BIRTHFIT Podcast featuring Mel and Leah of the BIRTHFIT Coach Seminar Staff

Melissa Hempill: [00:00:02] Good evening Birthfit world and greetings from across the pond. We–this is Melissa Hemphill and Leah Barto and Valene Colling. Yes. No. No not correct. From Germany. We are all in bed together in Nottingham England and that’s really fun. It’s really fun. It’s been a really really long day and a very eventful day so I’m actually going to hand it off to Valene first. Tell us how you got here. And the coolest part of your day today besides eating pizza tonight.

Valene Colling: [00:00:42] The coolest part today was to arrive in Nottingham and to realize “Oh my god I’ve made with here”. Yeah and how I made it here. I started in Mecklenburg and headed over to Berlin. Then from there I fly to a small airport next to Nottingham. Yeah I originally wanted to take part in the Berlin seminar or wanted to join the Berlin seminar but now I’m hear in Nottingham.

Melissa Hempill: [00:01:20] So how did you how did you become part of the BIRTHFIT tribe?

Valene Colling: [00:01:24] OK I got it. Yeah. I work with some pregnant woman and especially I was inspired by my sister Linda my twin sister Linda and her little santirue that was born in December and yeah I looked up for some education on empowering woman during pregnancy and afterwards and I find birth or found BIRTHFIT and I couldn’t wait until both comes across the ocean so I decided to head over to these seminar in San Francisco in January. And from that I took the BIRTHFIT train and lately bought I guess 10 books to go on education and to inspire women in Germany to go on the BIRTHFIT train as well.

Melissa Hempill: [00:02:25] Thank you for sharing that. Valene was a pretty magical force in San Francisco. This was–it was her first time in the United States and now is my first time in Europe and we’re all meeting together over BIRTHFIT coach seminar which is really exciting. Alright Leah, when did your morning/day start?

Leah Barto: [00:02:45] So I my flight was supposed to be at 8:00p.m. last night and due to weather we just got delayed for about an hour or so on the plane. So that was a 10 hour trip. Landed here at 11:30 am. Flight actually went really well, watched a movie and had my normal compression sleeves so I was taken off all the space weirding everybody out. But yes since we’ve gotten here it’s been nonstop from one train station to another and then to another and then a long train ride, then a few walks, a fun taxi cab ride and trying to figure out which B and B was ours and then we finally arrived enough to sit in bed and be ready to fall asleep. Got up because we wanted pizza. Go figure. So we went and ate and now it’s like 9:30 p.m. already so full day lots of trains and cabs and walking but feels good to lay down.

Melissa Hempill: [00:03:57] I agree. We’re probably not going to leave the bed anymore. Just going to put the recording equipment down on the bedside and just let it go. Yeah today was really fun and it’s hard I forget. I am not used to running on so little sleep without small children like nursing that’s kind of the last time that happened. In fact it was so impressive that when we got off our very long train ride into Nottingham I dropped my cell phone beneath the train. It was one of those things like “Ha I don’t think I’m allowed to go down there and get it”. But we had some nice gentlemen come tell us that “No in fact you were not allowed to go down and get it”. We had another nice gentleman say “I’ll just go down and get it for you”. And he did.

Leah Barto: [00:04:43] He sacrificed his body.

Melissa Hempill: [00:04:43] He had like half his body down the train tracks. It’s crazy.

Leah Barto: [00:04:49] With the train they’re at the station.

Melissa Hempill: [00:04:50] Correct.

Leah Barto: [00:04:51] Not just an empty track.

Melissa Hempill: [00:04:52] Right. So we took a picture of him and followed him on Instagram and gave him a shout out for saving the day so. Maybe one day he’ll find the recording and then him and his fiance or girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever.

Leah Barto: [00:05:07] I will say we’ve met some like all of the men that we’ve met here have been out of their way nice. We had one guy just like let us follow him through the train stations because we were going to similar destinations and he helped us with buying tickets and telling us when to get on and off the train and then we had this guy sacrificed his body for Mel’s phone and then we had a guy offer to drive us from CrossFit Nottingham to our BnB.

Melissa Hempill: [00:05:35] Simon.

Leah Barto: [00:05:36] Simon he was so nice. So I’ve been really impressed with how friendly everybody is.

Melissa Hempill: [00:05:42] Yeah just incredibly friendly and even you know the people who aren’t actively helping are just kind people. It’s a very good place to be. Yeah I almost got into Simon’s car on his driver side because everything’s opposite here and I just can’t get over it and there’s no yellow line in the middle of the road and I don’t know how they know which direction traffic is going it’s just a lot of white lines.

Leah Barto: [00:06:06] Yeah and we don’t know when to cross the street.

Melissa Hempill: [00:06:10] We definitely jaywalked alot tonight.

Leah Barto: [00:06:11] Yeah, dangerous.

Melissa Hempill: [00:06:11] We did. Alright so we’re going to close our diary for tonight because we’re really really tired. But we’re gonna go down and say one word on how you’re feeling about this coming weekend. So we’re starting with Valene.

Valene Colling: [00:06:26] Excited.

Leah Barto: [00:06:29] Open.

Melissa Hempill: [00:06:33] Oh man, I didn’t think of one. Those are good. I’m feeling ready. I’m ready to bring BIRTHFIT international and BIRTHFIT is ready to support Valene more on the European front. We’re just we’re just so ready. Okay, that is all from coach seminar in Nottingham day one. We will touch back in throughout the weekend with our little behind the scenes glimpses. So sweet dreams. I’m pretty sure noon right now for everyone in the United States, but we’re going to go to bed so goodnight.

Melissa Hempill: [00:07:13] After day one of the BIRTHFIT coach seminar in Nottingham sorry “Nottingham”. “Nottingham” that’s how you say it not ham like us Americans Yankees, but anyway I thought I was gonna be way more tired than I was today but we were so tired last night that we got like a full eight hours of sleep and then the sun came up at 4 a.m. which was a little freaky because we thought we all slept through our alarm, but that did not happen.

Leah Barto: [00:07:43] Yeah we were wide awake at 4. Which was awesome. Had a slow start to the morning which is not always the case. And then we had like the most amazing breakfast. Traditional England breakfast I guess with eggs and bacon and beans and sausage and tomatoes and it was like dirt cheap. And yeah it was awesome way to start the day. I think it was the only breakfast spot open that early so we totally lucked out and we’ll be going there the next two days for sure. All right. I’m really curious to hear what Valene has to say after having been to the San Francisco seminar about some of the changes in just what 3, 4 seminars. Yeah, so it’s only been five months since then but yeah Valene tell us how your day 1 was.

Valene Colling: [00:08:45] Day 1 was really…it was I choose the word empowered as a finisher because I have a few more empowered practicing all the BIRTHFIT stuff as a coach. I get really much information but I get more space to think of how I can coach or how I can transfer all the knowledge I get to coaching within my gym, within my box. So I think the most important challenge is yeah maybe to have more space and more skills of coaching and not only getting all the input that is important too. But I think as a coach it’s not only the knowledge but the skill to how to coach.

Melissa Hempill: [00:09:48] Yeah just like how to communicate all that knowledge effectively for sure. Yeah so I’m in Logan’s coach’s prep online course I’m like still on week 6 because I’m sucking at managing my life right now. But he’s got the three nested principles like kind of understanding the standard, communicating the standard, and then holding it. And you know we tend to stop it. Oh I just need to know what it is that I need to coach right. But it’s so different for different people, different situations. Yeah.

Valene Colling: [00:10:26] It’s so. It’s funny you mention Logan because I was at the summit and I had one moment within the seminar today where where I recognize okay now I feel more empowered to know the standards to set the standard to communicate the BIRTHFIT standard. Because yeah I get more–it was more clear what this standard is. This was a moment in the seminar I say “Okay now I get the connection from London from the whole standard summit to BIRTHFIT” and yeah.

Leah Barto: [00:11:09] Yeah I think it’s really cool for us on the coaching staff end to hear that feedback because within BIRTHFIT as a tribe we’re talking about constantly evolving and as an organization as a whole like you have to change and change fast and adapt. And so the coach seminar staff really revamped. In February we did some staff training and got really specific. We took feedback from other seminars and just kind of came to the table with how could we make this better more effective for coaches and make sure that they’re walking away not just with information but with tools to bring back to their gyms and start applying right away. So it’s awesome to hear that feedback because those of you that have taken this seminar. Like this seminar is still a baby it’s still in its infant stages it’s a little over a year old and just since January it’s evolved and changed so much and I think we come back to the table after every single seminar and we think how can we make it better. So it’s really exciting to hear that from Valene but I’m excited for other coaches and women that have taken this seminar to circle back around and I think that they’re going to be pleasantly surprised with how much we have changed and evolved this seminar.

Melissa Hempill: [00:12:28] Totally. One of those changes just to give Leah a shout out is our prenatal training day that we do on day one. So we actually take the class through like hey no kiddings. We’ve got a mom who’s 27 weeks pregnant. This is what an actual training day would look like for her. And we have them move through that day with the same intention. And you know we tend to not even really loaded that much but it becomes–yeah it just it helps them to get into their body, but one of the things that Leah did that was just so brilliant was she starts giving like real no kidding cues and tools like hey we talked about this earlier but now here in a setting like this maybe with a class maybe with a mom who’s moving this way here’s actually how you would cue her for this and even connecting it back to polyvagel theory right like “Hey like what we’re doing by more mobilization during this time it’s helping to regulate her autonomic nervous system” and like we are–We intentionally program that in. So you Leah have connected so many dots for people and I think it’s such a beautiful culminating activity and exercise at the end of day one to to really just show how powerful this whole thing can be especially when the information is being applied.

Leah Barto: [00:13:45] Yeah thanks. I agree I think that’s one of my favorite parts of the weekend because it does connect the dots and I think some of the biggest feedback that we received was like we have all of this information but I don’t feel confident teaching it. So I love that dynamic because it gets the coaches moving like athletes in the class. But it also gives them time to step back into that coaching role and give cues and give feedback to where they finish the seminar Sunday night and if they’re coaching Monday like they definitely feel well equipped to bring some of this to the table on Monday. So I just love connecting those dots and I think because it’s the coaches seminar. What we have evolved to is truly not just educating coaches, but giving them a platform to teach other people which is really awesome to see and this particular group has been really cool. They already are like so dialed in like so Valene came also from Germany to get to know and connect with the European BIRTHFIT tribe. And it’s like they’re all already teaching prenatal postpartum fitness classes. They’re all working with PT’s. They’re all like “Oh my gosh you guys”.

Leah Barto: [00:14:57] They get it.

Melissa Hempill: [00:14:57] You totally get it. And they’re just asking like just amazing questions and it’s just been really fantastic to get to know this group.

Leah Barto: [00:15:08] Yeah I would say it’s a very intimate group I think that they got comfortable with each other really quick and they bring a lot of questions that even challenged us to the table. And it’s good you know verification that they’re not just hearing this information but they’re taking it one step further and they’re already processing what does this look like in a class situation or one on one situation and they’re already thinking and centering their minds around serving the moms that they work with, guys included. So pretty awesome.

Melissa Hempill: [00:15:42] Yeah. One of those guys have a two week six day old baby.

Leah Barto: [00:15:47] And he’s from Vietnam.

Melissa Hempill: [00:15:48] Yeah. And we have another participant from Hong Kong. She definitely flew further than we did to get here which is totally mind blowing.

Leah Barto: [00:15:58] It’s so cool to see who comes where from all places in the world. When we say BIRTHFIT is a movement like it is a global worldwide movement and one person just expands into so many. So it’s so cool to see that Europe is going to have regional directors and they’re going to be holding prenatal postpartum series and they’re going to have coaches and we’re just spreading like from what started in a small room in Venice in 2011 to Hong Kong and Vietnam and all over England. It’s super powerful to take a step back and look at that.

Melissa Hempill: [00:16:36] Agreed.

Valene Colling: [00:16:36] And I have the feeling that all of these women attending here are feeling empowered to take all of the knowledge, all the skills, all the cues and directly put them into their classes into their work with the woman they have now, postpartum and prenatal and so yeah. It’s amazing to see how this is growing and I was so waiting for coming BIRTHFIT to Europe.

Melissa Hempill: [00:17:14] Awesome. We’ve had a lot of serious talk.

Leah Barto: [00:17:18] CrossFit Nottingham is awesome. So from hospitality to coaching, their facility’s awesome. If you guys are ever in the area. Absolutely drop in Katie and Tom and their whole group has just been over and above at accommodating us so definitely a place to check out and a destination that you should put on your list.

Melissa Hempill: [00:17:42] Yeah agreed.

Valene Colling: [00:17:44] Totally agree.

Melissa Hempill: [00:17:45] Yeah amazing. All right. We’ve had some interesting random things occur over the last few days. So we’ll just go ahead and just disclose for truth and transparency hashtag BIRTHFIT.

Leah Barto: [00:18:02] Let’s talk about your plane ride here.

Melissa Hempill: [00:18:04] Oh my plane ride. OK. So one of the things of my pregnancy is that I have this varicose veins on my left leg and it goes like all the way up. And I recently got some new compression hose to support that vein and I was kind of worried about nine hour plane ride. And so anyway I had been wearing it for probably my hose I’ve been wearing them for like 8 hours that day and I woke up at 1:00 in the morning on the plane and I just–they need to come off. I was feeling claustrophobic. They were starting to like pull at my knees and my ankles. That actually feels worse than the vein itself. So Leah is referring to my stripping down the panties on the airplane. But most everyone is asleep minus the woman that got back in the train next to me while I was I was depantsed.

Leah Barto: [00:19:01] In your panties?

Melissa Hempill: [00:19:01] In My panties. Yeah so that happened.

Leah Barto: [00:19:04] Yeah that’s pretty bold. I’m actually–we were talking about how you get to this place were you just don’t care what anyone thinks so to be in a place where you’re willing to just strip down your panties on an airplane is pretty impressive.

Melissa Hempill: [00:19:18] I’ve been there a couple times through birth. You definitely get to the point you’re like I don’t care who’s here, like where my vagina is a facing. This baby’s coming out and it doesn’t matter. So that feeling does go away you don’t just kind of walk around completely naked all the time like I do but–.

Leah Barto: [00:19:36] So she’s not in the mile high club yet but she got like halfway there.

Melissa Hempill: [00:19:43] Oh that’s hilarious.

Leah Barto: [00:19:45] I earned a new nickname on the trip and I’m 20 weeks pregnant so it’s probably fitting but they call me ‘Big Leah’ now.

Melissa Hempill: [00:19:57] Okay. So what was the typo.

Leah Barto: [00:20:01] Yeah. Well it worked. It was really fun.

Melissa Hempill: [00:20:04] It was one of those typos that you know. Man it was like just so perfectly timed, so Katie and being the awesome hostess that she is, wanted to place a lunch order. And so she asked what we were like and so I said both Leah and I would like fish and chips. However both was then corrected so it said Big Leah and I would like fish and chips.

Leah Barto: [00:20:31] So I’m just I’m calling that my alter ego this trip and I’m just gonna go ham on all of the foods so Big Leah is a real thing in Nottingham.

Melissa Hempill: [00:20:41] Oh my goodness.

Leah Barto: [00:20:43] And Mel and I have a reputation when we do seminars together. I don’t make my best nutritional decisions when I’m with Mel. But not in a negative aspect. We consciously choose to indulge when we’re together.

Melissa Hempill: [00:20:58] Yeah we just celebrate.

Leah Barto: [00:20:59] And we are infamous for filling up grocery carts with macaroons and ice cream and Mogis and all sorts of things so it’s like every time we’re out we kind of look at each other and we’re like “Should we do it. Yeah we should do it”.

Melissa Hempill: [00:21:16] But we didn’t do dessert last night. I think we were all just so overly tired after we had a pizza. We minus one piece. We almost finished it. Oh that’s it. Oh we split it, but you gave me the three quarters have. That’s right. I forgot about that. We did finish the pizza.

Leah Barto: [00:21:34] But we decided we wouldn’t eat dessert last night so we could really eat dessert tonight.

Melissa Hempill: [00:21:38] And we will really eat dessert. Any closing thoughts? It’s hot in our Air BMB. We’re continuing the naked party. We slept on top of the bed. It actually reminded me of camping in Florida in the summertime. It was 90 degrees the whole everyone was completely naked except for Oliver who was wearing long sleeves the long pants inside of his sleeping bag and just sweating so profusely, thats a crazy kid.

Leah Barto: [00:22:12] Yeah I don’t think I cooled down all day today I was radiating heat all day.

Melissa Hempill: [00:22:17] You could say she was glowing.

Leah Barto: [00:22:19] Yes something like that. So I’m ready for a cold shower and [00:22:24] hashtag [0.0] . Yes cold shower and some ice cream. Let’s cool things down a little bit.

Melissa Hempill: [00:22:31] Let’s cool em down. Okay. All right that’s all for now folks we will catch you on ice cream flip side tomorrow.

Leah Barto: [00:22:43] Hey guys this is Leah we are on our lunch break of day two BIRTHFIT coach seminar at CrossFit Nottingham. And I’m here with Katie who owns and runs CrossFit Nottingham. We talked a little bit about her last night and how much or just how amazing she’s been as a host. But I wanted to get a little bit of insight from her on how BIRTHFIT’s been a part of her life and obviously bringing us here and her experience so far this weekend. So Katie who is also a mom, a new mom and an previous mom too. So she–Yeah. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about how BIRTHFIT’s been a part of your life prior to this and how you’ve used BIRTHFIT for yourself personally.

Katie: [00:23:29] Yes. So when I found out I was pregnant, I knew that I’d have to so change my training. I wasn’t quite sure how to change it to be honest at that time. So it was a little bit about having a look around at what was on websites and maybe what a few other sort of athletes had been following. So I was checking out obviously a few different Instagram accounts and things that I’m quite keen on and they’d recommended and been working and following you guys at BIRTHFIT and that led me obviously to your site so checked out everything on there and then started sort of following kind of the ideas that you’re posting on Facebook and obviously on Instagram and then starts to incorporate that into my training. So obviously going from first trimester, second trimester, and then right up to my third trimester and then I actually signed up having, well I actually had George and I signed up for the postpartum program which I’ve just found. And yeah really really good. It did a very good job of reining me in. Obviously not doing anything too quickly too soon. Yeah. And I feel sort of six months after having George. I do feel really good. Yeah so–Yes. Really good. So yeah.

Leah Barto: [00:24:39] And I know you come from somewhat of a competitive background. I know that you guys have a lot of competitors here. You’ve got very decorated walls so obviously a ton of amazing athletes. What has it been like for you to maybe take on a different pace of your training and almost lead by example in a new way? Not by how competitive can my training be but almost the slow is fast mentality. Has that rubbed off on other members? Do they ask questions? Like Is that something that they’re seeking you out for–seeking from you now?

Katie: [00:25:09] Yeah definitely so it came in two phases for me. So first of all it was a bit of the mental challenge in the first trimester. It was kind of knowing that I was obviously pregnant but kind of “Okay how does things need to change here because I can’t keep going at this rate. I certainly can’t keep lifting the weights quite as heavy as I was”. Although I did a weight training all the way through. But obviously at a much more reduced weight. Than in the second trimester became about obviously the physical side of it. So actually realizing that I couldn’t do certain movements or didn’t feel comfortable doing them and not necessarily stopped, but just a little bit more like “Hang on. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this anymore”. So then from that I’ve kind of–To me everything has a silver lining. So for me it’s been able to look at techniques I’ve been able to sort of reverse them sort of re-engineer them, also teach myself sort of new techniques and actually correct pathways. Those kind of things are actually probably should have been there before or from the other side of that is actually that there was a more competitive technique that I’d use to use whereas I’ve come back now to maybe a GPP kind of technique which is just setting me up for life really. The way that that’s kind of rubbed off on members is is a little bit when you are sort of a box owner and you’re a coach is they look at you for guidance and kind of. Well obviously we’ve discussed in day one: permission. So if it’s okay for me to go a little bit slower, if it’s okay for me to revisit techniques and skills, it’s okay for them so that way they’ve kind of followed that, followed the lead basically. And so it’s kind of, I personally think it’s had a really big benefit to the whole community. I’ve certainly shared that with the moms at the box as well so we’ve got a little Facebook page that we chat on and again they’ve kind of gone how you felt about maybe alternating like lunges because they’d heard some stories about maybe working the legs independently wasn’t quite right. And again it’s all audience preference and those kind of things but there were good discussions to have. And again what was right for me wasn’t necessarily right for them and those kind of things so yeah very helpful.

Leah Barto: [00:27:11] It’s opening up space for them to get curious and ask questions and think about how their training could be different or better. So that’s really really cool you know. Switching gears to this weekend. You know it’s really exciting I’m sure for you to be able to host and bring this to your home gym and your community. We’re really excited about making birthing more prevalent around the world especially here in Europe. What has been–so far is this seminar everything you expected it to be? Is it different? What are some of the key takeaways that you’ve had three quarters of the way to the seminar so far?

Katie: [00:27:46] Yes. I think for me when I found out obviously I was first pregnant to me is a bit like “Oh you know I only have to adapt a little bit of training and there’ll be plenty of resources out there for me to call on and sort of work out where I should be and what I should be doing”. I kind of–some of the advice I was getting maybe it was correct or maybe it wasn’t. Was it right for me. Maybe, maybe not. And certainly the first day for me has solidified a lot of things that I kind of followed and so it was right for me and maybe right for other people. Certainly that kind of advice on how we should be moving, how we should be training, and how you can continue to train all the way through obviously prenatal- post-natal.

[00:28:29] So it’s given a lot of advice and a really good resource that I think is missing potentially in the U.K. I’m going to throw that out there now probably get in trouble for that. But I think there’s a lot of women out there and they contact since I’ve been involved with BIRTHFIT I’ve had a lot of people contact me outside of my facility asking for prenatal postnatal advice. I think that day one sort of setting me up really to be able to give that advice so it’s not just about following me “What am I doing? Should I do what she does?” Now it’s about actually. This is the correct way and you know being able to pass the education on. And like I say it’s sort of in the UK where it feels like it’s really needed.

Leah Barto: [00:29:10] Absolutely, it’s needed in America too and I believe all over the world.

Katie: [00:29:13] Yeah. Yeah.

Leah Barto: [00:29:14] Yeah I find that really interesting how I think we hear this across the board from at least one person at every seminar. But what a lot of the moms and the women come to is that a lot of this information they already felt and knew in their heart and through societal pressures or things that they had heard from other care providers or family members as they questioned what they already knew. And so a lot of this information though is new information. Kind of reaffirms that like “Oh I’ve known this all along”, but it gives them the confidence now to make this part of their journey to teach other women and to just be able to bring this information forward from a place of confidence and knowing this was a part of me innately and my motherly instincts were right and kind of trusting that. So that’s always a really cool realization that I think a lot of moms and women coaches get from the seminar.

Katie: [00:30:10] Yeah it’s definitely one of the biggest things I didn’t think that me kind of obviously growing in size being pregnant and I didn’t think that I’d have any hang ups maybe of going to the gym or going to what we would cross as maybe a corporate gym. I didn’t think I’d have any hangups, I thought I’d be absolutely kind of body confident. This is me I’m pregnant. And even afterwards I was thinking “Yeah no dramas I’ll completely train in front of everyone and anyone”. And actually know I am a confident person. No dramas with any of that at all. I’ll train in front of anyone but it was actually a very interesting time where for the first time I was a little bit nervous. You know there were people looking at me like “Why she training she shouldn’t be training she’s far too pregnant at this point”. And that kind of thing. And then even afterwards when you’ve got things probably leaking from all sorts of areas and you’re a bit kind of “Have I got enough black on to cover there and if it does go wrong” and one of the biggest takeaways from me especially from from day one was I absolutely have to create that space here now and that has to happen. Because even from someone who’s truly confident in their training even affected me and I think that I need to make sure that there’s a time in a place where women can come and train and feel feel like it’s okay and it’s okay to feel a bit rubbish or it’s okay to feel super confident that day and it’s okay to still train or it’s okay to wear just a bra top and shorts if you’re too hot because you’ll probably be too hot a lot of the time. So just I might Yeah the biggest thing that will change probably from Monday is there’ll be a new timetable. So yeah I’m really excited about that. Yeah.

Leah Barto: [00:31:48] All right. Last question what has been your favorite part of the weekend? Whether that’s a specific lecture or something you didn’t expect. What’s the one thing that you’re going to walk away with and be like “That was my favorite part”?

Katie: [00:32:03] So nutrition’s massive for me and that’s something that I’m actually furthering my studies in starting in September. And again it’s completely followed macro’s I kind of been on an athlete’s diet if you like and followed that religiously and the wheels came off. So when I found out I was pregnant it was literally about six piece of toast for the first 12 weeks and I was thinking “Oh my gosh what is this about?” and again changing the mindset to nutrition to actually when you are pregnant that it’s okay to eat six piece of toast and nothing else because that’s all I could stomach at the time. And just sort of again kind of taking all of these you know “Should be drinking coffee? Am I allowed to have alcohol? Should I be taking creatine?” A massive question I got asked all the time specifically being obviously in a CrossFit facility “is it okay for me to continue taking protein?” and that that was just all the way through. I personally did it might not be for everyone but is that that’s the biggest bit for me. So that kind of nutrition piece again where whilst I would already advise on it I’ve actually lived it now and then obviously working with you guys it kind of backs up that it is okay to do that. So yeah definitely the nutrition for me.

Leah Barto: [00:33:13] Awesome thank you so much for your takeaways. We’re going to be back more with more of the seminar participants and you’ll get to hear a little bit more insight from their experiences. But speaking of nutrition, babies are hungry and we’re going to head off to lunch for now. We’ll chat with you guys soon. Thanks Katie.

Katie: [00:33:30] No thank you.

Melissa Hempill: [00:33:33] Hello BIRTHFIT world. I have Nama here. So she is from Israel by way of new york and California and now living in London. Just had a baby 10 months ago. No not 10 months ago, no he’s big! Three and a half years ago. Ethan right? He’s so handsome so so handsome. Ok so I’ve got Nama here and I’m just curious like how your experience with the BIRTHFIT seminar has been what’s been like a big take away. You’ve already shared with how you want to incorporate what we’ve learned this weekend into your prenatal postnatal classes that you teach in London so just turn it over.

Nama: [00:34:10] Hi everyone in the BIRTHFIT world. Loving the seminar, there’s way more information than I thought. You know initially you think it’s going to be some fitness and just like “Oh this is your do’s and your don’ts” and that’s it. But actually you get so much more into how to be with the moms, how to give them the space how to teach them and push them to give themselves space and to question their lives in general which will make them better humans in general and then also moms. It’s amazing yeah.

Melissa Hempill: [00:34:47] We’re Impacting the next generation right.

Nama: [00:34:49] Absolutely. Which hopefully they’ll be teaching their kids and that’s going to have an influence on them so we’re yeah we’re doing such a great–so much great information that I was not expecting. Other than like you know back squats.

Melissa Hempill: [00:35:05] Right exactly. And that’s important too right like that to get them in the door but it’s a whole bigger conversation around motherhood transition support looks like and can be like.

Nama: [00:35:16] Absolutely. I think I think that’s really key to remember that we’re not just you know teaching them fitness, we were teaching them a better life experience of how to live their own lives. And we have like such a small opportunity because they’re coming into the door so like how am I going to give them one hour of the best information I can. And you then incorporate everything in their lives. And also like they’re giving us an hour of a very very busy time in their life. So I want them to feel like you’ve gotten a lot from that. So I’ve learned so much.

Nama: [00:35:50] Awesome. I’m so excited for your community and the moms that you’re going to be supporting and for you and your wife personally. Yes. You’re motherhood transition. OK. We’re going to head back in and pick up the seminar. Thank you Nama.

Nama: [00:36:02] You’re welcome funtime.

Leah Barto: [00:36:05] OK guys this is Leah again. And I’m here with one of our token males. Will from the weekend. We just wrapped up the BIRTHFIT coach seminar and I wanted you to get some perspective from one of our male coaches so Will we talked about last night a little bit has a 3 week old baby, three weeks today. He is from London originally and currently lives with his wife in Vietnam and is a CrossFit affiliate owner there as well. So first thing I want to know is what is life like currently in Vietnam with a 3 week old.

Will: [00:36:40] Well we haven’t taken it back to Vietnam yet, but it’s been an amazing few weeks coming out of hospital. Being a family of three not just of two. And I miss him a lot already seeing the other the other moms on this course breastfeeding and with their kids walking and it’s been a great weekend but I’m quite excited to go back and see what chaos he’s caused my wife the last couple of couple of days.

Leah Barto: [00:37:06] Yeah, it was really interesting. One of the first questions we asked when he said he had a three week old at home was ‘How the heck did your wife let you leave’? And he mentioned that she was just also so excited for this information that she’s actually the one that encouraged him to come. So that was pretty awesome. We have encouraging mom and we have Dad ready to bring home a ton of information. So let’s rewind just a little bit. Were you familiar with BIRTHFIT or any birth education as your wife was prepping for birth And if so or if not how did that help you guys or maybe affect your preparation for birth?

Will: [00:37:44] Yeah, great question. No we haven’t heard of BIRTHFIT at all and we crossed fitted together in London before we moved abroad. That’s kind of what inspired us to open this space. She crossfitted with throughout pregnancy with a decreasing intensity and our business partner she’s very knowledgeable about movement and women’s bodies. And helped us throughout pregnancy adjust training. You know you have issues like coning and current nocturnal movements for her and brought in other accessory work for her to do and we kind of educated ourselves through some blogs and stuff like that. We’d always thought a nice business opportunity for us in our neighborhood in the community you have in Vietnam as well as a direct benefit to us. With my wife once we get back there would be classes pre and post natal we have tons of other moms. We have over 50 percent female members. It’s about 60 percent and many of them are moms and were very post-natal and are now permanently post-natal. And I got back I got in touch with some of the kind of female coaches and people in London that I knew from here that I admire and really respect and hold up to be leaders in the community. And two of them put me in touch with BIRTHFIT and they’re both here so they kind of said “Hey there’s this is course” and I was like “Oh it’s a bit close to when our baby is going to be born”. So yeah we made a late call, but yeah send your way by some other inspiring women in the CrossFit community in London.

Leah Barto: [00:39:22] Yeah that’s awesome. And in our seminar we talk about our queens and kings in training and the transition we go through in this walk of life and the mother had transition and just hearing Will talk about this. He’s a king in his community and he’s bringing back empowering information. He came out of his comfort zone. He is one of the two guys here this weekend and he came selflessly to give back to his family and his wife, but to offer this to his community. So we are so grateful for King’s like you in our tribe for sure. What is your biggest takeaway from the weekend or what are you most excited to bring back to both your wife and your community?

Will: [00:40:04] I’m really keen to educate my business partner and our staff. Firstly I think she would love to have been here here I’m sure. Or you know take you off on the offer of an Asian one perhaps sometime. But I think you know people that have worked with athletes a long time especially those with a really keen to support women in sport something I’m very passionate about. Most female fitness professionals are keen about that knowing that the vast majority of women are going to want to have children or have children at some point in their lives are really keen to get good education on this subject matter so I’m really keen you know I don’t work as a full time coach myself I’m keen to educate others. Pass it on, understand how we can adapt what we do within our CrossFit programming, and how we can develop bespoke opportunities for the really sensitive prenatal and postnatal period of mothers lives. Yeah and I hope I see this. I’m a London native but I saw in CrossFit communities in London. The power of team based activities like CrossFit and other sports to bring people together and give them communities in cities that migrants to. People come to London for work and certainly where we are in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City. CrossFit touting for visiting. Many people are there with very few friends in a small community when they first arrive. It might just be your work mates and you don’t know many people and I think you’ll be really interested to see in the future what community of we can build based on this offering and to empower them to get back into activity and sports. Perhaps they were scared of doing or didn’t realize they could do through pregnancy whether they hit a great fitness heights in the future or not if they can make some small steps, healthier births, better recoveries or just meet some new people and have a stronger stronger foothold in a foreign city. It’s also you know you’re talking really just about expats but you know we do have Vietnamese members too and I think your assessment of us as a country of 100 million people with a quote I would say uneducated fitness community. So it’s going to be exciting to be really at the forefront of what this country thinks women are capable of.

Leah Barto: [00:42:38] Which is a lot. So on that note I think that is an awesome way to end like I said guys Will is awesome and if you’re ever in Vietnam go visit him. “CrossFit Touting” definitely go connect with him and pick his brain and maybe talk to him about the best parts of his BIRTHFIT coach seminar weekend.

Leah Barto: [00:43:00] All right I’m with Sue. She was another one of our participants this week and at the seminar, she is also a member of Crossett Nottingham, The lovely gym that hosted us so just a few questions for her. Sue, are you currently a mom?

Sue: [00:43:16] I am indeed. Yeah I have a two and a half year old boy and I’ve got another one on the way.

Leah Barto: [00:43:21] Another one on the way. We’ve had a handful of pregnant moms in the seminar. It’s been awesome. So what was your biggest takeaway from this weekend? I think the most important thing that I’ve learned this time that I really would have valued in my journey last time is there’s a few of the mantras that have come out slow as fast and holding space that I just view as so important. For me when I went to my postpartum recovery last time it was all about being able to do what I could do as quick as possible as soon as possible. Exactly the same way as I was doing it for. I never allowed myself as the space and time to heal. And I think what BIRTHFIT brings to the equation that I don’t think anyone else is doing is recognising the space and the time that women need to heal and to adjust and really making space for that and that’s amazing.

Leah Barto: [00:44:09] Do you think your second pregnancy birth postpartum will look and feel a lot different after what you’ve learned this week and are the things that you’re going to take into your journey now moving forward?

Sue: [00:44:22] Yep 100 percent. Again One of them mantras that came up repeatedly this weekend is ‘just because you can, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should or that that’s the best place for you to be right now’. So whereas in my last pregnancy I was so proud of myself that at 36 weeks I was still performing kipping pull ups and all of these things which are actually terrible at that stage. This time round I’m just going to be making sure that what I am what I’m looking at is the long goal and how I used this pregnancy to reset some of the mistakes that I made in my last pregnancy. Also build the foundations to just be a stronger better version of myself able to heal and recover.

Leah Barto: [00:45:01] Awesome. And when we talked to Katie earlier we just talked about how she is now just another–I should say not another leader, but she was already a leader in this community and now she’s able to put on a new hat and lead by example in another way. So people are used to seeing her probably in a more competitive mindset and then they’re now seeing her slow down and be intentional with her training and her recovery. You’re also in that boat right. You’re part of this community and so you’re going to have other women looking to you as a source of inspiration. Do you already see a shift or a change in the culture here among women who have already seen you and Katie go through this process or do you foresee it opening up space for them to come to you guys and allow themselves to slow down a little bit?

Sue: [00:45:47] I definitely view–I have a real belief that you advocate by living a certain way and I feel that I can advocate a different way of doing things and actually it kind of disappoints me the message that I put out in my last pregnancy which was keep going, keep going, keep going, this is fine. Now I know that I would do that very differently and I would talk to people very differently and allow people to come to hopefully to feel that they could come to me and talk about it and that you could be honest and say “You know sometimes it’s really difficult and sometimes you don’t feel like yourself anymore” and that’s okay. And Katie it’s just been such an amazing example through her pregnancy and I think she’s really she’s really allowed that kind of vision to come into the box which is just brilliant. So hopefully we can build on that going forwards. Last question biggest highlight of your weekend?

Sue: [00:46:39] Oh that’s so–that’s a really tricky one. Actually as a non-coach having a bit of coaching experience because I’m not a coach but actually just realizing how much goes into being a good coach by just having a really short period of doing that it makes me have so much more respect for what the coaches do, of how much knowledge they have, and how much thought they put into things. So yeah.

Leah Barto: [00:47:07] Awesome well thank you so much and we’re again so excited to be here and so grateful that we’re here for our first international seminar. You guys have been awesome. It’s been absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much.

Leah Barto: [00:47:20] Okay. We’re back here with Katie, owner of CrossFit Nottingham and I just realized there was one important question that I had that didn’t get asked. So we came to the gym Friday night to kind of set up and Mel met Katie’s husband and Saturday morning she talked about how she met Katie’s husband and the first thing she thought was how attractive he was. What was your thought when Mel said that.

Katie: [00:47:47] It’s very entertaining but to be honest I get it a lot. Honestly I get it he’s very attractive and sometimes women just don’t even speak. It’s a really embarrassing situation for everyone. But yeah I know it was totally cool. It was cool.

Leah Barto: [00:48:08] So yet another reason to come to CrossFit Nottingham, the owner’s husband is pretty good looking.

Melissa Hempill: [00:48:14] Do you know his nickname?

Katie: [00:48:14] So his nickname is ‘CrossFit Hottingham’.

Leah Barto: [00:48:24] So you’re gonna make an instagram handle for him ‘CrossFit Hottingham’ so we can all follow right? To our listeners. Stay tuned and look up ‘CrossFit Hottingham’ it might be a thing soon.

Melissa Hempill: [00:48:38] All right. It is Sunday evening and we have just wrapped our first international BIRTHFIT coach seminar and it did not disappoint. It was a really full weekend and truly amazing. Literally everyone that we’ve met in London and Nottingham have been just like the nicest people of all time. This German over here is pretty cool too. Well yeah. We’ll include her. So man I’ll just say I’m still pretty jazzed kind of on cloud nine. We just ate American food by the Europeans it’s so much better than in America. It was like a real strawberry milkshake. Yeah. burgers and fries. It was delicious. Everything was fantastic. But back to a seminar. Yeah just a wonderful group. Just really excited for their communities and their hearts and leaderships because it’s going to be just freaking amazing. So OK. Valene has now completed two BIRTHFIT coach seminars: one in San Francisco again which is only five months ago. It seems like.

Valene Colling: [00:50:05] Six months ago.

Melissa Hempill: [00:50:05] Yeah it seems like probably a year or two between these seminars but it’s not the case. All right. Give it to us all the feedback. What do you think between what it’s been in San Francisco which is actually pre our coach seminar development weekend, our staff weekend. So we did make actually quite a few updates so curious where your thoughts are.

Valene Colling: [00:50:29] Yeah I feel and realized there were changes in the seminar and I think to take both of them was the best that could happen because in January I think it was best to have the seminars very new to you to all these pregnancy postpartum stuff and to get all that knowledge. It was. I feel it was more work for my head and now it was more focused on the coaching the location of all the knowledge to the people how to apply all that in an appropriate way to all the people. To meet them where they are. It’s the method I got from the seminar so this method that so often was present. So meet the people where they are so maybe yeah that message. So it’s really important for me it was really important to have those experiences. And I really love today the, as I said the programming. Because this is the part I’m usually struggling with. So it gives me lots of more insight and thinking of how to program the best way for a very diverse group of women that all have an individual journey and yeah very valuable.

Melissa Hempill: [00:52:25] Awesome. So in one word how are you feeling after the second seminar?

Valene Colling: [00:52:37] One word? Oh I have so many words, but I think empowered to move forward. I know it’s not one word but ’empowered’.

Melissa Hempill: [00:52:48] That’s awesome. Is There a German word for empowered?

Valene Colling: [00:52:51] “Is there a German word”? I’m not sure if there’s any of that express that way maybe I have to think about it.

Melissa Hempill: [00:53:06] OK I thought it was going to be a quick “Oh yeah. This is the translation in German”. Leah, how are you feeling after today?

Leah Barto: [00:53:14] I’m feeling good and it always feels good to end a successful weekend. You come into it and it just it feels like the mountain you have to climb. And we always want to deliver the best BIRTHFIT experience possible and this one maybe felt like a little more pressure because it’s the first time we’re bringing it over here and we just really wanted to deliver on that front. So you finished the weekend and you have that sense of you’re happy you’re grateful and you’re exhausted. We always talk about the birth hangover and we talk to the girls about that today but you kind of always leave even when you know the information and you teach it just breaking it back down and going through it always just it it overwhelms you. So it takes a few days to decompress. But overall like you said the group and the energy was amazing and I’m so excited for what they’re going to bring to the table. I love getting feedback and having someone like Valene who’s taken the course and who’s able to experience some of the changes that we made. It’s–I think we can be super critical of ourselves. We always come back to the drawing board and focus on the things that could be better. And so it’s always reassuring to hear when things did go really well. But other than that we’re pretty I would say we’re pretty much on a high and we’re ready to explore a little bit tomorrow but we’re definitely going to miss this group a little bit.

Melissa Hempill: [00:54:49] Definitely. So our plans for tonight besides sleeping in our very warm Air BnB is we’re going to actually had to CrossFit Nottingham for their 6:30 a.m. class.

Valene Colling: [00:55:02] This is so crazy.

Melissa Hempill: [00:55:02] It’s gonna be so fun. We’re really looking forward to moving our bodies. Between the nine hour flight and the weekend of teaching and we’ve definitely done tons of walking which has been really good.

Leah Barto: [00:55:15] Yeah.

Melissa Hempill: [00:55:16] But like to move weight always feels even better that’s the head athletes in us isn’t it?

Leah Barto: [00:55:26] Yeah.

Melissa Hempill: [00:55:26] Yeah and Valene’s gotta wake up early. Earlier than us.

Valene Colling: [00:55:32] 3:30 I am a little sad I cannot join you at the class. I think my last time working out at 6:30 was one year ago. So.

Melissa Hempill: [00:55:47] Because you’re an evening worker, right? That’s when you normally–.

Valene Colling: [00:55:49] I work in the evening and usually then I use the morning to do stuff on my own and not to to work out at the gym so we cancelled the 6:30 classes because usually they are only one or two that we are attending. So yeah I’m a little sad that I cannot join you. I have to take the bus to the airport.

Melissa Hempill: [00:56:19] Yeah. They call it the Dawnbox right that’s what they say like as in more like dawn the morning. That’s a cute name for it.

Leah Barto: [00:56:29] Mel, as the BIRTHFIT coach seminar director, How do you feel at the end of the weekend?

Melissa Hempill: [00:56:37] Oh I feel. I feel I still feel really jazzed like you said just high and grateful in all of that. There were definitely moments last weekend where they’re were just black holes in like what I felt like I was supposed to be doing. I mean I don’t know if it’s pregnancy we can blame it on that.

Leah Barto: [00:56:59] Time change.

Melissa Hempill: [00:57:00] Time change we can blame it on that.

Leah Barto: [00:57:01] We’re technically teaching when it would be like middle of the night for us. Yeah so that was interesting. You feel it a little bit.

Melissa Hempill: [00:57:12] I didn’t feel it nearly as much as I thought I was going to. I feel like as the days go by my body is like “Okay wait what’s actually happening right now”. But just really pleasantly surprised how surprising awake I felt during this weekend. And the other closing thoughts. We’ve had some pretty quotable moments. Anyone have a good takeaway like either funny story or quote.

Leah Barto: [00:57:47] Well we’re really good at getting lost.

Melissa Hempill: [00:57:49] And we get slightly better every time.

Leah Barto: [00:57:53] We get home pretty well but getting to where we want to go is pretty difficult.

Melissa Hempill: [00:58:00] Without Wi-Fi.

Leah Barto: [00:58:03] Without Wi-Fi.

Melissa Hempill: [00:58:03] Yeah. our. Yeah. It’s like our man not biometric good grief what is the word for like a limb that’s like not yours but it’s been enhanced. That’s like what the phone is, it is like a part of our body that enables us to do more. That’s not actually made up of human tissue. I don’t know what the word is. I’m gonna think of it one day and then listen to this podcast like “Come on you should’ve have known that was the word”. But that’s how it is then we forget until the Internet’s–the magical internets are gone. Like “Holy cow I don’t actually know how to use a regular map”. In fact the map is not the territory.

Leah Barto: [00:58:54] We’ve learned that firsthand the past couple nights. I think we got it down but nope.

Melissa Hempill: [00:59:02] That was the new one.

Valene Colling: [00:59:04] Yeah that was the one that I really like that because of. Yeah it really gets on my mind though. Yeah. Everyone has another. I don’t know the english word. It’s too late.

Melissa Hempill: [00:59:21] Perception or lens?

Valene Colling: [00:59:22] Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah. Like yeah exactly. So yeah. So you have to be aware of that. That although I think my map is the map, no everyone’s map is a map.

Melissa Hempill: [00:59:36] And it’s cool because it’s a very simple and sort of silly way of illustrating it but until you see it right and you’re like “Wow that’s what you focused on?”, It’s like “Yeah because that’s where I come from”. Those are the experiences I bring to the table.

Valene Colling: [00:59:51] And not only what they focus on but how they draw and what size and the whole map is another thing individually from woman to woman. So maybe you should take photographs of maps and make a big…collage?

Melissa Hempill: [01:00:10] Make a scrapbook of all of the maps.

Leah Barto: [01:00:14] If you guys have no idea what we’re talking about. You need to take coach seminar because this is an exercise that we do but we’re going to leave that question mark there so that you can sign up and figure out what what your map is and why you are bringing to the table.

Melissa Hempill: [01:00:31] Yes. You just made it very literal. Yeah. All weekend long.

Leah Barto: [01:00:38] Yeah we lived it.

Melissa Hempill: [01:00:39] We did live it. I’ve seen just beautiful buildings and streets and.

Leah Barto: [01:00:46] Robin Hoods?

Melissa Hempill: [01:00:47] Robin Hoods. So there’s all these statue Robins with hoods because this is like the forests where Robin Hood was told to have thieved from the rich and given to the poor. And we tried taking– well we didn’t try we successfully took a picture last night in front of a very cute Robin and I had a really funky shadow that made my body look quite strange and normally I don’t really have any reservations about my body. But this picture just really the lighting took it to the next level.

Leah Barto: [01:01:23] So now we’re going to post it.

Melissa Hempill: [01:01:24] So now we’re never gonna post it.

Leah Barto: [01:01:32] OK I think we’re ready to pass out.

Melissa Hempill: [01:01:34] Ready for bed. Yeah. Let’s do this. OK. Goodnight BIRTHFIT tribe from over the pond and we will let you know how our workout was tomorrow and oh yeah, we could talk about the tour. So to our amazing participants they coach in London. We have Nama and and Will, actually you heard them on the podcast if this goes in order in our recording. Both of them are just super human beings and on their drive back to London or bus or train or whatever the mode of transportation is they literally wrote us a walking tour like ‘take the tube on this line to this place then go down this street and you’re going to find this place and’–.

Leah Barto: [01:02:20] We didn’t even need a map.

Melissa Hempill: [01:02:22] We don’t need a map hopefully. Hey 1 percent better everyday.

Leah Barto: [01:02:31] Yes.

Melissa Hempill: [01:02:31] Right? So we’ll only be 97 percent lost by tomorrow. And yeah no. Super excited to check out London and do more normatech sleeves on the train.

Leah Barto: [01:02:46] Yes and maternity overalls are amazing. Yeah. By the way you guys Leah is just friggin adorable. These maternity overalls have like an elastic side panel.

Leah Barto: [01:02:59] Room for growth.

Melissa Hempill: [01:03:01] Room for urine gains.

Leah Barto: [01:03:05] I recommend them if you’re pregnant you should get on some maternity overall. You may live in them.

Melissa Hempill: [01:03:10] Especially if you’re Texan. I think all you need is a bandana and some cowgirl boots. And then you just two-step yourself. Your beautiful pregnant self around.

Leah Barto: [01:03:20] My Asian cowboy husband.

Melissa Hempill: [01:03:23] Aww Asian cowboy, samurai, gymnast at 6 foot 5. We’re watching his Instagram videos. We’re talking about Aja Barto right now @CrossfitBehemoth. No @BehemothCF.

Leah Barto: [01:03:41] He does some cool tricks. He’s– we call him the world’s tallest gymnast. yeah he does some really cool stuff. I would say he is BIRTHFIT. He trains in all planes of motion. He does unconventional training different metabolic pathways all the stuff that we preach, but kind of in his own unique fashion so he’s pretty fun and he’s pretty good looking.

Melissa Hempill: [01:04:04] Which is nearly always shoeless, correct?

Leah Barto: [01:04:07] Might look homeless half the time, but we still love him.

Melissa Hempill: [01:04:13] Yeah he was just doing some crazyness and his core stability is out of this world. It’s really unbelievable.

Leah Barto: [01:04:21] We all are a little bit hard on ourselves and our own cordis functions because we all have them. And then I have this husband who does all the things that I shouldn’t be doing because of my dysfunctions and he doesn’t have any and I’m sure there’s something in there. But yeah it’s easy for me to get kind of jealous because he does all the things and doesn’t have any glaring dysfunctions to show for it so a lot to be learned from him.

Melissa Hempill: [01:04:49] Yeah. My poor husband has all the dysfunctions too. We go to seminars they have him turn around and demo what hypertrophic spinal erectors look like. Like “See this? This is because they’re on all the time”. He’s like “That’s correct”.

Leah Barto: [01:05:06] This is how you don’t want to look.

Melissa Hempill: [01:05:08] I mean he’s beautiful, but also a little dysfunctional. Yeah.

Leah Barto: [01:05:13] Such is life.

Melissa Hempill: [01:05:14] So true so true. Okay that’s enough rambling us preggos and Valene who’s not pregnant. So I don’t want you to put that out to the universe. Not yet at least yet. Wink wink. Okay goodnight fam we love you.

Melissa Hempill: [01:05:39] Hello BIRTHFIT tribe. It is almost to midnight on our final night in London. In England really, but today was quite an adventurous day. Yeah true story. Well let you know what we did. So we woke up at 6 o’clock and dropped in at Dan’s 6:30 a.m. class. I don’t know what it is like about these European men but–

Leah Barto: [01:06:06] What’s in the water.

Melissa Hempill: [01:06:07] Yeah they’re so hunky. All of them are just super attractive men. Yes

I would say they have a very good strategy for bringing on women athletes because any woman who walks in that gym gets to be coached by those guys is going to be like “Sign me up now” we got a special treat today. So we had shoulder to overhead programmed in the WAD and toes to bar which we substituted lateral step ups for which was awesome. Lots of hipflextion like you get in toe to bar without the diastasis that both Leah and I are starting to have during pregnancy. But back to Dan and his dip. He is the king of demo he’ll actually gave you like five or six demo reps whenever he’s explaining a movement. And so he demoed the dip with a little bit of an interior public tilt which basically looks like he was twerking and all the girls in class were totally giggling and it was just really really cute. So we had a pretty intense workout and by intense I mean we took a lot of rest but it was still a long workout with a lot of volume. We got a full English breakfast afterwards and went back showered, powernapped a bit and made our way to London and that’s where the crazy started and finished. Leah you were ready to call it off. Our touring of London. Yeah. So you want to give us a rundown of–.

Leah Barto: [01:07:45] Sure. So it takes about two hours on train to get from Nottingham to London. Once we we’re in London we needed to get to Heathrow because we’re staying near the airport for a flight in the morning. And we did not want to walk around like central London with our giant bags and yeah it’s just highly annoying luggage. So we ended up coming here which ended up being a little over an hour away from the center of London to drop off our bags and though we said we were going to be here at 2 for AirBnB. Our host was here closer to 4, So we sat in the hallway for a while. No one has A/C here and we’re like radiating heat and pregnant. So we go in and out of nasea and just not feeling great a lot. So that sets the mood. But anyways we decided we’d go back into London because we decided if we’re this close, we can’t not go. Or at least Mel decided that. I was ready to call it a night early. So anyways we finally get directions. So we don’t have Wi-Fi on our phones and we don’t have like the international plan. So when we leave Wi-Fi we have to know where we’re going which we don’t most of the time. So after getting turned around we finally went to a local bus stop where we could get on a bus to start our trek and we get on the bus and realised that we didn’t have the bus passes. So we went to like 3 local shops that sent us to the next shop and the next shop to buy one.

Melissa Hempill: [01:09:29] They were all just right around the corner.

Leah Barto: [01:09:31] Right around the corner. And then the next one is right around the corner and then we finally found it. And so we’re checking out and Mel grabbed a bottle of water and she started drinking like half of it. And the guy even though his machine clearly says he takes Visas, says he won’t take an American card. So this is like the fifth thing that’s gone wrong in probably over an hour into our already late adventure. So I was like “Yeah we’re not going”. We’ve had plenty of signs to tell us no. And Mel’s still determined to go so I go. Let’s go. We find cash we buy a bus card. We get on the bus. Bus goes to the airport, airport connects to the train, train is like another 90 minute link to London.

Melissa Hempill: [01:10:17] During commuting hour.

Leah Barto: [01:10:20] Rush hour basically yeah by 5:00p.m. on a Monday. So anyways we decided to hop off at Westminster because all of the cool things are there. We have a handful of hours and we want to see the most and we get out. And it’s just so crowded that you don’t even know which way to go. So we ended up seeing Big Ben which was covered because of construction. The Abbey, which was beautiful and like so intricately designed and just amazing to see in person. And then we got lost a little bit found our way headed back towards the National Gallery and we decided we were really close to Buckingham Palace so we have to go to Buckingham Palace but then realized we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So we had to stop and eat and use the bathroom and that was awesome it revamped us a little bit. From there we finally got some extra directions to Buckingham Palace and at this point Mel had three blisters on her feet and didn’t want to walk anymore, but we had about a mile to go to get there. So she sucked it up and we got there and it just so happens that we caught the changing of the guards. So that was probably the highlight of the night. It was really really cool to see. And you always hear about it but we thought we missed the earlier one so we’re kinda down about it. And then they started doing it which is really really cool. And then from there we found our way back to a station train back in now at 11:00 we are actually experts at getting around the city and I think we had two or three more days we would destroy it. But unfortunately we leave in the morning. So that was our day.

Melissa Hempill: [01:12:06] I was talking to my husband earlier and it just it felt like like a lot of growth mindset practice today and taking a lot of feedback and saying “Okay well that’s not how we do it or try a different lane that’s not how you do it aso we try a different way”.

Leah Barto: [01:12:22] We failed alot.

Melissa Hempill: [01:12:23] We failed so much today. Yeah.

Leah Barto: [01:12:26] And then you add hot, have to pee, miserable pregnant like just in that mood of like I’d rather get off my feet and my bladder right now. And but you have that much further to go. We had our moments.

Melissa Hempill: [01:12:42] We did. As we got off our final bus stop by like 10:50 p.m. tonight. We were like “Hey have you ever run a half marathon”. I was like “I’m not crazy. So no.” Just kidding. She was like “This is like this is the homestretch we’re almost here”. And we had it definitely felt like that like I’m in pain I’m tired, but the finish line is just around the corner just like the corner store was just around the corner. Three different times three corners. Yeah, what a day. Yeah. It’s cool. It’s just like there’s just an incredible amount of history here. Like what is old in the U.S. you know was built in the 1800s like “Oh it’s so old”. And you come here Buckingham Palace was 19 AD. Like that’s actually 2000 years old. This is mind blowing really.

Leah Barto: [01:13:34] Yeah we’ve both just agreed that everything looked like a toy. Like a little model that you would make on a at home kit. But to see it in real life is pretty amazing so it’s worth seeing. But if you come to London I recommend taking a week it’s going to take you a day to figure out. But you just need some time. It’s there’s so much to see.

Melissa Hempill: [01:13:56] Yeah. And apparently one of our participants told us about it’s like a brand new app and service where you hire a local to like walk around London with you. That also would have been really helpful I think for the locals it’s like “Oh yeah just here to here to here” and it’s like an hour’s walk which for us gets you know we’re a hundred percent loss and one hour walk turns into a five hour walk and all that.

Leah Barto: [01:14:26] It’s a good thing we functionally train I suitcase carry my suitcase a lot today. Did some front loaded carries Mel was doing some hugs with her suitcase in the front. So we definitely applied our fitness after our 21 minute work out this morning. And yeah I’m a little bit swollen and definitely we’re in our NormaTech compression sleeves and we’re just we’re getting ready for that ten hour ride home.

Melissa Hempill: [01:14:57] It’s crazy to think about landing at like 3:00 in the afternoon which this time is like midnight. Yeah I think they’re still like half a day left back at home. It’s crazy.

Leah Barto: [01:15:13] Yeah I’m excited to wrap this up I think it’s crazy that it’s gone by already. Such a big event to get through. So it’s exciting that everything was so successful. But it’s always exciting to go back stateside and to be home and to see our own communities and families and babies and puppies and all the things that we look forward to.

Melissa Hempill: [01:15:33] And brand new hardwood floors. While Leah as been out Aja has been an [unnteligible] of his help like redid all their floors. So she gets to go back home to a brand new home and potentially change her birth center birth into a home birth.

Leah Barto: [01:15:51] Shaping up to make me want to be at home more. So this is my one request and I requested that he do it while I was away and he managed to pull it off. So pat on the back for husband of the year.

Melissa Hempill: [01:16:04] Yeah. And kudo’s or a shout out to him during his school age days. So we had a lot of time to travel. I got to see some really awesome pictures of Aja as a youngin and he’s just as handsome and endearing as he is in present day life.

Leah Barto: [01:16:25] Something like that. Asian cowboy, denim shirts and bolos.

Melissa Hempill: [01:16:30] He rocked about bolos so hard.

Leah Barto: [01:16:33] Yeah that’s how he stole my heart.

Melissa Hempill: [01:16:34] Oh. All right you guys were going to close it down tonight. So we had so much fun sharing a little bit of the behind the scenes for our very first international debut at CrossFit Nottingham. So we’re gonna miss the people and the food.

Leah Barto: [01:16:54] The good looking men.

Melissa Hempill: [01:16:56] I mean not that we don’t have good looking men in our lives.

Leah Barto: [01:16:58] Excellent like amazing looking men.

Melissa Hempill: [01:17:00] We do.

Leah Barto: [01:17:01] But it was nice while we were away. It’s kind of comforting.

Melissa Hempill: [01:17:03] Yeah. It was like a taste of home, right. They all have just a really thick hair.

Leah Barto: [01:17:09] Yeah and maybe it’s the accent a little bit too, a little bit of scruff.

Melissa Hempill: [01:17:12] Like that helps alot, yeah. Anyway have a wonderful evening or day or whatever time you happen to be listening to this very random podcast. Goodnight.