Nancy Karabaic: helping moms fit in fitness

BY MITCHELL TROPIN
PHOTOS BY JULIE WIATT

When Nancy Karabaic got the notion of developing exercise programs for pregnant women, she was somewhat shocked to learn there was virtually no information on the subject. The only guidance came from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who essentially said that a pregnant woman should exercise very little and do it carefully.

Since then, Karabaic has developed her own body of knowledge on the effects and benefits of exercise for pregnant moms. With that knowledge, she has been offering the only exercise programs in the area that are specially tailored to help both expectant and new mothers.

Karabaic's studio, High Energy Fitness, offers classes and one-on-one personal training. Much of what she teaches comes from her own experience as a woman who exercised extensively through much of her own pregnancy. In fact, she was exercising until a few days before she gave birth to her son, Grant.

Unlike the stereotypical personal trainer, with an exaggerated physique, bulging muscles, and severely narrow waist, Karabaic is a distance runner, of medium height and build and with pinned-up long brown hair. Her appearance works in her favor because she is not intimidating to her clients.

"I'm thin; not overly built. I look like someone you would see in a crowd," she says.

A full-time trainer since 1996, Karabaic started her moms' classes in September 1999, the year she gave birth. Two moms from her maternity support group joined the class together, and since then, her classes have grown in number and attendance, and are offered Monday through Thursday.

A native of Queens, New York, Karabaic enjoys all types of sports. Running, biking, swimming, and weight training have always been a regular part of her lifestyle, dating back to her youth.

She remembers quite vividly a unique televised sports event from the 1970s, ABC's Battle of the Sports All-Stars, which had men from football, track and field, cycling, boxing, golf, and a dozen other sports compete against each other in biking, rowing, running, and obstacle courses, to determine who was the best all-around athlete. Karabaic was intrigued by the notion that someone could be involved in several forms of exercise and not be limited to any one.

Graduating college with a degree in political science, Karabaic came to Washington in 1981 to work for a congress member from New York. Exercise was becoming a more prominent part of Karabaic's lifestyle. She started competing in marathons and then triathlons, which combine swimming, running, and biking. Soon she began considering becoming an instructor.

"Exercise felt good, and I looked good. I thought, ‘what fun it would be to teach!'" she says.

Noting the misleading image of personal trainers, Karabaic says she prefers to be thought of as a teacher. Her clients also appreciate the fact that she has gone through what they are experiencing.

While starting her new career as a trainer, Karabaic searched for information about exercise and pregnancy. Without much material available, she talked to women about their experiences. To her surprise, she found that some women could exercise longer into their pregnancy than they expected.

She also found she was one of those women. She became pregnant herself at age 39, and experimented with different levels and types of exercise. Already an avid biker, Karabaic continued cycling until the seventh month of her pregnancy. She even completed a 100-mile ride when she was five months pregnant.

Eventually, she says, the changes in her body affected her balance, and she had to give up bicycling outdoors. Determined to keep pedaling, she switched to an indoor bike.

"I said to myself, ‘I'll just keep going.""

She also kept running for much of her pregnancy, maintaining a tough schedule of five- and six-mile runs seven days a week. As her pregnancy progressed, she did become more cautious and slowed down, but continued many of the exercises she did before her pregnancy, including weight training.

In the first trimester of her pregnancy, Karabaic got a delightful surprise. Running a five-kilometer race in Frederick, Md., she found that she was running faster than ever, earning her third place in her age group. Ecstatic, but puzzled over the results, Karabaic talked to her doctor, who explained that her pregnancy gave her an advantage. Her body had higher blood levels because it was "building a placenta." The higher levels gave her more oxygen in her system, which improved her speed.

Karabaic continued running until three days before she delivered her baby. She remembers that run. "I knew the baby was coming, and this was going to be our last run together."

She cautions that while many of the changes that pregnancy causes are common in all expectant mothers, no two pregnancies are alike.

"I was lucky to be doing as much I could for so long into my pregnancy," she says. "A lot of fit friends could not continue for as long as I did."

After that pregnancy, Karabaic discovered that being in shape before becoming pregnant makes a major difference. But she stresses that women should make exercise part of their lives for other reasons.

"Physical fitness just makes your life much better; your body is operating at maximum capacity," she says. "You go through illness quicker and you recover much quicker."

Karabaic offers two different types of classes for moms. One is a "walk and tone" class through local parks, which can be taken by moms, dads, or both parents, and the other class, circuit weight training, is held in her home gym. Clients lift free weights, get cardiovascular benefit from treadmills and stationary bicycles, and do abdominal work and stretches.

Women can start regardless of their level of fitness, and are encouraged to bring their children with them.

"Whether you had a very easy pregnancy or were on bed rest for months, you can get fit and get your body back," she says. "The class is like a support group for moms and a playgroup for babies."

Karabaic's training regimens are based on the philosophy that the best program is a simple one that can be done every day. She prescribes exercises that can easily become part of a woman's daily routine–"like waking up and brushing your teeth; not thinking about it; it's part of your life," she says.

Karabaic also creates exercise programs for mothers who work and who are having children later in their lives. With family and work making tremendous demands on a woman's time and energy, her programs focus on developing a steady lifestyle where a woman has a certain amount of time every day.

"I'll ask the client, ‘Can you give me an hour every day?' If you can't, don't ask for an hour's worth of exercise," she says. "But once we determine the amount of time, we will create a program that maximizes her use of that time. That's my job."

Karabaic strongly recommends that new mothers do their exercises in the morning before everyone else has awakened.

"The mother needs to create a program that is ‘win-win' for her and her family," she says. "Doing exercise in the evening does not work well. If you are coming home from work, you may already feel tired. You also may feel guilty taking time away from your family by exercising. Besides, after making dinner and putting the kids to sleep, you're probably ready for bed. Then the mother starts feeling discouraged about lacking energy."

To help facilitate their training, Karabaic says, mothers should find a place in her home for exercise that is bright and cheerful, not the dark corner of a basement.

Karabaic also has found that many new moms tend to be overly enthusiastic about resuming their exercise regimen.

"Most of the time, I have to hold them back from exercise. I know from personal experience that they need to take it slow," she says.

In a similar vein, she advises mothers to take it slowly when it comes to losing the weight they have gained. Rapid weight loss after a pregnancy is not advisable because of the changes in the mother's hormones, she says.

"It took nine months to put on the weight, and they should take nine months to take it off," she says.

Free weights also should be part of a new mother's routine because it speeds up the body's metabolism and improves the body's tone, she says, adding that women should not fear developing big, bulky muscles from weight training.

"All women see are bodybuilders; they don't realize women like myself use weight training," she says. "If only models started doing weight training!"

Karabaic has discovered over the years that there are several false myths about exercising during pregnancy that unnecessarily deter women. She often hears the erroneous statement that exercising can make breast milk taste bad.

"Women were told that exercise creates lactic acid, which can be absorbed into the mother's milk, but a woman would have to do an enormous amount of exercise to make enough lactic acid to affect the taste," she says.

As a runner, Karabaic tends to participate in the growing number of all-women races that take place in the Washington area. She says there is something special about these events–there is a certain camaraderie to them, and there are often quite a few first-time runners.

"It's nice to enjoy the freshness of their experience," she says. "I see a lot of women who have trained together to do this, and by participating, I can help support them."

For more information about Karabaic's High Energy Fitness, visit her web site, www.nancykarabaic.com.