like, see, I know what I'm doing because I was able to do get back so quickly.
And for me, like you said, it wasn't until after going through something challenging. So Tegan, I dealt with pro prolapse symptoms. I dealt with just abdominal cramping. Anytime I tried to work out, that was when I was. Suddenly realizing I don't have all the information. I don't have all the answers and I'm doing myself a disservice and my clients at a service, if I don't learn more about this specific population, because it is a lot of very unique information that I wasn't taught as a physiotherapist.
You weren't taught as a strength and conditioning coach. And I don't think a lot of people realize that, right. I think, you know, 50 percent of people in the world are females. You'd think this would be common knowledge, but it really is not. Right? It's not. And then we almost like cherry pick what we want to hear and learn maybe like what's easy and in your face on social media.
Well, what's easy in your face is like another generic cue given by somebody who like had a baby and is now sharing their information on social media. So it's like not even. There's so much like context and nuance that's lost. We kind of like are just cherry picking our information about how to train during pregnancy and postpartum or about symptoms or about whatever from the places we have exposure to.
Sometimes that works. Most of the time, you just deserve more than that. Like you deserve better information. You deserve coaches that are actually like. qualified to help you through that process. Um, it's, it's not good enough. No, no. So, so you touched on diastasis. So I think that is sort of what I learned most about your story is your struggle with trying to get back to exercise, dealing with a significant gap in your belly.
Would that be sort of what got you again into more into this world to figure out what information you were missing? Yeah, so this is, this, the answer to that question has changed through the years, which is interesting, right? Um, I think there's, there's a few things here and I'm going to try to like state this well.
Yeah. Initially, I think I was just so surprised that my abs changed. Like, like I just couldn't wrap my head around like, okay, there's like loose skin. My belly button kind of looks weird now. And it wasn't dramatic. Like to any. Normal, like, you know, like when you look back at a picture and you used to think you were like so fat or whatever and now you look back and you're like, actually, I was really thin.
Okay, so like, I can do the same thing with like pictures of my diastasis. I can look at it and go, it probably wasn't like that bad. But at the same time, Like, there was just so many factors there. There was a diastasis. It was probably about eight centimeters. And then I was able, um, separated. And some squishy fascia above my belly button.
But the driver of this, like, I need to learn about my body was like, I just couldn't understand some of those changes to my abs. I never felt limited in my exercise or my training. For me, it was more of taking inventory of like, why does it look different though? Yeah. What is it that makes, that's making my abs just appear differently?
And it wasn't like fat and it wasn't like a ton of skin. It was just a different presentation. And I wanted to know why it looked different because usually. The conversation was framed around maybe there's more belly fat, like a protruding stomach, or, um, maybe like a ton of like really loose skin, and that just wasn't the case for me.
It was just enough, like, where it just looked, looked a little bit different. And this sounds ridiculous, but, uh, for me, it was just really trying to understand my body. Like, why do my abs look different? Why is there sort of like this distortion around my belly button? So I found out that. I had a hernia, which again, in hindsight, I'm like, well, of course I had a hernia at a pretty significant like diastasis.
And my training during that time was insane. Like I was like, basically training like a power lifter with like a splash of CrossFit through there. Um, so like a lot of like super high, um, IAP strategies and whatnot. Um, I already kind of exaggerated like my rib cage position just from like the years of my sports and whatnot that it played.
So that was like a default mechanism for me for, uh, like generating a lot of pressure there. So it, um, it, it kind of kicked off this desire to learn, like, why do my abs look different? Is it a hernia? Okay. If it's a hernia, then like, oh, okay. What's this information about diastasis? Okay. What is a diastasis?
Well, it doesn't look like what that girl's diastasis is saying. Like, but it also doesn't look like this. So then it was just trying to learn a lot more. And back then it was just. So lame. Like it was such stupid information about diastasis. There was not, none of the conversations that are taking place today were even close to being accessible back then.
We simply didn't know, but then there just wasn't exposure. There wasn't a diastasis obsession. Like there is now, now, like you can say diastasis in the fitness industry. And everyone seems to have an opinion or a program or whatever that they're promoting. It just wasn't like that, not that long ago. So then it was trying to connect the dots between what I was learning about pelvic health and then just tissue integrity and like rehabbing from an injury.
What do we know about that? And then connecting that to strength conditioning principles and really trying to connect the dots between what are the changes that are experienced during pregnancy? What does that look like postpartum? There's a lot of different factors here. And then how do we progressively overload a body to create change, to generate more tension, to, um, to just improve like that muscular and fascia health?
Well, it's the same as rehabbing from any injury, but why is it not being talked about like this? And it was just like this place in my head. I lived for a very long time and had to kind of connect as many dots as possible, get in the trenches with other professionals who were also kind of like learning about that in their own given ways.
Um, but having it so closely connected to my own body, not just the client was a significant driving force was just, I just need to get it. I just need to understand. I want to understand why. For sure. Yes. And I relate 100 percent to that. And even again, as a physiotherapist, most people would assume I had this knowledge on the pelvic floor and on diastasis.
I wasn't taught this in school. So I. Again, yeah, I was shocked when, you know, I started having these light bulb moments too, of, cause I think also the message is when it comes to pregnancy postpartum, again, I sort of veered towards that bad ass message too, of like, we're not broken when we're pregnant, right?
Or we're not. Um, injured, not fragile, would say. Yeah. Yeah. And so I sort of attach to that, um, message, but at the same time, you always say, you know, you're not fragile, but you're not invincible. Right. So I think I didn't have anyone having sort of the opposite conversation with me. So I think when I, you know, started getting into this world and realizing all the, uh, missing pieces of the puzzle that I had.
I did sort of finally recognize that the same way I would rehab someone in, you know, physiotherapy with like a back injury. Why wasn't I treating postpartum clients that way too? Right? Cause that again, it's just not sold to us that way. So that was a light bulb for me too. Absolutely. It's because I think, you know, again, we were.
In the pre and postnatal industry, there was like, basically the anti pre and postnatal industry be a badass, and then there's a very conservative, like, just, well, maybe breathe differently, exhale on exertion, like, just so lame, that like, you're missing so much, and it became so obvious to me. Just how much like pure strength conditioning knowledge was missing from that conversation for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. You always talk about the pendulum swing, right? I think that's, that's, you know, where I try to find myself too, is that, that middle ground, right? Yes. We want to sort of be mindful and maybe take it down a notch when we're rehabbing postpartum, but also, yeah, we don't want to be stuck doing glue bridges forever.
Right? Like we are. You know, active, moving human beings, being a mom is athletic, right? So I think, again, just finding that middle ground is so important. So what, um, initially drew me to your message, especially was you talk about athlete brain all the time. And that 100 percent resonated with me as a former gymnast growing up.
And again, I think that's what sort of led to this ego when I was pregnant and postpartum. Partum that I knew what I was doing. And I had this base that was going to just help me bounce back. And that was not the case. So I would love if you could share with our listeners, what does athlete brain mean to you?
And where did that term come from for you? Yeah, that term is probably like. eight years old, honestly, and I've seen people take it and put their own special little spin on it. Um, but to me, it really is reflection of part of somebody's identity who is maybe naturally more competitive or, um, just really driven, maybe routine driven.
They want to be successful. They are high energy. They're go, go, go. You know, kind of like that type a spectrum, but really we see it kind of present in a lot of different ways. It's just this inner desire to achieve and perform, whether it is intrinsic or at a higher level where there's a lot of variables that influence it, but, you know, it's just having high expectations for yourself.
And enjoying it. But also, um, there, there comes a point of like diminishing returns, right? When you are just that stubborn, when you have, when you're driven by ego versus driven by intention and process. It just becomes a really slippery slope. And we see this all the time at all different, um, levels of athleticism from my professional athletes to the mom who wants to go to bootcamp twice a week, but like wants to be a bootcamp when she is three weeks postpartum, because that is part of her mental health routine.
And that is what she does. And she wants to get her body back. And she just feels very adamant about this or the Olympian. He was like, I have six months. To make the team. And I have to do that. So I will do whatever it takes to get there. That's like the spectrum of athlete brain that we see. So something that I encourage a lot that I think is really critical, especially as we all age and enter different seasons of life.
Is being able to learn how to leverage your competitiveness and learn how to leverage your expectations and know that your identity as an athlete will evolve if you are in the game for the long game. Like if you're looking to be an athlete throughout the course of your lifetime as a grandma and then some, you have to respect the different seasons you're in.
So maintenance and intensity will not always be The drivers for that. Yes. Yeah. That's so important. And I think, um, what I recognize at least with the clientele that I work with is athlete brain. You don't necessarily have to consider yourself an athlete. I would say to have athlete brain, right? So I talk a lot about, um, the all or nothing mindset with my clients and sort of.
What counts as exercise, right? Cause we're sort of led to believe in the fitness culture that it has to be intense. We have to be sweating buckets. But what I sort of had to realize was adjusting my mindset postpartum that just doing sort of like rehab exercises counted as fitness. And so I think you talk about this too, even just going for a leisurely walk, like that counts as exercise.
Right. And I think many of us with that athlete brain discount those things, how important they still are to our rehab. Right. Cause I think like, you know, CrossFit has done so much good. And then at the same time, CrossFit has sold a message of if you are not on the floor out of breath or moving so freaking fast through your workout, then it's like not a good workout.
But a lot of different fitness cultures actually kind of encourage, like, if you think like, if you look at bodybuilding now, that's like a whole can of worms, right, where I'm not going to go fully there, but like, they kind of take their time. Like they're good with like time under tension. They move a lot slower.
It's a lot more intentional what they're working on that day. And like, there's just different ways to work out. So knowing that being able to take inventory and say, you know, there's just a variety of ways to get movement in a variety of approaches. Intense, hard, heavy, like that doesn't have to be the only way.
That can be cyclical, that can come in different seasons, that approach. But pregnancy and postpartum is not necessarily time for that level of intensity. Intensity is earned and worked to over time. Yes, I love that. So, um, I know you've shared before on Instagram. I think it was more so your after your second son where you talked about, um, just the focus for you shifted away from aesthetic goals when you were rehabbing.
Um, how did that shift for you? And is that something that you talk about a lot with your clients? What does that look like? Yeah, I'd say like my work has kind of shifted away from that because I think that we just have more important things to care about. And it's not that it's not important, it's just It's just not that interesting anymore.
We have everybody on the internet pulling their stomach and showing different angles and whatever. Like that's just like a message that I think there is room for, but that's not where I want my focus. Although during my second pregnancy, I was super cognizant of the fact of like, okay, during my first, I was taking these pictures every You know, week or whatever.
And I was like closely monitoring that process. I knew how much weight I had gained. I was just really highly aware. My second pregnancy, I did not want to be ruled by metrics. So I didn't want to weigh myself because I didn't like the conversations that that would solicit. And then I did not share how many weeks I was on the internet because I didn't want people saying.
Stuff that was like kind of just would like mess with my head. I'm like, wow, you like look so big for 28. Yeah. So you like don't look like anything or whatever. Like I just wanted to take that conversation away from anybody reading the comments so that I wasn't being compared to somebody else who was also 32 weeks pregnant and like, oh, look how different.
I just didn't want to go there. So those are some boundaries I put into place. Um, and then postpartum I took, like, my own progress pictures, but more, like, documenting the journey of how I felt each month because I remember getting to a point at four months postpartum where I was definitely, like, still squishy and bigger and whatever and, like, boobs were just giant, but I was, like, You know, like if this is, if this is just what I look like, that's okay.
Like, it's just, it's fine. Like it is okay. And being able to have peace instead of being so preoccupied with trying to look a certain way or perform at a certain level where I just had peace of knowing. Like, likely I'm going to get more athletic, likely my body is going to keep changing more, but also I'm okay here and this is still good.
And I just didn't want to take away from the postpartum experience with Chance because I felt like I lost some of that with Cade because I was so preoccupied with like, what the hell happened to my body and what's going on with my brain? I was just like, I was kind of a hot mess, you know, like I was so preoccupied.
That I, and Cade was still so tough that I didn't really get to enjoy having him as a baby. And I did not want to have that experience again with my second, so I was so cautious of where I gave my energy to. Yeah. That's so good. I don't know if I answered your question. I think I went rogue. I'm sorry.
That's okay. Cause I'm just curious. Cause I, I think about, I mean, this is happening less and less I find with my clients too, but I do have clients come to me, especially those dealing with diastasis that do have aesthetic goals and do hope for a change in the appearance of their tummy. Right. And I. You know, I validate that and I listen to their story and I, you know, say to them that I can't guarantee that, right?
Even through rehab strengthening, we can't guarantee that we're going to change the look of your tummy. And so then, you know, I try to encourage maybe let's start to follow maybe other accounts online or try to dig deeper. Why the look of your tummy is so important to you, right? And I think, again, that can go into many, many layers.
But what do you think shifted for you? Like, did you start just following different people? Like what made you think less about the look of your body? Um, I just didn't want to be ruled. I don't like to be controlled, right? Like, you know, and it just felt stupid to me. Like, why am I letting this dictate so much of my process and where my, where my energy goes like that?
I'm not. okay with that and I don't want to give it that power and I think that there's absolutely Okay. To be like, I want to look different. I want to actually like having a six pack is important to me. Who am I to judge or shame anybody for wanting that? If you work with athletes, you better be ready to have those conversations, even if maybe you don't totally agree with their reasoning.
It's not for you or I to agree with. It's for you and I to support and try to figure that out. Um, and people come, they, they will figure out their own process. Like they have us there to support it. Okay. But ultimately, you know, if we really preach autonomy, we have to really allow them to have goals that may not always be driven by the best, like, maybe like the, as well rounded of intentions as we would like, but at the same time, like there's a place for that.
So it just, for me, it shifted. Yeah, it was like who, who I listened to online. But again, it wasn't as saturated and obnoxious as it is today. Like social media really is so freaking hard. To consume now, because everyone has polarizing opinions. If you say this or think that, then you are clearly this kind of person.
And it just gets really polarizing and shitty feeling like, and I want to take all dogma out of that and just, you know, like share my process and where am I giving energy and focus on that? Yeah, that's good. I like that. And so you are now a few years postpartum. How old is your youngest now? Yeah. He's four, four years old.
Wow. And so again, you, you talk about this online a little bit, just how your priorities have shifted over time, kind of what your focus on with fitness has changed. So where, where is that for you now? Yeah. You know, what's really cool is I am a better athlete now than I have been at other points in my life.
And like I have a pretty high level athlete for a while there from college to, you know, pursuing a lot of different things in my. early twenties. Um, but I'm a better athlete because of my approach to fitness. I'm a more well rounded athlete. I have definitely been leaner in my past. Um, I've been bigger, whatever that I, what I'm able to do now is just so versatile that it makes me a better athlete.
Like it gives me longevity. In my body and in my health and that feels really good. So before maybe I was a little bit more like, well, I, you know, it's so easy to get dogmatic in the fitness industry. I am a power lifter. I am a CrossFitter. I am a triathlete. I'm this, this or that. And now I'm like, I'll go on a like four mile run, but then tomorrow I'm going to go to Jiu the next day I'm going to lift and I'm going to hit some deadlifts and some pull ups and whatever.
And I don't like, I just am. Versatile. I, there is nothing that I won't try. I should, I should put like an asterisk, like, um, you know, and it, so it feels really good to be in my body and to understand it and respect it and know how to like leverage that, um, leverage that competitiveness, be able to kick it on when I need to, but mostly just again, like this enlightened athleticism idea of like, I'm just happy to be here.
I'm happy to be moving my body. I'm happy to be Take taking my ego out of things so that I'm more willing to learn and try new things that don't I don't have to be Categorized as anything. Yeah, that's so good. And I relate to that too because I you know, I still appreciate CrossFit style training I would say so that's sort of the the flavor that I work with with my clients But yeah I struggled postpartum of almost like losing my identity as a crossfitter right because I couldn't Do the intense workouts that were there in those early postpartum phases, but it was a blessing in disguise because again, I think I just was able to drop that tie to my identity.
And now fitness to me as just, I'm so thankful I can move my body and feel good, feel strong, keep up with my kids, just my priorities have shifted. And so I think that is a big important message for, you know, our listeners too, is that. It is going to change over time, right? Our lives are changing all the time.
So we can't expect to have these rigid expectations of what exercise should look like, right? Yeah. The approach will have to change. Like, are you going to be doing the same thing at 30 that you're going to be doing at 60? Likely? No. Like your body and your fitness will evolve with you. And that's a freaking blessing.
If we can get to that point. Good for us, you know, like it's been so interesting to just see someone like my mom who's in her 60s She didn't start working out till her 50s and and just how that has evolved for her so much over the last 10 years What she had zero experience doing now She's like so into CrossFit so into skiing so in hiking so and like all these different activities and I'm like that That's what so many of us have a hard time seeing.
We are so like pulled into the season that we're in that we cannot zoom out and say like, Hey, there's actually like a lot of life after pregnancy, a lot of life after your postpartum season. And yes, postpartum is like technically forever, but it's also really seasonal in like the enormity of change and feelings.
And there's just so much change happening that really gets so magnified during pregnancy and postpartum. But then all of a sudden you start finding new rhythm. You like understand yourself better as an athlete, as a human, you get, fall into a better routine. There's just, there's, you just get to a point where you're like, I kind of slightly have a better idea of what to expect for myself and my life right now, when you were pregnant.
And when you're postpartum, you just don't, and you kind of have to. Give yourself a lot of grace and permission to just be there and do what you can with what you have where you are. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of, you know, in the newborn phase, especially with your first child, it's so hard to see out of the darkness, right?
It's just like, it's going to last forever. People keep telling you, you know, it goes fast. You'll, you'll be, you'll get there. But it's hard to see out of it. And yeah, now that I'm, you know, two plus years postpartum, I can see that. Right. So I think again, in those early phases, postpartum thinking that recovery was going to last forever.
I'm never going to get back to the things I want to do just so hard to get sucked into that. Right. And just, it takes time. It takes perspective. Um, eventually you get back to feeling the way you want to feel. Right. And like, it should look different. Right. But that's not what we're told. We're told like, Oh, you're a badass.
Like you're going to be great. You're going to like pop that baby out and jump right back into things. So we have this expectation. And when you sort of naturally gravitate to that athlete brain way of thinking, it's our own expectations that screw us over and just rob us of what the process actually is and how good the process can be.
And like, if you respect the process. You will be a better athlete, you will. The ones, in my experience of coaching a lot of different people, the ones who are rushing back into it, or using it as a band aid to mask other shit happening in their body and their brain, they will hit their wall. It's not if, it is when, because that like, all out effort to prove something to themselves or others is short lived.
Yeah, it is not sustainable. So if you can truly like respect where you are, respect what you need to do without the comparison to others, without the comparison to what your first pregnancy or birth was like, or what your own expectations were for this. You just be where you are and keep putting in the work to progress and get slightly better every day.
You will get to the other side. For sure. Yeah. And I think that was the hardest lesson for me as a former athlete is the learning to listen to your body, but also learning to listen to what's going on in your, in your brain. Right. I think again, those early postpartum phases, I was so desperate to probably change my body a little bit, but also just.
You know, get back to exercise for my mental health, but in those early phases, my body, yes, was telling me to slow down, but also my brain was like, you need to chill. Like you just had a baby, right? But it's, you're so accustomed as an athlete to push, push, push, and like ignore. all those signs and symptoms.
And like you said, eventually you hit a wall. So I think that, you know, it's just, um, comes with maturity, I guess, too. And just over time, just really, truly learning to listen, like, what is my body telling me right now? And I think that is a hard skill for a lot of athletes. Absolutely. And I think sometimes when you can't do that to yourself, you have to like zoom out and say like, what would I tell my sister?
What would I tell my daughter? What would I tell somebody that I was coaching? What would a coach who like really gets me, what would my coach tell me? Would my coach be like, get your ass back in the gym girl and like, go hit that deadline? Like, no, like you gotta, gotta take it easy and like rebuild. And like, so there is a sane voice voice of reason we have to be able to have enough, like self awareness to know that the loud.
nagging voice is just anxiety. And it's the quiet voice that provides the wisdom. And we all have the ability to tune into that, but it is freaking hard. Yes, so true. And I think that voice comes through when we are still. And I think a lot of athletes have a hard time being still. That was my My issue, right?
I, I always say I had to parent myself. I always say that to my clients. Like you have to parent yourself. Same as what you said, what would you say to a kid? And so I know in those early phases, postpartum, I, you know, told myself, Rhonda, you're only, and I say in quotations, you're only allowed to work out three days a week.
Cause otherwise I would force myself to work out every day. And on those rest days, my brain was, yeah, the chatter was like, why aren't you working out? You know, you're off what you have the time. And yeah. Yeah. The parenting side of me was no rest is important too. This is part of the healing process. So there's a bit of that battle over time, that quiet, gentle voice slowly one.
And I think it's a lifelong thing, right? We always have that chatter and we have to learn to kind of just settle it a little bit. Absolutely. And again, like if we are almost used to be driven through ego, we can almost use that to work with us instead where it's like. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that person who is so obsessed and preoccupied and controlled by the gym or what I look like.
I don't want to be that person. Is that what I would want for my own kid? Like, no, I'd want them to have a really healthy relationship with their body and their experiences. And so therefore, like, I don't, we get to choose who we want to be and how we show up and. There's a lot of power there. And I think if we can leverage that ego to lean into the power of like, what do I actually want for myself?
Do I want to be that person who's so desperate? Like, that's insecurity. The people that are trying to out train their experiences. Um, like that's just a form of insecurity. Right. So how can we have a really secure. Relationship with our body and a really secure relationship with how we train throughout the course of our lifetime, that will create a sustainable effort that will allow more healing that will allow more athletic upside to occur.
When you're training at a desperation and insecurity. That literally just, it will lead you to injury. It is not if, it is when. Yeah, it's so true. Or burnout, or whatever. Like, there's so, like, different variations of injury. Yep, exactly. And I think it is just, you know, you have two boys, I have two girls.
It's, I think about that all the time too. What do I want to teach my kids? You know, we, we get into the food side of things too, right? This all or nothing thinking with eating as well and exercise. And yeah, I don't want the example for my kids to be this obsessive. I have to work out every day and I have to look a certain way.
I have to eat a certain way. That's not what I want for my kids. Like you said, right. I think that changes your motivation too, when you become a mom. Absolutely. You learn like how to talk like you sort of start to see your own shit. You're like, Oh, Oh, I'm not going to like, that's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to say like, Oh, I can't have that.
Cause it's going to make me fat. Like I haven't said anything like that in years because you just become so aware. Of the impact of something like that. So then it's just really like reframing, like, I want to have a really healthy relationship with my body, a really healthy relationship with the food in our house and outside of our house and the food and the, just my overall approach to, you know.
Like now I feel like I'm shifting into a season of life where I'm learning to be like coach mom, where I have a coach brain, but I'm experiencing it through the lens of a mom now. And like, God, how do I want to raise my kids to be really emotionally and physically intelligent with their bodies as they, if I want to encourage them to have a lifetime of athleticism.
Also, what does that look like? And that freaking starts. So early for another day, but I mean, it's been really interesting to look at it through, um, through that lens as well. Yeah, I know my kids are a little younger than yours, but we already have some instances. So my oldest Sadie, she's, uh, was in gymnastics for a little bit.
And that was my background. And it's just interesting. I don't want to steer her away from it, but I just, again, I'm going to be very mindful of, of her experience with it. because of what I went through and still going through therapy from those years for myself. So I think, I think it's just, we're getting better as a society of just, you know, recognizing some of the dangers of that toxic sort of sport culture.
Right. I think that's a big thing too. Oh yeah. And I mean, gymnastics is just. It's tough with that, like there's just a lot of elements and it's, but it's having that emotional intelligence as a parent to know like, this is what I'm up against. If my daughter is going to be, or son, going to be in gymnastics or dance or cheer or anything that kind of like has value on aesthetic and whatnot.
That's going to be a variable that we have to approach with, like, a lot of awareness and, um, yeah, just like an awareness and extra level of caution. Yeah, so true. Alright, so to finish off, so what is one piece of advice you would give a pregnant athlete that's listening today? A pregnant athlete. Oh, right.
Um, That self awareness, like really getting a baseline of what your motivations are and being able to just like use it as an opportunity to really learn about your body, how incredible your body is and what lies ahead because it's a really great opportunity to do things differently than you have and you will be a better athlete for it.
That's so good. I know I, I came to your information and all of these things after my second, uh, daughter, not that we're not having any more kids, but I almost wish I would have gone through another pregnancy to just have such a different mindset on it. Cause I, yeah, just so thankful for everything I've learned and just, you know, that's why I'm so obsessed about paying it forward now, because like you always say, I just don't want other people that work with me to say like, why didn't anyone tell me this stuff?
Cause that's exactly how I felt. Right. Cause then it, and it's hard because there's always going to people that be people that say like, why didn't I know? Why isn't this information out there? And then like, I find myself going, it is freaking out there. Like, I'm so hard to get it out there, but like, again, that will never stop being the case, right?
Like we have an abundance of information, but then being able to really sift through and find out like, well. Who actually gets me and gets what I want to do. How is it resonating? You know, like there's, there's so many opportunities to keep getting it out there, knowing that it'll still always be new to somebody.
Totally. Yeah. All right. So before we go, um, you have a podcast yourself and, uh, so tell us a little bit about that and how can people find you? Yeah. So, um, the podcast is called the practice brave podcast. It's been out for a couple of years now. And I bring on a variety of guests, different professionals, practitioners, coaches, athletes.
Um, and then I have a lot of different solo episodes and we talk about everything, uh, literally everything. So from. A lot like there's definitely a coaching and athletic based conversation around pregnancy around postpartum around motherhood around coaching youth sports Being a parent in youth sports to just like overall health and wellness.
So I really try to use that as like a catch all for These are all the things I feel very strongly and passionate about because I'm a very multi passionate entrepreneur. It's not just about pregnancy and postpartum for me, it's really about this like lifetime of athleticism and what that looks like. So that's what the podcast is centered around.
And then as far as, um, being able to find me, my website is Briannabattles. com and Instagram at brianna. battles. The brand page is at pregnant. postpartum. athlete. Longest handle ever. Um, and yeah, we have a lot of different resources. So if you want to become a pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, um, enrollment is always open.
It is self paced. It is evidence based. It's the only certification that teaches you how to actually apply a lot of these clinical concepts. To like real life fitness and actually start a business or implement it into your coaching practice. Um, so that's the coaching certification. And then for pregnant athletes, I have a program for you.
Postpartum athletes program for you and like a million different resources. So we really have a stacked brand and I'm, I'm so excited to be able to extend that to everyone. I love it. Yeah. And I will say, so I am a pregnancy postpartum athleticism coach. And what I love the most about that community is just how well we work as a team and how encouraging everyone is to each other.
So I think that speaks volumes to you as a leader that you just created an environment where it's not competition at all, which I think is so incredible. Like, was that part of you starting up this brand? Well, so my thesis was on cultivating a positive team culture or something like that. Like I can't exactly remember, but it was about like, really like how do we create a cohesive culture where people truly know how to work with each other and like have, you know, have that be a significant part of a value system in leadership.
You won't have a healthy team or healthy impact if there's a lot of toxicity attached to it. And if you're spending a lot of time just, you know, just in competition or calling out or just whatever, like finding a lot of different extremes. Right. And what I loved so much is just seeing, like, this was so grassroots, like this thing launched about a little over four years ago is when the coach coach cert was made.
And. You know, it was so grassroots. People were like, I, I, I literally feel like people just felt bad. They're like, I know you've been working so hard to try to get this other, I think I'm just going to like buy this just so that like, like it's, you're validated for your efforts, you know? Like there's like some super OG coaches who just were like in love with the message and love with like.
Something being said and done so differently. Um, but it's, you know, it was a huge, huge part of me to say like, this can't come from me. One coach has influenced two hundreds that I would never reach. So what you're doing in Canada, I couldn't get there. I couldn't share that. So, but you can't, you have a greater impact.
And so when I prioritize that over anything else, which was like impact and significance in that way, the culture. was able to be built on that foundation. And I think that's why it's been so successful and why it's the gold standard for this coaching population, because it's, it's so much more than just exercise modifications and breathing adjustments.
It really is effectively getting trustworthy information out to people online and in our communities. So good. Yes. So much more than fitness. I always say that to my clients, right? That's what kind of gets us all together and working together, but it's way, way beyond fitness. Oh, yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Bri.
I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today. I'm so excited for our listeners to hear, uh, everything you shared. Oh, and thank you so much for your work. You're doing an incredible job and you are always so kind and so supportive. And I just want you to know that I like, I appreciate you a lot.
Thank you. I also want to just plug your mom because her Instagram is so awesome. What is her, what is her Instagram handle? Oh my gosh. Um, her Instagram handle is mom for everyone. Like the number 4. Oh my goodness. She's she's like literally everybody's mom. She's so nurturing. It's just so different than me.
Like I mean, yeah, she's a pretty great lady and, uh, it's been so awesome finally living close to her now. That's so cool. Yeah. So follow her. She is doing some cool stuff. She is. Yeah. All right. Thanks Bri. Thanks, Rhonda. Thanks for listening to today's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation. If you liked what you heard, we would love if you could share this with a friend, leave us a review or subscribe to anywhere that you listen to your podcasts.
Thanks for being here.
