Adelaide personal trainer and fitness mogul Kayla Itsines shares her post-baby anxiety
She’s a rich lister, runs one of the world’s most successful fitness empires and a multimillion-dollar company. But when Kayla Itsines brought home her baby daughter, she felt rising panic.
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Adelaide fitness mogul Kayla Itsines has opened up about the anxiety she felt in the weeks after giving birth to baby daughter Arna.
The Insta-famous personal trainer and entrepreneur behind booming fitness app Sweat welcomed her first child with fiance Tobi Pearce in April – but says she didn’t expect to experience post-natal anxiety on her return home.
“After the birth there were four days I was in the hospital, and then I was like, ‘There’s no such thing as post-baby blues, I didn’t get it, it’s not a thing for me’,” said Itsines, who recently launched two new workout programs on Sweat for beginners and new mothers.
“I didn’t really understand it. In my head, people explain it as, ‘You’re really sad’. And I was like, ‘I’m not sad, I’m fine’.
“And then I got home and it wasn’t sadness, it was a feeling of panic. I walked in the front door and people started coming over, it felt like everyone was in my face.
“Arna was beautiful, she was quiet, she was sleeping but I was freaking out.
“It didn’t actually subside for about two weeks. It felt like an eternity, I was thinking, ‘When is this going to stop?’ It was hectic, and no one ever talks about it.”
Itsines said her difficult pregnancy, which included four months of morning sickness, endless headaches, low energy, acid reflux and sciatic nerve pain, inspired her new fitness programs BBG Beginner and Kayla’s Post-Pregnancy.
“It’s extremely hard as a person who was known to be the ‘Queen of Abs’ … to be vulnerable and talk about my pregnancy journey,” said Itsines, who was named the world’s most influential fitness identity by Forbes in 2017.
“Returning to exercise after having a baby is tough – I underestimated the physical and emotional rollercoaster of motherhood and the challenge of regaining my strength after having Arna.
“I really felt like there was a need to give women the tools to feel confident in the gym post-pregnancy.”
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A regular on Australia’s Young Rich List alongside business partner Pearce, Itsines, 28, has built her global empire on the back of almost 12 million Instagram followers, and recently launched a new six-part IGTV series on Instagram called Begin Again.
Despite her amazing success, Itsines said her large Adelaide-based family, especially her Greek grandparents, help keep her feet on the ground.
“My grandparents don’t even speak English, they have no idea. The first time he (my grandfather) got angry at me was when I was on the front page of The Advertiser. He was like, ‘What have you done? Why is your face here?’,” she laughed.
“I was like, ‘Nothing, it’s a positive article!’
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime, never going to happen ever again experience. You pinch yourself every day, it’s incredible.”
For more information on the new fitness programs, visit sweat.com. For help with post-natal depression, click here