Timing Your Health is Everything

Why you want to be at peak health before parenthood

“There’s no time like the present!”

Wrong. The better time was 6 months ago. Even better than that? 12 months ago. The best time to do something good is always sooner. That’s doubly true for your health.

But when it comes to health, most people wax and wane a bit. Maybe you gain 6 lbs over the winter. Maybe your cardio falls off in the summer. Maybe you injured yourself and you’re a mess. It happens.

If there’s any time in your life that you must be in peak condition, it’s before you become a parent.

Prepregnancy Health

This article is going to apply to both men and women, but certain sections will apply to men and women differently. In the prepregnancy period, both the man and woman must focus on their health.

Despite still being mysterious, epigenetics has been shown to play a major factor in our day-to-day lives. As this paper discusses, epigenetics can have downstream effects on the unborn child.

This means getting your house in order before trying to get pregnant.

At the bare minimum, you should be aiming for a healthy body weight, getting daily exercise of some sort, and avoiding SAD food. You should also consider avoiding plastics. Microplastics are everywhere. I’d rather be safe than sorry and drink out of a glass bottle. And of course, avoid the obviously bad things like smoking, alcohol, etc.

Before becoming pregnant (and even in early pregnancy), fitness advice is basically the same as for someone who is not pregnant. So this is the time to clamp down and start getting healthy.

When my wife and I were trying to get pregnant the first time, I ran Alexander Cortes Achilles Program. It was brutal, but got results. Now I’m running his Push, Pull, Legs Program and I love it. It’s flexible enough for my home gym, but has a full gym option.

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Prenatal Health