AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

Brianna Battles  00:01

Welcome to the Practice Brave Podcast. I am the host Brianna Battles, founder of pregnancy and postpartum athleticism, and CEO of Everyday Battles. I’m a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, mom of two wild little boys and a lifelong athlete. I believe that athleticism does not end when motherhood begins, and this podcast is dedicated to coaching you by providing meaningful conversations, insights and interview topics related to fitness, mindset, parenting and of course, all the nuances of pregnancy and postpartum, from expert interviews to engaging conversations and reflections. This podcast is your trustworthy, relatable resource for learning how to practice brave through every season in your life. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Practice Brave Podcast. Today, I’m here with Sarah Newberry Moore, and she is a Team USA sailing athlete as well as a mother, and I’m really excited to bridge a conversation about what that looks like for her, what her experiences are, and how it’s honestly really relatable and transferable to so many women, regardless of their level of athleticism or their sport. So Sarah, tell us a little bit about your background, and sailing specifically is a very different type of sport from maybe more traditional sports. So tell us a little bit about yourself and sailing.

Sarah Newberry Moore  01:26

Well, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here, and this is one of my favorite things to talk about as an athlete and a mother. So I grew up in Miami, Florida. I still live here. I have two boys, one is six months old, and one is four, and I’ve been a professional sailing athlete for around 12 years. I went to the Olympic Games in 2024 and I’m currently starting a new project toward the LA 2028 games. The sport itself, like you said, it’s not I mean, not everybody knows about it. It’s kind of an esoteric sport. We don’t get a ton of media coverage, but it’s beautiful, and it actually is a really interesting athletic complex sport. In my particular type of boats, the boats that are sailed at the Olympic Games, they’re small and very maneuverable. So we are using our bodies at a really high level as well as kind of playing a strategic game of chess, essentially between the starting line and the finish line. There’s many different wind shifts and angles that you can sail. How do you get ahead of your competition? How do you use the wind and your technical knowledge? Right? Because basically, our boats are like race cars, and they’re tuned to millimeters. So how do we use our technical knowledge at every moment as the conditions are changing, while making good, strategic and tactical decisions and then physically doing the job at a high level. So once you get to know the sport, it’s easy to fall in love with it, because it has so many angles, I will say, like the sport itself. Until the 2024 games has been like more of a male dominated sport, but now we’re finally seeing gender equality in the sport. We had the same number of women as men in the 2024 games, I think, for the first time ever, and that’s a fantastic thing to see. And I think that the future is really bright for women athletes in our sport. And then my experience, you know, kind of becoming a mom, really opened my eyes to what was happening in my sport and behind the scenes. I realized at some point in my late 20s that I wanted kids, and I thought, well, of course, I have to stop like, Of course I have to retire, because there’s no other women doing that. I don’t see that. I have no examples in front of me, all the women I know who have children, who were athletes, they paused their careers, and then they started a family, but I realized I was surrounded by male athletes who have multiple children and families and, you know, domestic life, and they’re still pursuing medals in sailing. So I had this epiphany in like 2020 that even though I haven’t seen it, really, I should do it. And so my husband and I conceived our first child, and I did my campaign for the 2024 games with a little baby in tow, and it was successful. And that was an amazing experience that has empowered me now to do it again for the LA 2028 games with two babies.

Brianna Battles  04:15

Those are incredible. And how did you get into sailing? Did you find that like later in life? Is this something you grew up doing? Like, how did that transpire to essentially peaking for the Olympics while being a mom,

Sarah Newberry Moore  04:29

I think, in the same way that so many other athletes find what they do, you know, your parents put you in in a couple sports as a kid, and you kind of something kind of sticks, or it happens. Sometimes it just happens to be the sport that they keep you doing, you know, and you don’t quit, right? And for me, it was sort of like that. And my my mom’s side of the family, my grandfather sailed, and my great grandfather sailed. Of course, it looked really different in like, the 1930s and 40s, but, but that was it. I mean, I did it. I did it for a long time as a kid. And. On the weekends, and I did it at a pretty high level as a youth, but I wasn’t, I would say, like I was a notable youth athlete in my sport, like I was featured as as a as someone to watch, but I wasn’t the person winning all the championships. And then right when I finished college, I kind of had this opportunity. I won a qualifying event for the Olympic development team, and I sort of pivoted my life in that direction, mostly because I realized that I wouldn’t be able to afford to do the sport at a high level unless I was professional, so it was kind of out of need, and then it became my life.

Brianna Battles  05:35

Yeah, I think it’s really awesome. So tell me about your experience during pregnancy. So you’ve been in this high level athlete, an Olympian. You want to make a comeback, what was your pregnancy like? Yeah.

Sarah Newberry Moore  05:50

Well, is it okay with you if I tell you about my first one and then my second one,

Sarah Newberry Moore  05:55

yeah, if we start with the earliest pregnancy, let’s start with that one.

Sarah Newberry Moore  06:00

I’ll give you the rundown on all, on all the babies. So the first pregnancy I went into that and I was 130 pounds. In our sport, we talk a lot about weight because it has a big impact on the effect, you know, that we have on the boat itself. So I’ve never been shy to talk about my weight with anybody, although I know that’s not for everybody. So I started the first pregnancy at 130 pounds and, and I was really focused at that time on, like, Oh, I’ll keep I’ll, like, really work on mobility. I got really into Animal Flow and and really daily practice of, like, moving my body and keeping my fascia, like, mobile, basically. And my delivery for that pregnancy was really smooth and it was really easy. My son wound up in the NICU for kind of unrelated reasons, but I didn’t push very long. I had a great experience. I think that all of my activity during my pregnancy, maybe it’s just my belief, you know, and that, and that can be valid too, but I think it had an impact on how that went. The downside of that was that my recovery after the first baby was brutal. It was awful, like I couldn’t hold a plank. I it took me literally, like, years to get my pull ups back, and that was really frustrating and hard it took. It took a long, long time to recover. And so when I decided to have the second baby, I went into that pregnancy with like, a very different mindset. And yeah, and I, I also will say that in between the two, I put on, like eight to 10 pounds of muscle mass, so that helped in a lot of ways, but, but I started that pregnancy off at around 140 pounds. I was, like, around 143 pounds at the time of the Olympics. Two months later, I got pregnant, and not to like, plug my coach, but his his approach, has his approach and the approach of the physical therapists and coaches that work at his gym really opened my eyes a lot. You know, their mindset when it comes to actual recovery and things like this is like, you know, training rehab is training in the presence of an injury. Their concept about pregnancy was that and actually, I watched, I watched you, I watched multiple people on the internet who inspired my approach as well, not just Frankie, but but their approach was really not to like change very much, to have all the same like buckets in terms of conditioning and strength, but to be really aware of our PE and to listen to my body. And if something didn’t feel good, it was okay for me to not do it, and safety was first. But pregnant women are, like, not fragile, you know. So in that pregnancy and my second pregnancy, right? Like, this sounds accurate. In my second pregnancy, I trained three to four days a week, I’m lifted, like, pretty heavy and and I think there’s a lot to talk about here, but my experience in terms of recovery was incredible. The delivery was, again, like a like a good delivery, maybe, you know, I mean, unfortunately, I had um, P prom, so my water broke early at 32 weeks, and I made it to 34 delivered a beautiful baby. He was six pounds. So not too, too small. But basically, I was back in the gym, like four weeks later, not lifting heavy, just pelvic floor work, and I was back on the water, like whole, like, whole whole, whole three months after giving birth. And I think that this, the like, actual lifting and moving weight for four times a week was like a massive bonus in that process. Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes I feel

Brianna Battles  09:51

like, especially with like sports specific athletes, like, not our CrossFit moms, not our like, group fitness kind of exercise. Ways, but when we are talking about our sport specific athletes, the benefit of scaling back aspects of your sport and then introducing more string conditioning to supplement some of that training during pregnancy is so beneficial for that postpartum recovery. Yeah, you take a stimulus of one thing of the sport back, but you introduce a stimulus of strength and conditioning. Doesn’t have to be crazy heavy or a lot of conditioning or intense, but it’s just introducing a new variable that’s going to make you a more well rounded athlete, which does support that postpartum recovery, yeah.

Sarah Newberry Moore  10:37

And it makes me think, like, and I hear this in what you’re saying, and I think I think I want to, like, emphasize or pull it out, somehow, tease this out, but like, we are able to make unique gains during pregnancy. Like pregnancy doesn’t have to be just like a breaking and recovering process, which is how I think a lot of people think of it. There were so many interesting ways that I PR during my pregnancy, and things I thought I didn’t like, I didn’t go into the pregnancy like thinking I wanted to PR anything at all. And then just by doing the work four times a week and being consistent, there were, there were so many gains. And like you’re saying, I was off the water, so I’m not now. I’m not doing five hours a day on the water four hours a day on the water. Now that’s translating into, like, one really concise gym session. And the recovery was fantastic as well. I could go home and go to sleep, yeah,

Brianna Battles  11:33

and, you know, and like, when I work with athletes, it’s like, you obviously give so much of your game and your life and your energy to the sport. And it’s really hard to de load from that sport, because it’s always on your mind. It’s a big part of, like, a training focus. Your training blocks are pretty large. You’re always working towards something. And I find with professional athletes almost having, like, a reason to have more grace and a step back, and then, like, replacement therapy, right? Replacement of that sport with, well, like I can do something new, I can go hiking, I can go out and I can I can lift weights, I can do this activity instead where you were just sort of replacing that focus and intensity towards a sport with something new, and pregnancy and motherhood oftentimes gives you permission to do that and to take that step back, but still introduce something new that ultimately helps you become a more complete athlete.

Sarah Newberry Moore  12:27

Yeah, I think that’s really interesting. Do you in in the work that you do? You know, you mentioned a couple concepts there, like hiking and things like this. How often do you find that this is a challenge for women who are so active,

Brianna Battles  12:40

it’s a significant challenge because we are told to keep doing what we’ve always done. And I think athletes assume like that there’s going to be a lot of benefit to, like, pushing boundaries into sort of like being in a maintenance mode, when I find that there’s a lot of value in making adaptations to your approach, not just like one modality, but just the overall approach. And I think that there’s a psychological benefit there. I think there’s a core in pelvic health, physiological benefit there from just like changing the list of how much demand we’re placing on our body as our body changes during pregnancy, and then just prioritizing the long term performance. Goal keeping the main thing, the main thing, because during pregnancy, the goal wasn’t like, well, I want to keep sailing and being on the water five times a day. I’m sure, psychologically, that would have been great. But ultimately, your main goal was to make a run for the Olympics postpartum. You know, it’s to be on the water postpartum. And so when I work with a lot of athletes, it’s like, yeah, like, the end of the day, could you be your version of an athlete? Very pregnant, absolutely, like you could. You were not. There was, there’s no elimination of you being an athlete. It is more about keeping the main thing, the main thing, and then reverse engineering that process, yeah.

Sarah Newberry Moore  14:02

And identity, your identity as an athlete, is so tied up in all these

Brianna Battles  14:05

things, you know, yeah, whether you’re an Olympian or are a mom who goes to CrossFit four days a week, like that becomes the thing that you you know, the lens that you see your life through, attached to what you look like, to what you do, to what you used to be able to do perception comparison, like there’s so many elements there that no matter who you are, how you participate as an athlete, there’s a lot of common themes and feelings and experiences that are similar.

Sarah Newberry Moore  14:33

Yeah, I think that’s really true. And I mean across the board, one of the things that’s the hardest about pregnancy is this kind of relinquishing of like, the original identity, yes, and if we fight it, it’s not a great path. I fought it plenty in my first pregnancy, and afterward, I was like, I want that. In fact, like, I wish it was, I wish this was easier. You know, I wish I like, How did I lose these things? Like, I feel like I had something to lose,

Brianna Battles  14:58

right? Where? I

Sarah Newberry Moore  15:00

for sure, not that I’m that much wiser at this point, but I would say one thing I have learned is that everything I’ve given up to become a mom, like even on a in a bigger picture sense, yeah, like everything that I’ve given up in my life to become a mom, there’s some kind of payoff that I didn’t really predict would be there. And so in this way, metaphorically, it’s great, you know, like, yes, we’re pregnant. Okay, like, we can. We can release ourselves from having to, like, adhere to what we thought this, like identity was, and all the components that, the boxes we thought we had to check to, like, meet that identity. And actually, what’s waiting for us at the other side is so much bigger we don’t know what it is. It’s a mystery.

Brianna Battles  15:41

Yeah, right. I love to refer to like that, that concept as like, the athletic maturity that you acquire, like motherhood, is such a great catalyst for becoming just a more like, mature version of yourself as an athlete, you gain perspective, you gain insight. You’re a lot more strategic, like the levels of gratitude you have, you become so much more time efficient, like, you just become a better, well rounded athlete, because there’s just a shift that happens within you, whether it’s more body awareness or just like, more awareness of like, how you need to, like, psychologically approach your life as an athlete. Because now and I talked to a lot of different athletes, obviously, there’s a component of selfishness that has to go into the training you put in as an athlete. Now, when you become a mom, that has to shift and change a little bit, like where it’s being dosed, or how it’s being dosed, but ultimately, I think that creates a lot of leverage. You just become more strategic,

Sarah Newberry Moore  16:39

yes, and you start because it’s almost like, because of that, you can see multiple paths to an outcome. You’re like, oh, okay, well, I don’t have an hour and a half. I have 45 minutes, right? And then you start to realize, but I can accomplish this. In fact, something that’s similar, if not better, in some ways, depending on how I opened my mind to it within that 45 minute period, or, you know, and like, oh God, the patience aspect too. Like, in moments before being a mom, I kind of, like, wanted it now, and I wanted it right away. And, you know, I knew that I could put my head down and work on something for a couple hours in a row, and then, like, I would get that thing, whether it was in fitness or, like, in my sport itself, right? And then, yeah, you start to realize a little bit of something every day does add up. It really does patience with your body, and your patience with skill building and with like, actual gains, if we let it, we can, like, raise our level in terms of that patience.

Brianna Battles  17:38

That’s so key. I love what you just said there about, like, if you let it, and you also said something earlier about like you fought it with your first and I, like, absolutely relate to that. Honestly, that was the catalyst for starting this business almost 12 years ago. Was I held so tightly onto what I thought I should look like, what I thought my experience should have been like, and that, like, just fueled the depression and anxiety and, like, just all of my control issues, and I just became almost like, focus on things that just that didn’t actually matter in the bigger picture, because you’re hanging on so tightly to who you were that you cannot meet this new version of yourself, and you’re just, there’s a lot of, I think, you know, I think a lot of new moms struggle with, like, oh my gosh, what is, what is my what is, what do I do with the baby? Who am I now? Like, there’s like, a big identity shift as a mom, and when you’re trying to move backwards, it, it’s going to, it’s just so self sabotaging.

Sarah Newberry Moore  18:42

Yeah, I totally agree. And like, I said this in a I recently said this to someone else, but, like, I was really surprised all the things I found out about my own vanity in the process. Yeah, you know, say more, say more, girl. I mean, I thought I was above it. I thought my body was a tool, and that I could really understand that it would take time, and that it would change, and that I might look different, and all these things and yet. And I would be the first person, and I almost said this, Zack, same thing to someone the other day, I would be the first person to, like, encourage the people around me, you know, to eat, to eat in a way that was healthy, but like, made them feel good, you know, like, I don’t believe in, I don’t believe in, like, you know, over controlling, yes, I have to get certain macros sometimes, but on other days, like, if I want a piece of chocolate, I’m not going to be like, That’s unacceptable. You know, I just have this mindset that I had to be flexible as a as an athlete and as a mom in order to, like, do 200 days a year of training on the water, ending the gym. And so I’m the first person who would be like our bodies. Are they work for us. We want them to be healthy. We want to be happy. We want ourselves to be happy like we don’t need to look a certain way to achieve these things and and I have a very like open minded sense of beauty as well. But then, when it was my body, when it was my. My body that changed. I was like, yeah, just ups. I just didn’t feel happy. It was just I found that I cared what I looked like after giving birth, and that I wondered if it would go back to normal, right? But, and I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s over for me or if I just got used to it. I don’t know that I’m like, What do you want to what do you call it? I don’t know that I’m like, above it even now. But if just, I’m

Brianna Battles  20:27

just, I don’t know if we ever like I think they’re like when things are important to us are and we are our own worst critic in a lot of ways, like where we can extend grace and perspective to others, it’s hard to extend the same to ourselves. And I also think the expectation and comparison as athletes is always there. Like, we’re always looking at, well, what is my competitor doing? Or, like, what do they look like? This, body type, that training style, like, sometimes it’s really easy to be focused on others, and then you compare that to yourself. And I know I felt like when I looked at my stomach. I was like, Why do I look like this? I’m, like, a very lean and fit and athletic person. Why did I end up with like, a belly button that looks so freaking weird now, or, like, stretched out skin and stretch marks, and it’s, I mean, I grew 210 pound boys, like, there was no avoiding, like, the the transformation that our body goes through, there’s going to be evidence of motherhood. For some people, that is outward. For others, it is inward with like, maybe like core pelvic health symptoms. For some it is a combination of both. For others, it is their mental health, like, there is evidence of that season of life. But sometimes, when you’re an athlete, we think that we’re exempt from that, that we’re somehow I’m fit and I’m healthy, and, like you said, my body is a tool, so we just almost, like, assume the best of ourselves, which is great in most in like, most instances, right? Like, we want that, but I think it’s a really hard standard. When you become a mom and you’re like, and you realize you can’t actually control a lot of these variables, like, we’re just, we’re not as in control. We would prefer to be.

Sarah Newberry Moore  22:12

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And it’s so easy when you are an athlete going into a pregnancy before you have experienced this major shift in your body and in your hormones and in life? Well, it’s really easy to have those perspectives when it doesn’t, when it hasn’t affected you, because you’ve spent the majority of your life in really, like, peak condition, yeah. And I also thought, and maybe you can relate to this, or anybody listening can relate to this, I was like, I’m fit, and I’m more or less like, you know, whatever, like Finn, whatever version of that is important to me. I don’t say that that’s like a metric people should care about meeting at all, but in my mind, I’m like, I’m fit and I’m lean, so therefore I will be the kind of person who has a baby and I will be fit and lean afterward, and it will happen quickly, because I’m an athlete. It was the opposite. I was like, Oh, my genetics are in play now, yeah,

Brianna Battles  23:02

we have, like, a weird, like, self fulfilling prophecy, and I, and I tell every look, fitness will always be a benefit. Like, there is no world in which your fitness is not beneficial for your overall, like, health and life and longevity and all of that. But it’s also like not a set guarantee of any specific experience or outcome. Like, it’s not like we are not above it. We are not the exception as much as we are, or we’d like to think we are, in a lot of ways, it’s like this, like, motherhood is so incredibly humbling for so many women. But we aren’t always told that story. We’re told like, look at this badass who’s doing this through pregnancy, and, you know, like achieving this and doing that, and look at her, and then look how early she got back to post part, or like, her support, or her training, or her body post part, we are told, like the exceptions, which is such a small percentage, and really like only looking at a small picture and we’re absolutely overlooking, first of all, the majority of female athletes, but also a lot of the nuances that are attached to the motherhood and the athletic experience like you’re supposed to change. This is an evolution. This is a significant transition in your life that’s worth honoring, that’s worth acknowledging. It’s worth like, stepping back when you need to, and knowing like, it’s not forever, like how you feel right now is not forever, and even if it’s different, like that season of different will make you a better athlete. It will. It’s just a matter of time and a matter of perspective and a matter of patience,

Sarah Newberry Moore  24:44

for sure, and I like something that like comes to mind is that I think, I think what you’re saying about the fact that the majority of female athletes don’t have this experience that is being projected or portrayed or like, in some ways unintentionally, we are asked to meet. The goal posts are set in this way right now, even if it’s not intentional. You know that we as athletes or female athletes, think, yeah, I can have a baby and then I should be, like I said, I should be back in the gym in four weeks. I should be back to my sport in three months. And I do want to reiterate, like, that’s not realistic, and it’s not for everybody, and it’s great if you, if you can do all the prep work, and your body is in a place, and your pregnancy is healthy and no complications, and then you get there, that’s awesome. But the but the other version of it exists too, and I experienced both ends of that, like, literal years of trying to regain some of the strength and connectivity, yeah? And I just want to, like, if Yeah, I want people to who are listening to feel like, that’s okay too. And there are probably, there’s probably a massive percentage of female athletes experiencing that.

Brianna Battles  25:50

I mean, the majority of women like they’re, they’re going to experience change, change their training. Like you’re going to experience core and pelvic health symptoms. They are going to have a mental transformation, whether it is they’re navigating different mental health challenges or just like, the identity shift, and it’s going to look different. But different doesn’t have to be a bad thing. And if we’re comparing it like, it’s almost like, like you said, we have goal posts of like, look what this person did, and it’s supposed to empower. But for so many women, they’re like, well, then what’s wrong with me? I was fit, I was an athlete. I thought I did everything right, and I’m struggling, or I gained a lot of weight, or I have these symptoms, or, like, what did I do wrong? And it’s not that you did anything wrong, it’s just we are seeing a snippet of that person’s experience. We don’t know that, even if she did make it back to a competition very early postpartum, you do not know what was sacrificed in that timeline, and you do not know what she was not self reporting it when we are sharing this experience broadly in the media. And I have worked with these people so consistently that there are things that are not being shared, how much she has like how she is struggling with postpartum depression, and running, or her sport, is the only thing that she knows, and so that’s what she’s going to default to. Or, you know, she’s peeing herself as she’s racing, yeah, or she has regret, because she feels like she missed out on a really fragile chapter of motherhood because she was really consumed with, like, well, I got to get back. I have these sponsorships. I got to do this. I have this timeline. And you just it’s very consuming. So it’s like we are not being shown the whole picture of what it’s like to be an athlete and a mother.

Sarah Newberry Moore  27:31

Yep, yep. I think it’s really true. I know someone, and this is very anecdotal, but I know someone who did get back to sports really quickly, who looked amazing, who looked perfect. Like, yeah, I’m not even going to get into more detail, because she will know that I’m talking about her. But I also know that it wasn’t really. There were other things happening in the background, for sure, like there were things that later, months later, she was able to address in the gym that at the time, in a picture or video you would never have seen, yeah, you know, and and things that are contributors to overall, like, the overall health and function of your body, right? So for sure, yeah,

Brianna Battles  28:06

and athletes don’t always want to share that, you know, because, like, we’re attached to, like, I did it, right? Like, almost, like, look at me and my experience, and so like, they don’t want to share what’s actually going on or the hard things, because then that’s acknowledging that they’re not like perfect or they’re not in total control, and we don’t want to do

Sarah Newberry Moore  28:25

that we’re not optimized, because all we do is optimize. We like. We want to project that we are optimized and that we know how to optimize ourselves and like exactly. But I think you know, you kind of mentioned something earlier about like, the changes that happen after pregnancy or after becoming a mother, there’s inward changes and outward changes. And I think that some of those inward changes when we allow them to happen, when we go through these experiences that are very challenging, you know, of kind of recovering strength or healing, the inward aspects are shifting. And I think that when we let that in, we become so much more mentally resilient and, like, so much more patient and so much more able to work through other setbacks and challenges. Because as we age, we will experience injury, you know, I mean, hopefully we don’t, but, like, it’s pretty likely that there’s going to be something challenging in the future that doesn’t have to do with pregnancy, or somebody we know will have that. So those those tools are so essential. And I have a kind of weird story that I somehow is in sticking in my mind, but with my second baby, because I had P prom, which means your membrane ruptures early, so your water breaks early, and the baby’s not ready to come out, so you go into the hospital and they don’t want to let you leave, so you’re basically on bed rest, right? Yeah, so I was on bed rest for two weeks and two weeks of kind of like mentally preparing to have a baby that was six weeks early, and I was scared for him, because my first baby was full term. You know, it’s easy to focus on the risks. It’s easy to focus. On all these things, and I was really scared for my son. I was like, I hope, I hope I can deliver him into this world safely. That is what all of us feel when we are going most of us feel this when we’re going to give birth. Yeah, I work with an amazing woman who is a performance coach, and she also does some hypnotherapy. And so the night before my delivery, because they induce you because they won’t, truly, they won’t let you go past 34 weeks, because at that point the risk of infection is higher than the risks to the baby outside the womb. So the night before my induction, I had a call with Adrian, who is has been this, like, huge figure in my sports career in terms of my mental resilience and and all these things, like being at top of my game. And I don’t know if any of you guys who are listening, or if you have done any hypnotherapy, but it’s really cool. It’s like, deep meditation, and you’re awake, like, you know what’s going on, but you’re like, just letting your brain do its thing. And usually in the sessions, you kind of get to a state of meditation, and you’re kind of like, she’s leading you, or the therapist is leading you and asking you questions, asking you to ask yourself questions, or asking you to give yourself advice, or a past version of yourself advice. So she asked me, in my session, before I was going to give birth, what would I tell my baby? What would I tell him? And I was like, immediately, I was like, well, just do your best. Just do your best. Do what you know how to do, and don’t be scared, because everything actually starts after this. Yeah. And I was like, oh, fuck, that’s what I needed to hear, you know. Like, I think of that moment so often when it comes to things like this, because with so many of the things that cause us stress or make us feel scared. I mean, we like to be comfortable. We our brains want to do what’s familiar, you know. So if we looked a certain way before, that’s what’s comfortable, that’s what’s familiar. If our bodies worked a certain way, that’s what’s comfortable, that’s what’s familiar. It’s scary to go outside of that. And also, these changes that we experience turn us into the people that we’re going to be, yeah? So it’s like, okay, this is, this could be really hard for me, but also, there’s nothing else but this, like everything that comes after this is my actual life, and it’s more

Brianna Battles  32:12

exciting, yeah, it’s like, a such a beautiful dichotomy, and it is also still so hard to accept with, like, wanting to control. But I think, like you said, you know, like, motherhood acts as such a catalyst, because oftentimes, for a lot of women, it’s the first time where we’re not fully in control of, like, how things are going to go. And motherhood is the first time, like, maybe some people have significant injuries where they’re like, damn, I do not know what my future looks like, but for a lot of women, it’s like, it’s maybe they’ve been more manageable little setbacks here and there, but motherhood feels like, man, we’re going through a significant transition. I don’t know what life is fully going to look like on the other side, but it does set up for navigating any other change, any other instance, because you realize, like, you figure it out, and you’re very resilient. It’s not over. Oftentimes, you end up getting better, and if we’re lucky, to stay in the game, whether it’s sport or just in the game, of being like a fit, healthy human, our bodies are going to change anyway, like we are going to get older. Our skin is going to change, our hair is going to change, like, our body fat percentage and whatever, like, all these things are going to subtly or sometimes dramatically change over time anyway, and motherhood just happens to be one of the first, like, almost like slaps, where you’re like, okay, okay, got it. Got it. I realized this, and I know and this is not revolutionary. I know this is common sense, but we’re not always told to think of it that way, because we just assumed, like, well, if I was fit and healthy, I’m gonna have this baby, and then it’s gonna be like, we’re just gonna pick up where we left off. And maybe for some people, it is, but for others it feels like a much more significant process and season of life.

Sarah Newberry Moore  33:56

Yeah, agreed, agreed. And I mean, growing up. I also heard the other side of it from older women, which is like, well, it’s just gonna be like, that. You’re just gonna, yeah, you’re gonna just pee when you run, like, or that’s normal, right? You know, or your body’s never gonna be the same. I heard, I got, I was told this is almost related to having a baby, but not quite. But right before my wedding, I remember somebody telling me, like, it’s the best you’re gonna look in your whole life. And I was like, No, it’s not, like, That’s ridiculous, you know? So, so I think there’s, it’s everyone kind of probably gets different amounts of each side.

Brianna Battles  34:34

Yeah, we have like, such, like, extreme messaging, right? And, like, so much of it is that nuance in the middle of like, it’s not that fragile messaging or the it’s over messaging, but it’s also not the like, unfazed and like you know, invincibility messaging, either like so much of this, no matter how like, again, no matter what level of athlete you are, like most people. Experiences exist in that, like, messy middle with a lot of gray area.

Sarah Newberry Moore  35:04

Yeah, that’s like, what we do with it, you know?

Brianna Battles  35:06

Yeah, yes. So what tell me about, like, training and life and everything right now, and what it looks like for you.

Sarah Newberry Moore  35:14

So multiple babies is harder than one baby. I bet with three, you stop caring as much because you can’t keep track of all of it, but with two, it’s definitely been harder. We’re lucky to have good childcare, which is, which is, have been a game changer, game changer for me as an athlete, for sure. I am back on the water since October, so now it’s January 2026, and I’m training usually, like, five days a week. I would say it depends on the week, right? Because over the holidays or whatever, like, maybe we take a little break, and then I’m back in the gym. I’m trying to be back in the gym four times a week, but that has been really hard. I have been, like, on a plateau, because the holidays happened, and I don’t want to ruin this for anybody out there, but I’m Santa Claus, okay? And that’s what happened, like the the two weeks I was supposed to be on the water, two weeks, you know, this whole period before Christmas, up to the 22nd and I was, like, feverishly wrapping presents from December, like fifth through like 12th. And then I thought I had everything ready, and then I still had family. And what a blessing right to, like, have a family that that you sort of have this role in, but I think it’s really real life, and it’s like, I want to say it here on the podcast, because I want other women to hear it and be like, Yeah, that’s what happened to me too. Like, I fully during the holidays, yeah, and that happens to athletes, and I wish, I kind of wish it didn’t, but I’m slowly trying to, like, keep, like, get back. So three to four times a week, four would be great. But when I’m when I’m on the water training, those sessions are they look a little different. They’re a lot lower impact. Yeah, so the weeks that I’m off are awesome. We can do we’re doing a lot of escalating density training right now. I’m still trying to lean out a little bit, actually, pretty much almost back where I was. I’m 145 pounds right now, but like, I don’t know. It feels like there’s more. I don’t know. My body looks completely different this time, the second pregnancy after the first one. I’m like 145 pounds. But like, my stomach does look different than it used to, which is totally fine. All good. So a lot of escalating density training a lot of just like returning to certain movements and lifts and and even though we’re this far along after the pregnancy now it’s six and a half months, just kind of like continuing to connect with those things, slowly getting back to, like, pistol squats, shrimp squats, Doing a lot of always Bulgarians, which is miserable, and and trying to get the pull ups back to, like, a norm. I have two in a row right now, which is today. I was like, I take it, it’s fine. Two and a half.

Brianna Battles  37:52

That’s great, yeah. I mean six months postpartum, like, I You are still, like, early postpartum. And so it sounds like you’re making great progress and progressing, which is the key like this is, you know, you’re still going to be in that rebuild. And I think that the more patient and strategic you can be, the more dividends that are paid out over time.

Sarah Newberry Moore  38:13

Yeah, and just accepting where I’m at every day. You know, like two days ago, I went into the gym. The baby had been up at 1am 3am 7am okay, this is where I’m at today. I’m gonna do my session and see and see how it feels, and then, yeah, and then try to recover better tonight. Yeah, you just

Brianna Battles  38:34

work with the capacity that you have on any given day, and you work through these seasons. Yeah.

Sarah Newberry Moore  38:40

And I, you know, not to take too much more of your time, but I will say one, one topic, or one thing I would, I think is so important in this process, for for all of us, athletes, or non athletes, is like, if there’s something we want to do, even when it’s feeling like it’s not going to be at the peak performance, like, just showing up and doing it, like, like, for me going to the gym on a morning where I don’t I know that I’m not at 100% recovery, and I know I’m not going to perform the way I want to, but still doing it and then being like, cool, that was fine. I’m okay with where I’m at today. And, like, I just checked the box that actually is progressing my whole goal forward a little bit at a time, yeah, because,

Brianna Battles  39:22

for sure, it’s getting out of that, like, all or nothing mentality, and saying, like, good enough actually is good enough some days. And that’s a really hard, like, adjustment, I think, for athletes to make, because where you still, like, you said optimization, like, I have to be my best self as often as possible. And if I’m in a funk one day, well, it’s just that one day, you know? And it’s hard when you feel like, well, I couldn’t even control this, right? It’s like, the baby that was up, I tried my best and, you know? And so again, it’s another variable that, like, we just don’t always have control of, but ultimately it will, like these are, it’s a very short season in the big picture of our life and potential as an athlete. And that’s the hard thing to have to, like, reframe constantly,

Sarah Newberry Moore  40:03

for sure. And I can say, like, if I can make it to the Olympics, perform at a world class level with it, with a baby and then a toddler. It works this, like, slow and steady thing works postpartum. You can get the job done. You can get the outcome you’re looking for. But my timeline and your timeline, if you’re postpartum or a new mom, is going to look different than a guy, like, it’s going to look different than your competition, who’s like, 24 and single and doesn’t have any children, you know, whose body is not going through that it’s right, just because it’s different. There is not one I really like to think this way about performance in general. Like, there’s not one particular, like, math equation that adds up to this outcome you’re looking for. There’s, like, multiple ways to get there, like, it’s not a plus b equals c. It’s like, all these different variables in your life can just add up in their own way, and your performance may actually exceed that of the people around you who seem like they’re checking the boxes in the right order. You know,

Brianna Battles  41:03

no, absolutely, honestly. Sarah, I like, love this conversation because it’s, it talks about, like, I think you did an amazing job acknowledging the different variables of, like, the athlete psychology, and then how that shows up in motherhood and the motherhood experience. And, you know, something that I think we we overlook when talking about, like, Oh, this is how you should train during pregnancy, or what the recovery looks like. It’s like none of that even matters until you address the like psychology and the mindset and like the mental evolution that happens to the athlete. You can make all the modifications, all the training adjustments, or keep trying to achieve all of this during pregnancy or postpartum, but it’s like, mindset, yeah, mindset and that approach and the levels of grace and change and adaptability that’s going to have the longest lasting impact. And you highlighted so much of that.

Sarah Newberry Moore  41:51

Well, I’m so happy I hit all those things on the head. And, yeah, one thing I would add is, if you’re surrounded by people who are not facilitating that, that also is something we’re thinking about. You know, if you’re going through that experience and the people around you are not conducive to that mindset, you know, they don’t get it is so

Brianna Battles  42:07

true, yeah, and that’s including, like, what you who you follow, what you look at, the environment in your training, and you have to be around people that support you as a woman and as a mother and as an athlete, and without making a bad about any one of those categories, for sure, agreed. Well, Sarah, where can people follow you and like, just be part of your, part of your journey as you make another run?

Sarah Newberry Moore  42:33

Well, thanks so much. My Instagram handle is Sarah Newberry Moore, and actually, coming up this spring, I’m releasing a YouTube series about the journey to La 2028 hopefully it will be a documentary one day, but for now, like maybe eight episodes a year, and I hope that will be really inspiring and exciting for other athletes, and especially other moms who are athletic or athletes themselves, to kind of Watch that journey unfold, and I’ll share it with you when we release the first episode.

Brianna Battles  43:04

Oh, that sounds so great. Well, thank you so much for sharing your time. I appreciate you. Thank you.

Brianna Battles  43:14

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the practice brave podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review and help us spread the work we are doing to improve the overall information and messaging in the fitness industry and beyond. Now, if you are pregnant and you are looking for a trustworthy exercise program to follow, I have you covered. The pregnant athlete training program is a well rounded program for pregnancy with workouts for each week that are appropriate for your changing body. That’s 36 weeks of workouts, three to four workouts each week, and tons of guidance on exercise strategy. We also have an at home version of that program. If you are postpartum and you’re looking for an exercise program to follow. The eight week postpartum athlete training program would be a really great way to help bridge the gap between rehab and the fitness you actually want to do. From there, we have the practice brave fitness program, which is an ongoing strength conditioning program where you get new workouts each week and have a lot of guidance for myself and my co coach, Heather Osby, this is the only way that I’m really offering ongoing coaching at this point in time. If you have ever considered becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism coach, I would love to have you join us. Pregnancy and postpartum athleticism is a self paced online certification course that will up level your coaching skills and help connect the dots between pelvic health and long term athletic performance, especially during pregnancy and postpartum, become who you needed and become who your online and local community needs by becoming a certified pregnancy and postpartum athleticism Coach, thank you again for listening to the practice brave podcast. I appreciate you, and please help me continue spreading. This messaging, this information and this work.