In episode 8 of our podcast it’s unusually hot and no, it’s not from the air conditioning in the studio, it’s from the guests we invited for more interesting and useful topics. They are two of our sexiest group trainers, Yolena Petrova and Deliana Hoang.

With them we will talk about mothers in sport, training before, during and after pregnancy, misconceptions and lack of awareness in mothers. You can watch the full episode on our YouTube channel, as well as on Spotify and the Apple Podcast.

For the episode we’ve chosen to drink something unusual again, namely L-carnitine. Although many people associate this supplement mainly with weight loss, it actually helps on many levels – to improve fat burning, to make your muscles work better, and to help the body as a whole. L-carnitine can be taken both in the morning and at night – it’s not a product that can overstimulate you (unless it’s in very large quantities, of course).

L-carnitine helps transport fat to the muscles where it is used for energy. This is why many people use it, to have more strength during their workout and thus get the most out of their training regime.

But let’s get to our guest ladies and some of the topics we touched on in our studio.

Next Level Fitness Moms

Let’s start with a brief description of our lovely ladies, who you may have seen in the gym or sweated with at one of their group workouts.

Who is Yolena?

Yolena: I’ve been doing fitness for 10 years now, and I generally rediscovered the sport when I started doing BodyPump workouts and entered the Les Mills family. I’m also a mom, and I have a child, a boy, who is 3 and a half years old. I’m currently in a period where I want to learn and develop. I enjoy what I do, I am obsessed with sport and training.

And who is Delyana?

Deliana. It’s not easy being a mother, it’s not easy being a housewife, it’s not easy being a wife and a working woman at the same time. We have to be multifunctional women. I love my job, I’ve been involved in sports all my life. From the age of 4 I started with gymnastics and so on until I was 18. After a short break, due to motherhood, I started as a client attending group classes and then I became a group instructor. It’s a dream job for me.

Yoli, when did you start training?

Yolena: At one time I just felt the need to move and I would shut myself in my room and do different exercises. At some point I got discouraged and decided to go to the gym. I wasn’t embarrassed to ask, I went to the front desk not knowing if they had trainers there or not. Actually everyone treated me very well, no one ever made fun of me for not knowing and so after a while I was able to do some workouts on my own and an hour doing something by myself in the gym.

Later, after I moved to Sofia to study, I decided to get certified as well. At the beginning I was very embarrassed, then I was doing personal training. Luckily though, I was in a very good environment – I was a single girl doing this for the first time and 10 other guys who were very experienced. Little by little I started to get closer to people and develop. I had a colleague who said to me – “You can’t do everything, you have to choose your direction”. That was the first time I tried power gymnastics with him, mobility… And that defines my understanding of sport to this day. Yes, we train for a beautiful body, but before that we train for a HEALTHY and beautiful body. All the muscles on you won’t do you any good if you can’t cross over and brush your teeth, if you don’t have mobility, if you don’t have good posture, if you get injured easily… That’s the thing that sets me apart as a coach.

And you, Delyana, how did you start, with which workout did you start your career as a group trainer?

Delyana: ⅞ years ago I was looking for group workouts, here in Sofia and there was nowhere to go, except the Next Level gyms. This was great for me because back then I was bored of going to the gym alone, I wanted something different and I missed the social contact after motherhood. Sometimes I did two, three workouts so I wouldn’t miss out, it’s like a drug. Then one of the trainers told me there was a casting and I could try to become a group trainer. And I was like, “Why not?!” As a joke or a prank, I went and they liked me. So my hobby became my profession and my passion!

And which workout started your journey with the Les Mills family?

Delyana: I started with Les Mills Grit, it was my first passion. When they were presenting them for the castings, right at the warm up I was… down! Right at the warm-up! I wanted to challenge myself and see what my abilities were up to, and that’s why I chose this workout. It’s high intensity based on the Tabata and HIIT principles and in 30 minutes it makes a person give it their all. My second passion is Bodycombat – this workout is amazing! It gets you pumped up, motivated, and brings out strength you didn’t even know you had until the very end of the workout.

Have you exercised before and during pregnancy?

Delyana: I can say that before pregnancy I trained very rarely and it was not like now. I didn’t train during pregnancy either, because then (15 years ago) somehow things were different. Doctors tell you to be careful, don’t do anything, don’t lift heavy… Now I understand that this is not the case at all and in fact, if I have a second pregnancy, I won’t sit and lie down. But Yoli can tell you more, she was working out during her pregnancy until the last time I saw her.

Yolena: I mean first of all it’s different for every woman because it really depends on what kind of life you had before pregnancy. Yes, working out during pregnancy is good, weight training is also recommended, I even think it helps with the stamina you need to have a child. But, if you haven’t done anything before, it’s really stressful.

I had an extremely active life before I got pregnant. Accordingly, during my pregnancy, I continued to work out and lead group exercise classes and so on until my 7th month. After that, I continued to train for myself with lighter exercises. When I entered the 9th month, my belly was already huge and I stopped working out altogether.

After giving birth, when I went back to the gym, I just went back to being me! That’s how I got back into shape too, with people in the gym, and for me it’s mostly an emotional and mental release. But definitely having worked out before and during pregnancy was a big plus for me – I had an amazing pregnancy, light and mobile. The way your body recovers after pregnancy makes a big difference too. Everything happens much faster if you were active before. But of course it’s also very important to have knowledge and combine strength training with mobility training, for example, because your lower back takes a lot of strain anyway.

How has keeping training affected you in raising a child?

Yolena: I think clients don’t challenge you the way a child challenges you. You can’t get that mad at a client!

Delyana: Yes, you can say that leading training sessions helps in raising children, but we are the living example for our children. I mean, it’s not what you say at home, it’s what you show. I can say that it helps me purely mentally, if I’m really tired or angry, to get everything negative out in the gym and then when I get home and see the grades or the remarks, I can react calmly.

Yolena: I don’t think it’s a question of whether parenting affects leading or vice versa. It’s more important that we develop as a person, that we work with our limits and our patience. Imagine a situation where you’re angry at your child because you’re overwhelmed or at a client and you stand up as the older person, you try to really approach it with understanding and see what the person across from you is going through, that way you can really help.

What do you think about mothers who give birth, grab the stroller with the child and start running in the park?

Delyana: I am very happy for these mothers, I have even seen a mother with a stroller and on roller skates.

Yolena: I think it’s very important, for every single thing in life, with what intention you do. If she’s doing it with the primal need that she wants to move, that now she wants to go to the park and get out of the shackles of home where she’s literally like a cash cow at first – then that’s great! But if she’s doing it with the intention of “Ole… I can’t accept my body!” then she’s shifting the main focus, which is the child, with not being grateful for her body and what it’s done for her – it’s given her life. So she focuses on the surface and in this case it is better not to. It all depends on the intention with which you do it as a mother, and how much you accept that it’s a period, and in that period at the beginning you’ll look completely chaotic, like you’ve been electrocuted, but at the same time you’ll be very happy.

Delyana: Yeah, but at the same time there are a lot of women who are actually afraid that something will happen during pregnancy and they don’t work out for a long time.

What’s the time you can get heavy and of what nature, postpartum?

Yolena: I think there needs to be more awareness because when a woman gives birth, her abdominal muscles are so overstretched. You actually touch them and they’re gone, hole, and you don’t know what’s going on. But you can’t just immediately rush in to do crunches, first there has to be breathing exercises, pelvic floor exercises and light, simple practices to get the core feeling back. The core is the original thing, it is the center of the body and it is involved in absolutely every exercise. That’s why we have to start there, fix it and then move on to some more serious exercise.

Already for the further load – a lot depends on how the pregnancy went, whether the woman did anything before she got pregnant and accordingly follow her body, because the body will be very weak. It’s not so much about what kind of workouts she’s going to do, it’s more about checking if she has diastasis, can she feel her abdominal muscles, etc.

Delyana: I agree with Yoli, things have to happen slowly and gradually. It’s important to listen to your body, because there is normal birth, there is also section, it’s important how the woman gave birth. There’s also an adjustment period afterwards and when she feels mentally ready that she wants to take a step forward and start taking care of her body, she can start with gentle workouts and breathing exercises rather than immediately throwing herself head first. Everything should happen gradually.

Yolena: It also depends a lot on how much support the woman has. Whether the dad actually helps, whether it happens at night, because in order to recover from a workout, you have to get some sleep first. That’s where the role of the dad really comes in.

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