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Joslyn Thompson Rule is one of London’s most beloved fitness instructors and a Nike Global Master Trainer. She’s also a mum to two boys and the host of the Fitness Unfiltered podcast.
Here we talk to her about how motherhood has changed her and her views on the polarising topics of mum guilt and breastfeeding.
Nike Global Master Trainer on motherhood and maternity sportswear
Motherhood
Joslyn Thompson Rule is no stranger to juggling a busy full-time job and family life. She’s one of London’s most in-demand trainers and is soon to become a published author after penning her first book during lockdown. So how does she keep her mind and body in check between caring for her children?
“It’s a continued work in progress for me. I can go and go and go but I’m very mindful that the rest piece has to come in,” she says.
“When I was writing the book I thought how am I going to write this as we’re still in lockdown and the kids are home. They wake up around 7am so I got up at 5am and that was my quiet time when I knew I could just get words on the page. That forced me to get to bed earlier.”
“Sleep conquers all,” she adds. “When you’re not getting sleep and you’re just functioning you’re like ‘yeah I can do it’ but when you start getting it you’re like I feel really shitty when I’m tired.”
Breastfeeding
Joslyn always wanted to create her own path as a mum. However, she acknowledges society puts pressure on women, especially when it comes to breastfeeding.
“I certainly don’t feel the pressure about what other people think around how I am when I’m pregnant, the birth I had, or whether I breastfed or not. I’m like keep your opinions to yourself,” she says.
“I think it’s so important to do what is right for you and your baby. If you’re stressing about trying to breastfeed and it’s not happening just do what you can with the resources you have. I think this applies to every area of your life.”
Similarly, she notes conflicting information about training when you’re pregnant can cause confusion for women.
“While the area of pre and postnatal is growing in terms of people coaching it and understanding it, there are still so many questions from women around what they are allowed to do when they’re pregnant. A client of mine as soon as I fell pregnant with Bjorn said ‘you can’t train me anymore, right?’ and I was like I’m pregnant, I’m not sick!”
Maternity sportswear
Nike has recently launched a new ground-breaking maternity collection, which Joslyn hopes will encourage women to stay active during pregnancy and beyond.
“I’m just jealous it wasn’t around for when I had my two babies,” she says. “I think it’s fantastic because when you have the right workout gear and it looks nice you just feel better. Before I just had to buy bigger sizes to fit over my bump.”
More about Nike’s new maternity line
Nike (M), the activewear giant’s first maternity range, has been designed specifically for new and expectant mums. The four-piece consists of a pullover, sports bra, tank top and leggings.
“A priority while designing the Nike (M) collection was that it doesn’t necessarily look maternity. We wanted the collection to effortlessly fit into your life,” says Carmen Zolman, Nike Senior Design Director for Apparel Innovation.
“I distinctly remember being pregnant, even 10 years ago now, and how I felt when I could no longer fit in my Nike sports apparel but wanted to stay active. Transitioning to maternity at the time felt like abandoning my personal style and performance needs and impacted my confidence in staying active.
“For example in the tank top which in traditional maternity collections might utilise ruching on the side of the belly for shaping we engineered the necessary growth changes of the belly into the stretch and recovery of the fabric and the pattern engineering.”
Designers spent three years fine-tuning the range and worked closely with 30 female athletes who were pregnant or postpartum to gather detailed feedback. They also analysed 150,000 body scans.
And it shows in the clothing, especially the sports bra. This is an essential piece of kit for any woman and it’s even more important for a mum-to-be that it does the job. Nike’s first maternity bra offers medium support for yoga and gym workouts and is also nurse-friendly.
So why is now the right time to launch the range? “Overall health and wellness has been growing for a number of years and especially for her and specifically around pregnancy,” says Carmen.
“We noticed many women hacking their Nike apparel to make it work for them longer throughout their pregnancy as it already provided much of the performance, comfort, and style they were looking for. We wanted to bring the full power of Nike sport science to maternity and truly listen, learn and innovate for her at this stage of motherhood so it could be a new stage – not a stop
– in her sport journey.”
To listen to the full interview with Joslyn Thompson Rule tune into this week’s DOSE Hacking Happiness podcast.
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