I bought Expecting and Empowered and I feel scammed - a review
- Thread starter choirmom
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- fit pregnancy pregnancy
@choirmom I looked into this program and was so turned off by their overall website. It was just so scammy! Happy to see someone else feel this way after reading nothing but rave reviews.
I will say I enjoyed Move Your Bump. They have a free trial period for the app, but not sure if that style is what you're looking for.
I'm also interested in checking out the Hannah Bower guides, but it's really difficult to justify the cost. I could get a live personal training session for the price of some of these PDFs!
I will say I enjoyed Move Your Bump. They have a free trial period for the app, but not sure if that style is what you're looking for.
I'm also interested in checking out the Hannah Bower guides, but it's really difficult to justify the cost. I could get a live personal training session for the price of some of these PDFs!
matteus4god
New member
@choirmom Thanks for your write up! I also looked into it, but decided not to purchase after finding just a couple negative reviews (in the sea of what felt like so many positive ones). The thing that really turned me off was a reviewer saying there was a week where the instructions were to do three sets of sixty bodyweight squats.......and that sounds like the most boring thing I could imagine!
I haven't bought any guide yet for pregnancy (I'm 17 weeks), but I have started following a few of the popular ones on instagram and so far thats felt like enough for my to get some inspiration to program my own workouts.
I haven't bought any guide yet for pregnancy (I'm 17 weeks), but I have started following a few of the popular ones on instagram and so far thats felt like enough for my to get some inspiration to program my own workouts.
katrina2017
New member
@choirmom I bought it too, and got extremely frustrated about the fact that it was really just a pdf - no videos, nothing else. Although yeah, I guess that's on me for just relying on reddit reviews. Also, like you, my PT therapist told me to take it easy on the pelvic floor exercises, as mine is actually too tight from a mix of stress and exercise.
Right now I'm doing NourishMoveLove on YouTube, as it targets exactly the muscles I need to keep from developing hip pain. The lady (Lindsay Bomgren) is veeeery energetic, but oddly enough it works for me. "You can do anything for 20 seconds" is starting to be my mantra. I don't think it works for everyone, but it seems my groove at the moment is to have a loud American lady yell "Holy Bananas" at me!
Edit because I forgot: I stopped worrying about Diastasis Recti after reading "Expecting and Empowered" by Emily Oster. Basically, according to teh book (which reviews existing literature on common pregnancy rules) there's very little evidence you can do anything to trigger it (exercise or no exercise, including abdominal exercise) or prevent it (same). If you already have it, it's a different issue, then you might have to adapt (I haven't really looked into resources I'm afraid) - although the only small study that exists on it suggests abdominal training makes it better, not worse.
Right now I'm doing NourishMoveLove on YouTube, as it targets exactly the muscles I need to keep from developing hip pain. The lady (Lindsay Bomgren) is veeeery energetic, but oddly enough it works for me. "You can do anything for 20 seconds" is starting to be my mantra. I don't think it works for everyone, but it seems my groove at the moment is to have a loud American lady yell "Holy Bananas" at me!
Edit because I forgot: I stopped worrying about Diastasis Recti after reading "Expecting and Empowered" by Emily Oster. Basically, according to teh book (which reviews existing literature on common pregnancy rules) there's very little evidence you can do anything to trigger it (exercise or no exercise, including abdominal exercise) or prevent it (same). If you already have it, it's a different issue, then you might have to adapt (I haven't really looked into resources I'm afraid) - although the only small study that exists on it suggests abdominal training makes it better, not worse.
@choirmom This sounds like such a waste of time. Trainers don’t put out good workout content for pregnant women because they’re scared they will get hurt. So they give us a nothingburger program and charge 5x what it’s worth. Stretches are safe but if I want to do that I’d choose yoga. So that leaves us with BS workouts that do nothing or we try to cobble together a program based on what we know. It’s all ridiculous anyway because how often do pregnant women get hurt exercising compared to the mountain of complications caused by inactivity and obesity?
The pelvic floor stuff is infuriating and insulting. Is it that hard for trainers to understand and instruct us on this? If they don’t understand it, could we like, do some studies or some shit? It seems important but what do I know.
The pelvic floor stuff is infuriating and insulting. Is it that hard for trainers to understand and instruct us on this? If they don’t understand it, could we like, do some studies or some shit? It seems important but what do I know.
@robinhdw Yes! Preach! You know what’s even more infuriating? I shopped around for OBs when I got pregnant and two of them told me, I quote, to only do light exercise such as yoga, walking, and Pilates throughout my pregnancy. The third one actually asked me about my exercise habits and told be to keep doing what I’m doing but maybe put off taking up kickboxing. Guess which one I went with?
I’m so, so sick that people basically infantalize pregnant women and just assume that since I’m currently making a tiny human, I’m practically incapacitated.
I’m so, so sick that people basically infantalize pregnant women and just assume that since I’m currently making a tiny human, I’m practically incapacitated.
@choirmom I feel the same! I ended up switching to using the FitOn app (free!!) which has a bunch of prenatal specific HIIT, barre, weights, yoga, etc workouts at lots of different time lengths. The women leading the classes are actually pregnant which is refreshing too.
They use optional 3-10lb weights and it’s much more engaging and rewarding - I do feel like I get a decent workout. I’ve been using the app since 20 weeks (now at 33 weeks) and there have been modifications embedded that I find helpful. I noticed coning around 23 weeks.
They use optional 3-10lb weights and it’s much more engaging and rewarding - I do feel like I get a decent workout. I’ve been using the app since 20 weeks (now at 33 weeks) and there have been modifications embedded that I find helpful. I noticed coning around 23 weeks.
@choirmom I’m so sorry you experienced this! I’m a FTM about halfway through my pregnancy and I’ve explored a few programs because I was pretty active pre pregnancy. 45-60 mins of HIIT or long runs. A lot of the programs I found were really slow paced. I’ve tried to modify some of my regularly gym workouts (orange theory, f45, etc) but it’s hard because honestly I don’t know what’s safe and what isn’t and I do this all at home so I don’t have anyone telling me otherwise. There are two I found that are pretty good
Emily Skye Fit fit has a pregnancy program. Mind you this one is a bit slower but you could add some variation. There are times she does squats without weights and i add weights/bands or whatever I need. Great format because it’s week by week for pregnancy and has 4 suggested workouts per week.
The other i was just introduced to is Move Your Bump I just got this one recently since they’re having a Black Friday sale and it’s been great! Not as easy to plan since it doesn’t have week by week but it separates by trimester and different types of workouts you can do. I’ve found this to get me at a good heart rate and a higher difficulty than other programs I’ve seen.
Good luck exporting options!
Emily Skye Fit fit has a pregnancy program. Mind you this one is a bit slower but you could add some variation. There are times she does squats without weights and i add weights/bands or whatever I need. Great format because it’s week by week for pregnancy and has 4 suggested workouts per week.
The other i was just introduced to is Move Your Bump I just got this one recently since they’re having a Black Friday sale and it’s been great! Not as easy to plan since it doesn’t have week by week but it separates by trimester and different types of workouts you can do. I’ve found this to get me at a good heart rate and a higher difficulty than other programs I’ve seen.
Good luck exporting options!
worthycause4christ
New member
@choirmom I quite like follow-along videos, and battled to find something that I was willing to pay for. So I actually started my own fitness channel called Belly Strong Fitness (I’m a PT) which has actually been a great way to keep me from getting lazy! I literally couldn’t do anything in the first trimester I was so sick, but I’m 25 weeks now and feel a lot stronger. The workouts are more strength/pilates based, but I did do a HIIT this weekend which left me a bit more breathless than I care to admit, but it felt really good. It’s actually really helpful to hear about what other pregnant moms want to know, so thanks for detail.
@choirmom I've really liked The Pregnant Athlete from Brianna Battles and Heather Osby, which is Crossfit-style workouts specifically designed for pregnancy. Disclaimer that I have a pretty intense home gym setup, so I got the gym version, which requires a lot of equipment, rather than the at home version, which is more minimal. The gym version includes a video for each exercise with pregnancy-specific form information and modifications, but it's not a follow along. The at home version is about a third of the cost ($97 vs $299), so I'm not sure if it also has all the videos and other extras, but I have tried some of the home plans (the gym version comes with a pdf of the home plans as well), and they felt like good, varied workouts. (Also, just checked the website, and I -think- the home one comes with videos, too. Just can't speak from personal experience!)
@lifepsyop Seconding this program! I feel like I understand proper breathing, modifications, and being safe. It's definitely not too repetitive! However the workouts are pretty quick in my opinion (sometimes 30-40? minutes) which can be great but I have been adding some extra if I have time or energy.
vicarious1
New member
@choirmom I liked it at first but agree that it got repetitive. I am/was fairly fit prior to pregnancy and this was far too easy. Not sure how the workouts take you an hour though. I fly through them in 30 minutes max and find myself wanting more. I switched to Orange Theory at home (they post daily workouts on YouTube) which is much more my speed and I started lifting moderate weights again. It’s nice to have the PDFs when I do need a very quick workout, but other than that, I definitely also threw $150 down the drain lol.
@jdnc I honestly don't know why they take me so long, I don't even feel that tired at the end. Maybe I go too slow, maybe the weights I use are too heavy, or maybe I take breaks that are too long because I'm bored. Thanks for recommending Orange Theory at home though, those look FUN and like they don't need too many modifications at this stage in my pregnancy.
@choirmom Orange Theory does provide modifications most of the time anyway (like lower impact options for any jumping exercises), but just listen to your body! Make modifications as you see fit. Sometimes they do a core block, and I just make modifications that I know are safe for me. So if they’re recommending some sort of crunches or sit ups, I’ll substitute with bird dogs, planks, etc. I just have a handful of core exercises in the back of my head for when these come up.