Judith Kirkness

In high school I was known as a 'browner.' I was a straight A student who didn't smoke and did little of the typical teenage rebelling. When I joined the working world, after attending university with the same focus and seriousness I had employed during high school, I progressed quickly, had initiative and was successful. Then I became a mother (it's amazing how having children and staying home to raise them can collapse your self-esteem).

Because my first pregnancy miscarried and due to some problems in the first trimester of my second pregnancy, I was advised not to exercise during that time. I had not really been doing any formal exercise anyway.

I then became pregnant with my second child when my first was only 10 months old. I had barely managed to lose the 40 pounds I had gained with the first pregnancy. After my second son turned a year old and I had weaned him, I decided it was time to get back in shape. I wanted to challenge myself physically.

My first fitness goal was to get my bronze cross in swimming. I did not attend swimming lessons since I was 13, but I had recently purchased a house witha pond. I knew that I needed to know rescue procedures if I had two little boys to watch. I was the only student over 18 in the class, and although I could not keep up with my younger counterparts, I did manage to squeak by and pass.

I was still struggling to lose the last 10 pounds since childbirth, and it was then that I set up a fitness assessment at a local gym. I wanted to have a personal trianer to help me fiure out a way to get my weight down. I admitted to her that although I knew I should do cardio training three times a week, quite frankly I ddin't like it enough and I was too tired from taking care of the children to do so. I asked her to just give me a weight training program to help increase strength. She designed a program forme to do at home and I purchased 2, 5, and 8 pund dumbbells and leg weights. The personal trainer let me borrow exercise bands and I started to workout a few minutes here (leg lifts while lying on the floor playing with trucks with my sons) and a few minutes there.

My body fat had been checked by computer analysis at the gym and over the course of six weeks it dropped from 30% to 26%. My weight dropped slightly, and I discovered that I really didn't mind weight training. I felt a difference in how I was able to keep up with carrying the baby and sometimes the toddlers too. Eventually I added one or two cardio workout videos per week (Susan Powter is my favorite).

I got pregnant for my third child and was quickly on my way to regaining the 40 pounds again. I was again advised not to exercise during my pregnancy, and I felt that I was losing all that I had gained by getting back in shape the last time. My confidence plummeted to an all-time low. I really felt that this was the last pregnancy by body and mind could handle. I could barely keep up with my two little ones, and now I was getting fat and unfit again.

Shortly after my third pregnancy, I felt desperately like I wanted something for myself that did not involve the kids. Somehow I found the energy to begin doing my exercise videos again, and I started back up with the home weight program. I bought a few fitness magazines, and one thing I noticed was that each month there seemed to be a new 'bandwagon' they wanted me to jump on - like following a new weight routine for exellence, or jogging for a healthy heart. I happened to pick up a free magazine called Fitt Quarterly (editor: no longer in print) in the health food section o my local grocery store. I read it and dreamed one day of looking like the cover model. One ad struck me in the magazine; it was an ad for the I.A.R.T. Certification Program. It challenged you by stated that if you were ready to think and wanted to learn about exercise science, the I.A.R.T. program was for you.

I knew I needed to start thinking again. Everything I read in my Health magazine had said that the brain is like a muscle - use it or lose it. I had spent the last five years devoted to producing and nurturing children and now I wanted to learn something different and interesting. I talked with the people from the I.A.R.T. at a Toronto fitness conference in 1998 and signed up for their program.

When my I.A.R.T. certification materials arrived, I started reading the reference manual and was very excited. I started telling my husband all the things we were doing wrong in our exercise program, which had been prescribed by a well-meaning univeristy-educated fitness professional.
I found it stimulating to read the sections on critical thinking. It reminded me of the many reasons I am home-schooling... to teach my children to think for themselves and figure out what information is logical and what is just nonsense.

My husband and I began training under I.A.R.T. methods with a shiny new weight bench and barbell set. I progressed over the course of thre months and icnreased my strength. But after reading the I.A.R.T. materials thoroughly, I decided I needed machines to really make a difference, that free weights wouldn't do it.

Although I live in a small town, populatoin 7,500, there is a personal training studio here. I went in and talked with a very hyped-up personal trainer who owns and operaes the gym. He would make me a bodybuilder. I had a dream of competing (I am beginning to think that 31 is not as old as it seemed 10 years ago) and he said he would help me make that dream a reality. His wife competed and won, in between her second and third child, and I could too. I told him I was studying under the I.A.R.T. system and showed him my journal. He thought it looked good, but his system was to do at least two workouts a week for 1-2 hours, $25 a sessoin when you bought 16 sessions.

I jumped on the bandwagon (you would think I learned by now). After 10 sessions I was 5 pounds heavier and it wasn't all muscle - I was tired and I had started eating too much. I realized this guy had no system. He didn't write anything down except starting and ending measurements. He couldn't explain to me why he did what he did. He just said that I had to train like him to look like him. He assigned at least 4 sets of 20 reps for just about everything. he assured me that I could enter a contest in six months and get a trophy. Maybe he was right, but I would die of exhaustion before then.

Next, I sought out an I.A.R.T. trainer who worked about an hour away. This was necessary since I realized my fitness goals could not be achievd by placing my body in the hands of any well-meaning hard body. My salvation was and is to find the self-confidence to think critically about what makes sense. I returned to high-intensity weight trainign and am now stronger and fitter than I have ever been since high school. I have the energy to take three kids skating, often pushing one in the stroller on the ice while holding another up. I also have the energy to dance all night when my husband and I go out to a club.

I further understand that my new training, whose ideas are in sync with the I.A.R.T., is not going to make or break my success. He can help direct my program, but it is up to me to know my body and determine what program variables are working and which are not.

By the time you read this I would have completed my I.A.R.T. certification. I took my time to really understand the concepts involved. And as the I.A.R.T. stated: a fitness professional should be qualified, not just certified.