Core Love Fitness

Fit-City Guide reviews Core Love Fitness – the pre and postnatal digital fitness studio that focuses on core and pelvic floor strength.

WHAT YOU NEED:
a digital device, yoga mat, weights, a strap

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Being a mom is amazing. It’s also insanely disruptive on our bodies. We grow a whole human, or maybe more, we expand, our inner organs move around, and then we reverse all of it – often with things not settling quite where they were before. It’s a physical transformation that, although the most natural thing in the world, is also incredibly taxing and often leaves us physically weaker. And often mothers are the centre of most families. If she’s not functioning at her best, neither is her family – so to have support from pre and postnatal specialist who understand exactly what moms are going though, is invaluable.

We discovered Core Love, a fitness studio based out of Edmonton, AB run by Kaye Burrows and Shannon Dickie; two mothers passionate about women’s health and supporting mothers when their needs are different than any other time in their life. They want women to respect and honour their bodies as they do the hard work of becoming a mother and not put extra pressures on themselves to “bounce back”. They want us to learn and love our bodies, love our core.

From the jump, I was impressed. They run their programs in a completely different way than anything I’ve tired, and I’ve tried a lot. Lemme break it down.

Core Love offers 4 ways to support you. 1:1 training, the Core Crew, Core Live, and the 21 Day Love Your Core. I’ve tried almost all of these and even as a mother who’s 2.5 years postpartum I found the workouts insanely beneficial for my core strength, the support constant, and most of all – it felt like a group of friends that let me join their hangouts for a hot minute. It was very special, and an example of how Core Love treats their community like family and to join them means you’ll gain real friendships.

1:1 Training

Minimum commitment of 3 months (to see lasting change) and includes:

• individualised exercise videos based on your body and current goals/needs
• weekly private video coaching sessions to assess and adjust movements as needed
• video analysis of your movements
• Access to Kaye for support or questions
• optional add on: Nutrition coaching and support, including habit tracking
• get instant access to the Core Love Knowledge Bank. Workshops and Resources on all things related to women’s health.

Cost is $227/month

The Core Crew

The Core Crew is a monthly digital membership focusing on core workouts delivered to you on a daily bases through an ap called True Coach (which makes navigating the workouts incredibly easy.) I’ve been doing this for the last three weeks and I’m impressed. Before starting the program, you provide your goals (fitness, weight, etc.) and they basically tailor the program to you, with the goal being the minimum amount of exercise required to get you the best results. You’re emailed daily with a full workout (3x/week), a simple stretch, or just a reminder to move – see below.

The workouts themselves include a warm up and cool down and list the exercises, each one with a video tutorial on exactly what to do, with callouts on form. You can DM Kaye in the ap on what other movement you did that day, if you need any help on any exercises, have questions, anything – so you feel very connected and supported. She sent me messages over the holidays just saying hi, it was so sweet.

If you feel like you need to do the workouts on a different day, you can do that. Want to ​do extra workouts that week, go ahead and repeat one.  If you specifically want something about your schedule changed going forward, just DM and they’ll adjust. It’s so tailored to what you need and what you want.  

Super important, they’re big on the 3 P’s. They don’t want you feeling pain (beyond sore muscles), peeing or feeling uncomfortable pressure in the core during these workouts.  If you are, try a new strategy, new way of breathing, or reach out and ask them for help.

Cost starts at $45.60/month

I learned many things about my body including post baby abdominal muscle issues and breathing improperly.  Working out with a fellow mom gave me the confidence I may have been lacking in myself.

C.M.

Core live

Core Live is their livestream 12-week program through the Zoom Room, offering ~5 classes per week. Spaced are capped because this is VERY much a tight personal community. This is where you meet your new friends. Unlike most, they don’t play music for these classes, instead they chat. The classes start with Kaye or Shannon leading you through a stretch and they round table through the group answering a trigger question Kaye or Shannon start with. In between each person, they switch to a new exercise to warm up. These women support eachother through pregnancy, careers and coping with this pandemic. Kaye and Shannon give feedback and modifications in the workout, and the cooldown comes back to another roundtable share. It’s welcoming, warm and even if you’re not big on sharing or typically prefer your camera off – this is the ultimate safe space to do otherwise.

Cost is $144-$180 for the 12-week program.

21 Day Love Your Core

The 21-Day Love Your Core is covers the foundational anatomy and function of your core and pelvic floor.  You learn how to find your deep core muscles.  The program includes 3 pre-recorded workshops, daily workouts (as short as 5 minutes) and video coaching through each exercise. All workouts can be completed with minimal equipment, at home and on your own schedule.

Cost is $21.00

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