Wedding Fitness – Training for the Big Day and Beyond

The Jewish Exponent
Weddings Special Supplement
June 2005

Andrea Eisenstein is getting married in less than six months. She’s booked the catering hall. She’s hired the band. She’s found the perfect dress. The future Mrs. Sherman has consulted all the necessary experts to make her wedding day perfect: her caterer, her florist, her photographer, her videographer, and her personal trainer.

Since last September, Eisenstein has been working two days a week with Jennifer Joseph, a certified personal trainer and founder of Philly FITBRIDES ™, a personal training program designed for brides-to-be.

“I starting working with Jennifer to get fit and prepare for my exciting wedding day,” says Eisenstein. “My goal is to become physically fit for my everyday life, but I have some specific goals at this time. I am working hard to become stronger, lose weight, create a longer and leaner line, and to sculpt specific muscles that will show more in my wedding gown. Who doesn't want to feel their best at their wedding?”

Like Eisenstein, many brides are signing on with personal trainers to get in shape for their weddings. To look great in those once-in-a-lifetime dresses. To feel confident when family, friends and guests – whether 25 or 200 – are watching their every move during the service and reception. And to look at their pictures with pride and happiness.

“It’s all about the pictures,” suggests Sharyn Pak, a certified trainer, owner of Bringing Fitness to You and host of the local cable show by the same name. Pak has worked with many brides, as well as mothers-of-the-bride and mothers-of-the-groom, to help them lose weight and get in shape. “No one wants to look back and say: ‘I can’t believe how heavy I was.’” she says.

For Eisenstein, the work she does with Joseph is less about fitting into her dress for just one day – although she was thrilled to discover she needed a smaller size wedding dress – and more about becoming fit and healthy, dealing with the stress of planning her wedding, and looking and feeling terrific on her special day.

“I’m making this effort to be healthy and to prepare for such an important day in my life,” she says. “I’m hoping to look fabulous on my wedding day, but more importantly, feel fabulous about myself – my efforts, my improved health and my accomplishments in my weight loss goals.”

Motivation, Guidance, Commitment

Personal training is often about getting clients to work out in ways they won’t on their own, says Joseph, who started Philly FITBRIDES last year after discovering that more than half her clients were engaged or planning to get engaged. Working one-on-one with a personal trainer offers brides in-the-moment motivation, as well as guidance and expertise.

“Most brides I work with are gym goers,” Joseph explains. “Most of them do at least something. They go a couple of times a week. Some do a lot of cardio[vascular training] but nothing for midsection or upper body. They might not know what to do or how to use the equipment. I give them direction. And motivation. If you have someone else with you, it motivates you.”

Eisenstein confesses that while she is committed to getting in shape, she needs some extra help.

“I have difficulty motivating myself to do cardio,” she admits. “Jennifer will find fun ways for me to get my cardio done, on the trampoline or boxing, for example. She will also do cardio machines with me as extra motivation.”

Both Joseph and Pak travel in vehicles jam-packed with fitness equipment. Pak will run or mountain bike (she brings the bikes) with her clients, although she steers her brides toward safer fitness activities as the wedding approaches, since a bride in a cast is not a good thing. Joseph claims she can even make walking down the street a fun fitness activity. And both trainers create individualized programs, which include cardio and strength training, based on their clients’ fitness levels and goals.

The months preceding the wedding are very hectic and it’s easy for brides to let their personal health and fitness fall to the bottom of their Wedding To-Do List. And suddenly it’s too late. Meeting with a personal trainer two or three times a week is a built-in commitment in an already overfilled schedule.

“I think accountability is a huge part of any relationship – including one with a personal trainer,” says Joseph. “You can always let yourself down and get over it. But it’s more difficult to let someone else down, especially someone you’re paying. And at some level the relationship is also personal between you and the trainer.”

Start Early and Work Hard

Pak and Joseph beg you: start early – don’t wait until it’s too late.

“If you want to get in shape, leave yourself some time,” exhorts Pak. “I’m not like the florist. I can’t just create a look for you. I wish I could. But it’s a team effort. It’s me and the client.” Give yourself enough time to comfortably reach your goals.

Philly FITBRIDES offers a twelve-week package, the minimum Joseph feels you need to see real results. But, she stresses, it’s better to start as early as possible. Waiting too long can sabotage a bride’s efforts to get fit.

“Brides go crazy before their weddings and making and keeping appointments is very difficult,” Joseph says. “It’s better if brides start before hand and give themselves the time. Our time to work out is meant to be stress-free. A time to relax. But if there are so many other things going on, you won’t be able to relax and focus. Most of the brides I work with now started months ago and aren’t getting married until mid-summer, if not the fall or winter.”

Joseph also counsels brides to set realistic goals. Choosing an unreasonable goal – either for the amount of time you have or for your body type and existing fitness level – is a sure set up for failure or worse, injuries and health problems, she says.

“Make this a priority, but don’t be too hard on yourself,” she says. “It’s easy for brides to get bummed if they don’t meet their goals. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a little slip. And don’t compare yourself to others. Everybody takes their own path to reach a goal.”

Like Joseph, Pak prefers to have as much time as possible to help clients met their fitness goals, but she is quick to point out that even brides who don’t have three or six months can work out to look and feel better, even up to the last minute. (Bonus tip for those with sleeveless dresses: do exercises that work the biceps, triceps and shoulder muscles right before getting dressed. Working those muscles pumps them up, making you look fitter. The effect lasts only a few hours, but it’s enough to get you through the pictures!)

Brides with only a few weeks to go can focus on “problem areas.”

“What’s sticking out where it shouldn’t be?” Pak asks. That’s where she’ll focus her client’s efforts. What does the design of the dress highlight? Sleeveless dresses draw attention to shoulders and arms. Plunging neck and back lines highlight chests and backs, and sheath dresses put midsections on display.

The closer to the wedding, the less Pak has her brides focus on their legs.

“With rare exception, brides wear big skirts so you don’t see their legs, except perhaps briefly if they’re doing the garter thing,” Pak explains. “Most dresses highlight the upper body, abs, and arms. So you focus on the stuff you can see, the stuff you can change.”

Both Joseph and Pak meet with their bridal clients at least twice a week. And both trainers stress that these sessions alone are not enough to achieve significant weight loss or fitness goals.

“In order to be successful, the bride-to-be needs to do her part,” says Joseph. “I will do everything I can in the two hours we meet to make your body look great. But there are a lot of other hours in the day that I can’t control. What you put in your mouth is up to you. What other exercises you do, it’s up to you. People think of trainers as miracle workers. I’ve had people say: “okay, now fix me.’ We can do a lot, but it has to be a partnership. We have to do it together. I’ll do my part, you do yours.”

Pak gives her clients “homework.” She recommends cardiovascular training five days a week to jump start weight loss, if that’s a bride’s goal. As the wedding approaches, Pak encourages more resistance training to tone and sculpt muscles. Joseph also expects her brides to “do cardio” five days a week and to keep this level of training consistent through all twelve weeks of her program, and beyond.

Enjoy the Rewards

A bride who follows her trainer’s advice will see an appreciable difference in her body in three months, promises Joseph.

“A bride who is doing 45-60 minutes of cardio on her off days, 20-30 minutes on our days together, and eating healthily, can expect to lose one to two pounds per week,” she says. “She’ll lose weight, have less body fat, have shapely shoulders, upper body and arms, and a tight midsection. And she’ll know she’s worked hard and deserves the rewards.”

And the rewards go beyond losing weight and shaping up. You’ll stand taller, with better posture, and move with grace and confidence. You’ll look and feel better, promises Pak.

And perhaps the best benefit of working with a trainer is stress reduction.

“The stress of planning a wedding is incredible,” says Pak. “Exercise helps the stress. People get freaked out about the minute details and if nothing else, exercise helps people put things in perspective.”

Eisenstein agrees.

“I have to tell you that I’m a stress-free bride,” she says. “And I think that working out with Jennifer really helps with that. When I’ve gotten frustrated, I just box it out. Jennifer likes to hear about my wedding plans, too. So working out and talking about wedding planning with Jennifer makes it all fun.”