Interview with Vicky Warr, founder of Bump and Beyond.
Vicky Warr helps mothers to be and mothers have a fit and healthy pregnancy and motherhood. She is founder of Bump and Beyond and is a pregnancy and postnatal fitness specialist with over 19 year’s experience in the fitness industry.
Tell us about your career so far
Prior to starting in the fitness industry, I worked as a radio presenter at London radio stations including BBC Radio London and then as a senior project director for a global advertising agency.
After 10 years in this industry, I was feeling low on energy and out of shape. I decided to do something about it so I joined local exercise classes and read about how to eat more healthily. After a year of making changes to my eating habits and exercising, I felt far fitter, looked in much better shape and had heaps more energy! I then took my fitness to another level and then trained for marathons and triathlons.
With my new passion for fitness, I wanted to help others achieve the same as I had so I certified as an advanced level personal trainer and then took additional qualifications in prenatal and postnatal exercise and nutrition.
I started training women, many of whom were either pregnant, had given birth or had young children.
So with my knowledge and a ton of research I devised my method; exercises tailored to pregnancy and post pregnancy, recipes with foods that nourish the body to reclaim health and vitality and put together realistic plans that worked for sleep deprived, overwhelmed and busy mothers and mothers to be!
What 2 things do you do to build your confidence?
1) Focus on my strengths and play to them.
2) Practise, practise and practise – as I create a lot of videos, I watch my videos back to see where I can improve with my instruction or presentation. I prepare my programs and research as much as possible as this gives me more confidence. Knowing I know my material makes it feel easier for me to deliver.
What has been your biggest life lesson so far?
To learn from my mistakes; by making a note of what I’d do differently next time and then aiming to avoid making the same mistake twice!
How do you feel about getting older?
It happens, you can’t change it! It’s an opportunity to progress, learn more and have more life experiences to develop as a person!
So I am going with the flow….
What’s your purpose in life?
It’s my mission to spread my passion for the benefits of the right kind of exercise, daily movement, balancing stress and smart healthy eating so women can enrich their health. That has a knock on effect on their happiness and the health and happiness of their family.
How do you balance work and life responsibilities?
It’s always tricky! The reason I set up my business was to have more flexibility with working hours; I’m personally happy to work shorter days in the week so I have time with my school age children and then work some hours on a Saturday. I try to have Sundays off but don’t always achieve that!
I try to schedule personal admin outside of work time; I’m strict about work time and try to keep that time to work and avoid being distracted.
I always diarise my exercise; choosing mainly to do it in short bursts in the morning before everyone else is up.
What sacrifices have you made?
The sacrifice has been to my social life. I don’t see my friends so often or organise weekends away with the girls! At the moment, it is about family activities and running my business.
What are your top self-care tips?
Look after yourself with consistent short exercise that is easy to fit into your life. Do the exercise you enjoy but always make sure you look after and strengthen your core; this is your ‘powerhouse’ that moves your arms and legs and helps you carry, lift and move, pain free.
Know that food is there to nourish you. Have a bit of what you fancy but aim to make conscious healthy food choices and try to cook your meals. Choose easy to prepare, quick meals like soups, stir frys, one pot dinners that don’t require hours in the kitchen. At each stage of motherhood; you may need to adapt your exercise to balance changing hormones. Get plenty of sleep too, digital detox after 9pm!
How do you relax?
I love my foam roller and do exercises to roll out tight muscles and ease tension. I also read Red Magazine and very occasionally watch the Voice when it’s on – I love music.
What advice would you give the next generation of girls?
Know that fears are learned behaviours from things people have told you, sometimes unkindly and unjustly which undermine our confidence and self-esteem.
Babies are born without fear; they love people looking at them. It’s as we go through life that we develop fears or worry about what we look like. Never compare yourself to anyone else; you have your own strengths. If someone makes a judgement about what you look like or what you wear, think about whether that’s worth you listening too or whether it’s something they’ve said to make themselves feel better.
More about Vicky
Vicky has trained thousands of mums to be and new mums with her face to face class programs and she now has a global online health and fitness studio. Mothers can connect to her variety of live video classes from their home in real-time and get her expert instruction and interact with the other mothers all doing the class at the same time.
To compliment the exercise routines, you have access to over 150 healthy, tasty recipes the whole family will love too.
She is also the go-to writer for Gurgle Magazine and regularly works with the best women’s health physiotherapists and women’s health experts. Her method is recommended by Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital in London and Doctors.
Go to Vicky’s YouTube channel or her website.
If you like this interview, why not have a look at our 8 self-care tips for new mums or 9 of the best self-care podcasts.
