Its been a juicy June so far.... #jurassicpt

Hello Jurassic Fam,

Shelley here, owner of Jurassic PT! www.instagram.com/smc_jurassicpt

What an amazing, but full on few weeks here at the studio. As you can see, after months of planning, preparation, design editing, Covid delays and many, many emails, we finally have the Jurassic Top first order launched! These have been given out through the week to clients to make sure everyone got the same surprise & personalised delivery before being made public!

The tops have received awesome feedback being; breathable material, comfortable fit, eye catching & personal. The community here at Jurassic were able to pick words to represent what the studio means to them. These words were then added to the tops background to literally show that the members here are the background to what we are. The nicknames also add that sense of being an individual to the gym, not just a number, which is at the heart of everything we set out to achieve.

This is the first order & a big step forward for my little studio. To see the excited reactions & everyone changing into their top as soon as it was handed to them shows just how epic they are & is an amazing moment for me as a small business owner.

June has also seen most members taking part in the "push up challenge" @pushforbetter to raise funds & awareness for mental health Australia. This is seeing us do, over 25 days, 3318 push ups! That may seem like a big number, but when it represents the amount of suicides in Australia 2019, its makes the push ups worth the fight to help bring that number down! By being brave enough to ask for help, discuss your feelings with your friends & just generally check in with your mates, family & work colleagues by simply asking "are you okay?" this small sentence could literally help save someone's life.

As a Currently practicing Midwife as well as running this gym (yes, I have no life outside of my loved jobs!) mental health is such an important subject to be talked about. I work with a lot of women whom have experienced Post Natal Depression, Post Natal anxiety & PTSD plus a range of mental health issues within the gym community itself. Having depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, self despair or some days of sadness are NOT taboo subjects. I have had many women discuss their worries of childbirth, post natal period, traumatic birth experience's & "admitting they don't understand what happened". This can cause years of stress, uncertainty, fear & unnecessary fear of having done something wrong; which is never the case! By generally providing education to these mums, I ensure they understand the reasonings & why certain things happened the way they did which can sometimes help debrief, provide clarity, awareness of certain events & identify what may be causing them further issues.

This leads me into my fight for fitness not being a competition against anyone but yourself. Exercise is proven to help you feel better, release endorphins, create a healthier body through movement, joint health, reduces the risk of chronic health conditions & generally, gets you moving. It is ok to have rest days, you don't have to flog yourself for hours in a gym, deprive yourself of foods & treats because "that's the only way I can lose weight'. Your focus should shift to health, small realistic goals, accountability by planning some exercise in your week whether it be 5 minutes of dancing in your living room, a 15 minute walk around the block, walking the dog, doing some squats before you shower for work or biting the bullet & booking into a boot camp, fitness class or personal training session. Yes, there are times you need to reset, sleep & have a day on the couch & that's ok! see insert...

Its about making choices each day & not overwhelming yourself with drastic changes you cannot maintain for longer than a few weeks. Fitness, exercise & health is a journey your entire life, not just something you do every now & then. By having an educated, understanding, yet focused trainer by your side to push you to achieve great things safely, correctly & without offering 'quick fix' solutions, well that my friends is worth its weight in gold!

My next blog I will be talking about Post- natal fitness, how this affects your training & why having an educated trainer for this part of your fitness journey is SO, SO important. Just because you have a doctors clearance on a piece of paper, this does not mean you should be jumping back into exercise you were doing prior to baby... preeclampsia, GDM, Hypertension in pregnancy, Haemorrhages, iron deficiency's, birth type etc all need to be taken into account!

So that my beautiful fitness fam is a wrap for today!

Get outside in the fresh air, crank out some push ups or dance moves to your favourite tune in the living room, smile at strangers when you walk by them; as you never know just by doing that & saying "good morning" can help make some ones mood change & day better! ALSO, check in with your family & friends ask them "Are you okay?"

Keep the good vibes & exercise coming.

- Shelley

www.facebook.com/jurassicpt.com.au