Made to Move, Built to Birth: How Fitness Prepared My Mind for Childbirth – Part II

By Diana Tyler, Co-Owner

“You can do anything for a minute.”

Those seven words, spoken by one of my midwives at my first childbirth class, were intended to encourage the room of soon-to-be-moms and me by reminding us that while contractions may be intense, they’re transient; like waves on the sea, they slowly build, intensely peak, then fade away, mercifully granting a time, however brief, of reprieve before the next one rolls in. Many women actually refer to contractions as waves, or rushes, to help them envision what’s happening when they feel one beginning to form.

The midwife explained that during active-labor contractions, we’d be too busy concentrating on moving and breathing (perhaps groaning) to speak to anyone or answer any questions. But after the “wave” had passed, we’d have a break, and might even find ourselves cracking jokes or requesting snacks. It sounded absurd to me, that one could go from full-on labor to casual conversation in such a short time, but the following week during a CrossFit workout, I noticed something…

I was doing an interval routine (pic below) that consisted of a four-exercise circuit performed for 50 seconds with a 10-second rest between each exercise. After the fourth exercise, we got a one-minute rest, and repeated that sequence four times. As you can imagine, none of us was able to speak during the working portion of the workout; we were too busy trying to breathe and focus on maintaining both proper form and a steady, relatively quick pace. But lo and behold, when the timer beeped, signaling the start of the much-needed rest interval, we were all able to talk, walk around normally as we caught our breaths, drink some water, and jot down our scores on our whiteboards.

“You can do anything for a minute” echoed in my mind and served as my workout mantra for the next few weeks. No matter what I was doing at the gym, be it a set of deadlifts, a Tabata interval, or a rowing sprint, I’d recite it to myself, and the simple reminder that rest was ahead infused me with a surprising amount of willpower and perseverance. Silly as it sounds, my body needed the reassurance that it wasn’t going to pass out or perish from a brief period of hard work. Quite the contrary, the hard work was helping it become stronger, heartier, more resilient.

When the time finally arrived and active labor was in full swing, the short phrase, simple yet mighty, was once again a tremendous source of strength for me. Each contraction, or wave, that crashed into me was an opportunity to prove the mantra true as I breathed, focused, and trusted my body to do something it was designed for. Like any workout, race, climb, or otherwise arduous task, there was an end in sight, a blessed reprieve just around the bend; all I had to do was keep my mind sharp and my body as relaxed as possible while the contraction ran its course.

It’s normal to be daunted by challenges; they wouldn’t be challenges – would they? –  if they didn’t send a tingle up our spines or make us second-guess ourselves, at least a little.

A tough-sounding CrossFit workout written boldly on the whiteboard.

A gym floor covered by barbells, kettlebells, boxes, and jump ropes.

A 5K you signed up for that now sounds about as pleasant as a trek through Death Valley.

A full day spent with your toddler, who has more energy than a caffeinated Labrador puppy.

It’s impossible to turn those challenges into cake walks, but a simple mindset shift can absolutely lessen the toll they take on our mental toughness, and therefore on our physical stamina as well. Taking challenges one hour, one minute, even a few breaths at a time can significantly impact our ability to not only complete them, but do so triumphantly –  stronger, fitter, tougher, and more confident than we were at the outset. Here are a few practical examples of how this could play out:

When you see a long, complicated-looking workout written on the whiteboard at the gym, devise a game plan for how you will approach it before the workout begins. Determine when your rest periods will be. For instance, if the workout starts out with fifty wall balls, will you attempt to do all fifty reps in a row, or would five sets of ten reps with a five-breath break between sets be more doable? Or, if the workout includes a 2,000-meter row, perhaps you can plan to row at, say, a 60-percent effort for one minute, then recover at a slower pace for a minute, and repeat that sequence till the 2,000 meters are done.

When it comes to keeping up with little ones all day, try to sprinkle in restful activities throughout the day, such as reading, going for a stroll, or listening to music while the child plays independently and you read an article, cook dinner, or chat with your friend on the phone. My 10-month-old son loves crawling around and exploring every last inch of our house. I follow him like a hawk, chasing him from room to room. I let him initiate spontaneous games of chase and hide-and-go-seek. I let him play with trays and bowls full of water and clean up the mess when he’s done. I pull out the couch cushions so he can climb and roll around on them to his heart’s content. These flurries of activity are doable because in between them all are the lower-energy things I mentioned above. And also naps. Naps are a must!

I hope those examples give you an idea of how “You can do anything for a minute” can apply to everyday life. Breaking off bite-sized chunks, from my experience, is key to accomplishing sizable feats, be it finishing a tough workout, birthing a baby, or chasing one around all day. Once you develop the habit of tackling tasks one chunk at a time, you’ll be amazed at not only how much you achieve, but at how much less stressed you are, thanks to the absence of anxiety as you resolve to begin, and enjoy the rest interval when, not if, it arrives.