‘Exercise makes me a more relaxed mother’
Kiona (34) is married to Nathaly (39) and mother of Austin (almost 6). She works as a sports instructor and does boot camp three times a week in her spare time.
“Freeze and bang: ten burpees, twenty squats, twenty lunges. Heart rate to 170. Panting, sweating like an otter. At boot camp I push myself to the point. In the meantime, I’m outside and I don’t only use my own body weight and attributes such as kettlebells or car tires, but also everything I come across: a wall, tree trunk or curb. That makes it more varied than in the gym.
Fresh air and sand between your toes
At my first lesson, during my pregnancy, I was immediately sold. I was looking for a way to keep fit and as an ex-hockey player of the national team of the Netherlands Antilles, where I was born and raised, I didn’t think the pregnancy classes in the gym were intensive enough. Moreover, being outside of bootcamp appealed to me. No sweaty room, but sports in the park or on the beach. Fresh air, sand between your toes, birds singing.
“I don’t always feel like it, but then I go anyway, because I know what it brings me.”
Since then I train three times a week. Even in wind force eight or when it rains – the wetter I come home, the better. The fact that I have pushed my limits again and withstood those extreme conditions gives me a kick. I don’t always feel like it, but then I go anyway, because I know what it will bring me: new energy. It makes me happier and more relaxed, also as a mother. Austin is quite temperamental: if he doesn’t like something, he can freak out. When I’m not exercising, I’m grumpy and go against him. Now I can approach his tantrum positively and radiate calmness, allowing him to calm down on his own.
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‘Sporty’
Recently Austin had to describe himself in three words at school. ‘Sporty’ was one of them. He likes cycling, running and – how could it be otherwise – boot camps. I have been training for pregnant women and mothers for two years now. In corona time, Austin enthusiastically participated in the online classes. Pontifically in the picture, if only for a few minutes – ‘because it does make you tired’.
Sometimes he invents new exercises, such as the giraffe drinking water. That’s right: stretch your legs, butt back and bend over. Later he watched the video I had made in my lesson. Proud and in disbelief, because I really did call the exercise ‘the giraffe’. But what do you want, in a group with only mothers. Children’s logic provides the necessary humor and motivation there.”
This portrait is in Kek Mama 02-2022.
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