Hello,
Diane:Hello.
Adina:welcome back on this fine Wednesday evening that we're recording, and perhaps a Tuesday morning that's you're listening. If you listen right away.
Diane:Mm-hmm. Hot and ready. Yeah. It's um, it's hump day.
Adina:Happy Hump Day
Diane:Yes, it is. Or as Doug, my pugs collar says every day is hump day. Every day. It's like he and Huey, our other dog, they only hump when they're outside and people say it's a dominant thing. Whatever, whatever. I'm like, maybe they're just really excited about the sunshine and the outdoors. They just
Adina:I get that.
Diane:mm-hmm. Makes, wanna hump like bunnies.
Adina:Nice. All right, well, what's up Diane?
Diane:Oh, you know, just sewing over here. I am getting ready to go on a vacation. I will be in the wind. So if you need something from me, don't, or just kidding. I mean, if you slide in the dms, I'll just get to you when I get to you. But I am trying to pack in like all of the pre-trip stuff, wrap up with some one-on-one clients and prepare our home for being gone for like 10 days. So by the time this airs, I'll be on vacation and yes. And so I'm trying to make a fanny pack, a cross body that I wear across my chest with a fun, colorful, fra uh, colorful fabric. And this pattern released like sometime last week. And so I'm trying to get it done in time. We'll see. We'll see. It may be on the gram if I finished it. Finish in time.
Adina:We're rooting for you.
Diane:Thank you. Diane's sweatshop is open. I'm trying to turn them out.
Adina:It is rude of you to like go to Italy and not hop over here to visit, but it's fine.
Diane:buy me a plane ticket and then I'll come right over.
Adina:Okay, fine. Let me see what I can do.
Diane:Yeah, make it happen. Work expense. How do we write that off? Do we just do a little photo shoot, record a live episode, or maybe do like a class on the beach, something like that.
Adina:it's pretty simple for us to write these things off. Like we just have to have one conversation about the podcast,
Diane:Write it off.
Adina:our, at our dinner.
Diane:Write it off. Yeah, I'll be in Positano, Italy, and then we're going on to Rome. So we're going there for a friend's wedding. It's a destination wedding. I'm preparing a toast slash roast for my friend. The couple that we're, that are getting married, they're close friends. We've gone to Vegas with them. We love to cook together, play together. They're just so much fun and like the most adventurous couple. So really excited. And I haven't been back to Italy since I studied abroad. There's 12 years ago, so I've been brushing up on my Italian with Babbel. The Duo lingo app sucks. Their tweets are hilarious from that account, but the, their app sucks. So I was fluent when I was there, but now, like I'm better at hearing and understanding than speaking. We'll see how much comes back to me. But I'm really excited to take Neil to Rome, show him my, like where I live near the Vatican, eat lots of pasta, gelato, all those good things.
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:Yum. Yum. What's new over there?
Adina:What's new? Um, those of you invested in Already's sleep situation. It's gotten a little bit better, which is nice. Um, this week feels like a real victory if you're a parent out there. Our children were sleeping like before 7:00 PM a few nights this week,
Diane:Ooh,
Adina:which like, yeah, like that space was very necessary just considering all the stress we've been under lately. But it's been good. It's getting hot here. The last two days were like 95. No, they were like in the nineties. Um, so we're gearing up to enjoy some more summer. It's nice when summer starts in May. And what else? Well, I just wrapped up an S T H H Mother's Day Sale, so there's a lot of new Cuties that I cannot wait to support on their strength training journey,
Diane:Hell yeah. I saw some of my RCR plus coaching ladies slide in there, or names I recognize. Get strong. I love it.
Adina:Yeah. So that's really it. That's the good stuff.
Diane:Yeah, moms are cool. Was that your code? It's expired. Don't ask, you'll last minute. Linda's,
Adina:Yeah. I know you saw me getting sassy on my stories. I was like,
Diane:I mean, you talked about it every day. I know not everyone is on Instagram, but I am sure you email, you talk about it every day, so you snooze, you lose.
Adina:Yeah, it's just, it's one of those funny things. It's just a personality type. I think it's like no matter what, every time I do a sale, like the day after, there's always, always dms and emails of like whoopsy.
Diane:Oops. Well, what are you con consuming over there, since you now have more of your evening? Back
Adina:It's actually been quite lovely. We like watched succession last night, like an hour long episode of television. Like what? Who
Diane:full in one sitting. Okay.
Adina:in one fell swoop. Um, so that's nice. We're diving back into some of our favorites. Weird. I don't know if anyone has been having this issue, but as you know, I love the show, Dave, and it is on Hulu. And for some reason, every time we tried to watch anything on Hulu the last month, I would say there's no sound
Diane:Ooh, I'm not having that issue, but the app is glitchy, like it won't
Adina:glitchy. What are they doing? Did you see that tweet that was like a new platform is coming, combining Hulu and Disney and then someone tweeted it and was like, we can call it hu dis.
Diane:please do.
Adina:Um, yes. So pissed about not being able to watch Dave because I was really anticipating this season and I'm bummed about that. But we did watch a, a film, we watched a movie. I talked about it on the show when I was like, anticipating it.
Diane:And when we were talking about Matt Damon or Ben Affleck.
Adina:exactly that conversation. Um, so yeah, we watched Air, which is the Matt, David, Ben Affleck movie, and it's about like the, it's, it's kind of about sneakers. It's basically about Nike. Yeah, Nike and how they acquired the Jordan account. Um, and it was enjoyable. It's like a good
Diane:would you like it? If you don't like sports very much,
Adina:yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's not about, it's really not about sports. It's just like,
Diane:do you promise.
Adina:It's really supposed to be about the performances, you know, but, okay. Jason Babin hilarious. Is always like, love him. it
Diane:a comedy?
Adina:No, but like Jason Bateman's funny, no matter what. You know
Diane:Yeah, I was looking it up,
Adina:I'm being annoying, but like, I think I had, my hopes were a little too high for it is the problem. Like I was, I love Goodwill Hunting and I was like, okay, Matt Damon, Ben Af like working together again. Like it's gonna be the best thing I ever saw in my whole life. And it was good. Like it's a good movie, you know?
Diane:but not great. I was looking at an overview. I'll add it to my, to my list. Is that Viola
Adina:You'll enjoy it. Like it's enjoyable. It's an enjoyable movie. It's a good story. And like there's people you like to watch on screen.
Diane:Oh, Jason Bateman has that grandfather clock hair. I see. Okay.
Adina:Yes.
Diane:That's a
Adina:He looked amazing.
Diane:All right. I'll add it to the list, but check my expectations.
Adina:Exactly. Just don't go in expecting goodwill hunting.
Diane:Yeah. Well, I like that duo together. I haven't really watched any films. We're getting ready for our trip. I've been reading a lot trying to get through my library stack, but on Hulu, I was watching Kindred, which is the TV series adaptation of Kindred. The book that I read recently by Octavia Butler. It's a historical sci-fi. I think I might have mentioned it in a past episode. It's pretty good. They did go a little bit off the book, which is so fine. Um, but I've also been watching Next Level Chef, which I know has been done and completed, and I'm trying not to ruin. The outcome for myself, but it's also just something to have in the background. And I didn't watch this movie because I'm not into horror films, but I know there is one where there's a platform that descends through, I wanna say it's a prison or something, and people have to grab food off of it as it descends through. And that's basically like the premise of this cooking show. So you are on Gordon Ramsey's team, or one of the other chef's teams, and it's a bunch of home cooks, social media cooks, a few professional, like restaurant cooks, and they are competing to be next level chef. Get mentorship from one of these celebrity chefs. Right? So this platform just descends through these kitchens and they have to just frantically grab ingredients.
Adina:Isn't that like the restaurant you went to in Chicago?
Diane:Did I? I
Adina:Didn't you tell me about like a restaurant where like the food comes down from the ceiling? Am I
Diane:Oh, Alinea. Alinea. That's where the dessert comes out of the ceiling tile. Yeah, that's an experience, but not, not Alinea. In this one, it's like super stressy and you just hope that there's a good protein. But what's interesting, the interesting twist is that the top level kitchen has the best equipment. The middle kitchen, it's all right. And then at the bottom, the basement kitchen, they have like warped pans. They don't have the best tools, but they have to make it work. And so it's interesting to see how contestants work under pressure. I feel like I would just completely freeze. Like I need time. I like to take things slow, but I like watching it while I sew, so that's fun.
Adina:Nice. That's interesting. I feel like sewing is so relaxing and that sounds so stressful.
Diane:fast paced. And I was telling Neil,
Adina:someone else's mess, so like it kind of calms you
Diane:I don't have to do those dishes, but like someone dropped a steak from the middle kitchen to the basement kitchen then so someone else got this Wagyu steak that they got to use in their dish, and I'm just hoping that everyone gets all their dishes on the platform. Like I'm also picking up some little tips too.
Adina:Oh, love that.
Diane:yeah, it's, it's a fun watch. I used to love Food Network and I think that's where maybe I started having an interest in cooking was watching some of these shows. Love Barefoot Contessa, Gordon Ramsey's Intense, but I like watching him too. So it's a fun show on Hulu.
Adina:I do miss watching people cook. Just like learning technique stuff and like I do miss that. That
Diane:Bon Appetit, I think Bon Appetit YouTube channel and some like included cable or whatever we have on our tv. It's not cable. There's a Bon Appetit channel and I think it's just a loop of various YouTube series they've done.
Adina:That's nice.
Diane:Mm-hmm. Yeah. Learn some skills.
Adina:what are you guys cooking up over there?
Diane:Ooh, some, some meatballs. I did a freestyle
Adina:We had meatballs too.
Diane:Yes, there's something about, it's just easy meat wads. They're just easy. I freestyled on ours with some sriracha barbecue sauce from Trader Joe's, but I put a bunch of sandal on the inside. G graded garlic, parsley, panco crumbs, just a ton of stuff. A little hot honey. And I also did harissa honey, green beans with it, and some like lime shallots and sweet potatoes that I roasted. And Neil was like, well, this is hot. And I had it yesterday, which was the same day our heartburn episode came out. And I feel fine, like 10 years ago. I would not trust my spnc around that meal like that would be burning,
Adina:Yeah, that sounds, boy. See,
Diane:but it was good. What about you?
Adina:that sound yummy. I think samba is like one of the most underrated condiments on earth. It's like chili garlicy. Hmm. Um. Yeah, it is sneaky hat. Um, my meatballs had zar in them and you know what? They were good, I used beef and I kind of wish I used lamb.
Diane:Wait, what did you use? You used just beef.
Adina:Yeah,
Diane:Hmm, that's right. Cuz you can't do PE and pork together
Adina:that's right. We can't do pork at
Diane:at all ever. But lamb would be nice. Little fatty edition.
Adina:yeah, I love lamb meatballs. They're like my fave. I just haven't had, I don't know, I haven't had lamb, ground lamb in my freezer in a while. Um, but that would've been really nice with the zar. So
Diane:Hmm. What else did you have with it?
Adina:um, just cut up fruit because it's been a week.
Diane:Something like, something easy,
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:big feel that. Um, so we have, speaking of meat and speaking of beef, a very special review. From a cutie listener, and this is us asking again if you can take a minute to leave us a five star review and a little note. We would love that so much. So this one is from Cara B, and she said in her username B for beef, which I love so much.
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:Um,
Adina:B is for
Diane:Cara B for beef, and then she capitalized the B in beef, which is amazing. And five stars, women have three holes is the title of this G Y S T interview. Okay, longtime listener, first time reviewer. I've listened to every episode. I adore these women. Oh, we adore you too. Their choice of words, explanations, and sense of humor in the raws forms speaks volumes to my unc Unclenched butthole.
Adina:She gets it.
Diane:She gets it. It's the sound of a, a loose butthole. I've learned so much from each episode. X O, yay.
Adina:We love you Cara Beef.
Diane:So take a sip of water. Is that what we'll do? Every time we, we mention unc unclenching your butt hole, take a sip of water. Or like maybe every time we cite you, unc unclench, your also.
Adina:Yeah, go ahead and take yourself a deep breath. Unc unclench that bee hole.
Diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:And, um, shall we get into the beef of the episode? That's been our segue to episodes in a row.
Diane:Yeah. It's always Let's get in the meat and potato toes. Let's do it. Ooh. Cycles sinking your workouts,
Adina:Mm. You know, I have opinions.
Diane:So why are we doing this episode? Like, what's the deal?
Adina:Well, that's the thing is that there's a lot of noise on the internet about how you should behave during your cycle.
Diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:And are we perhaps all losing touch with our intuition? Are we all forgetting to listen to our bodies and just listening to influencers who are making swipe graphics
Diane:always a swipe graphic. I mean, we make'em too.
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:We make them too. But, um, when you said that I have exactly like, well, this is what comes to mind is just the swipe through a follicular phase. You're gonna wanna boom, boom, boom, do this Pilates, do the, do a yoga, do a wa lay on the floor, and then you can lift in this part, do a bootcamp class, and it just feels a little bit chaotic and over overcomplicated.
Adina:not programming.
Diane:Mm-hmm. A few of those things.
Adina:I have so many feelings. This is like a real episode where I'm gonna have to reign it in. If you saw my recent swipe graphic spoofing, those swipe graphics, we'll have to repost it for the,
Diane:I mean, I guess I, I feel like that if they've been here for a minute, for an episode, they should know what's coming. But maybe you, you clicked on this episode and this is your first time here. Welcome. But spoiler alert, you're not gonna have to be messing around with all different kinds of exercise and activities throughout your cycle. We wanna keep it much more simple and approachable than that. So, spoiler, what will they be doing
Adina:Yeah, I mean, spoiler, you need to strength train in every phase of your cycle. Like I'm sure you can guess that from our content on the regular, but there's still a lot to talk through in this episode. I think it's important to listen through and understand why this is so supportive and if there are adjustments that you need to make throughout your cycle, like what those will look like, as opposed to do yoga for a week and do Pilates for another week, and do strength training. Do gentle strength training. That's my favorite. Do. Do strength training, do gentle strength training this week. Uh, just mobility and walking this week. And yeah, we have a lot to say. One thing I would say first is I encourage you to think about who you are getting your information from. Like ask yourself, is the person making this swipe graphic a coach who coaches women through training, or are they just like a influencer who knows that talking about hormones is trendy and so they read one study or read one book and now make these swipe graphics about how to behave during your cycle? Like, does this person have muscles? Is this person still wrong? Does this person know how to train? Does this person know how to program? Does this person train hundreds of women? You know, has this person been in the industry for decades? Like there's. A lot of questions to ask.
Diane:The program part is key because maybe we can all agree, right? That exercise, moving your body, there's value there. That is something that we all. Should be thinking about, but doing different exercises, all different kinds of workouts. It's not programming. And this is where, you know, a few months from now, someone might feel frustrated that their health doesn't look any differently. They don't feel any more resilient or better in their body because it's just all over the place. I also want to speak to someone who might be hearing this and think, oh, that's a tall order. Like I'm barely doing strength training or movement at all right now. And so it feels so daunting to think about the expectation of strength training throughout your cycle. Totally understand that. But maybe what we're thinking about is intense. I'm using air quotes, strength training or CrossFit, or things that exhaust you and are not suited to move with you through those fluctuations in your hormones and in your cycle. So we're gonna talk about how to make strength training. Approachable easier and give you that Goldilocks challenge instead of something that lays you out.
Adina:Yeah, that's a great point because people like, how do we define strength training, right? Like people say that, but don't really know what it means. Like I think also another thing to note about people on the internet. Is that it is very easy to get yourself a C P t a certified personal trainer, like I'm saying, to become a certified personal trainer. The barrier to entry is extremely low.
Diane:covered that in our CrossFit up way back, didn't we?
Adina:someone can read a textbook or take an online course for a week and then sit for an online exam. And do you wanna know what you need to get to become a personal trainer? What, what score you need to land on
Diane:Do CS get degrees? Is that how that
Adina:70%.
Diane:Oh, so literally seas get degrees.
Adina:70%. And then, so you can have just read a textbook for a week, taken this online test, gotten yourself a 70, and now you can put certified personal trainer in your Instagram bio and start dishing out information to all the ladies. So it's a, it's a confusing world out there on the internet.
Diane:right, right. Or there's, like you said earlier, gentle strength training, whatever the fuck that means. And then there's CrossFit where you're flipping tires and running and then doing burpees over a box. So let's, can we, can we hit pause and go somewhere in the middle there? So, okay. Let's talk about why breakdown. The why because I think when we understand why it's so important to focus on strength training that. Can motivate us a little bit more or see the how a little bit differently. So why is building and maintaining muscle a top key, non-negotiable recommendation for women?
Adina:There it is non-negotiable, like don't count yourself out of this. I think that this is not at all we planned on talking about today, but I just am feeling fired up. I think that we grew up in a generation where, Dieting and exercising were both things that you did to become
Diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:and you could choose to do one or the other as long as you landed on the result of becoming skinny. Right? Like some people, yeah, like some people just are like, I'm a person who doesn't exercise, but like I diet and I'm skinny, so I, it doesn't matter, you
Diane:I feel like you can't say diet without it being associated with. The goal of fat loss. Weight loss.
Adina:yes, and we've covered this on our diet culture episode in the past, but I think that unfortunately that kind of mindset stuck around. In the health space, even though people don't realize that they're stuck in that mindset. And there's so many people in the health and wellness space who count themselves out of fitnessing. You know, like, they're like, oh, I'm gonna go hard on the gut healing stuff and the supporting my metabolism and hormones, but I'm just gonna walk and do yoga. Like it's, they never see themselves as this person who has to strength train for health and longevity moving forward. And I think we need to change that in a very big way. Like it can't be one or the other. It's like, you need to do both. We need to eat to support our bodies and we need to train to be strong and capable. Humans and women, you know,
Diane:Yeah, I think that was a very necessary segue, segueway point, conversation, tangent.
Adina:it's all on topic. Um, but yeah, basically, As we age and lol, in this case, aging is like turning 21. As we pass the age of 20, um, your muscle starts to go bye-bye. And in the past, maybe that age was 30, but our diet and lifestyles are just so chite now that like this is happening to 20 year
Diane:Like generally speaking, like food quality has gone down over the decades, unfortunately,
Adina:Mm-hmm. Yes. The birth control messing with our hormones, just all the stuff, it's unfortunate, but your muscle starts to go byebye, your bone starts to deteriorate, and these things slow down your metabolism. So I know a lot of people think that as you age, your metabolism gets slower, but. It doesn't have to be that way. You know, like if we continue to eat enough food and we continue to build and maintain muscle and bone, we can maintain fiery hot metabolisms
Diane:Yes. And rebuild it Like, Like, it's not this linear thing. Like you can, you can change things and reverse it, and strength training is just so instrumental, so key in that. So that's why we're, we won't shut up about it.
Adina:Yeah, and I think like libido goes hands in hand with that too. You can definitely go back to our hot girl summer episode, but that's something that doesn't have to go away with age. If we are focused on our muscle, our metabolism fueling and stoking that fire. And so again, this isn't something that just has to happen as you age. It's like we're eating less, our muscles going away for the most part. We have control over this. If we eat more and we train, like it's so important. And if you're a person who is thinking about the right now, and maybe you spent years like chasing skinny in the right now at this young age of 2030, if you would like to be able to get off the toilet by yourself when you're 80 and you want your bones to be strong enough that you're not like a major osteoporosis
Diane:Mm-hmm.
Adina:you need to train, you need to take care of your muscle and your bone, like train now for health span and for a nice older adulthood, you
Diane:Yeah, I mean I have family members who just still are so entrenched in like Western medicine and like, you don't have it yet, but you will and there's nothing that you can do about it.
Adina:right, like it's genetic, like osteoporosis is
Diane:like that's just what happens. And this family member li literally said to me like, this is what happens. Like you get weaker and they threw their back out, getting up off of, out of a chair to answer the door, and then again, vomiting when they had stomach flu recently, just from the action of vomiting, like through their back out. And they're like, no, the back gets weaker. Like this is just what happens. But also, unfortunately, just don't prioritize. Like drinking water, basic movement, and they just think like, oh no, I just gotta go to the chiropractor. And it's just another way of outsourcing our wellness and thinking that health is for other people, or health is for the young, it's not for people as they age, because it's just so commonly like what we see, and maybe this is something, or that experience is something that you've heard from parents or you've told yourself that, that, all right, well I'm 30, so my back hurts. I'm 35, so, oh, I can't stand too long. Like, let's think about where we, we need to be building resilience and strength so that you can actually go about your day-to-day life and not feel like you're gonna be laid out from basic tasks.
Adina:Yeah, I actually wanna read this comment. Somebody commented on. So I posted a testimonial of a client of mine who's in her sixties, and she saved her 80 year old mother's life, um, because her mom was falling and she caught her and brought her down to the floor safely. It was like the most incredible story. Somebody commented on that post and said, one of the reasons I purchased s st h H is because I want to be way stronger than my mom is when I'm in my seventies, she's been quote unquote, working out equals cardio, cardio, cardio her whole life. And I always thought she was in quote unquote good shape, AKA a skinny, but she literally cannot sit on the floor and get up on her own. She can't lift any of her grandkids who weigh more than 20 pounds because of her bad back. She has to wear supportive shoes because her feet are so weak. I don't want that. I'm not even 40 yet, but I recognize that I'm setting the foundation for the old lady that I will be one day and I want that old lady to be strong.
Diane:Oh, oh, that's amazing. Oh, I Love that. Yes. And that story that you shared on your Instagram, I know that I remember, I remember hearing when it happened about your client who caught her mom. That's just amazing. And testament to like functional, actual, functional training because it really grinds our gears. We had here in our notes, makes us violent, violent when we hear that people are on like three bone building medications and maybe also like ibuprofen 800 s on the daily and ice packs, but they aren't strength training.
Adina:Exactly like where should we be starting? We don't need three different bone building medications. We need to first try to build some muscle and bone on our own. You know, it's
Diane:Or are we going to the chiropractor weekly? Like biweekly, but we're not moving. Because you're laying on a table. Okay. You might feel some relief. And I've gone to the chiropractor too, sometimes it does feel good to just be adjusted. Okay. But also we need to be moving or figuring out physical therapy if you are recovering from an injury, like it's not just a matter of laying down someone else, sorting you out, and then you take a pill forever.
Adina:Yeah, and I think what's so cool about the story that I shared about that client is that she started with me, she started strength training when she was 60. She bought S T H H for her 60th birthday.
Diane:know. I think I know who this
Adina:too late. Yeah, it is never too late to get strong. You know, like you can just, now is the best time. Now is the best time to get strong.
Diane:Mm-hmm. That's your sign. Oh, we're fired up. Like I'm gonna sweat through my sweatshirt over here.
Adina:I am. I'm just wearing a bralet and I'm sweating.
Diane:Yeah. So I guess, should we get back to talking about strength training for your cycle?
Adina:That would, that would make sense for this one. Yeah.
Diane:Yeah, I guess so. And yeah, if you enjoy other exercise, okay, like I do too. I like Yoga Al Fresco sometimes with pals. But we're gonna talk more about our favorite non-negotiable and how to adjust it throughout your cycle. Okay? So first up, what happens throughout your cycle that would matter for training? Well, we have to talk first about hormone shifts. So I think in past episodes and we'll link related hormone health episodes for you. Uh, we've talked about the phases of your cycle, so let's briefly talk about that. You got technically two. You got your follicular phase, your ludial phase with the follicular, I can never say that word. It's like AE in follicular,
Adina:There's so many Ls in there. It's like,
Diane:Follicular phase is the first capsule. So let's say, I don't know, you're on a 28 day cycle. Not everybody is, but let's say, so the first 14 days, ear follicular phase, then the latter 14 days ludial phase. And you may have heard me talk about Lud Lucy, so
Adina:I don't even like saying days, cuz I feel like it just makes people confused if their cycle is
Diane:right? Longer, shorter, the front end, the back end.
Adina:first half, second half,
Diane:But you also might think about it in four phases too. So the first bit, so when your dot drops, menstruation begins the menstrual phase when you're actively bleeding. So I guess let's start, we always think about like cycles in terms of when our period starts, but shall we start like middle? Because like ovulation is the main event and what's happening around there.
Adina:Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah, I think, okay, so the main hormone shifts that we need to understand. Is that estrogen is climbing in the first half of your cycle, and then after you ovulate, estrogen, plummets like falls off a little cliff for a little bit. And yes, good call. And that's a really important thing that I think comes up when we talk about cycle syncing our workouts, is that you're looking at, here we go. I can't just stay focused on the task. You're looking at a swipe graphic about the phases of your cycle, and those are all talking about an ideal cycle, an ideal hormone shifts. So if your hormones are not behaving like that right now, and then you're looking at this thing and you're like, it says I'm gonna have all this energy when I ovulate, so I should go take a hit class. But you feel like when you ovulate because you're estrogen dominant right now and your estrogen is misbehaving like it, you know, your progesterone's not showing up to the party like it's
Diane:Mm-hmm. Your estrogen. Your estrogen, oh my gosh. Words are hard today. Estrogen keeps climbing for a lot of women that we work with. Especially like if you're feeling really symptomatic, like the latter half of your cycle, and definitely before your period starts, maybe we're dealing with estrogen dominance. But yeah, it's not that ideal swipe graphic situation where you can do this cute cycle syncing of workouts, like
Adina:Right. It's like, oh, this thing says I should take a hit class, but I have a migraine when I ovulate, so perhaps I shouldn't take a hit class with strobe lights. You know?
Diane:Oh, strobe lights.
Adina:You know those like du, this is a very New York City fitness thing of like everything's in the dark and there's like red lights and strobe lights and like
Diane:I did go to a trap yoga class. It was like a bunch of rap, like Gucci, Maine, and we would like twerk and down downward facing dog. It was in Detroit and it was so fun. It was so fun. So fun. Um, But yeah, I, I, you probably have to have some waivers, especially if you have like an, a fear of like an epileptic situation.
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:Yeah. Anyway. Anyway. So estrogen should climb mid-cycle.
Adina:then it should plummet after ovulation and progesterone is low in the first half of your cycle, and then it should climb after ovulation. Okay. That's the important Yes. So sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, they're gonna be at their lowest when your period starts. Okay? This is important for these training, swipe graphics, but also for what we are actually gonna teach you about supporting your cycle with your training. Um, then when it comes to metabolic shifts, your temperature, your basal body temperature, your baseline temperature of your body, Increases with that progesterone increase at the second half of your cycle. Okay. So your
Diane:Fam, fam will know this.
Adina:Yeah. Your body is heating up. It is working hard in the second half of your cycle. It is doing all that prep work in case there were to be a baby from that ovulation, you know? Um, and then so because of that, your calorie demands are higher in the ludial phase. So like, again, don't beat yourself up about cravings. We talked about this in our cravings episode for sure.
Diane:Yeah. Some increased appetite, uh, is normal. If you have insatiable sugar, monster cravings, that's another thing. But it's normal to feel hungrier because your body's like trying to build, build stores and get ready for if a baby happens. I love, love that phrasing. If it just happens.
Adina:It just happens. Yeah, exactly. So. With all of that, when it comes to your energy, as your hormones drop toward the end of that lal phase and like the start of your next cycle, your energy could be lower. Okay. As your hormones climb in the middle, when estrogen climbs and then progesterone climbs, your energy could climb with those hormones. But it is, again, completely dependent on your hormone balance, like where you are at right
Diane:someone who's dealing with P C O S will have a different experience from someone who's on the pill, from someone who has been working on supporting their cycle through food and movement for a while. Like it can really vary and fluctuate. So not most of us, many people do not have this ideal period scenario cycle scenario where they can perfectly sync everything. So. So yeah. What are we to do? Well, I guess we should talk about menstruation because it seems like there's a lot of I, I all see most posts about psycho singing workouts around what to do while you're bleeding during your period. And influencers will tell you things like rest, stare at the wall, lay on the floor, and if you're feeling really crazy and kooky and energetic, go for woke. Woke. Y I was gonna say walk. Yoga, yoga walk. Oh my gosh. At the same time, go for yoga, go for a walk. The words are combining today. But yeah, if you're really feeling crazy and energetic, they'll cycle for a little walk and that's it. Just do that.
Adina:Yeah. That's what the influencers will tell you. But here's the thing, like we just said, hormones are lowest when you are bleeding. If we think about that hormone climb, that estrogen climbs towards ovulation. So estrogen and progesterone are both at their lowest when you are bleeding. And so this can actually be really nice for recovery from strength training. So those early days of your cycle, assuming that you are not wildly symptomatic, which we hope that you are not, and if you are, please, please work with us and sort that out because it doesn't have to be like that. But we're most similar to men hormonally in those first few days of the cycle. So as when it comes to recovering from workouts, you will likely recover pretty well in those first few days. Again, assuming that those other things are in check. And so, Great opportunity to strength train. Um, again, a lot of people report anecdotally that training can help with cramps too, just because movement can help with cramps.
Diane:definitely is the case for me. I don't really, I don't get cramps, like I rarely do the last couple cycle cycles. It's just like, oh, all right, we're bleeding now, but like slight discomfort the first day, that's just, that is normal to feel a little bit, um, off of like the first day of your cycle. But when I do have cramps and I start to move, I notice they go away.
Adina:yeah,
Diane:sometimes it's just finding like, all right, the motivation to get started and again, like if you are someone who feels like they're just taken out on day one, two or the days leading up to your cycle, that isn't normal, this is something that we can work on like debilitating cramps, headaches, sore boobs, PMs or pm, d d, not normal. So we can definitely work on that with nutritional therapy, but like moving. Just helps, helps minimize that discomfort for me, for sure.
Adina:Yeah.
Diane:So if you are someone who has a really rough and rude period, dm E PMs, so that I, it doesn't get lost in the dms, and we can talk about if root cause resets right for you. But let's get that period together, make it easier. Okay. Okay.
Adina:Yeah, we definitely want that to happen for you. And actually on the note of movement with cramps, even when I was younger, like when I was like a young. Pubescent tween, teen. My mom used to always tell I had debilitating cramps. Like I, I dunno if I've talked about this on the show before, but like I would miss school every month for my period. I would have to have like a heating pad on. And my doctor told me to take preemptive Advils. Like I was just downing a bottle of Advil the first day of my cycle. Um, such bad insomnia. Like I could not sleep that I knew my period was coming if I like, couldn't sleep through the night because obviously I had no progesterone. But, um, anyways, side note, but my mom used to tell me to get on the swings in our backyard and just like pump my
Diane:Like the swing set, which is just fun too. By the way. I still like to swing on the swing set, the nearby school. I love it.
Adina:But, um, it would help with cramps sometimes. So interesting movement can be wonderful for cramps if that's something that you deal with. But I like that you mentioned about sometimes it's just like hard to convince yourself to get moving because that's part of what I was talking about with the energy shifts. Like yes, if you do have your hormones nice and low in the beginning of the cycle as they should be, energy can just feel kind of low. And this is why instead of following swipe graphics for our fitness, we should be on a program and we should have a group chat with accountability. Because if you feel that way, and it happens to all of us, like those first few days of your cycle, you just feel like you wanna be on the couch in your PJs, you have low energy, you don't wanna peacock and be out there like. It can feel really hard to just get yourself going and get yourself moving. But if you have a program with a calendar and you know that your training is on that day no matter what, and that's a non-negotiable for you and you know exactly what you're doing that day and you just have to push start on the app and follow the videos and mark down your completed sets, like that makes such a huge difference. And if you haven't seen my Instagram stories recently, I've been talking a lot about how I just wake up every morning and I think about myself as a person who trains three days a week. And I wake up and I say, it's Sunday. And I'm a person who trains on Sunday and Tuesday and Thursday. So I need to go train today because it's Sunday and I train on Sundays. And a lot of people have been DMing me that that has really been resonating.
Diane:showing up as if, right. Yeah.
Adina:Yeah, we talk about this a lot, like just show up as the person that you yearn to be. I. And you can be that person. Go ahead. Even if cycle got you down. Yeah, like even if you're feeling low energy, If you know that that's a training day for you and you're on a program that progresses appropriately, so you're not like accidentally choosing a class that's too hard that day, like it really makes a difference in supporting your cycle.
Diane:Right. You have a, a program already sorted. Whereas I've been here before too where I was like, okay, okay, so I should probably strength train, but what does that look like? And then you gotta brain what that looks like or before that, okay, what class can I go to? Oh, but then I have to get to the gym. Whereas if you have something that's sorted for you, like strength training for happy hormones, the calendar is three days a week, but you could do two and still like start there. Start there. Work up to three. The workouts are intense and you can address them. So, okay, let's say someone's actively bleeding. Let's say it's day one, the dot has dropped, period is start started, and someone wants to train. But how can they adjust things if they aren't feeling great on the first couple days of their cycle?
Adina:Excellent. So the answer is not just switch to yoga and walking. The answer is, Adjusting the variables. There are so many variables when you're strength training properly, right? We have our rest periods, we have our load, we have our reps, our sets, like you can adjust all of those things to your needs. If you're feeling creaky and crampy, like get into your breath work, get into your movement prep. Start your workout and then see what needs adjusting. Check in with your body. Don't check in with a swipe graphic. Check in with your body. Get into your breath. Get into your body and ask yourself after that first set, did this feel like what I needed today? Did that load feel too heavy? Do I need to drop down a bell? Does this rest period feel sufficient? Or do I not feel ready to go after one or two minutes? Do I need to turn this into three to four minutes on this day? One of my cycle? Even if you rest four minutes in between sets and you drop down a bell size and you do one less set. That is still a deposit in the strength bank is still keeping your body moving. It is keeping that muscle memory so that in a week, in two weeks when your energy is higher, you're still going through the motions this week so you can actually progress that next week. It's not just like, oh, I walked this week and then I just tried to press the 20 kg when I ovulated. Like, we need to get your joints and your tendons and everybody showing up to the party week after week so that we're not just doing stupid shit when we ovulate cuz we feel really powerful and energetic
Diane:Right. And if you are going with the approach of, all right, well, I'm gonna sit this week out, however long you're bleeding, and then some maybe, maybe something else in life comes up, and then you're in your ovulation station, which we're gonna talk about here shortly, and you're going for a strong ass press, but you haven't lifted in like two weeks. Your body's gonna be like,
Adina:Owie.
Diane:What, and then maybe you're gonna be so sorry. You're gonna wanna skip your next workout. So don't be a hero, as Adina says here on the show all the time, don't be a hero and you can adjust those variables. So if they were going to, you gave us a few lovely variables, whether that is rest time, lowering the load, lowering the reps, and set, is there somewhere that people should start generally as far as like, okay, here's the set workout, but I'm going to start with adjusting this first.
Adina:I think just listen to your body. Like just, yeah, like you'll know right away. Sometimes you're like, you finish the set and you're like, that weight felt doable, but I won't be able to do it again in one minute or two minutes. Like, I need five minutes, like it feels good, but I need the time to recover. Sometimes you try to put that bell overhead and you're like, mm-hmm. Not today. Like, I need to drop down a
Diane:I was there my last period training and like the first set went fine. The second set, I think I did my left or my right side first. And then I started my left and as soon as I went to go press it, I was like, oh no. Whereas like the week prior, so it was fine, it went up easy. So we just lowered it and I've definitely taken like three to five minutes in between. Um, and those rests are not negotiable. So don't think you're gonna be cutting through that workout real quick by ditching your rest periods. Okay.
Adina:Yeah. And that's where we're truly strength training. Like if you can do something for the allotted sets and reps, but it just needs five minutes of rest in between, that's real strength training to be able to come back to the same load. That was challenging, but doable. But you need like a full unrest.
Diane:Hmm. The last thing I'll say here, I have several clients who are in SD h h and one of them was saying like she just didn't feel up to training or the thought of even doing her workout based on how she was feeling that day felt just intimidating. So I said, what if we start with the breath work? And I said, I think Adina will agree with me here. What if you start with the breath work, the movement prep, and say, I'm gonna start with the first set or super set. We're gonna see how that goes. Because you can always stop, you can always split it up, but just go into it and see how you feel. And it was almost like just giving yourself the all right, I can adjust things. Or if I really needed to, I could stop. And then she found that she was able to get through it. So instead of just looking at, I'm thinking of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt while she was like, you could do anything for 10, was it 10 minutes?
Adina:10 seconds.
Diane:10 seconds? So
Adina:She just like strings them all together.
Diane:Yeah, so just like do 10 seconds of your movement prep and then
Adina:What is it? It's the crank.
Diane:It was a crank in the bunker.
Adina:Yeah. And they have no idea what it cranks like.
Diane:Just keep cranking it. Yeah.
Adina:Oh God. Amazing.
Diane:talk, about the follicular phase. So your, the mens menstruation, the menstruation, your period is part of the follicular phase. But let's say that's done. We're now gonna consider what comes after you stop bleeding. So during this time, influencers will tell you you're ready to strength train. All right. We can
Adina:You are ready. You are done bleeding. You are ready to strike trade.
Diane:we're gonna be like, we've been strength training after this episode, but yeah, this is when they're like, you can start to think about strength training here. Mm-hmm.
Adina:Yeah. So. That recommendation makes sense cuz you should be strength training all the time. But for most people, they'll start to have some nice energy here as estrogen is climbing, right? Um, so training could feel a little easier, could feel more approachable, but you guys are on a program and you have your chat accountability and you wake up every day and think of yourself as a person who trains three times a week. So maybe it was easy for you last week too, but if you're not one of those people yet, then training might feel easier as we start to move towards ovulation. And so, like we said, just continue following your progressions, training the same patterns week after week workout after workout. Um, yeah, it might, it might feel okay to add some load. It might feel okay to slightly shorten rest periods to move through the workout as prescribed. If you aren't doing that last week and just enjoy, enjoy that pre ovulatory energy.
Diane:Because it's building and then you're going to get into. The ovulatory phase, the ovulation station, and I don't think we added this in here, but just in case anyone was wondering this, this information is going to apply if you have a natural cycle, if you are someone who's not on hormonal birth control, because if you are on hormonal birth control I've had questions from clients who are on the pill or maybe have hormonal, hormonal i u d and they asked me about cycle syncing. I'm like, babe, those hormones aren't flex fluctuating around the same way. So, um, I also thought of a conversation I had with, uh, my trainer when I was seeing personal trainer, and he, he was like, oh, some people have this, women have the same amount of energy through the whole cycle. And I was like, let's unpack that a little bit because like, one, are we being a hero and we're forcing ourselves through the ebbs and flows of hormonal shifts in our cycle to be a hero under that barbell. And or two are those clients of yours on the pill because there are some fluctuations. Um, yeah. So I digress, but thought I should sneak that in there because if you're on the pill, you're not ovulating.
Adina:yeah. And so if you are on the pill, Just listen to your body. That's the advice. Like none of this applies. Listen to your body and adjust variables as needed.
Diane:Yes. You, and you'll be prepared if or when you do decide to come off to change up your training throughout your cycle. So when you're in your ovulation station influencers will tell you that during this time you could do hit go hard as fuck do that bootcamp class. This is when you're gonna show up and show out at the gym. Maybe you're wearing like your favorite workout set because you feel like peacocking and just go to a workout class cuz you feel outgoing. You're cardio bunnie. So, so do those sprints basically. Intensity is the theme of those swipe graphics from fit.
Adina:Yep. Yep. And so let's think about this for a second. If you are a person whose estrogen is outta whack, and maybe you're ovulating, but like it's kind of painful or you have other symptoms that go along with it, and then maybe the second half of your cycle, your ludial phase isn't quite long enough for that fertility to really be in check. So like that's a situation where you are ovulating, but maybe you are struggling to get pregnant or you're just not feeling really good in the back half of your cycle because progesterone is so low and so, or progesterone is just too low relative to your estrogen. So if we tell you to go hard as FU and you're going to these hit classes, you are not going to feel good. Like that is going to be really hard to recover from and it's just gonna lay you out, wipe you out. You might already have. A migraine or some other high estrogen symptoms that come along with that. Like I mentioned that uh, insomnia on the second half of the cycle like this can drive that way worse if that's something that you're dealing with.
Diane:Mm-hmm. Especially if you are under fueling yourself, like going through the intensity, whether that is through intense strength training, you're adding load, you're trying to build muscle, which is expensive, and your body's like, where's the fucking fuel? I've dropped a lot of F-bombs, say I'm in my lal phase.
Adina:Me want food, you know, that character from 30 Rock, Jenna plays that like when she puts on a few pounds, they make her play that character where she's just like me, want food.
Diane:it's just so terrible. Yeah. So maybe you are like going hard and you want food. Um, and then you have insomnia on that latter half because you've been training under fueling in your, in your hormones are all over the place. So yeah, it's not gonna feel fun. So you don't need to be a hero again, but what are some ways that you can play with that extra energy and take advantage of it during this point in your cycle?
Adina:Yeah, like you might be feeling strong and cute. You might not be struggling with estrogen dominance, but so yeah, many of you might feel ready to like push for a PR and just party and be cute. And so like we were saying, if you have successfully binge strength training throughout your whole cycle and you were practicing those patterns and now you're feeling like, Ooh, muscle memory is kicking in, like my press pattern is feeling really good, or my squat pattern is feeling really good, or my Turkish getup is starting to feel smooth and
Diane:That's when I got my PR for my Turkish gut up recently.
Adina:Yeah, it's the best feeling, right? It's so nice to feel like I've been practicing this lift. Because that's the thing too, is like everyone always talks about yoga practice, but like strength training is a practice. You gotta practice. You really gotta practice those lifts.
Diane:Strength practice.
Adina:if you have been following your strength practice for three weeks now, or two weeks now, and you have hit that a workout, that squat and push workout, how many times by now, like that's so nice that now you have all this energy and you can try to push the load and push for that pr. And if you are resting properly and you are following a program and you are fueling properly, you can recover really well from that. And that is wonderful and that feels great. And then you are stronger.
Diane:Yes. And you're stronger. Amazing. Love
Adina:And then, and then you are a muscle mommy.
Diane:Yeah. Muscle. Mommy, my friend Erica will say that. I love it. Oh, I love it. Um, so let's talk about Ludial phase. We've already touched on this one and wanna spend some time here because for many women, especially in our space, women that we work with, they come to us because this is when like their hormones are acting out. They're feeling very symptomatic. They have PMs, maybe they're getting the pre period headaches, sore boobies, feeling creaky, feeling hungry, all of it. So
Adina:I think of this as like the most vulnerable stage.
Diane:exactly. And so, again, we've said this before, those things are common. They're not normal. But what influencers will tell you, and I'm saying fit influencers, influencers,
Adina:pronounce it.
Diane:On it's French. Okay. Oners will tell you, lay down, rest, walk, stretch. Maybe yoga. Maybe restorative yoga.
Adina:Or gentle strength turning.
Diane:Yeah. I mean, if they say gentle strength training, I'm surprised, but that's still missing the mark here.
Adina:Yeah, that's why like, remember who you are getting your information from.
Diane:What is gentle strength training? Like? What do they think that means? Is it tiny barbells? Is it ankle weights?
Adina:it's the Barbie ones. It's the little pink ones, I think. No, you know what? Maybe it's the,
Diane:Is it bar class?
Adina:yeah, maybe it's the, the anklets. You know those little like cutie bracelets?
Diane:Yeah. They do look like little ankle bracelets and they're always like pastel because that's what women need is pastels.
Adina:There are pink, the pink anklets. Um, We used to joke when I worked in that boutique fitness studio and there was like the two pound kettlebells. We used to call them the earrings cuz they're like this big.
Diane:Oh, they are little. Yeah. And you like do arm raises?
Adina:So cute. Um, but yeah, anyways, um, yeah, I think it's like are just scared to work hard. Is that what it is? I don't know.
Diane:I mean, maybe there are, there are also a lot of people who really do not feel well in this phase of their cycle. And I, I hate that for you. I've been there before where it was insomnia. I used to get, I think I mentioned this on the show before, the pre period headaches, sometimes they would turn to full out migraines and that does really suck. And I know that when I was in the thick of it, the thought of strength training or I guess at that time I wasn't very physically active either. Was really hard. And so if you, I mean, if you are really going through it with your symptoms every month you feel like garbage before your period starts. We've gotta fix that because if you're dealing with that for a couple cycles or some women who start working with me said that this is how it's been for years and that's just what they would tolerate. And I want to, again, encourage you and invite you to do something like root cause reset together because we work on blood sugar balance, we work on your digestion, your liver health in an approachable way so you can have easier periods. I've seen women who, one were missing periods. One of my clients I've shared, I think her story on um, an Instagram didn't have a period for several years, got her period back and it was easier and regular. And she was like, okay, now I have this every 30 days that normal. And it like comes without much. Like much issue or, um, a rude prelude to the period. Like it can be so much easier and it opens up so much more of your life. So you can feel good being active, so you can feel good through your day-to-day feel balanced. So if you are really symptomatic, DM me, get my dms. Let's talk about it.
Adina:That is wonderful. Love that for her. Love that for you. Love that for whoever's about to get their butt inside RCR and deal with that. I also just wanted to take a moment cuz you mentioned that that was a time in your life when you were not physically active. And I think this is a really important thing to hang out on because in the holistic health world, right, there are a lot of holistic health girly coaches who are telling people like, oh, you're not recovering well from your workouts. Like you are exercise intolerant and you should obviously stop training. Definitely stop training in your ludial phase.
Diane:intolerant, like is it a what?
Adina:your diagnosis. Um, you are exercise intolerant. Yes. So you cannot do exercise. Definitely can't do exercise in your ludial phase. Oh my god. That is gonna be terrible for you and you should just walk and forget that strength training even exists. But here is the thing. Have you ever exercised? Exercise should challenge you. You need to stress your body in order to recover and adapt and get better at tolerating exercise like that is literally what getting fit is. That's what fitness is like. You have to do a little bit rest and recover, do a little bit more rest and recover. Do a little little bit more and like build your base, build your capacity. Like this is programming, this is fitness, this is how we get fit. We can't just like do a little exercise and then be like, oh, I feel like crap. I guess I'm exercise intolerant.
Diane:No. Yeah, I do hear that a lot. Ex, oh, I have
Adina:have to train like
Diane:Who made that up? It's about finding that goldilock stressor. Yeah, like the right amount of stress. It shouldn't break you, but it should challenge you.
Adina:Yeah, like it needs to challenge you. So that you like huff and puff a little bit and you get a little bit better and then you like rest and recover. It's like, I think people get so scared of like working hard and breathing heavy if
Diane:Wait, that part, the breathing heavy. Because also in the holistic space, and I don't know if this is on everyone's feed, but I'm seeing more coaches talk about how you can't be huffing and puffing through your mouth now, let's. Let's chat about that for a second. Maybe you've seen even like mouth taping and things, so I mean, throughout your day, don't wanna be a mouth breather. We want to breathe through our nose, filter the air, and all the yuck in our environment. But if you are working hard, if you are pushing iron,
Adina:yes,
Diane:you
Adina:yes, yes. I love it. I'm so happy. I'm so happy we're talking about this because I agree we should be breathing through our nose at rest, but like I. You have to breathe. Like we have an anaerobic energy system for a reason. We have an energy system that gives us energy when we don't have access to oxygen. And that's sprinting. That's lifting heavy
Diane:I can't imagine doing a few sets of kettle bell swings with a heavy bell and just breathing through my nose.
Adina:and you shouldn't because that's not how this works. Like it's so good for our bodies to access different energy systems. And like if you had to sprint away from a predator, you would need that skill. You would need to be able to breathe through your mouth and access your anaerobic energy system
Diane:I'm, I'm imagining the snot rockets that would come out from me forcefully, like blowing outta my nose instead of allowing myself through my mouth. So, I mean, maybe that was like, uh, like a niche ob observation, but I'm seeing it. So yeah, you don't need to be mouth taping. You don't need to be restricting to just your nose, um, because you saw someone talk about how you can only breathe through your nose at all times. Weird.
Adina:Yeah, and, and breathing through your nose is amazing and like nasal breathing during like low level cardio is great for you and can actually help your recovery capacity and make you better at the strength training that you need to like heavy mouth breathe for. But again, fit influencers or holistic health girly coaches, just missing the mark and not understanding training and recovery.
Diane:Uhhuh. Yeah. So how, how would you have people adjust their training during their LAL phase? And maybe we should think about earlier in that LAL phase. So let's say you just dropped an egg, hopefully, and then what it might look like in the three to five days before menstruation starts, because it does. How you feel will likely change through that ludial phase.
Adina:Yeah. And so some people feel really good for their ldeal phase until like that two days, one day before their cycle. And in that case, again, just like keep doing what you're doing. Listen to your body. Notice how you're recovering. Are you sleeping through the night? Are your temperatures still nice and high? Like these are feedback and biomarkers that we should be looking at. And if those things aren't going great, then think how you can adjust it. So maybe that means increasing the rest periods For a lot of people, honestly, it has nothing to do with training and it means increase your carbs a little bit, you know, like it's, it's, yeah. Training isn't the only variable and we have to be really honest about that and not just be like, I'm scared of this thing. So it obviously has to go in the LU deal phase. I don't understand this thing. So that's obviously the problem in the ludial phase. It may not be, you know, if you're on a good strength training program, like strength training for a happy hormones for example, that's probably not the variable that's causing the problem in your ludial phase. So again, you could do things like lengthening respir periods, but sometimes it really comes down to looking at the nutrition. You might have to increase calories on the whole, you might have to increase carbs, so your metabolism is increasing. That's a demand. You know, like you can't get away with eating the same thing you were eating in the first half of your cycle. If your temp is much higher and your body is burning more energy, like you need more fuel in that fire if it's burning
Diane:Fire burning. Fire burning on the dance floor.
Adina:TB t,
Diane:I used that. No, I, I tb t I was just thinking of that cuz I used that real, uh, that song for a reel about heartburn and like dumping tums on my face and I was just writing heartburn stuff this week. But yeah, you got that fire burning. So this is not where you're like On the dance floor and in your metabolism. And so if you're like, okay, I'm hungrier, but I'm gonna use my willpower and just shut it down and not eat. No baby. Eat your food. Eat your food. Lift your bells. Yeah, take that rest. It's not an option to go skipping right through that workout. So I was talking about earlier how I. Used to feel really symptomatic. And in my ludial phase when I was not active at all, and that was, I mean I'm thinking back like 10 years ago. And then there also was the time when I discovered exercise and I started doing, there's like this local boot camp studio basically. And so they would do hit workouts. It was like 45 minutes to 55 minutes and I would go too hard. So I went from not being someone who was not very active to doing this intense class throughout my cycle, right? And we would have like a little moment for strength during that class. Like I think we did lunges, body weight, but we would do it quickly, expeditiously. Then we would get onto the treadmill or the bike, whatever was open, and then you would sprint on that. And we would do this for 55 minutes. And sometimes I felt okay, but then I remember there were a couple of times in my Moodal phase where the next day I felt absolutely exhausted.
Adina:Yep.
Diane:recovery was not good. So we're inviting you to adjust as needed and come somewhere towards that middle, like, let's stop going to the extreme sides of not doing anything at all. Not moving at all to doing all the things and then feeling like garbage afterwards.
Adina:Yeah. And so it never means don't train, but you might feel lower energy as estrogen drops off. You might feel lower energy right before your period starts. So those like last two, three days of your ludial phase. Everyone who's been in strength training for happy hormones has probably had that experience of like, trying to put that press overhead and being like, I guess I'm getting my period tomorrow. Like it just won't
Diane:it feels sometimes like you have a different body. Cause I'm like, oh, ovulation station, like a 35 pollen kettle ball went overhead. And then when I go through the same workout block, like a week or two later, the body's like, mm-hmm.
Adina:Yeah. Grab that 26 please. Yeah. Yeah. And then like, maybe you feel totally fine and con continue your program exactly as written. It's like you might need to increase the rest, lower the load, increase your calories, increase your carbs, maybe even intra workout carbs. Like if you have had that experience where you s mm-hmm. Probably a banana. Um, if you've a little honey, if you've had that experience where you start your workout and you're late lu deal phase and you're like, Hmm. I just feel really low energy right now. Instead of being like, I guess I'm not gonna train today. Eat some carbs and then see how you feel.
Diane:Yeah, I've done that where I start to see stars and I'm like, uhoh. Let's see. Things are a little lu. So yeah, I've definitely seen people in the gym who have Pop Tarts, but let's get some, grab some fruit, grab something. Easy peasy. And then if you are dealing with gut stuff, I think we mentioned this in our last episode, like be mindful of your position changes and call me so we can work on that. Call me, don't call me. DM me. I don't use my phone for phone calls.
Adina:call me.
Diane:Um, stomach juicy. Okay, let's round it out with some reminders and recap these, shall we?
Adina:All right. The number one thing I want you to take away from this episode is do not let the Instagram rules. And the swipe graphics about how you should behave during your cycle, keep you from listening to your intuition, listening to your body, and adjusting accordingly.
Diane:Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Watch out for those flip flow on sars, and if you follow mainstream cycles syncing or workout advice, just be cautious of that because you'll only be strength training for like five days a month, and that just isn't going to repair you for all the demands of your everyday life. It's definitely not going to help you build resilience and be strong when you're 80 years old or 30 years old,
Adina:Yeah. That's not programming, that's not strength training. If you're only strength training five days out of the month. Um, and I'm glad, glad you mentioned resilience, cuz we talked about this on a recent episode of like, We had said the sentence, if you can't strength train in your ludial phase, like how resilient are you? And someone in the s st H H chat said that she was about to skip her workout and then those words were like repeating in her head and she didn't.
Diane:Didn't wait, didn't you have someone, a client, or maybe it was someone commenting on your post who was like, well, my children don't cycle sync to my cycle,
Adina:Yeah. Uh, I love that one. It was the best. It was like, yeah. My, all my other life responsibilities and my children don't sink themselves to my cycle.
Diane:right. Yeah. So amazing. Such a good comment. I love that they are interactive and they are, they're co-signing this very important message. Also, if you are someone who's going to the gym, maybe you're seeing a coach at your gym, just know that many of them, most of'em out there, especially men, they're not aware of or equipped to adjust your programming throughout your cycle. So use this info in this episode to advocate for yourself, I mean, Honestly, though, yeah, send it to them. I mean, I've worked with one who was very open to this and he has a couple of daughters and a fiance, and so he was very, he was at least open to, to learning about this information. If they are someone who's like totally closed off, then you know, maybe move on or just take that information for yourself to adjust your workouts. But even better, hire a coach. Hire a coach who understands how to get you results and keep you feeling good no matter where you are in your cycle. I, I may be a little bit biased, but I've worked with Adino over the past, like, oh my gosh, like five years now. Do you remember when we worked one-on-one together,
Adina:I remember that
Diane:F Fresh in our friendship? I actually saw. Some of the videos pop up on my phone not long ago when I was making a reel that I would record and send to you. Oh my gosh, the progress we've made. But you've been with me like every step of the way. Not only as a great coach, but as someone who's going to cheer you on and hold you accountable to getting stronger. And I've also worked with Adina through strength training for happy hormones and through her membership, and she has this great advantage and edge of being a coach for the past more than 10 years, but also a nutritional therapist. So she's cognizant of the fluctuations in your cycle and what you need in different parts of it, and that's just so key for helping you feel good through your program and through your progress.
Adina:Oh yeah. I would love, love to support you inside S T H H. Let's get you strong. Let's get your resilience so that you can train throughout your cycle and feel really good the entire time. And more than that. So that you can understand your own body and how to make these adjustments for yourself, because that is my favorite thing for women to come away with from strength training for happy hormones, is to know what to take from the program and what they need in what moment. Because I can program for you all day, but when you can make these decisions on your own and you can tap into your own intuition and understand what your body needs, that's when we really did something,
Diane:Yes. I mean, you've taught me, and I know dozens, hundreds of your clients how to develop their coaches' eye. I've seen videos of other women in the membership. I've seen the testimonials, and honestly, a lot of them move better than these quote unquote fitness coaches and people who are showing like kettlebell workouts on their story that are coaches. Like Adina will get you together and you're gonna learn so, Much about your body, and that is just so empowering.
Adina:Let's do it. So until next time, drink your water, unc unclench your butt hole,
Diane:Oh, it's UNC Unclenched.
Adina:and we'll see you soon.
Diane:Bye.
Adina:Bye.