#Hotmommas: Fitness hacks from Mother’s Day 2021 ‘fitspirations’
MANILA, Philippines — There's a trend among many celebrity moms out there: going into the fitness craze while carrying a baby on a full term and after giving birth.
In time for Mother’s Day 2021 on May 9, the following celebrity moms give a peek into their fitness routines that anyone can adopt and still remarkably squeeze into one's “#mumlife.”
Iya Villania-Arellano
The "24 Oras" Chika Minute segment host has always been known as a fitness buff even before she became a mother to Primo, Leon and Alana.
Wasn't she the one who went viral for doing a Crossfit workout routine while sporting an obvious baby bump in 2018 then going on labor afterwards and documenting it up to her baby’s delivery?
Iya hasn't stopped even when she got pregnant and gave birth to Alana last year, and her perseverance and discipline pays off. Just look at her post-baby bod.
“For me, I would say, well, in terms of working out, find a movement you enjoy, an activity that you like and enjoy. Sometimes (you) want to be running like this person but it doesn’t make you happy at hindi ka tatagal (and you will not be able to sustain your enthusiasm), you really have to find a movement or a workout that will make you happy. Another is you really have to try to simplify your food," Iya said during a media call (https://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2021/01/15/2070415/iya-jose-encourage-viewers-eat-and-live-well) she attended last year for a corporate-sponsored show.
Andi Eigenmann
She's another fitspiration hot mama. Like Iya, the semi-retired Andi is mother to three kids, Ellie, Lilo and Koa.
The actress has embarked on a personal fitness journey right after giving birth to her third and only son, Koa, in January.
Her Instagram Stories archive has three different archives related to her journey -- Fitness, Post-Partum (PP) Fitness and PP Fitness 2.
Her stories, with the hashtag #hotsummamama, are detailed and showed Andi doing all the jumping jacks and burpees with her post-birth body. She's currently into the workout routine by British chartered physiotherapist Lilly Sabri.
Pauleen Luna-Sotto
It was her battle with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) that fueled the actress-host to be fit.
The 32-year-old mother to Tali and wife to seasoned host Vic Sotto started her fitness journey early this year.
Her Instagram Story archive has a separate Fitness compilation. She's been doing mostly yoga, Pilates, workout and spinning.
"A little over a month into my fitness journey and I'm starting to feel strength coming back! I've accepted that it's a slow progress but slow is better than none. Living with PCOS is no joke. Making good choices with my food intake and moving (it's Pilates, walking, spinning for me) has been my priority lately. So happy where I am right now and I really pray that God will sustain me," she said in her post back in March.
Camille Prats-Yambao
It's two to tango for morning show host Camille Prats-Yambao. She admitted that the pandemic pushed her to look out for herself, to make sure that she's overall healthy.
The mother of three shared her fitness journey together with her husband, John Yambao, on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dEimCArAUk).
Both she and John agreed that consistency and establishing a system of workout are key to maintaining a fitness regimen.
"Pinupush namin ang isa't-isa to work harder. Wina-watch namin ang form ng isa't-isa. Kapag hindi proper 'yung form niya, I tell him," she shared.
They all make it a point to workout together at least once or twice a week.
"We look after each other, we motivate each other," Camille shared.
Lockdown fitness must-haves
Body-positive active wear
Believing that sport is everyone’s game, regardless of age, socio-economic and cultural background or sporting ability, international sporting apparel brand Adidas recently launched Formotion collection and long-term campaign “Watch Us Move” focused on supporting and celebrating women in all their forms and shapes.
The active wear collection, said the brand, uses engineered knit technology, anchored around new graded zonal compression. Crafted to the female body, the smart, strategic placement of compression zones of varying intensities around the waist and hips helps to sculpt and support, while high-stretch knit used in other places enables freedom to move without restriction in high-impact conditions.
Additional performance innovations include the Aeroready fabric, which helps keep the body dry and comfortable, especially during summer, said Jen Dacasin, Adidas Philippines Brand and Sports Marketing Manager.
The collection is also made of Prime Green, a series of high-performance recycled materials developed as part of the brand’s ambition to end plastic waste. Garments made with Prime Green use a minimum of 40% recycled content.
Available at Adidas.com/formotion and in the brand’s stores, website and Viber store, the new collection was created by an all-female design team and was backed by a global community of women for comfort and body mapping and motion research, Dacasin added.
“It’s a collection celebrating women and it feels different than other apparel (from our brand),” Dacasin noted.
“We want feel women to feel comfortable and strong.”
Modeling the new collection are body positive yoga expert, wellness entrepreneur and author Jessamyn Stanley and Paralympic medalist and motivational speaker, Denise Schindler, who wear the collection in the brand’s free workout YouTube tutorials.
This workout content sits alongside a line-up of soon-to-be-released product innovations spanning everything from performance tights that help women exercise or do sports even when they have a period, to modesty swimwear.
Fashion-forward fitness tracker
Prior to the pandemic, more than one in three people globally reported that they experienced significant worry or stress, according to an international Red Cross survey. After the pandemic began, that number increased to 50%, with respondents feeling the physical and mental effects of stress.
As such, fitness tracker brand Fitbit recently launched Luxe, a new fashion-forward fitness and wellness tracker designed to help women take a more holistic approach to their health and wellness. The new tracker will be available starting June in the brand’s website and major retailers such as Digital Walker, Lazada and Shopee.
The new fitness tracker bracelet was made through a partnership with Laguna Beach-based jewelry brand Gorjana, using an innovative design process called metal injection molding to create a stainless steel case that provides the warmth expected of handcrafted jewelry, designed for a diverse range of wrist sizes for 24/7 wear, all while delivering a level of precision needed to enable its advanced sensor technology. To produce the high polish synonymous with jewelry, the brand used a metal vaporizing technique in soft gold and platinum finishes to provide a premium look and feel.
“Luxe offers the motivation and support you need to stay healthy in today’s world with everything from stress management tools to automatic activity and sleep tracking – all in an effortlessly chic bracelet design. Luxe also gives you insights into your wellbeing through the Health Metrics dashboard in the Fitbit app to help you identify changes which could be caused by increased stress or fatigue,” the brand said in a statement.
The sleek tracker with a color touchscreen has the following features:
- Up to five days of battery life
- It can be paired with a wide range of accessories, including a modern luxury bracelet from Gorjana.
- Stress Management Score that provides a daily assessment of the body’s ability to handle stress based on activity levels, sleep and heart rate. Through the Premium app, one can receive a detailed breakdown of the Stress Management Score, including information on exertion balance to gauge the impact of activity on one’s body; sleep patterns to see how nighttime restlessness and sleep debt can impact one’s body’s ability to deal with stress; and responsiveness to see if one’s autonomic nervous system is showing signs of “fight or flight” based on heart rate data.
- Active Zone Minutes, a personalized standard for tracking activity beyond steps that measures time spent in each heart rate zone, to gauge when to push harder or scale back, and it helps one reach the weekly recommended goal of 150 Active Zone Minutes to help improve health.
- Convenience and smart features like alarms, a stopwatch and timers to help one manage one’s daily activities.
- Reminders to Move aims to help encourage one to stay active and reduce sedentary time.
- A six-month Premium app subscription that provides access to challenges and games to make reaching fitness goals more fun. Premium members have access to more than 60 new pieces of nutrition content including curated healthy recipes from the brand and Eating Well magazine.
- Additional health tools include food, hydration and weight logging, and menstrual health tracking.
- The new blood glucose logging feature in the brand’s app allows one’s to track your blood glucose levels to see how they change throughout the day.
- Broad compatibility with Android and iOS phones, plus Google Fast Pair, makes it easy to get moving while staying connected.
- Health Metrics dashboard which tracks your breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR), skin temperature variation and coming soon, oxygen saturation (SpO2).
“Over the past year, we’ve had to think differently about our health – from keeping an eye out for possible COVID-19 symptoms to managing the ongoing stress and anxiety of today’s world. Even though we are starting to see positive changes, it has never been more important to manage your holistic health,” said James Park, Fitbit Vice President, General Manager and Co-Founder.
“That’s why we’ve been resolute in introducing products to support you in staying mentally well and physically active. We’ve made major technological advancements with Luxe, creating a smaller, slimmer, beautifully designed tracker packed with advanced features – some that were previously only available with our watches – making these tools accessible to even more people around the globe.”
