Movement & Your Hormones – What Works, What Doesn’t!

Think exercise is just about weight loss? Think again! The right type of movement can help regulate hormones, lower stress, and support energy levels—but the wrong type can leave you feeling exhausted, foggy, and even worse than before.

In this episode, Ali & Amy are breaking down:
🔹 How cortisol, estrogen, and insulin respond to exercise
🔹 The best types of movement for perimenopause & hormonal health
🔹 Why too much HIIT or cardio can actually increase stress hormones
🔹 Real-life strategies to find movement that feels good and keeps your hormones happy

Listen now to find your movement flow! 🎧

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#ExerciseForHormones #WomensHealth #PerimenopauseSupport #SweetInsightsPodcast #BalancedMovement

Transcript

0:02

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) So Amy, I have to tell you, I have to tell you, I got a mug for my birthday and it's called a Next Mug and it keeps your coffee like hot, like you put it, you select a temperature and so it keeps it piping hot, hot or warm and then there's like in between settings. I love it. However, I love it because I actually drink a coffee and I don't dump my coffee out and I don't waste my coffee. However, this cup, and I bought the same one for my mom for Christmas, it says, first we drink the coffee and then we do the things. Nice. And this, I'm drinking out of this mug today because that's what we need to do today. First, we need to drink the coffee, then we need to do the things. We always talk about how things never go as planned. This episode, we were going to record an hour ago and it's an hour later and now we're starting to record it. So, you know, it's about, I actually had a coaching call with a client this morning and one of her biggest breakthroughs is her ability to move with the flow. So she's been doing, her partner goes to the gym, they get home from work and he goes to the gym and she was, you know, doing, doing and all this stuff during that time. And what she realized is that I should do some knee stuff during that time. So she started meditating during that time, doing castor oil packs during that time. And what she noticed is that if he doesn't go to the gym, then she doesn't do those things. And she realized, well, why, why is that? Like, why can't I still do a castor oil pack if he's home? Or so then she kind of pivoted and was like, no, like if we're going to watch TV together, because he's not at the gym, I can still do a castor oil pack. I can still choose to do this. And so it's a, it's a lovely thing when we, you know, can learn to pivot and we need more of that in our lives. I agree very much so. And I was drinking coffee while we were talking about podcasting. And so that was good. And now I don't have it anymore because it was getting pretty cold. I could have probably reheated it, but yeah. So here we are. Here we are. So welcome to episode six, where we are going to discuss the role of movement in supporting our hormone health and how to exercise in a way that works with your body, not against it. And you know a little bit about that firsthand, don't you Amy? I do. So for me exercising, when I was trying to lose weight, um, specifically I was doing a low calorie diet, so I wasn't supposed to do a ton of exercise, but prior to doing that, I had been exercising, I had been eating right. And no matter how hard I tried to do these HIIT exercises, which is what I was specifically doing at the time, um, and going to classes, I was gaining weight and it wasn't fat, uh, or it wasn't muscle, like I was gaining fat and I was not losing weight and I was eating the healthiest of foods. And despite my best efforts, my cortisol said, Nope. And I just kept gaining weight and had to stop what I was doing because it was just putting too much stress on me, which was causing more weight. I think that's really, really important messaging is that there really isn't a one size fits all. There isn't really a, what worked for me in my twenties is going to work for me in my forties. And we have to give ourselves grace in those moments and really learn to listen to our bodies and know when to pivot. And so, um, you know, looking at doing research before this episode, you know, there are some people who write that during perimenopause HIIT exercise is going to be great for you. There are other people who write saying that you should stay away from HIIT training, um, during perimenopause. And so the literature is all over the map and no wonder women are confused and not knowing what to do. Um, and again, that confusion about what to eat, what to exercise, whether to take HRT, all of those things are also contributing to our cortisol levels because we're so stressed about what to do and are we going to do the wrong thing? Um, and I think the biggest thing that we did with you on your journey was really focusing on reducing that cortisol and learning how to listen to your body and respond accordingly. Absolutely. And so just a reminder to people, we're not personal trainers or medical professionals, and we really want you to just listen to our personal experiences. Um, we've done some research. We're basing on personal stories. So you definitely can seek, um, professional help, um, when it comes to diet and supplements and exercise. Um, but we're just here to kind of give you a boost. Awesome. And so I am a certified health nutrition coach and life coach. And so I work with a lot of clients to help them learn to listen to their bodies, um, learn to change up their lives, stop saying should, and things like that. So if ever you think that, um, working together is something that I can help with, I'm always here to help. Um, and I do have a referral network, um, that I can refer you to other practitioners should that make sense for your unique situation. So always feel free to reach out if that is something that could benefit you, but let's dive in. Let's move into why movement matters for hormones. So one of the things that we know as we age is that our muscle mass will change. Um, and there are so many health benefits to maintaining your muscle mass and making sure that you're keeping movement in whether that's regarding your cardiovascular health, um, whether that's, um, muscle mass retention, which helps all over. Um, you know, but we want to, we want to really talk about, you know, how does, um, you know, movement matter in regards to our hormones. So, um, Amy, why don't you dive us in, um, because you are the expert in cortisol. Um, and, and let's kind of start there. So cortisol regulation, exercise, exercise definitely can reduce stress. Um, 100% agree. Um, but it will help lower your cortisol levels in the right movement. And like Ali said, like it just one size doesn't fit all. It just depends on what you can do. So for me going for a light walk, um, or like whether it's on treadmill or outside, outside is better if it's not freezing cold or snow storms, like we've all been having, um, that would be better versus doing a hitch workout for me. So it has to be the right type of movement for your body. So another thing we talked about was maybe yoga or, uh, breathing exercises or anything light like that might be more where you want to be depending on your cortisol levels in your body. Um, one of the beautiful things I've had a lot of my clients do is what's called medical Qigong. So Qigong is a form of martial arts. And if you go on YouTube, you can go Google medical Qigong, and there are some really cool light movement, um, stuff that's very therapeutic, really, really fun to try. And it's something different, right? So it's a little bit different than the standard yogas or Pilates. And so that might be something that people might want to search up and look a little bit into that could be super fun. Um, and when we talk about cortisol and stress, like exercise can be really good for the mind, right? So our mind is going to feel better from doing exercise, but our physical bodies, that cortisol response in our bodies is going to go up. And so when we know if it's gone up too much is really how we feel after exercise, do we feel energized? Do we feel exhausted, really listening to that body? Cause that will help you gauge whether you need to back off or move off and your scale will be a great tool, um, as well for that. Absolutely. And so, as you said, too much high intensity exercise, so hit workouts, uh, can actually raise your cortisol leading to fatigue, poor recovery, a stubborn weight gain, as we mentioned, um, estrogen balance. So strength training helps with estrogen metabolism, um, which is crucial for women in perimenopause, um, and menopause. So movement supporting your lymphatic system, um, definitely helps the body process and remove excess estrogen. Do you have anything to add to that alley? You know what I have that is so good for lymphatic drainage? It was actually a client. Um, I don't know what you call it. Um, uh, my, my client who was having surgery actually recommended it. She's into like all different modalities and different things like that. And she, um, prior to her surgery and post-surgery got a vibration plate. And so I have a vibration plate and it actually has like exercise handles on it as well. Um, but so good for lymphatic drainage. Um, I saw another practitioner years ago and they have recommended for me for lymphatic drainage, a rebound board. And so, um, I ended up getting a little bit bigger of a rebounder because I have a cheerleader in my house. And so we have that in the basement. So, um, and what's interesting is this is again, is if you go on YouTube, there's so many free resources out there. Um, if you look up rebounder exercises, you don't actually jump, you actually kind of push into the rebounder board and do exercises. Um, and there's some really cool ones with like seniors doing them. Um, and again, super good for lymphatic drainage, stuff like that. So definitely look into a rebounder or looking into a vibration board, both super, super cool things. And there's also, I've been doing a lot of research on like facial lymphatic drainage as well. So you can get rollers and different things to help, um, with just facial, which obviously the rebound board may not help your face if you're using it properly. Um, I don't think you use your face for it. Uh, although I don't have one, but there are other massages and things that you can do to help with your lymphatic drainage around your face as well. Well, and if anybody has kids, right, like girls are so into this stuff right now. So my 11 year old, when we go to cheer competitions, if we share a hotel room with another family, we will always do a facial nights. And so the girls will, we will lie upside down on the beds and the girls will give us facials. And so we've got like the rollers and like those, I forget what you call those like flat stones. Um, and, uh, they will give us facials and then we will give them facials and they're so good at it. Like, Oh my goodness. And so I'm all over that to, uh, you know, help with that stuff in my face. Right. Um, another thing is insulin sensitivity. So regular movements, improve insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of blood sugar imbalances, cravings and fatigue. Um, and strength training in particular will help stabilize your blood sugar. Um, and it supports metabolism overall. You know what, like this is might sound super dumb, but as a coach, I tell all my clients to drink water all the time. Like water is so important, blah, blah, blah. I am a horrible water drinker. So like, I have to be really disciplined. Um, I love coffee and I love wine. And so like, if I could drink nothing else, but coffee and wine all day, that would be very pleasing to me, but it's not going to be pleasing to my body. What I have noticed is that the more movement I have, the more thirsty I actually get. And so then the more water I consume, like today we've been dumped on with snow and my husband's away. So I'm in charge of the said shoveling. And like, I'm going to do it in spats today because I know my back with scoliosis can't handle it, but I'm going to go out. But as soon as I come in, I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm going to drown myself in water because I'm thirsty. Whereas, you know, typically I'm on the phone all day. I'm, you know, on client calls on video, like I'm not getting a lot of movement. So when you do get more movement, you're going to want to have more water, flush out your system, which is so good. Absolutely. Um, so, best types of exercise for hormonal balance, Ali, do you want to give us some ideas? Yeah. So, um, like we kind of talked about with the estrogen and to help us regulate our estrogen strength training is going to be super, super important. And with that, you know, um, you know, as we age, I talked about how we naturally lose muscle mass. So strength training becomes super, important. So, um, lifting two to three times a week, you know, whether it's, um, resistance bands or it's actual weights, you can pick up a set of weights for really reasonable. Um, and you don't have to do anything crazy, just a little bit of, of lifting and it'll make a huge difference. Um, and then we also talked about walking, walking is a great thing, but again, really listening to your body. So if you are, you know, walking 45 minutes and you're finding that you're inflamed and tired after, maybe you need to reduce it. Maybe you only need to do 20 minutes, right? Like really listening to that body, listening to your natural body cycle, right. Um, even for weightlifting, you're going to be able to lift more weights at the start of your cycle. Then you are at the end of your cycle, start to pay attention to that. Start to pay attention to those patterns. It's like getting your eyebrows waxed. You get your eyebrows waxed. When you have your period, it hurts like a mother, right? So we, but if you wait until after your period, it's like easy peasy, right? So there are different tendencies within our cycle. And if you actually, if you don't know this stuff, start paying attention to it. Um, and you'll, um, you'll notice that you can lift heavier at the start of your cycle versus the end of your cycle. So you might want to rotate your training into that realm. So maybe you lift afterwards and maybe you walk at the end of your cycle, that kind of thing. I love that. Um, and I wouldn't say that getting your brows waxed on or off your cycle is any more painful. I think it's pretty painful altogether, but for me, I feel like every rip away is like a stress reliever, but I am told that it's supposed to be worse because you're more dehydrated and whatnot on your period anyway. So that makes a difference as well. So if you're hydrating and drinking water, which I'm the same as you, I definitely don't do that. Well, um, I could drink coffee all day long and then realize that coffee really doesn't go good with my lunch and I should probably switch to water. But other than that, um, experiment with this, because like, if literally if I was to get my eyebrows waxed, like four days before my period starts versus like four days after it ends, game changer difference. That's so funny. Yeah. Like to the point that I will literally not book now because I know it is that much pain difference. Oh, I don't, I don't, I just schedule it is what it is. But again, every rip away from my eyebrow feels like a stress reliever. I think you need to pay closer attention. I guess I do. You want to schedule it like your period ends goal. Well, and the walking thing, like I definitely see a difference when I'm doing 30,000 steps when I'm traveling in a way versus the, I don't know, maybe a few thousand steps when I am home working and like not in my office all day, there's a big difference in how I feel and how, um, my body feels. I mean, I feel great after those 30,000 steps, but I'm exhausted. Sometimes there's like my feet are swollen or whatever, I guess, like I wouldn't say swollen, but like there's water retention. It definitely makes a big difference. Absolutely. Um, so we talked a little bit about yoga, Pilates, all great things that you can be doing. And I would rotate them in, right. Rotate in some, some Pilates, some yoga, maybe some medical key gong with the weightlifting days walking, you know, get a variety, right. Um, personally, I find hip training during perimenopause not to be great. There is literature out there that says it's great. I'm yet to see that actually in real life or any of my friends, that kind of thing. Um, you know, you and I had talked about before, maybe it has to do with your actual physical activity leading into menopause, but for you, you were someone who was doing hip training before and seeing great results. And then, you know, as you got into your forties, not so much anymore. So again, whether that's totally related to your own stress, a stressful life, stressful job, or it's related to the age, not sure, but, um, experiment with it. If you're not seeing results, switch it up, try something different. Don't ignore what your body is naturally telling you. Absolutely. Um, again, so when we're listening to our bodies, uh, trouble sleeping after exercising, again, that could be a sign that you're doing too much increasing that cortisol level. You're having crazy cravings after exercising, um, feeling more tired afterwards. Um, the, one of the naturopaths I work for always talks about doing an amino acid with after exercise. So I will even do that. Like after shoveling snow today, I will do an amino acid. It's your building blocks to your protein. So that will help with muscle recovery, feeling better afterwards. So I will usually, um, do that as well. Um, so supplements, that kind of thing is something that definitely look into incorporating that into your system. Um, and always, you know, happy to help people out with that if they need it. Um, and really releasing that thought process that we've been kind of ingrained with over our lives is more, isn't always better. Right. But I know one thing is consistency. So one of the things that in general, whether it's what you're eating, um, if you're trying to be on a special, a special diet or like meal plan, or if it's exercise or taking your vitamins, consistency is very important. And, um, I know that one of the things that we always talk about is our busy schedule. So do you want to explain about the importance of consistency in all of these things, especially with, um, perimenopause menopause, um, just in life in general? Yeah, I think, I think that with the consistency is it's finding how to be consistent. So linking behaviors. One of, one of the things that I teach in my practice is about habit stacking or, you know, connecting habits to other habits to help you remember to do that. So if you're not great at, at taking supplements, you know, maybe you need to link supplements to taking your coffee. Like maybe you have to take your supplements before you have your coffee, um, because the coffee is, you know, going to be one of those things you do regardless you it's already a habit you've created. So how can we link those other habits to those things? Um, when we, when we look at, at exercise, I actually hate the word exercise, exercise and me, there's some sort of thing that like doesn't fit. Um, you know, maybe it's all the, the languaging of exercise that I've heard throughout my life about, you know, exercise to lose weight, exercise to this, dah, dah, dah. I like to switch it to movement. And because exercise in my brain is something that I don't like, whereas movement is something that feels good. And so, you know, look at ways in your life, what are activities that you love to do, whether it's dancing or swimming or hiking, cycling, you know, it doesn't have to be things that are like exercise that you hate. Some people love exercise, so they can call it exercise and go exercising. That's great. But finding movement ways that you love to move, that feel good to you, that you can incorporate consistently into your life. Um, whether you need to block scheduling as your calendar, if calendar blocking is something that's good for you. Um, and if you are struggling with this, you know, um, maybe it's, you need to work with a coach like me, maybe it's, you need to get a personal trainer. Like there's lots of options, but you really want to make sure that you're working with someone who is aware of perimenopause, aware of menopause, aware of those changes in life, because you don't want them to be working against you. And a lot of times that happens too, because we're stuck on the one path that they know. Um, and they're not altering that path to coordinate with you and your body. No, that I completely agree. And I think that's important because I, again, I don't remember what I was watching, but it was something either day. And there was a coach who specifically knew what this person was going through. And they said it made all the difference in them, um, knowing their lifestyle, their habits, their goals, ultimately, and where they are in life, as opposed to just going in and getting a random person, um, and hiring them to just do a routine workout that they give to all of their clients. I think it's why a lot of my clients stay with me for longer than originally intended is, you know, it's not necessarily, um, you know, that they like list someone's come to me for weight loss, you know, it's not necessarily that they need to continue weight. It's that, you know, now we've moved into some and they're like, Oh, this is really good. And you already know the basis of what I'm doing. You already know where I'm going. And that's where my unique training is so cool because I have so many trains and different coaching modalities that we can literally grow from one to the other. Um, and so I have some clients who have, you know, they went from weekly coaching with me to switching to once every two weeks to once a month, and have stayed with me two years and on, or, you know, they come back to me, you know, maybe we coached a year ago and they come back and they're like, you know, this and this has happened in my life. And, you know, I thought about going to a therapy or I thought about going to someone else. But then I remembered that I could just come to you and we could talk about all the things and I could feel better. And, um, so yeah, so it's kind of one of the awesome things where, um, you know, we can reconnect and do things together down the road. Um, but yeah, we've been talking, you know, time flies by when we're talking, Amy, why don't we kind of recap and look at the sweet takeaways for movement and hormones. So a couple of things we talked about to start incorporating, um, would be at a 10 minute walk. Um, that's going to help whether it's morning sunlight or personally, I, I know that's good for your circadian rhythm, but I personally enjoy the evening sunsets myself. Um, try a new movement activity like yoga, Pilates, um, the activity you mentioned, and I cannot remember the name of it. Um, medical Qigong it's spelled Q I dash G O N G medical Qigong. Perfect. Um, overall, listen to your body. And if a workout leaves you feeling depleted instead of energized, then you need to adjust, um, stack movement into your day. Again, like walk when you're on the phone, um, stretch before bed, um, squat while cooking, um, stretching of any kind is good. Whether like it's in the shower or whether it's while you're cooking, just be careful. If you have something on the stove, um, watch those videos where like people work out with their kitchen counter. Like they use their kitchen counter to like do, Oh my gosh, some of them are so good. So good. I feel like you should search it up because there's like some pretty cool exercises you could do like while you're watching dishes or like, and sometimes that's what I do. Like if I've had a day that I haven't moved enough, I'll do like, you know, leg kickouts or whatever while I'm doing dishes or like, I don't know what you call them. Cause I'm not a fitness instructor, but so many cool things. Um, very interesting. Maybe we'll have to post one of those videos on our socials. Uh, so it's done and then, um, prioritize recovery, um, movement should support your hormones. It shouldn't stress them out. So whatever that means, whether it's calling it exercise and that stresses you out and you don't want to, let's call it movement and make you feel good while doing it. Awesome. Awesome. So great information today about movement. Last week we talked a little bit about nutrition and I decided to do a seven day sugar challenge. And so basically it's a free seven day challenge. Let's help remove sugar from our diet. Um, so if any of our viewers are interested in that, definitely send us a message and we can get you hooked up to do that with us. Amy doesn't know she's doing it, but she's already eating clean, but she's going to join us of course. Um, and so it's seven days, lots of really fun resources and that starts March 3rd. So it's a great time to get rid of the sugar before March break. And so, um, there's a couple of weeks to sign up for that. And March 3rd, we will, um, kick out sugar. And Amy will do it for a couple of days and then she goes on vacation. So I'll have to pick up when I get back. I don't know that I have the willpower to do that while I'm on vacation. So we'll see how early March break. Yes. Good for you. I love that for you. Yeah. We'll figure it out. Well, maybe I'll do mine before we record. And then that way we can say how it went. Awesome. Okay. All right. Thanks for joining us today, everyone. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to send it over to a friend who can also benefit from this knowledge. Let's