The purpose of this master’s thesis was to investigate the physical activity of personal trainers during pregnancy and after childbirth and to determine how their work takes place during these periods. We inquired about their exercise habits before, during and after pregnancy and compared them with each other. We were interested in whether they delayed their pregnancy (due to work), what challenges and adjustments they faced at work during pregnancy, how their clients reacted to the pregnancy, what challenges self-employment brought and what it was like to return to work after childbirth. We also inquired if they were burdened by postpartum body image dissatisfaction, about burnout in the workplace, balancing work and family time, and reasons for possibly giving up personal training.
We used a partially structured interview and netnography to obtain data. There are 13 mothers in the interview sample who are personal trainers (or have recently quit), have at least one child aged 6 or less, and have already returned from (at least one) maternity leave. The sample for netnography includes 15 posts from various websites that relate in any way to our topic and 13 Instagram profiles of mothers who are personal trainers and have shared their experiences publicly. Data from both methods were coded in the MAXQDA 2020 software program.
The frequency of physical activity was maintained in most trainers during pregnancy, while the intensity decreased. Immediately after giving birth, lighter forms of exercise were mentioned. They reported very differently about starting with some form of structured exercise (the first at four weeks, the last at six months). Many reported a decline in physical activity after giving birth, and that the purpose of exercise changed. In personal training during pregnancy, they mentioned the following challenges: rushing between different locations, busy work schedules, fatigue, pain and difficulty in showing certain exercises and leading high-intensity classes. Some had an extremely positive attitude towards their postpartum body, while others were burdened by the appearance. After maternity leave, they were especially bothered by the work schedule which is difficult to coordinate with family time. Self-employed women were particularly burdened by this, so several of them decided to set up online training programs.
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