Pixie’s #wsrmumstrainlikechamps off-season workout

You’ve probably seen the awesome hastags our roller girls and guys have been using lately #wsrtrainlikechamps and #nosuchthingasoffseason but what if you’re a mum wanting to balance off-season training with playtime? That was my conundrum.

I work full-time, add to that roller derby including volunteer time and you get #mumguilt when you miss spending time with your spawn.

As the famous commercial goes, “why not do both”? This has been my #wsrmumstrainlikechamps workout for the last two months or so:

The Swing!

In between pushes on the swing complete the following set three times:

  • 20 × squat holds
  • 20 × right leg lunges
  • 20 × left leg lunges

This should give your offspring a good 5-10 minutes on the swing and you can actually enjoy swing time too, instead of going into zombie mum mode.

The Roundabout/Turntable

Ask your darling kidlet to hold on tight. Grab the rail and Carioca/grapevine around the the roundabout. Start slow and work your way faster. How fast can you go? If you go one direction always do the other. Only go for 30 seconds at a time so you and the offspring don’t get too dizzy and fall (learnt that the hard way…).

Ask kidlet to hold on tight. Sit on the very edge of the roundabout, lean back to about 45° and push with just the balls of your feet and toes. Start slow and go faster and faster. Again only do 30 second reps. Stop and spin in the opposite direction. Try changing it up and just use the heels of your feet instead of the balls of your feet. Too easy? Try not to lean on your arms. Put them in front of you in prayer position.

Rope Climbing Frame

Find a length of rope about belly height and hold on with your hands about shoulder width apart. Move your feet back until you are in a comfortable position to do two sets of press ups of 20 reps each. Too easy? Move your feet back further and move your feet to hip width apart and then shoulder width. Still too easy? Find a length of rope at knee height. Lie on the ground and place your feet or ankles on the rope. Complete your reps as push ups.

The Rope Basket/Net Swing

Jump in the net swing with your lil’ dear facing you in the centre. Place your legs and feet on either side of your kidlet and sit toward the edge facing the direction of swing. Hold on, lean back and push with your legs and feet in the direction of the forward swing and bring it back to a crunch on the back swing. See how much swing you can create without touching the ground/getting a push. Too easy? Try not to hold on or use your arms for swinging, get to a point where you are stable enough to swing while your hands are in front of you in the prayer position.

Monkey Bars or Climbing Frame

Try doing some pull ups. Cross your feet in front of you to avoid pushing off with your feet and just use your arms. Tbh, I’ve got really weak arms…I would just try to do one or two reps before moving on…

Some more tips

  • Take time to warm up whether it is part of walking to the park or a quick game of chasings around the backyard before you start.
  • Protect your back, engage your core with each rep by sucking your bellybutton inwards.
  • Get creative, make playtime about both/all of you enjoying yourselves, if your cheeky monkey wants to play here/there how can you play too and challenge yourself.
  • Don’t over do it if you still need to walk back home from the playground either mum needs lots of breaks or Mr Two needs to be carried home along with his bike and drink (lol).
  • You’re at the park to play and spend time with your precious babies, remember to engage with them, ask for help counting your reps, make funny faces or noises with each rep, or make up some imaginative play together.
  • Be that fun mum that properly “plays” at their playground, it doesn’t all have to be about reps and stretching, running around playing tip or the floor is lava is still a workout, trust me.

In the end, Axel and I did have fun and I feel #derbystrong for our 2017 season.

Go forth and play
❤ Pixiematosis

Rolling with Axel – A personal account of derby life after spawn by Pixiematosis.

First off, this isn’t a blog about what to do after producing offspring or strict recommendations for returning to derby, it’s just my story. The main reason for not writing a “how to” is that if there is one thing I have learnt it’s that there is no “right way” to do things when it comes to a new baby. Every tiny human is different in their needs and mum’s recovery may be totally different to mine.

Axel was born on Boxing Day at around 1 in the afternoon. He was 3145g and 51cm long. Delivered via Mighty Vac (yep that’s exactly what it sounds like) and I was given a recovery time around 4-6 weeks. In that first week after spawn, I started to assess myself for getting back to my derby fitness. Everything had gone squishy, my tummy felt like jelly and I was struggling to open jars and stuff, so I was thinking I had a fair bit of work ahead of me. There was also the other thing, stitches, ick. That had a healing time of up to 4-weeks. So I’d determined not to think about my fitness again until Axel was 4-weeks old.

20141227_145201_resized_1 Look at the cute. Look at it! 

That was probably for the best, any fluid from around my tummy was disappearing and my core wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. With some more settled sleeping patterns I was feeling stronger too. Whenever possible I got Axel in the stroller and went for a walk around the block and this seemed to do both of us plenty of good. TIP #1 BE PAITENT, LET YOUR BODY RECOVER IN ITS OWN TIME.

In that first month I started to really question my ability to go back to derby. Axel seemed to need to feed constantly. I felt like I was trapped on the couch with no hope of getting up for sandwich let alone a few hours of training time. If Axel wasn’t feeding, he was screaming and I definitely felt like a bit of a failure at this mum thing. But things seemed to level out a bit and we were slowly getting into a routine. TIP #2 PERSERVERE, A ROUTINE WILL COME.

20150111_141914_resized_1 Awwwww, tiny baby sleeping Axel.

My first big derby test was attending a committee meeting in week 3. I tried expressing for a bottle feed for the first time. Oh my glob! FREEDOM!!! Not only could I keep Axel happily fed in the middle of a meeting I could actually hand over the reins to someone else (Dobie you’re my hero). TIP #3 BOTTLES ARE FANTASTIC, LET SOMEONE ELSE FEED BUBS AND ENJOY SOME GROWN UP TIME.

I got a chance to head to a team social at the beginning of week 4. I turned up looking totally frazzled and I kind of desperately asked my fellow mummy teammates for advice. I must have sounded so pathetic “Is this normal?” “Why won’t he do …?” “How long did your babies feed for?” I got a fair few knowing smiles and also plenty of hints and tips. Things didn’t seem so terrible after all. Soon after I’d figured out my offspring had dairy and egg protein sensitivity and it was causing him plenty of gas pains and I also got him soothing himself with a dummy. Hallelujah. TIP #4 MUM WISDOM IS PRICELESS. SERISOUSLY, JUST HEAR EVERYONE OUT AND SEE IF IT HELPS.

In our 5th week together I thought it was time to start thinking about strapping on skates. I’d been cautioned by fellow derby mumma Leese Lightning to take it easy when returning to training. She warned me about the relaxin hormone that takes months to leave your body after pregnancy. Sure it allows your body to give birth, but it also increases your risk of sprains and injuries so that is something to think about, lest you end your derby career before you even get back to it. TIP #5 RELAXIN, IT’S A THING. GOOGLE IT BEFORE HEADING BACK TO DERBY.

20150128_175618_resized Shhhh, the Pixie is sleeping.

First I thought I would check out my core strength. I started off doing sit-ups, push-ups, planks and squats in small reps at first and then slowly building up. I found I could do the minimum skill level before too long, but it certainly wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Seeing as I could get to minimum endurance, I wanted to go to the next step. Skating. I decided to start back with our fresh meat

group. There was no pressure from my trainers to do this, I just wanted to because I didn’t feel stable or strong enough to jump into full contact training. Yet.

My first training session back on skates I left Axel with my mummsy and I attempted to complete 1 hour of training. We completed the 5-minute laps, admittedly I took it a bit easy but I only completed 21 laps. I was crushed, I’m no speedster but I hadn’t been that slow since fresh meat. TIP #6 SEE TIP #5. NO SERIOUSLY RELAXIN IS A THING! IT WILL MAKE YOUR LEGS FEEL LIKE JELLY WHILE YOU’RE SKATING. TAKE YOUR TIME AND BE CAREFUL!

For my next training sesh I brought the little guy with me. There were plenty of people just dying for a cuddle from Axel. I’d barely rolled him in the door before he was swaddled, fed, burped and tucked up into his pram for a sleep (Love you Bella). At first I was like “Oh you don’t have to…” but then I saw people really, sincerely, genuinely wanted to help. TIP #7 IT TAKES A VILLAGE OR A ROLLER DERBY LEAGUE TO RAISE A CHILD (JUST GO WITH IT).

1423781542058_resized Axel with his mumma

So that’s pretty much our first 6-weeks. My next blog will be covering up to 12-weeks. I hear 12-weeks is a magical time where babies settle down a bit and learn heaps of new stuff. I wonder if that means he can start changing his own nappies and stuff. That would be most excellent. Until next time, have a good one.

Pixie.