Coaching for Life – Yours and Your Child’s

by Victoria Diaz, SSC | October 07, 2025

Coaching isn’t only for sport or aesthetics. It’s for all times.

I started barbell
coaching in the summertime of 2016, round my twenty second birthday. I weighed
149 kilos, and my beginning numbers have been: squat 105x5x3, press
35x5x3, bench 75x5x3, deadlift 135×5. Over the subsequent seven years, I
introduced my body weight as much as 174 kilos, and my private bests
reached: squat 260×1, press 119×1, bench 155×1, deadlift 326×1.

Coaching noticed me by way of
quite a bit – sickness, two years of full-time college and work, my wedding ceremony
in 2019, the 12 months 2020, two strikes throughout the nation, and even rehab
after a automotive accident. However I had by no means educated by way of a being pregnant.
Not but.

By means of all these
seasons, barbell coaching taught me resilience. The flexibility to go
by way of laborious issues and are available out stronger – bodily and
mentally. I’ve squatted with 245 kilos on my again and felt the bar
freeze mid-rep for what felt like minutes. I’ve pulled on deadlifts
that didn’t transfer…till they did. I’ve pressed weights that
felt like they’d fold me in half, solely to face up with them.
Each rep accomplished and each bar racked bolstered what I used to be
able to.

Within the spring of 2023,
my husband and I came upon we have been anticipating our first baby that
December. On the time, I used to be 29 years outdated, standing 5’6”,
weighing 160 kilos, and squatting 225x3x2. (I used to be additionally urgent and
deadlifting usually, although I don’t recall the precise numbers.) I
had coached many ladies by way of being pregnant and postpartum by then, however
now it was my flip.

There isn’t a lot
analysis on the market on energy coaching by way of being pregnant, however what
we do know is that this: the stronger you’re, the higher you’ll deal with
the duty in entrance of you. And being pregnant isn’t any exception. I used to be
excited to reside what I’d been preaching for years.

I had no thought simply how
crucial it might be.

That’s life, isn’t
it? You usually don’t see the payoff of your efforts till the tip.
Associates would say, “I don’t understand how you do it. I simply wish to go
residence and sit on the sofa.” And belief me, I did too. However I knew
that wouldn’t serve my purpose. I wished to be sturdy by way of my
being pregnant. I wished to be sturdy for labor, supply, and postpartum.
So I centered on the result, not how I felt.

On the finish, my boss and
I tallied up what number of coaching classes I accomplished whereas pregnant. I
hit over 90% of my deliberate exercises. I acquired sick a few occasions,
and we moved flats, which threw off the routine. I positively
had days the place I went residence and slept for 3 hours as an alternative of
coaching. However more often than not? I confirmed up. I stored placing the bar
on my again.

We had been planning a
residence start lengthy earlier than I acquired pregnant. We wished as little
intervention as attainable, and residential appeared like the most effective atmosphere
for that.

Like many ladies, I had
imagined start as one thing calm. A quiet room, dim lights, perhaps
worship music within the background. A peaceable, lovely expertise.
Perhaps that was simply me making an attempt to manifest one thing, nevertheless it’s what
I pictured anyway.

What I didn’t image
was going into labor already sick. Three days earlier than labor started, I
began coughing – badly. I not often get respiratory bugs. If I’m
sick, it’s normally a fever and a pair days of sleep. However this was
totally different. I used to be coughing so violently that my chest and stomach
ached, and I stored peeing myself from the stress. I keep in mind begging
our son: “Only a couple extra days. Let me get higher first.”

However infants don’t
hear. On the evening of December twenty seventh, round 9 pm, contractions
began. By 10 p.m., my water broke. We took my temperature: 102°F.
My midwife arrived at 11:30 pm to verify the whole lot. I had a confirmed
fever, and our child’s coronary heart price was elevated.

With these issues,
she really helpful we switch to the hospital for nearer monitoring. We
arrived on the hospital round midnight. Contractions have been choosing up
quick. Whereas checking in, my midwife stated she thought this child would
be coming ahead of anticipated.

On the hospital, I used to be
given an IV for hydration and began on antibiotics for the
an infection. We declined all different interventions. I labored in no matter
place felt finest, and I discovered myself spending more often than not on
my knees. Not precisely restful—nevertheless it was essentially the most comfy.

I had a monitor on my
stomach the complete time to trace the infant’s coronary heart price. After 8 hours
of labor – 5 of them on my knees – I delivered our 10 lb 4 oz son
vaginally, with out an epidural.

It wasn’t the start I
imagined. I’d not advocate going into labor with a fever and
respiratory an infection. However at no level did I really feel like my physique was
going to offer out. Not as soon as. My legs, my again, my entire system
held sturdy.

So what occurs when
you get the alternative of what you hoped for? When life throws you
one thing removed from very best? What bodily state will you be in to
deal with it? Energy coaching doesn’t assure a straightforward start. However
it builds the power to endure.

Labor didn’t go the
means I imagined. It was messy, painful, and utterly out of my
management. However I by no means doubted my physique’s capability to maintain going. I
by no means felt weak. Not as soon as.

Energy coaching
doesn’t assure a easy start. It doesn’t make life simpler.
However it builds one thing deeper: resilience, grit, the power to maintain
shifting ahead when nothing goes to plan. That’s what coaching gave
me. And that’s what I’ll carry with me – not simply into
motherhood, however into the whole lot else life throws my means.