Inspiring Conversations with Gina Conley of MamasteFit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Conley.

Alright Gina, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
MamasteFit started in 2017 after the birth of my daughter. I was transitioning off of active duty in the Army to stay-at-home mom life and decided to start offering fitness training for other moms like me. We started in another gym offering our classes, then eventually have expanded to our own location, complete with physical therapists and a chiropractor. MamasteFit offers pre and post-natal strength and conditioning training, focused on helping women feel strong and comfortable throughout pregnancy; prepare for birth, and then recover in the postpartum. We also offer our programming online for those who do not live near us or cannot come to our facility in person as often as they’d like.

In addition to physical fitness training, we also offer childbirth education courses. Our courses are focused on helping educate families on the science of birth, to make it less mysterious and scary. Our childbirth education courses are offered both in-person, virtually, and then in a self-paced online course.

We provide support throughout the entire spectrum of motherhood: from pre-conception, pregnancy, birth, and then the postpartum and beyond.

Our educational courses have recently expanded to professionals in both fitness and the birth realm.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
COVID definitely made things challenging! We had just moved into our new location in February of 2020, and then in March, we were shut down until the summertime. Most of our memberships were canceled after the months of being closed continued, which we totally understood. But, there was a silver lining! because of the pandemic, we were able to build more offices to house our chiropractor and physical therapists; we had an empty gym to film our childbirth education course and fitness education courses, and I was able to focus on my own pregnancy. I was in my third trimester when the pandemic hit!

After we were able to open back up, it was really slow and still is now. It has been just over a year since we were able to open again, and we are just starting to see similar member numbers as pre-covid.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
MamasteFit is unique as we offer strength and conditioning programming specific to pregnancy and postpartum. We do offer programming beyond postpartum, but the majority of our clientele is in this very specific phase of life. This has helped us become experts in this field! Not only do we train clients in person, we also have a large online community that we train virtually.

In addition to fitness training, we also offer childbirth education and birth doula services. We truly do provide support throughout the entire motherhood spectrum.

We help our clients feel strong and comfortable throughout pregnancy; our programming is not random, but rather very well thought out and methodical in its approach. We incorporate strength endurance-focused rep ranges, as we need stamina for better birth outcomes; myofascial sling work focused on helping maintain the stability of the pelvis, which increases comfort during pregnancy; and then we incorporate aerobic activity to help decrease the occurrence of prenatal complications. Our programming also begins to taper in the final trimester in preparation for birth, where we introduce more movements specific to helping baby find their optimal position during birth.

Our childbirth education helps prepare families for birth. We explain the science of birth so that the mystery of birth is taken away. We tend to fear what we don’t understand, so explaining what is actually happening has helped so many of our clients feel more confident and empowered in their birth experiences.

And then in the postpartum period, we provide programming for both vaginal and c-section birth, which is designed to be a slow and gradual return to fitness and sport.

Being in a military community, we tend to also provide a place for other military spouses to come when their partners have deployed or are away for work. We support one another, especially with the recent last-minute deployments from Fort Bragg.

Any big plans?
We are hoping to expand to teaching seminars and workshops to other professionals, such as fitness trainers and birth workers. We share a ton of information on our Instagram and blog but would like to teach in-person to other folks who are looking to make a difference in someone’s life.

We don’t have plans to expand to new locations, but would love to support others in creating something similar to what we have going on here!

And in the far future, we would love to create a freestanding birth center in our area to provide more in-depth prenatal and birth support to our community.

Pricing:

• Childbirth Education Course (Online): $99
• Childbirth Education Course (Virtual or In-person): $199
• Prenatal Fitness Program (36-Weeks): $250 (monthly $35)
• Postpartum Return to Fitness Programs (16-Weeks) $199

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: mamastefit.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/mamastefit
• Facebook: facebook.com/mamastefit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4OnjGrWT70TpbBa8mZ92w

Image Credits
Tysha Hallman Photo & Cassandra SueAnn Photography.