“I started teaching fitness as a side hustle, really never anticipating it would be anything more than that,” Roup shares. She spent her life as a dancer and studied at NYU’s prestigious Tisch Dance Program. After graduation, she focused on auditioning and dancing professionally. She took a job as a fitness instructor to make ends meet in an expensive city like New York. Within a couple of weeks, Roup says she fell in love with teaching. “I just loved connecting with women and being able to share my passion of movement with others,” she explains. “I saw the direct impact I could have, and that was just really, really exciting to me.” Roup launched The Sculpt Society in 2017. The dance-based fitness classes are a mix of cardio and sculpting using light weights, ankle bands, and other props. You don’t have to be a dancer to enjoy her classes, as she specifically designed them for all levels. “The emphasis is really about feeling good and having fun,” Roup notes. In late 2019, she launched The Sculpt Society app, bringing her workouts online to people everywhere. “At that time, I would have people come to my class from different parts of the country and the world, and I constantly was getting the feedback, ‘I wish I could take your class with me,’" Roup says. “Every time I was teaching in real life, it was amazing. But I wanted to bottle up that experience for people and make evergreen content.” The app continued to expand as the pandemic took hold in early 2020. After she announced her pregnancy in January of 2021, she used the opportunity to truly connect with her fans and created a library of over 100 pre-and post-natal classes. “It’s broken up [by] trimester, and it’s really robust—most of the videos I filmed while I was pregnant,” Roup says. “I’m really proud of the content and giving women a safe way to work out throughout their entire pregnancy and into postpartum.” [Editor’s note: The Sculpt Society’s Mama program was named as one of the Best Online Prenatal Workouts of 2021 by Verywell Family.] Despite her upbeat classes and the energetic Reels she posts on Instagram to her nearly 260,000 followers, Roup says she didn’t love the experience of being pregnant. “I have been transparent throughout my pregnancy journey and postpartum because I think people don’t want to talk about not enjoying pregnancy,” Roup says. She admits that she felt a bit of guilt, especially after seeing close friends and family suffer pregnancy loss or undergo fertility issues. “It’s a hard subject to navigate when you’re supposed to be so happy,” she shares. “We can be happy but also not love the physical experience of being pregnant.” Even as a fitness pro, Roup was surprised by how taxing it was on her body. “Just the physicality of it, you know—you’re growing, you’re uncomfortable,” she notes. “I just didn’t feel at home in my body for most of the pregnancy.” In addition to the physical changes, Roup was grappling with the emotional and hormonal changes, as well. After she gave birth, she started to feel more like herself again. “Even my husband said to me, ‘it’s so nice to have my wife back.’ He saw how I really struggled in pregnancy and how that affected me.” Her husband Morgan Humphrey became the company’s COO in March of 2021, and the two currently work together from their Los Angeles home. Roup says that if she does have a second child, she’ll be better prepared for the experience and have a more realistic expectation of her journey. Getting back to feeling like herself has obviously included movement, as she says working out is her meditation. “I feel like a different person after I’ve moved,” Roup says. “Getting outside is really important in just keeping my overall spirits up. As far as my fourth trimester, whether it’s a walk around the block or doing Sculpt Society, it’s really helped me stay positive and get out of my head.” As much as she is head over heels in love with baby Harlow, she’s trying to carve out time for herself and her husband, as well. “Self-care gets a bad rap,” Roup says, “like, you’re so self-indulgent that you’re doing these things. You can still incorporate self-care in micro ways. For me, I’ve recently incorporated dry brushing, but it’s not like I’m sitting there dry brushing for an hour. I’m literally doing it for two minutes.” Doing tasks, such as simply drinking a cup of coffee or taking a five-minute walk outside, are helping Roup feel recharged. She adds, “Even just putting on lip balm and mascara and a regular outfit—getting out of my pajamas [helps]!” Now that her husband is also working for her company, they are able to take turns with the baby while working from home. When the baby goes go to sleep, they try to prioritize each other. “We have [had a night out without the baby],” Roup shares. “When I initially got pregnant, it was discussed that we really wanted to make time for our relationship.” Roup completely recognizes that not everyone has family close by or the means for a babysitter. For them, going out to dinner once every two weeks for some alone time is beneficial. Follow along as Roup shares how she balances pumping with sculpting, and see exactly what she eats for lunch (one-handed, most likely). Tuesday 7 a.m. I’ve been up for an hour. I’m, unfortunately, exclusively pumping because we had some latch issues. It was really the only way we could figure out breastfeeding. I pump before Harlow gets up, which is between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. I go downstairs, I strap on a pump and I pump for about 30 minutes. If Harlow gets up while I’m still pumping, my husband will go get her. By 7 a.m., I’ve finished that pumping session, and I have a bottle ready for her. She’s a slow eater—I would say it takes about 30 to 45 minutes for her to eat. My husband will bottle feed her with my breast milk. We switch off, but whoever is not feeding her will usually be making the coffee. I’m a big French press coffee girl, and then we both like to have something light in the morning like fruit. We both eat an apple, which sounds really boring! 8 a.m. My husband and I both like to work out so we flip flop. Now that I’m cleared to work out [after giving birth], I’ve been throwing on one of my videos, which I know probably sounds super weird! But it’s the type of movement that I love and especially at this stage in my recovery, I just need some instruction myself. I do one of my pelvic floor and 360 breathing postpartum classes and then throw on a gentle sculpt video. 9 a.m. I take over for my husband and play with Harlow. She’s still sleeping a lot. Her wake time is really only between 30 to 60 minutes after each feed, and then she’s napping. I put her down for her morning nap after a few minutes. 10:30 a.m. I am pumping again. I’ll either have Harlow next to me as she is sleeping or my husband will have her while I pump. I’m also trying to work while I pump. I have a station set up on my kitchen table where I have my computer and my pump. I can—at least try,—to get work done. I answer emails. Usually, in the morning, I’ll have a call or a Zoom meeting. 11 a.m. Harlow gets a bottle. She eats every three to four hours. It’s pretty much on-demand—there’s really no schedule. The same flow happens again. My husband feeds her while I’m working or if he has a call, we will flip flop. 12 p.m. My husband makes lunch. We love to have eggs and avocado. I love Ezekiel bread, so we’ll make toast with Kite Hill cream cheese, or a big salad with goat cheese or feta cheese. Those are my go-to’s. 1 p.m. I really try and allocate a couple of hours a few times a week to shooting content: partnership content or my own for social media. It’s such a big part of my job—really connecting with my community—and shooting that content. I organize my calendar with what and when I am posting to Instagram. I edit photos, videos, and reels during this time. While I’m doing this, I pump again around 2:30 p.m. 3 p.m. We feed Harlow again. After every feed, we like to incorporate activities like black and white cards, reading to her, and taking her outside for a little vitamin D. After it’s been a little [while after] her feed, we’ll do tummy time. Those are the main activities that we try and incorporate when she’s not sleeping. 4 p.m. We go outside for a walk with her around the neighborhood and get some vitamin D. 5:30 p.m. I pump again. If I am to look at the positive of exclusively pumping, which has been tough on certain days, it is nice to have help. Morgan [my husband] does love to feed her and have that bonding time. I don’t know that he would necessarily get that if I wasn’t pumping, so it is nice to be able to hand off some of those feeds to him. 6:30 p.m. We do bath time, which I think is really fun. It’s just like a really intimate family bonding time. As they get older, I hear it gets even more fun, but [even now] Harlow loves bath time. Afterward, we lotion her up. We give her a little baby massage. We really try and set the tone for nighttime and get her on that day versus night track. 7 p.m. We read her a book. We dim the lights. We feed her, and then we put her down to sleep. Usually around 7:30 p.m., I’m making dinner, so Morgan and I will sit down and eat dinner. If I still have work to get done, I’ll work on the computer editing videos for The Sculpt Society app and answer emails. I study the next day’s workload so that I’m organized. Around 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m, I’m pumping again. Harlow is actually getting close to [sleeping through the night]. She usually gets up for a dream feed around 10 p.m. Sometimes she doesn’t, and she usually sleeps until around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., but she’s stretching it! I’m neither a morning nor a night person—I’m always tired. I try and get in bed as early as possible. If it wasn’t for my pumping schedule, I would probably be in bed at 9 p.m. I dropped my middle-of-the-night pump because it was killing me. I really try and stretch my last pump as late as I possibly can, which is usually around 10 p.m. I’m getting up around 6 a.m. and that’s the biggest stretch that I have without pumping. Goodnight!
