Former Sutherland Shire representative and Sydney Swifts netballer Kimberley (Kimmy) Smith says fitness was “always a huge part of my life”.
So, it was a blow when, as a result of postnatal complications from the birth of her first daughter, Allegra, she could no longer do all her normal high intensity exercises.
That situation and other experiences in her new role as a mother, set her on the path to developing “a fitness and yoga app, designed for busy Mums”.
It appears to be a successful business venture for Ms Smith, of Cronulla, who was a lawyer during her netball career before becoming a professional personal trainer.
The Fit Mummy App, with more than 40 workout videos covering early postnatal, strength, fitness, yoga, Barre and meditation, was released in July.
Ms Smith said the app, priced at $14.99, was the fourth most popular on the iTunes Store on the day it was released and, since then, there had been 20,000 downloads.
“It was quite difficult to put it all together, filming all the segments and then developing the app,” she said.
“I hired a videographer because I wanted it to be high quality.
“It was quite a long process, and had its moments working from home with two little girls around.
“But, I think the hardest part was just getting it out there.
“I am just one woman competing with multi-million dollar organisations.”
Ms Smith said she used her experience as a professional athlete, personal trainer and mother to create a program that allowed women to do high quality exercise at home in 10-15 minutes a day.
“A large majority of women are affected by some form of postnatal complication,” she said.
“For me, it was a personal struggle when I couldn’t do the exercises I was used to doing.
“I derive a lot of my identity and self-worth from being fit and high-achieving, and a lot of that relates to exercise.
“I found exercising at home was really frustrating.
“I was looking up programs on line, but I found they were either very slow or not designed for my body.
“They were also very long and, while also looking after the girls, I would never get through the whole thing.
“They were also very expensive.
“I had the idea of trying to do something, which was respectful to a woman’s body but still motivational, fun and affordable.”
Ms Smith said she wanted to build on it by partnering with health professionals to produce programs for specific groups of women such as those in pregnancy, suffering postnatal depression or with mental health needs.