{"id":16429,"date":"2016-06-29T09:02:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T16:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicalfitnessnetwork.org\/public\/?p=16429"},"modified":"2020-05-18T09:41:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:41:52","slug":"member-spotlight-gina-fontaine-perinatal-fitness-specialist-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/member-spotlight-gina-fontaine-perinatal-fitness-specialist-in-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"Member Spotlight: Gina Fontaine, Perinatal Fitness Specialist in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Name: <\/strong>Gina Fontaine
\nLocation<\/strong>: Denver, CO
\nWebsite: <\/strong>www.powerpregnancypro.com
\nMember Since:<\/strong> 2015
\nOccupation:\u00a0<\/strong>Perinatal Fitness Specialist<\/p>\n

How did you hear about MFN?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trevor Wicken.<\/p>\n

How do you or your business help those with chronic disease\/medical conditions or who need pre & postnatal care? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Power of Pregnancy is a holistic approach to prenatal exercise.\u00a0 Our goal is to teach pregnant women how to navigate the physical and emotional changes of pregnancy with greater ease by providing education and interactive support.\u00a0 Our foundation is based upon functional fitness for pregnancy and childbirth, yoga, and meditation.<\/p>\n

\"powerofpregnancy-logo\"Power of Pregnancy educates women about their dramatically changing pregnant bodies and how to safely exercise during pregnancy.\u00a0 Additionally, we provide guidance on stress management using mindfulness based techniques that incorporate breath, yoga and meditation.\u00a0 Participants will develop a relationship of trust in their bodies to guide healthy, self-directed decision making during pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we offer a 12 hour CEC approved Perinatal Fitness workshop to teach wellness professionals how to develop a business centered around providing services to this demographic.<\/p>\n

What makes you different from all the other fitness professionals out there? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I see myself as the fitness pro who is striving to reach the 80% who aren’t exercising regularly.\u00a0 I encourage movement as the thread that holds a person’s day together.\u00a0 Without it, everything falls apart.\u00a0 The notion of carving out a separate time for exercise just doesn’t work for the average busy American, especially with the population I work with- Moms.<\/p>\n

Sets and reps and regimented workouts work well in the research lab but, realistically, moms just need to learn how to move efficiently so that every movement in her day contributes to her well being.\u00a0 When movement feels good, she will crave it and seek more opportunities to move throughout her day.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite activity or class to participate in?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I begin each day with yoga whether it is just a few sun salutations or a full hour practice.\u00a0 Playing at the playground with my 3 kids and pretending like we are on a Ninja Warrior circuit is a favorite activity now that it’s summer.\u00a0 As a family, we also enjoy hiking and camping in our home state of Colorado. I enjoy daily walks at the lake near our house which offers a stunning view of Red Rocks Amphitheater.<\/p>\n

\"JuliaWhat is one piece of advice that you would give other fitness professionals about working with special populations or those who need pre & postnatal care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

During pregnancy, I find that there are two ends of the spectrum with women wanting to exercise.\u00a0 There are those who are afraid of their pregnant bodies and, therefore, they hesitate to exercise.\u00a0 Then there are those who feel pregnancy shouldn’t slow them down.\u00a0 They run marathons, continue high intensity workouts and work long hours.<\/p>\n

There is no right or wrong.\u00a0 It is important for professionals to know the risks of landing on either side of this continuum and support women toward the ultimate goal of pregnancy \u2013 to have a healthy baby.<\/p>\n

I serve as chairman of the Student Accountability Committee at my children’s school and I teach religious education at our church.<\/p>\n

What is one of your favorite memories involving working with someone that has a health challenge or disability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I began working with Marianne in her 8th<\/sup> week of pregnancy who was 6’2″ with moderate scoliosis.\u00a0 She was terrified of what pregnancy would do to her back.\u00a0 We began working together 3 days per week.\u00a0 By the end of her pregnancy she commented, “Working with Gina Fontaine made a world of di\ufb00erence and I can honestly say that I had zero back pain during my pregnancy.\u00a0 Workouts consisting of a mix of weight training, yoga, and stretching made all the di\ufb00erence and have left me feeling better in my ninth-month than I felt pre-pregnancy.”<\/p>\n

What would you like to see change\/develop\/emerge in the future of healthcare and the fitness industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I perceive the present relationship between healthcare and fitness to be one of skepticism.\u00a0 Understandably, this is the case when a person can become a personal trainer in a weekend.\u00a0 The question is how can fitness professionals with outstanding credentials be distinguished from the weekend warriors.<\/p>\n

I would like to see a tiered system of accrediting fitness professionals based on degrees, certifications and years of experience.\u00a0 This system would be recognized by medical professionals and could be used as a resource to open the conversation about developing a patient referral relationship.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I envision a healthcare model that incentivizes preventative health by offering health savings accounts that can pay for fitness, nutrition and massage services.<\/p>\n

And what are you doing to make this happen?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am bringing my Power of Pregnancy program into the employee wellness market beginning with a school district in Colorado.\u00a0 The district’s health insurance provider will be paying for half of the employees’ fee for the class.\u00a0 I envision bringing this model to other employee wellness programs that this insurance provider serves and tracking birth outcomes and gestational weight gain as markers of <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

efficacy for a guided, specific approach to prenatal exercise.<\/p>\n

If you think about it, the future health of our country depends on pregnant moms.\u00a0 Their health behaviors set the tone for a healthy start for their babies.\u00a0 Furthermore, pregnancy is huge motivator for adopting healthy habits.\u00a0 We need to capitalize on this critical time.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite fitness\/inspirational\/motivational quote? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you – a joy.” ~Rumi<\/p>\n

Anything else we should know about you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Power of Pregnancy 12 hour course is accredited with National Exercise Trainers Association.\u00a0 I can bring this program (minimum 8 participants) to your gym, studio or wellness center.\u00a0 Contact me about how you can tap your business and your staff into this growing and viable market.\u00a0 Contact me at yoginigina@gmail.com<\/p>\n

View Gina’s MFN profile \u00bb<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gina Fontaine is the owner of Power of Pregnancy, offering a holistic approach to prenatal exercise, in Denver, CO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[205],"class_list":["post-16429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-member-spotlight"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}