The mind-blowing power of the
Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ
In 2007, Fit For Birth began using an exercise for pregnant women which activated their core, improved function instantly, and seemed to prevent diastasis recti, stretch marks, itchy belly syndrome, and more. We initially called this exercise “belly pumping,” and we would later trademark it as “Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ.”
Today, belly pumping and the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ have been foundational concepts for the first wave of pre-and post natal fitness practitioners around the world. At the same time, the word is finally out that breathing is actually important. Yes, breathing, the thing that traditionally no one thinks about doing. The thing that was never correctly taught in fitness education, but that formed the centerpiece of our Pre & Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist (PPCES) course at a time when no one cared, is proper diaphragmatic breathing.
And this is the foundation of our Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ – a concept that has proven powerful for all people, not just pre & postnatal women. Today, the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ is defined as: “the rhythmic inhaling and exhaling that coordinates activations of the Diaphragm, Transverse Abdominis and Pelvic Floor to dynamically maintain intra-abdominal pressure so that the core may assist in stabilizing, accelerating, and decelerating any movement or exercise.” Basically, as many fitness enthusiasts say, “your core is everything,” and the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ activates your core quite well.
In 2007, Fit For Birth began using an exercise for pregnant women which activated their core, improved function instantly, and seemed to prevent diastasis recti, stretch marks, itchy belly syndrome, and more. We initially called this exercise “belly pumping,” and we would later trademark it as “Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ.”
Today, belly pumping and the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ have been foundational concepts for the first wave of pre-and post natal fitness practitioners around the world. At the same time, the word is finally out that breathing is actually important. Yes, breathing, the thing that traditionally no one thinks about doing. The thing that was never correctly taught in fitness education, but that formed the centerpiece of our Pre & Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist (PPCES) course at a time when no one cared, is proper diaphragmatic breathing.
And this is the foundation of our Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ – a concept that has proven powerful for all people, not just pre & postnatal women. Today, the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ is defined as: “the rhythmic inhaling and exhaling that coordinates activations of the Diaphragm, Transverse Abdominis and Pelvic Floor to dynamically maintain intra-abdominal pressure so that the core may assist in stabilizing, accelerating, and decelerating any movement or exercise.” Basically, as many fitness enthusiasts say, “your core is everything,” and the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ activates your core quite well.
So what is the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ exactly?
It all starts with the Diaphragm, the muscle that sits just under the bottom of the rib cage. To activate your Diaphragm, fill your lower rib cage and belly with breath as you inhale, rather than filling your chest. As you exhale, contract and “close & lift” your Pelvic Floor muscles (commonly referred to as Kegel), while “corseting” your abdominal muscles to create a smaller waist. With this exhale, you are activating both your Pelvic Floor and Transverse Abdominal muscles, which are crucial to strengthening the inner core unit.
Here are a few short case studies that demonstrate the miraculous benefits that Fit For Birth has created and witnessed using the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ. Feel free to discover whichever topic inspires you most….
- Surgeon’s Surprise to Find Super Abs
- Skin Stretching & Diastasis prevention; No More Itchy Belly
- Lifelong Asthma Improved in 30min
- Performance: From Professional Dancing to Triathlons
- Emotional Re-Connection
Surgeon’s Surprise to Find Super Abs
Nora was in her late 30s, pregnant 20 weeks with her fourth child, and had already experienced two prior C-sections. Her doctor told her that she would need to have another C-section, even though she was training with Fit For Birth, and even though another surgery was something Nora did not want. What she wanted was a VBAC, vaginal birth after cesarean. However, she also wanted to trust in her doctor.
Over the next 20 weeks, Nora had many talks with her doctor, especially because she was feeling so incredibly strong in her core. She had been using the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ, and noticed that her connection to her midsection had never felt so powerful before, even outside of pregnancy. “Maybe my core really will be strong enough for a vaginal delivery,” she asked her doctor.
Still, however, his answer was no. Regardless, Nora trained diligently two or three times each week, practicing her core breathing all the while.
As her due date neared, she was scheduled for a C-section, and she did her best to find mental alignment that C-section would be OK (finding mental alignment is also a Fit For Birth coaching intention). At least she had strengthened her core in preparation for the surgery, she thought, and she suspected that she would recover far faster from this C-section than she did the ones before. (Indeed this would turn out to be true).
On her scheduled date, Nora had arranged to video record the operation. She knew the system: Her body was numbed, she was placed into position on the table, the curtain was drawn, and the doctor began working his scalpel.
Soon after the surgery, Nora contacted me excitedly, wanting to tell me what her doctor had said, mid surgery, and what she had caught on film…. “Wow, Nora,” said the doctor (while struggling to make the incisions), “Whatever exercises you did for your core really worked. And you were right: you would have been able to deliver without C-Section.”
Skin Stretching & Diastasis prevention;
No More Itchy Belly
Then there was Natasha, the 35 week pregnant mama who volunteered to be a participant in our Pre & Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist (PPCES) course. As arranged through our midwife, her expectations were only that she would walk into a room filled with fitness professionals, and those fitness professionals would, one by one, ask her to perform various assessment exercises, and then coach her on “the single most important exercise for her unique body.”
Little did anyone know – we would not find this out until days later – that she suffered from an often incessant and uncontrollable belly itching. The midwife stated that she had tried many things to mitigate the itching, from topical creams, to lying in bed in different positions. And yet it was a mystery.
Not knowing any of this, our team of practicing students identified Natasha’s single most important exercise to be the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ, and she not only made progress with it in her 30 minutes in front of the class, but then walked away from the class happily practicing. She also understood that we wanted her to practice this as often as she could think of it throughout the rest of her pregnancy.
Days later, when I finally caught up with her midwife for our debrief, she asked me, “What did you guys do with her? Natasha’s main issue during this pregnancy has been itchy belly, for which we had no solutions. But since volunteering in front of your fitness professionals, she told me that she has had no issues with itching whatsoever. How is this possible?”
I’ve come to learn in the years since, that this kind of itching is one telltale sign of tissue stretching, and therefore collagen stretching. Unfortunately for many, this kind of stretching often turns into micro-tearing, which pulls beyond the tissue’s capacity to return to natural form. It is, in other words, the preliminary stage to what eventually becomes diastasis and stretch marks.
Lifelong Asthma Improved in 30min
Fernanda and her friend, Valentina, arrived for an unexpected single session. They were both holding asthma inhalers, and neither of them felt comfortable to leave it in the locker room. Apparently their asthma was quite severe.
This single session was intended to be a fun run-through, just a good work out for the day and then send them on their way. However, within the first two exercises, I could tell that both of these women were extraordinary chest breathers, including sucking their tummies in. At the time, I thought that asthma was more of a chemical issue, rather than a mechanical one, but I knew that they probably should be taught how to belly breathe anyway.
I asked them both to lay down on mats, where we began a standard Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ sequence, similar to the one that we use today in the end-of-course practical assessment (VC) for the PPCES. We spent about 30 minutes doing these floor exercises before standing up to move on to something else.
Upon standing up, however, Fernanda looked at me, and then looked at her friend Valentina and said, “I haven’t felt a breath like this in more than 30 years.” Valentina responded, “This feels amazing, I don’t even feel like I need my inhaler anymore.”
30 years of asthma had been powerfully improved in just 30 minutes of core breathing.
Performance: From Professional Dancing to Triathlons
Jacqueline was a full-time Broadway theatre dancer when she came through the PPCES course. During her end-of-course practical assessment (VC), she told me that learning core breathing seemed to be so opposite of how she was taught to professionally dance, which she told me was holding her stomach muscles statically tight. And yet, she said that since practicing the Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ, not only has her back pain gone away, but she is noticeably jumping higher. And because of this, she has been promoted into the front line now, which was Broadway’s reward for her having established increased performance.
Rafael was a highly regarded triathlon and Iron Man coach. He had heard about all of this Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ stuff, and wanted to experience a single session. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and I took him through a standard sequence of Core Breathing Belly PumpⓇ, starting with floor exercises, and then moving into upright exercises, including two Legged squats, and then one Legged squats, and then one legged jump squats, all while emphasizing his reaction of core breathing.
That Saturday after our session, Rafael competed in a sprint triathlon, an event that would normally take him 75 or 80 minutes to complete.
He found me later to tell me, “I was seven minutes faster than my best time ever, and it’s definitely because I used that belly breathing that you showed me.”
Emotional Re-Connection
Katy had arranged for a woman named Ana to be her client-volunteer for the end-of-course practical assessment (VC) with Fit For Birth. Head Coach, Joanie, applied the Fit For Birth protocol, as she had been trained to do. This time, however, as the session came to an end, and the coaching protocol led Ana to now stand and breathe, Ana began pouring tears.
After several dozen seconds of sobbing reflection, Ana explained, “It takes much work to hold my shit together in the wrong places.” She spoke of the sense of her body wanting to quit. She also explained that breathing had been confusing her entire life; that she was always thinking “outside in” instead of “inside out.” Ana felt more than just the gift of less body pain; on this day at least, Ana described that she finally felt freedom.
After saying goodbye to Ana and bidding her happy practice in the coming weeks, it was Katy’s turn to cry. Her tears of expression were perhaps a priceless addition to the completion of her Pre & Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist (PPCES) course, as she explained the profound impact of experiencing her client change before her eyes, both physically and emotionally.
If you’re a fitness professional who wants to earn CECs, check out our Pre and Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist Course
If you’re pregnant and want to learn more
about this, our Prenatal Wellness Course
is for you
Our Pre & Postnatal Corrective Exercise Specialist course is perfect for anyone who has a passion for women’s holistic health and wellness. Check out what some of our amazing graduates have to say about our program:
Erin Fuller
2 reviews | 3 years ago
This was the most inspiring and educational class I have ever taken in my 12 years as a personal trainer James is an amazing teacher and I look forward to my future as a Pre and Post Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist
Jackie Sabotin Wilson
39 reviews | 3 years ago
I have 7 certifications in the fitness industry and this is by far the most beneficial, enjoyable and rewarding course Ihave ever taken. I highly recommended Fit for Birth and can not speak more highly enough about the concepts I learned, the education I received, and the credibility I recognized in the team and the owners
Kate Simonetti
2 reviews | 3 years ago
Extremely detailed and a wealth of information! This is information every fitness professional should know.
Hannah Bower
3 reviews | A year ago
This program hands down is the most functional and realistic approach in helping mothers, or anyone for that matter connect to their inner core unit and FEEL good about their bodies mentally and physically. The material taught in this guide can changes thousands of people lives. Well worth it. It completely changes your approach and your knowledge of inner core unit functionality
Fit for Birth was initially created from wanting to facilitate the absolute best health for founder James Goodlatte’s first child. We are proud to be the #1 holistic pre and postnatal continuing education company.
If you want to find out if our program is right for you or if you need help choosing a course, schedule a free chat with James.
