EP 16 - HOW TO STRENGTH TRAIN FOR PCOS WITHOUT FEELING LIKE A P.O.S.
Ooooh this topic was highly requested. We went IN on this episode, so buckle up for some spicy content ahead.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is an increasingly common diagnosis or suspected situation for SO many of the women we work with and, unfortunately, most of them were sent on their way with 1) a recommendation to LoSe WeIgHt and/or 2) a prescription or three to solve all their problems.
This episode is for you if you have or think you might have PCOS, or if you work with women dealing with PCOS [doctors, nutritionists, personal trainers]!
This week on GYST we discuss how to figure out if you have PCOS with a trusted doctor, why it seems everyone has PCOS, and why we really need to step away from the “cardio and diet”, all or nothing approach when dealing with this metabolic condition.
Yup - we’re going to talk about the root cause behind PCOS and why focusing on it as just a hormonal imbalance is a bit misleading.
We also break down why our clients with PCOS feel so much better with true strength training as part of their routine – Adina digs into how to find the minimum effective dose that will help you feel better, faster.
Enjoy and stay strong!
In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about…
🧡 Who is PCOS and how to get a proper diagnosis from your doctor
🧡 Why does it seem like everyone you know is being diagnosed with PCOS
🧡 The horrible advice that’s given to all women with PCOS
🧡 Understanding the root cause of your PCOS
🧡 Understanding the role of muscle in your insulin resistance
🧡 Why true strength training is the missing link to better supporting your body with PCOS
Resources & Good Shit
Episodes
What We’re Consuming: Food
Diane adapted this Sheet Pan Sticky Gochujang Chicken Meatball recipe from Half Baked Harvest. It was so nice, she made it twice – and in ~30min! She used ground pork, but ground chicken thighs would be tasty here too.
Adina’s enjoying milk and honey - not the book by Rupi Kaur [which is also good].
What We’re Consuming: Film & TV
Adina is very into White Lotus (HBO Max) and does a very good Jennifer Coolidge impression. This quirky dramedy limited-series takes place at a resort in Maui and follows various guests during their stay. Starring: Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Stiffler’s mom
Diane watched the Space Jam reboot (HBO Max) and it was pretty good despite not having her fave pump up theme song from the OG movie. She also got into No Sudden Move (HBO) also starring Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro. Oh, and her fave Jon Hamm. Just make sure you pay attention to this noir thriller - no “movie chores”!
Other Good Shit
@christy_coleman is the chief artistic officer at Beautycounter and makeup artist behind White Lotus lead Connie Britton’s red carpet lewks.
Diane has been tapping into tapping, or “Emotional Freedom Technique” (EFT) extra hard this month to help mitigate an increased stress load. This practice combines principles from acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and energy medicine. In short, it involves tapping on various acupressure points during a guided session. Diane has preferred this to sitting still in meditation for the past few years! She recommends Gala Darling’s High Vibe Honey membership for weekly live tapping sessions. They offer a monthly trial with code “FREEMONTH”, then $12/mo after that.
Remember this Orbit commercial and those stellar insults? It came to mind when Adina read a troll’s hilarious comment on this week’s episode!
Grab your GYST Mini Course!
Through 4 video lessons we’ll walk you through how to nourish your health through food, sleep, stress management, and movement. Dive in for a taste of nutritional therapy and functional fitness, so you can start to get it together!
Pssst! The bonuses include our growing GYST Cookbook!
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Connect with Diane
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Root Cause Reset: www.rcrprogram.com
Transcript
Transcript was auto-generated! There may be some errors, but you get the…GYST 😜
Adina: 0:32
Hello. And welcome back to another episode of the G Y S T podcast.
Diane: 0:39
Hey friends,
Adina: 0:40
Diane, what's up.
Diane: 0:44
we're doing okay over here and friends. Listen, you may have heard rain. Last episode. You might hear a slight lung butter. I have a bit of the scar Joe voice this week. We'll get this lung butter out of the way. You might hear some lawn equipment too. And Adina and I were just saying before we were recording, we think our hypothesis is that people just go and blow whatever grass clippings, back and forth for hours on end.
Adina: 1:09
They're after us.
Diane: 1:11
it's ridiculous, but let's just pretend it's a white noise machine. If you hear it, we're not a professional studio just yet. And you might hear some little snoring puckers in the background, but Hey, that's life.
Adina: 1:23
Yeah, we do the best on our sound quality, but like stuff happens, Diane and I pushed off our recording for the last 40 minutes, I would say, because the grass outside my apartment was just being clipped in crop circles at a point. Yeah. At a point we were just like, you get what you get, you got to, if you want this information, you got to put up with some lawnmowers
Diane: 1:48
Just follow the sound of our voice and the lawn equipment and shell, or let's all. Take a quick pause and go scream really loud, outside for a quick moment.
Adina: 1:57
just let them know how we feel
Diane: 2:00
Well, what are you consuming over there? Tell me what's new with film TV.
Adina: 2:04
foodies. All right. We are consuming a. Weird show it's it. I can't describe the tone. It's difficult for me to describe the tone, but I will say we're two episodes in and I am loving it. It's a mini series. I believe it's Mike White is the creator writer director. He was writing partners with Jack Black on school of rock.
Diane: 2:31
oh yeah.
Adina: 2:32
So it's
Diane: 2:33
So this is a comedy
Adina: 2:35
not, yes, it is a comedy, but, but it's kind of dark and quirky. I can't really explain the tone. The tone is challenging to nail down. Um, okay.
Diane: 2:45
what's it called
Adina: 2:46
called white Lotus and white Lotus is the name of the resort that these
Diane: 2:52
in Hawaii, right? I think I saw it previously.
Adina: 2:55
Okay. Yes. So it takes place at the four seasons in Maui, I believe. So there's a real sense of place in the show, which I always love. And the music is kind of. Hawaiian quirky. I would say it's the sound is really, really well done. And it's a tone. The show is a tone. It is a vibe it's quirky it little dark. Like I said, kind of like these, it feels a little anxious at times, but it is very funny. So notable cast, Jennifer Coolidge. So if you remember her from legally blonde or deeper dive, a Cinderella story, that movie with, um, Hillary Duff.
Diane: 3:37
okay. You've lost me already.
Adina: 3:39
She's the one who in, if you are a Cinderella story fan, she's the one who's like the evil step mom. And she's like, but you studied so hard like that lady or the in legally blonde when she's good. When she goes with Elle woods to take her dogs back from the gross ex-husband and she's like, I'm keeping the dogs.
Diane: 4:02
oh, isn't she an American pie too.
Adina: 4:04
I believe so.
Diane: 4:06
Okay. When you did that voice, it clicked. She's Stiffler’s mom.
Adina: 4:09
Yeah. And I'm in,
Diane: 4:11
I'm so glad I made that connection.
Adina: 4:13
Legally Blonde two notable line from her is when L comes out in her red, white and blue ensemble and she goes, yeah, “You look like the 4th of July!”
Diane: 4:24
okay. Yup. I know exactly who you're talking about. I'm so that this is why we're friends. I put it together eventually,
Adina: 4:30
my Jennifer Coolidge impression is on point,
Diane: 4:34
and you're a savant level, like recall for obscure movies just continues to amaze me. So white Lotus, I think it's on HBO,
Adina: 4:40
Yes it is. And Jennifer Coolidge is hilarious in it. Like I think she's really funny. She really makes me laugh, but it's a great casting. She's kind of this like confused older woman whose mother passed away and she's coming to spread her ashes in Hawaii. She's on a journey. Everyone at this resort is on a journey. Um, other notable characters in the show, Connie Britton plays like a CEO, mom and Connie Britton. Interestingly loves beauty counter she's. Yeah, she's always on red carpets in like a full face of beauty counter makeup. I think Christy Coleman. Who's the director of what is she? Product director at beauty counter.
Diane: 5:22
beauty. She's like the makeup art. She's so
Adina: 5:24
Yeah, she's a makeup artist at beauty counter and she, I think she does a lot of the makeup product development, but she is Connie Britton's makeup artist. I think anyways, if you want to see some beautiful, natural, safer makeup looks, check out, Connie. And then
Diane: 5:39
she's got some of something.
Adina: 5:40
another hilarious character is if you remember plop from the office that dude, um, I think his name was Pete. Actually. They called him plop in the later seasons, but he plays some like, do she, frat star that's on his honeymoon at this resort. It's great. Really quirky, really funny. I'm very much enjoying it and I highly recommend it.
Diane: 6:04
I'm glad you brought that up because I did see an ad and I also saw, I think Molly, Shannon has a cameo or a role in this doesn't she?
Adina: 6:10
Uh, haven't gotten there yet,
Diane: 6:11
Shannon from SNL. It was in a trailer. So I don't think any spoilers there, but oh, good to
Adina: 6:17
There's some other, there's some other notable cast members, but those were kind of the ones that for me were like, I'm enjoying your time on my screen.
Diane: 6:25
good. I'll edit to the queue. Well, over here, I attempted gossip girl, the reboot. And you talked about this a little bit in the last episode, and if y'all are watching this to on HBO, max, I'm curious what you think now, growing up, I love the OSI and it was kind of like teen dramadies, but oh, the dialogue in this, I absolutely hate it. It's just trying so hard to be clever and the way they've approached, I mean, I didn't watch all of the original gossip girl, but I hate the way that the teachers are just so consumed with these social media influencers students. It's it makes me want to gag, like I'm actually just thinking about it. And you also heard the last episode. I had a string of just not great TV or a film that were, we were watching, but finally had some redeeming watches. So. Space jam it's the reboot is being a reboot with LeBron and also have to share this meme. But the only time that I care about basketball is when I'm watching space jam and the original with Michael Jordan from like 1995 was such a favorite of mine. And I actually still have the soundtrack in my car and the theme song still pumps me up to this day.
Adina: 7:40
I love it.
Diane: 7:40
Everybody get up. It's done on a slam now. So that's the closest thing to a musical for me that I'm
Adina: 7:46
I mean, we discovered that you were obsessed with the lion king, which is in fact a musical.
Diane: 7:51
Yes. Yes. I'm very selective. Maybe they need to be animated. Maybe that's my thing.
Adina: 7:55
you watch Bo Burnham in the end? Did you watch
Diane: 7:57
No, it is. I think we will watch it cause Neil wants to watch it too. Um, so
Adina: 8:02
And I showed you, you laughed at some of the songs I showed you
Diane: 8:04
Yeah. Yeah. So I'll give that one a shot, but space jam. The animation was very cute. They also explore the Warner brothers, universal other movies. I used to love the matrix growing up in middle school. I think I had like a pleather black jacket and would slick back my hair for a moment, if you can picture that. But anyway, I digress. This was a cute movie. I wish that they had the theme song that I was looking forward to, but I'll just go jam in my car. And I also watched, so Don Cheadle was in this movie. He has a little role in space jam. He was also in the movie, no sudden move and alongside Benicio Del Toro. And there are a few other big actors. Oh, John ham, Johnny ham is in this movie. Yeah. So this is on HBO max also. And it's a new noir thriller film. You definitely have to pay attention to this one because there are a lot of, there's a lot of, um, two timing and the other characters and it's very clever. It's very well done. Big actor, cameo that's unbilled. Um, I won't ruin it for you, but you have to pay attention. It's not one of those play on your phone while you watch the
Adina: 9:13
not a movie chore.
Diane: 9:14
you know, movie chores can happen while you're watching this one. So that one's a bit more serious a drama, but it's also clever. And Benicio Del Toro always reminds me of Brad Pitt, like with brown hair for some reason.
Adina: 9:27
I feel like, um, space jam is a controversial one. Like
Diane: 9:31
it Y
Adina: 9:32
I just think some people are not digging it as a reboot. I think some people are like, we didn't need this. Like, why are we remaking all of these movies? Like I felt that way with, um, I, I feel like I mentioned this, but I was obsessed with coming to America growing up. That was like the Eddie Murphy movie. That was my, one of my favorite movies growing up.
Diane: 9:47
yeah, that was just.
Adina: 9:49
Yeah. And so they remade it and I had to watch it, but like, there were a couple of funny moments that made it worth it, because as you see some funny lines for movies, just kind of like become part of mine and Dani's way of communicating. So sometimes it's worth it for those moments, but it's also just like, did we need to make this, did we need this.
Diane: 10:08
we just have all this money. We need to make some kind of spinoff. Yeah. I should watch that coming to America, the sequel, and it just didn't hit the same as the original, for sure. Any food stuff that you want to make us drool over this week?
Adina: 10:24
I don't think so. Things have been pretty simple around here. I have been digging milk. I know it sounds simple, but if you've been listening to the show for awhile, you know, Diane and myself have both been on journeys with our gut health, our metabolism, and have been recently enjoying way more high quality dairy. And so for a lot of people, milk can kind of be the last phase of a dairy re-introduction because it can be more difficult to digest. That higher lactose content. It can generally be a little bit more difficult to digest than say things like cheeses or butter or even cream. And so I have been doing so well with milk lately and I've really been enjoying it. I think my body is craving that quality vitamin a that quality protein, um, those minerals milk is really just minerals.
Diane: 11:25
You got milk. Remember those
Adina: 11:27
I know they were just shoving it down our throats and I hated it growing up, but it's probably because like, who was going to enjoy Skimm Lactaid plus vitamin D like disgusting. Yeah. It's
Diane: 11:40
that thin nasty milk.
Adina: 11:41
that's not milk. I like an ice cream line top on a grass fed whole milk. So yeah, I've been enjoying that and I love to just like put it in my froth with some sea salt and raw honey. That is so delish, either freezing cold, like milk has to either be like ice cold for me or frothed up almost like a hot chocolate.
Diane: 12:06
Yeah, I think I might've mentioned in our dairy episodes, which by the way, if you miss those to two, two-parter go check it out. Or where you dive deep into why we love dairy and all kinds of considerations. If you can't tolerate that yet. But growing up, I remember my mom would suggest to me warm milk before bed helped me sleep, but also to call my tum tum but unfortunately the kind of milk I was drinking in the status of my gut. It just didn't really work as we had hoped, but it was kind of soothing when I was drinking it, like before the
Adina: 12:36
yeah. Yeah. Like a frothed up warm milk with honey and sea salt is such a nice bedtime snack.
Diane: 12:44
yum. And when you said milk and honey, I was reminded of the poetry book by Ruby Carr. I don't know if I pronounce that right. But my friend, Mary got me that book and it's really beautifully done. So that's your Intuit and your, what you're consuming? Um, I am the food. My dad was visiting last week from Virginia. I see my folks like once a year, my mom couldn't make it up here. I made a Korean sticky meatball. So I think this was from our adopted it from half baked harvest. I love her recipe. Yeah. And it was kind of like an easy, like 30 minute meal. You can, I think she wrote it with ground chicken or ground Turkey, but I never used ground Turkey for meatballs. I use pork, but if you can't do pork, you could definitely only use some ground up like chicken thighs or something. And I used local raw honey and gojuchang, which is kind of like the Korean, um, spicy chili sauce. You could use Serratia if you just happen to have that. And these were so good. My dad was raised, he was like, you could make a, have a food truck and I would just love this.
Adina: 13:48
cute.
Diane: 13:48
It was delicious. So I, I actually made it twice this past week and adapted it a little bit for, um, what we like. So, so good. And other things I've been into it was really exciting having my dad up here, but we also are fingers crossed, finishing up our never ending renovation here. So we've had a lot of stress on my end here. So I've been really tapping into tapping or emotional freedom technique. This is something that I've loved and enjoyed over the past few years, I think three or four years ago, I discovered it via gala darling. Um, she's someone I followed, I think since live journal days. Um, if you remember when people had Zane gun, right.
Adina: 14:31
Never got into it, but yeah.
Diane: 14:33
but what this involves basically is a tapping on different acupressure points. And for me, I enjoyed this more than say sitting still in meditation, that's still so valuable, but for me, I really liked tapping on these different points. And so there are different, um, guided tapping sessions that she has and I've had her membership and a couple of her programs. I think she might have some videos on YouTube. So that's been so helpful for me. I love starting my day with it. It's something I haven't really shared on Instagram. Cause I thought maybe this is too woo. But if you're ever looking for something to help you relieve feelings of anxiety of stress or how, even when I'm feeling good, I do this too. And I really like this practice.
Adina: 15:14
I remember the first time you mentioned it like three years ago or so, and I did at the time think it was a bit woo, woo. But I get it. Like I get in general, you guys know I went to school for art therapy and so I understand the soothing nature of repetitive use of our hands and repetitive contact with our bodies. So like a lot of people in my program in grad school did some research on crocheting or needle pointing for soothing anxiety and just that repetitive nature of it and what that contributes. So I can totally understand it. I just haven't implemented it for myself.
Diane: 15:56
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's so fascinating. And it took me a while to come around to, but I think in the last few years, I've become a little bit more spiritual and open and also really resonate with the idea that the body keeps the score and we need to move and like get out of our head into our, our bodies into our breath. I know some of my friends really love breath work as well, but I really like this practice. And you might even notice that you subconsciously tap in some ways, like if you ever feel stress and tap on your temples or, uh, are thinking and tapping above your lip or maybe on your chin. I see that a lot.
Adina: 16:26
it makes me think of Winnie the Pooh, you know, when he goes on his farm and think think.
Diane: 16:31
yeah, yeah. He's tapping. So it combines, some Eastern practices, um, and these different acupressure points, but I love the guided meditation, especially through gala darlings programs. So she is. Awesome. I love her approach. If you like what we put down here, you'll like her, her vibe, I think so I can link some things in the show notes. I don't think she opens her membership until like September.
Adina: 16:56
All right. Cool. Cool, cool. And yeah, I guess on the note of calming anxieties, relieving stress, that's definitely going to be a theme of our conversation today. Today, we are getting into the meat. We are talking all about PCOS and strength training. This is a highly requested topic. This is something we mentioned often, but we haven't really done a deep dive on it here yet. And when we put this poll up on our Instagrams, I have never gotten more votes on it. In my history of Instagram use.
Diane: 17:33
it blew up.
Adina: 17:35
So I think we know this episode is highly anticipated. We're excited to bring you this information. We have a few disclaimers at the top of this one as we always do. So I think first off we went, I want you to understand that this isn't a masterclass on PCO S and strength training. Like we are
Diane: 18:00
right. We never do full masters stuffy master classes
Adina: 18:03
Yeah. Like we are going to break down a lot of the things we want you to be thinking about. And we are going to bring up pertinent aspects of this conversation in the holistic space and the conventional space. But this is not a deep dive thesis master class on every aspect of polycystic, ovarian syndrome and strength training
Diane: 18:26
yes. Ma'am. So this is for you. If you suspect that you have PCOS, maybe you heard about it. And so you're starting to do some of the research women who were diagnosed with PCOS. And if you fall into either of those categories, you may be dealing with symptoms like unexplained, weight gain, or rapid weight gain acne, unwanted hair. So perhaps on your chin, your cheeks, your abdomen, that's commonly what we hear about. Maybe you notice hair loss on your head irregular, or anovulatory cycles and, or unexplained infertility.
Adina: 19:01
Yeah, that's extremely common. We do also want to invite you to listen. If you haven't been diagnosed with PCOS or you don't suspect PCO S but maybe you're a doctor, a nutritionist, a NTP, a personal trainer, or someone who works with women who have PCOS and you're confused about what to recommend to them or. Even if, if you work with women, you need to know this information because diagnoses for PCO S suspected diagnoses for PCOS symptoms that may not necessarily be labeled as PCOS, but have a lot of the same root causes are so incredibly prevalent right now. Like we talked about how quickly this poll blew up on my Instagram. So many of us, so many of you are dealing with PCOS or something like it right now. So if you are a practitioner and you work with women, you need to know this information.
Diane: 20:01
Right. Especially through this last year. So many of our new clients are struggling with blood sugar dysregulation with stress, with their cycles. And they're at various seasons in their life. Some might be on a long-term hormonal birth control and navigating that transition off. And so some of these symptoms might be coming up for them or like Adina said up your personal trainer. And you just haven't had the, the opportunity, the knowledge here about these topics. We want for you to walk away with this, with some broadened understanding so that you can better serve the people that you work with.
Adina: 20:31
Yeah, you can't be serving women right now without knowing this information.
Diane: 20:35
Yes. Yeah. So not a masterclass. Our intention is to focus more on lifestyle changes and the more the why behind them, because we noticed that even in the function. Fitness space. Even the holistic space, there can be a lot of all or nothing, especially when it comes to conversations around exercise and movement. So take this as an information. Only as we say in our disclaimer, we're going to speak from a nutritional therapy and strength training expertise and working with hundreds of women over the last few years. So let's dig into it first again, not a masterclass, but we want to give you a high level understanding here of who is PCOS polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Adina: 21:16
Yes. So who is it? That's the real question because conventional medicine is confused about this, and I have no issue saying that I have worked with hundreds of women at this point. Many of them who are given a PCOS diagnosis and based on what is, is my question, always, whenever someone tells me that they have PCOS, my first question is like, how, why, what did they tell you? That's you know, like your doctor just said, okay, you have PCOS. Here's birth control. Let's fix it. Here's Metformin. Let's fix it. Like we need way more information than that. So information around this is constantly evolving. We were talking earlier about how PCO S for a couple of years. Now there's been this discussion around, should it get a rebrand and one.
Diane: 22:07
a rebrand.
Adina: 22:08
Yeah, because PCOS, doesn't really describe what it is. And this is what we're saying. When we say, if you got a PCOS diagnosis, how I've had so many women come to me and tell me, oh, my doctor diagnosed me with PCOS and I say how? And they said, oh, they did an ultrasound. And they found cysts on my ovaries. So,
Diane: 22:26
they think I have cysts from even just a manual exam. I've heard that.
Adina: 22:30
yeah, that's wild. Okay. So first of all, they're not even really cysts that we're talking about here. What they are seeing on ultrasound oftentimes is follicles. If you listened to our period myth-busting episode, we talked a little bit about this, but when your body is preparing for ovulation, your follicles mature, and that's what turns into those eggs, and that is what is primed for a potential pregnancy. Okay. So oftentimes here what's happening is that we have these follicles, they start to mature. But the hormones to stimulate a proper ovulation are not present. And so we have these follicles that are showing up larger than how they are supposed to be, but they are not cysts. These are follicles. We are
Diane: 23:14
Right. They can up here on imaging as cysts. They're immature follicles. We want mature follicles.
Adina: 23:21
want those. My
Diane: 23:22
There is so immature. Yeah.
Adina: 23:24
follicles are extremely immature. So check yourself with your immature follicles. Okay. Um, yeah. So again, that's not every case someone might have actual cysts, but it's a very incomplete picture. And so we need to dig deeper. That's the bottom line. But with this rebrand, like we said, polycystic ovarian syndrome, it doesn't really make much sense. It's not giving us a lot of information.
Diane: 23:49
immature follicle syndrome.
Adina: 23:51
One of the names up in this debate is metabolic reproductive syndrome, which makes way more sense to me because we're going to get into this a lot more on this episode, but PCOS is a metabolic condition. It is a metabolic dysregulation. Okay.
Diane: 24:13
versus just a hormonal imbalance. Yes. And I think we were saying this offline as well, but it seems like PCO S is too. I'm using air quotes, hormonal imbalance as IBS is to gut health issues in that is a cluster of symptoms. And sometimes people receive this kind of catch all like, oh, it's probably PCOS without further attention and digging and proper diagnoses here.
Adina: 24:38
yeah, it's such a, I mean like some people do havePCOS. A lot of people do have PCOS, whatever that reason is. But I, I, like you're saying, it's become such a garbage diagnosis where you come in complaining about something and your doctor's just like, okay, it's PCO S here's some Metformin and here's some birth control. And a problem too, that I see a lot is so many women who got diagnosed with PCOS when they were like 13 years old, 14 years old. And it's like, can we give your period a minute to figure out what the heck it is?
Diane: 25:12
Right. Because as we mentioned on the period myth-busting episode, right. When you first get your period, maybe when you were an early teenager, you might recall that it was irregular and there's a lot of things going on and that's expected like your body's figuring out where it wants to
Adina: 25:26
Yeah. Those early years of your cycle, you may not ovulate every one of those cycles. Your body is really figuring out its rhythm and flow. And like we said, that's a rhythm. And for though I actually made a joke like a while ago that I wanted to write a fitness program called hustle and flow about how to train with your cycle. Maybe don't steal that. Anyone listening don't steal it. I might do it. Uh,
Diane: 25:50
TM like that rap isn't that a rap
Adina: 25:51
yeah.
Diane: 25:52
The hustle and flow was a movie with Anthony Anderson, Terrence Howard, Karen Manning, and Taraji Henson
Adina: 25:59
cool.
Diane: 26:00
could also be a strength training
Adina: 26:03
string training with your
Diane: 26:04
your cycle.
Adina: 26:05
All right. So your cycle is trying to figure itself out in those early ears. You are also going through puberty. So acne is to be expected. There is a lot in our environment that contributes to that androgen dominance. So it might be jumping the gun. If we just give a POS diagnosis and shove birth control down a 13 year olds throat for the rest of her life.
Diane: 26:30
yeah, that's so early. And if that was the situation that you found yourself in no judgment, uh, we do the best that we can with the information we had at the time. That said there is so much that we can do to support your health and knowing this information. And we want to provide you with more of these tools to take care of yourself via food, lifestyle, stress management movement, and beyond, right. So let's say that you suspect PCOS and you want to dig a little deeper and what are some ways that you would have that properly diagnosed? So let's get into it. There are a bunch of different criteria for diagnosing PCOS, but the one that we apply with most is according to the androgen, excess and S society or AE-PCO S for short, and that would include having irregular periods or polycystic ovaries. And I guess we just clarify, that's not necessarily cystic it's those immature follicles, right. Uh, also having high androgens on a blood test or symptoms of high androgens, like hirsutism, that's the unwanted hair growth that you might notice on your face, particularly your chin, maybe on your neck or chow line. I hear it that often, maybe some on your chest or your abdomen that you didn't otherwise notice before. And other reasons for high androgens have been ruled.
Adina: 27:56
Yeah. So like you may have heard of the Rotterdam criteria. That's another one that's pretty popular and it's very similar. what we are looking for. Again, we are not diagnosing you, but what we are looking for for this to be a more complete diagnosis, as opposed to just, oh yeah, they felt my ovaries, or I got an ultrasound or I have some acne, or I have a irregular periods. Right? Cause there's so
Diane: 28:17
or I read a book and I think that maybe this is what's going on. Yeah.
Adina: 28:21
are so many, any other things that contribute to things like irregular periods or acne or androgen excess. But what we're looking for here is really all three of these things. It's irregular periods and maybe those polycystic ovaries, those that follicle growth and high androgens and other reasons that may have caused was high androgens were ruled out. So we're kind of pretty clear on the fact that this is what's going on here.
Diane: 28:46
yes. And we also want to. Come back to this thought, and that is you are not your diagnosis, or let's say that you present with irregular periods. You haven't been ovulating you don't have a diagnosis. Your body can still benefit from the support that we talk about on the show and through our work. So no matter where you are, if you have a diagnosis or not, but still come back to the basics before going down a rabbit hole of, I need a specific hormone supplement, I need to get on metformin and so on.
Adina: 29:19
Yeah, cause we're going to talk a little bit more about insulin shortly, but the reason women with PCOS get put on Metformin is because most women and I would say all to some degree, struggle. Levels of insulin resistance when they're struggling with PCOS. And so Metformin is targeting that blood sugar management, that insulin resistance, but Metformin comes with a lot of side effects. Like I've had clients who have been on it for years and they can't seem to get a handle on their gut issues. And it's like, maybe it's the Metformin. Like what if we try to remove it, that variable, obviously with the guidance of your doctor, we're not here to take you off medication, but just giving you more thought about asking these questions and getting more information from your doctor when they do just put you on this medication. Goodbye and good luck. I'll see. In 20 years,
Diane: 30:11
right there has, I mean, I know that a lot of doctors are constrained by the system, which they work in and they also might not have had much education around how to support you via food, via lifestyle. What's your sleep like your stress? What are the relationships like in your life? All of these factor into how you feel physically. And unfortunately, too often, people are just shoved onto hormonal birth control, Metformin, or other medications without attention to their food, their lifestyle, their routine, you have to move, you have to sleep and eat anyway. So we just find so much positive outcome to focusing there with our clients.
Adina: 30:47
Yeah. And today is all about strength training. So we will be talking specifically about if, if you are diagnosed with PCOS or you suspect you have PCOS and you were handed birth control and or Metformin, but you haven't tried strength training. Can we start there? Can you see what kind of shift might happen in your life if you really put attention to this? So yeah, I know I can go on forever cause I get really fired up about this, but we do have a couple of things we want to cover today. So another thing we really want to put attention to is post pill. PCOS this is another thing that we're seeing so much right now. And you heard us talk about this on our period myth-busting episode, but I truly believe that our generation is the longitudinal study on hormonal birth control because we are seeing these things. And if you have not given thought to the timeline of when you were diagnosed with PCOS and maybe if you give a moment to look back to that, and it was right when you came off the pill, there is a really good chance that this is post pill PCOS. And the reason for this is because as we talked about a little bit on the period myth-busting episode, the pill. It further increase insulin resistance. So we know that insulin resistance is a real driving factor with PCOS the pill is estrogenic, so it can drive that hormone balance. And it depletes a lot of nutrients and messes with our mineral balance. So it messes with our metabolism and that can contribute to things that we talked about like that androgen dominance, like some of these other issues that come up with PCLs. So if you are diagnosed post pill, sometimes the answer is like, give it time. We need to support your body to clear all of those exogenous hormones that you were on for multiple years and to better support that insulin sensitivity, that metabolic health, that repletion of the nutrients that were depleted on the pill. So post pills, PCO S is again, Kind of comes up short for us as a diagnosis. Like we really want to take a moment to see if we can support that body out of this situation before we start just putting you right back on the pill or prescribing things like Metformin
Diane: 33:02
I'd also be remiss if I didn't talk about how the pill affects your gut flora, right? Your gut microbiome, there is an intimate connection between your gut health and your hormone health. So the pill is going to deplete nutrients mess with that mineral balance and in doing so your metabolism and your energy, right? But with long-term use of the pill, that's also going to possibly affect leaky gut and trigger the immune system to create more inflammation, which is then going to lead to insulin receptor dysfunction and higher levels of testosterone, which is what a lot of women are experiencing coming off of the pill that kind of testosterone rebound
Adina: 33:40
Yeah, we didn't talk about that yet as a symptom, but inflammation is at the root of a lot of what goes on with PCOS and we will get into that way more. When we start to talk about cardio versus strength training, that inflammation piece is really huge.
Diane: 33:55
yes. So why are so many women being diagnosed with PCOS these days while so many women have taken hormonal birth control for one to five, I've even seen 15 and 20 years on my new client intake forms. That's pretty common, right? And there's also a major prevalence of insulin resistance because of the standard American diet. So a lot of highly processed foods, fats, refined sugars, those things that are going to keep you on that blood sugar roller coaster. So how that as part of the equation and then alongside it,
Adina: 34:28
You know, my take, I think everyone is under muscled right now
Diane: 34:31
Yes, especially this past
Adina: 34:34
yeah, everyone's sitting around and if they were thinking to themselves like, oh, quarantine, like the quarantine 15, I gained so much weight. I better start doing so much HIIT cardio. And so it got worse. Like it it's so frustrating to me because muscle is magical. Muscle is a metabolic engine. are seeing a lot of these issues because of how under muscled we are, if you are, we're going to get into this a little bit later on, but some people will call like quote unquote, skinny PCOS which, you know, we hate this term. We hate the term skinny, fat as a concept as well, but we do need to be talking about it. There are people who may look lean, but they maybe dealing with, with a lot of adipose tissue. If we actually took a scan of their body composition, they may look lean to you. They may wear a small size pants, but they may be heavily adiposed and highly under muscled. So it's not just about what size pants do you look like fit into. I really want to know body composition. How much of this inflammatory adipose tissue are we holding on to? And how little of this anti-inflammatory highly metabolic endocrine organ muscle. Are we
Diane: 35:53
muscle. Oh, we love muscle. Right. And I think a common misconception with that, that I hear is that it only affects women of a certain size that women who appear lean don't have this diagnosis or this situation. So that is not the case. And so Adina was talking about being under muscled. Maybe we were more sedentary, especially this past year, but if stress is also really high alongside. That adds fuels the flame to the, blood sugar dysregulation. And in turn your hormonal imbalance, metabolic issues. All of that, we also have touched on in this episode, I believe in past episodes and we live in a very estrogenic environment. And the takeaway here is that we're surrounded by plastics, by soy and things that are like exogenous hormones that are going to affect our own hormonal imbalance. So there are a lot of factors here that could be driving this situation for you.
Adina: 36:49
Yeah. So we're seeing it. We're seeing it now. I wonder what the statistics are. We probably should have grabbed those before we looked at this episode, but honestly, so many people are misdiagnosed. So many people are underdiagnosed. Like there, I
Diane: 37:00
I mean, if we just go from our
Adina: 37:01
oh my God. Yeah. Like I think right now I had about 70 women come through strength training for happy hormones, a self-paced version. Um, I think about 85% of them were PCOS and or Hashimoto's. And so,
Diane: 37:21
thyroid issues alongside
Adina: 37:23
which oftentimes they're really, I mean, not oftentimes all the time, they're really interconnected because as we mentioned, PCOS is a metabolic condition. Our thyroid runs the show when it comes to our metabolism. So lot going on here, but I just want to give you a little bit of a breakdown. What insulin resistance is. Cause we are going to be talking about it quite a bit on this episode. And as Michael Scott says, explain it to me like I'm five. So here is insulin resistance. Okay. Insulin is the key that unlocks our cells to bring sugar from our blood into our cells okay. Insulin unlocks your cells so that your cells can use the sugar that your body eats.
Diane: 38:06
glucose.
Adina: 38:07
needs that sugar. That's important. Our body runs on the sugar. What happens is when we have things like the standard American diet, when we are under muscled, when we are overstressed, when our metabolism slows our insulin, those keys, they become bad at opening the locks. It may sometimes even feel like our cells have changed the locks on us. And so insulin is crying out like open the damn cells and your body is pumping out more and more insulin. And so the sugar is building in the blood and the insulin is building in the body. And this is when it becomes problematic. So the sugar is not necessarily the issue. The carbs are not necessarily the issue it's that your body is not doing a good job of using that sugar for fuel. Your cells are not receptive to that insulin key. They are not opening up those cells and receiving that sugar for energy. Okay.
Diane: 39:01
Right. And a big trend over the last couple years was like, well, just do away with all the carbs. All sugar is bad. Fruit is bad and that's not the camp that we're
Adina: 39:09
keto keto for all of those PCOS ladies, and I hear it all the time. There are so many women. Are in my DMs who are applying for my programs, who start my programs, who have been diagnosed with PCOS and they are doing all the cardio and all the KETO and right there, it's two amazing opportunities for change. So if you have been diagnosed with PCOS and you were told to just completely avoid sugar or to completely avoid carbs or to go keto, we want you to understand that just not providing your body with any sugar is not solving the problem. We need to solve the problem on the cellular level and increase our cells, sensitivity to insulin. We need to get our cells to change the locks back so that our keys work.
Diane: 39:58
Yeah, this is especially important. If you are active, if you are trying to change your, your physique or be active and you are under fueling yourself like that, it's just something we see very often as well. Unfortunately, the approach is just not very helpful there
Adina: 40:16
Right. Think about it. If you were to go keto. Okay. First of all, this sustainable longterm, let's just say that as it is, your body needs carbs, but say you were to go keto. Okay. And then say you come into contact with a carb. What would happen to your body? Who does carb, if you are, if you have never made an effort to change those locks back to get your body, to actually move that sugar into the cells, it is not a long-term solution to just avoid carbs. I hope that you can see that on just a cellular physiological level. It does not make any sense. And I don't understand why so many women are being told.
Diane: 40:59
Yeah. My cycling ladies feel better, much better when we get, get them tolerating carbs and it can be, it can take some time too. I don't advocate for removing an entire macronutrient group.
Adina: 41:12
Yeah, no, thank you to that. Um, but yeah, so let's get into, so you kind of see why this is so common right now. let's talk a little bit about some myths around PCOS things that we hear from clients all the time, or are very common in the conventional space. Say you're diagnosed with PCOS you go to your doctor. What is the first thing that most doctors will tell women?
Diane: 41:39
Just lose weight. You need to lose weight.
Adina: 41:41
lose weight. It'll solve your PCO. S so.
Diane: 41:44
We won't tell you how, but may or maybe we'll just tell you to eat like a toddler and to run yourself into the ground
Adina: 41:50
What happens in the conventional world when you're told, oh, I need to lose weight to fix my problem. You start overexercising you do a ton of cardio and you start under eating, you start dieting. So it's just going to drive the issue further into the ground. We're talking about this insulin resistance. We're talking about the stress factor. We're talking about this metabolism factor, cardio, excessive cardio, and under eating will slow your metabolism. Okay. The trolls can come at me as they do.
Diane: 42:22
try. They need to balance their blood sugar before they come out
Adina: 42:24
That is what they need to do, man. Go back and listen to our Peloton and your period episode, if you haven't done that yet. Cause we do break down quite a bit. How these high intensity cardio. Classes and the like are actually driving that metabolism to slow down, but we're not going to get into the nitty gritty today, but I just want you to understand that when you do these conventional well practices for quote unquote, losing weight, to help your PCO S you are slowing metabolism, you are under nourishing your cells. You are increasing stress in the body and you are increasing insulin resistance. So you are doing yourself, no favors, as far as getting your cells to change the locks back and allow that sugar into the cell. You are also driving inflammation. So if we are overexercising and we are not recovering from that exercise, especially when it is cardio based, we are driving this constant cortisol dump in the body and this constant inflammation. And we know that inflammation is playing a really big role in driving those PCOS symptoms.
Diane: 43:37
Yeah, I hear this so often because I also work with so many women who are struggling with their gut, with their hormones, but their cycle. And they might also have received a diagnosis for PCOS and they say, I've been trying so hard. I've been going and exercising regularly, but I'm still seeing the scale creep up or not move at all. And they feel defeated. And I understand how that feels frustrating because all they tried to do is just do what they were told from a provider to rev up the cardio. But that is just not, not working for them.
Adina: 44:08
Yeah. And I mentioned my Instagram trolls. Um, basically if you haven't been following along on Instagram, I've had a couple of reels go viral and I joke that like, once my reels hit like a hundred thousand. The trolls just sneak out the woodworks and they are so angry. These trolls they're so, so angry. They need to balance their blood sugar. But Diane and I thought it'd be fun if we do alike celebrities read mean tweets style. Adina reads her reel trolls. So this was my favorite thing I've ever seen on the internet. Some dude came for me on my reel about PCOS and strength training. And I, my approach to trolls is I don't engage. I just let them fight with each other in the DMS.
Diane: 44:58
for the engagement because it boosts you even more
Adina: 45:01
my God. It's not worth my time. I know these people are unstable. I know they're not my target audience. Seek, help balance your blood sugar. I understand that. I intentionally put things onto the internet that are jarring, maybe controversial so that the people who need to hear them find me, and then can come listen to the show or ask me questions and get more information. Reels are not intended to be my dissertation on PCOS and strength training.
Diane: 45:28
right. You have like 15 to 30 seconds. I mean,
Adina: 45:31
Anyways, this is the best thing I've ever heard on the internet. This dude came at me about how cardio is good for metabolism and I ignored him and then somebody else came at him and this was his response. I'm saying she's a clown for suggesting that cardio is bad for metabolism. And now I'm saying you're a clown too, for jumping in without having a clue. What you're talking about you absolute toe nail.
Diane: 45:58
you absolute tone
Adina: 46:00
Is that the best insult you have ever heard? I am a toe nail.
Diane: 46:07
here a toenail.
Adina: 46:09
I am an absolute. So now
Diane: 46:13
Mexican to say, you're an ingrown toenail. Oh, where did
Adina: 46:18
Diane, how could you,
Diane: 46:20
you in ground? You know what this reminds me of, I think it was a like Altoid or a gum commercial orbits, perhaps I'll never forget this commercial. And I think someone walks in on some, um, their partner cheating on them. And so they're calling names and they're like, who you calling a Cudi queen. You lent liquor. Do you remember that
Adina: 46:39
I don't, but it sounds great.
Diane: 46:42
just a Bazaar insult. And I mean, I've had friends where I'm like, we're joking, well, insulting each other. And it's just you Cooney queen. We call it a Cudi queen. You lint liquor,
Adina: 46:54
Absolute toenail anyway.
Diane: 46:56
absolute Tonio.
Adina: 46:57
I'm an absolute toenail because I suggested that cardio is not good for metabolism. I never said that cardio is bad. This is what I need you all to understand. Cardio has benefits. Okay. It has benefits, heart health benefits. We've all heard. Um, well, to a point, a certain amount of cardio is heart-healthy and then when you exceed that amount, it actually is worse, which is oftentimes we see heart attacks in young marathon runners and things like that. So do your research. I don't want to say his handle on here. But yeah, so, so cardio can have heart-healthy benefits. It can have mitochondrial benefits as well. However, when we are talking about bang for your buck, and when we are talking about specifically my target audience, so women who struggle with their hormones, with their metabolism, we are going to get way more out of strength training than we will out of cardio. And so many of the women who I work with are overdoing cardio. Which is like we said, depleting muscle, it's wasting away muscle. It's increasing stress, it's depleting metabolic function. And so it's not that cardio doesn't have redeeming qualities and can't be utilized effectively. It's just that what we see in our space is a misuse of cardio and an under use of resistance training and resistance training just has so much more bang for your buck when it comes to your metabolism when it comes to your hormone health. So not worth my time to answer him in my comments, but is worth my time to explain to you what we're really talking about here. When we say PCOS and strength training. So with that, let us Talk about why strength training is an absolute non-negotiable for all of the women we work with for you. If you struggle with PCOS or PCOS, like symptoms,
Diane: 48:49
yes, let's get into it. And we had to take some time to set the stage there for you, but we feel that it was very necessary because we know that this Michael contrary to what you have heard. Right? So, um, the first reason this is a non-negotiable is for a lot of women, PCOS is accompanied by weight gain. So that advice from their doctor, from their, from their GYN or, Primary care provider is to do cardio. I'll just do cardio. They might make that recommendation in like a 10 minute, 10 minute appointment with
Adina: 49:23
10 minute is being generous.
Diane: 49:24
generous. I know that's why I laughed because I was like, wait, 10 minutes is a real long time. Okay. They might just not even look at you. Yeah. Just eat less and do cardio. But like we were saying a second ago in the myths, that's just not the whole picture. And we also have worked with many women who are the hard gainers or those who are naturally thin. We again hate the term skinny fat, but these are the women who might appear lean, but they still are. They are not a population that need to lose weight. And so what are they told? I've still heard from clients that they were told to just do cardio
Adina: 49:58
And those specifically that skinny PCOS like it's termed, those are the women who need muscle the most. I mean, we all need muscle the most, but that advice of just do cardio and eat less like that is certainly going to waste away these women
Diane: 50:15
yeah. And again, go back to the Peloton in your period episode, if you haven't listened to it already, we'll link it in the show notes for more of the why, but here, we just want to reiterate that chronic cardio once a day, twice a day, doing long distance running, especially when you don't have that adequate fuel is going to increase adrenaline cortisol. And in doing so inflammation and this isn't even considering what else outside of your workouts might be raising those stress hormones, right? Like a stressful job, stressful relationships or personal life. That's also raising that as well. And in turn can make your insulin resistance worse.
Adina: 50:52
We'll make your insulin resistance
Diane: 50:54
Oh, yes, will. Oh, yes, there's no can about that. And combine that with under eating under fueling or eating a lot of highly processed foods, which are also physically stressful to the body that sets you up for a lot of inflammation and metabolic dysfunction.
Adina: 51:10
Yeah. And something that I think is really important to mention here is that. We talked about this a little bit on our last episode about cardio, but just because you are holding weights, doesn't make it strength training. We're going to talk very specifically about how I program for my clients to make sure that we are moving the needle without just overloading that stress and inflammation. Like how do we build muscle without excessively increasing inflammation? Because there is an inflammatory response when we build muscle, when we lift weights, that's part of the process, but we need to make sure that we are doing so in a way that we can recover from, and that it's going to be more bang for our buck, more benefit than harm that we're going to be increasing muscle without overloading that inflammation without making insulin resistance worse, without overloading, that cortisol and adrenaline response. So certainly when we lift weights, there is this recovery period, and we need to make sure that we're recovering from it. I really want you to be considering and how I program for all of my clients is the minimum effective dose. So how can we get the mostest with the leastest how can we introduce a stimulus? That's going to make our body build muscle, but do it in a way that we are so capable of recovering from it. No matter what our stressors are, no matter how overrun we are already with inflammation with increased cortisol and adrenaline, because what we see so often in the holistic space is, oh, you're dealing with PCOS. Oh, you're symptomatic. Oh,
Diane: 52:49
just, walk and stretch.
Adina: 52:51
Just do some yoga to gentle yoga. That's going to be best for you on your healing journey. We don't want to stress your body out,
Diane: 52:57
This makes me so mad. I mean, what we're talking about here is finding that Goldilocks perfect amount, right? And unfortunately, a lot of personal trainers and providers are not cognizant of like that minimum effective dose. I love that you say that about strength training and I mean, many of us have crossover from the conventional space into the holistic world, but what's also prevalent in this holistic space is the all or nothing mindset either. You're good. Doing CrossFit and strength training, or you're doing nothing. And most of us do not have the bandwidth, the ability to just lay on the floor and stare at the wall
Adina: 53:36
it's not helping us, right? Like, okay, you've lowered your stress, but the goal is we need muscle. We need muscle to actually solve the problem to me, sticking, to walking in yoga or stairs, laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling is the equivalent of going keto. It's like, we're just cutting out a variable. And not actually solving the problem at the cellular level to reintroduce that thing and make us better and move the needle towards healing. So like instead of just cutting out fitness or cutting out stress through fitness, by laying on the floor or doing walking and yoga, let's think about how we can utilize fitness to move the needle for our healing to increase things like insulin sensitivity. When we utilize strength training in this way, when we actually build muscle, it makes our cells better at using that sugar. So we talked all about how that insulin resistance is a driving factor in PCO S we can use strength training to make our cells better at using sugar. Okay. Listen to that again. If your doctor is putting you on Metformin because of your insulin resistance, driving your PCOS what if we told you that there was a natural way that was super fun and made you feel like a bad-ass that can actually make your cells better at using sugar and solve the insulin resistance thing? Like, wouldn't that be so great. And also here's the thing. It has no side effects. It has no side effects like
Diane: 55:03
many bonuses, has many bonuses. You'll feel good. It'll make you better at your everyday life. We've talked about that in so many episodes too. And I do want to say this, that if someone is going from very sedentary and, or not exercising, moving at all, I love that walking can be available to some or hiking. Some of my clients who are dealing with PCOS or other inflammation and other health issues, they start with hiking and gradually make that harder. That that can be strength training in its own way, especially if you're scrambling over rocks, right? And you're getting that vitamin D outside. There are other benefits there, but what we're inviting you to do is to consider broadening your movement. And if you also are feeling resistance about resistance training and strength training, know that it doesn't have to look like something that's 20 reps hundred reps. five by 20, like nothing intense. That's what Adina is getting at here with that minimum effective dose. And we've talked about how muscle is metabolically expensive. It, it needs a lot of energy. And so that is why it is helping you become more insulin sensitive
Adina: 56:09
Yeah. And it's going to, and also, like we talked a little bit about. Glucose and glycogen. And when we build muscle, we actually increase the places in the body where we can store that sugar. So muscle increases, we give our body more opportunities for places to put that sugar. So it's not just being converted into fat and driving that adiposity and driving that inflammation because adipose tissue is inflammatory. That doesn't mean we do none of it, but when we have it in excess, it can drive that inflammation. And one of the ways that we deal with that is by building muscle and giving our body another place to store that sugar. So it doesn't just get converted and drive that inflammation and drive that estrogen oftentimes too. So there's a lot going on here. Muscle is doing a lot for us. And one of the things you said that made me think about this. Oh yeah. So something that I see a lot, we're talking about the minimum effective dose and something that I see a lot, especially in the bodybuilding space is people utilizing what they call the maximum recoverable. The most weight that you can lift that you can still recover from. And for me, it's like, why are we doing that
Diane: 57:22
well, I might have to spontaneously pick up a sleeper sofa
Adina: 57:26
300 times? Yeah. So I think that I get that kind of coming from that conventional bodybuilding space, but we don't need to be doing that. If you are symptomatic with your PCO S and you are just trying to figure out how can I build some muscle to get all these benefits she's talking about without wearing my body down and without having to be in the gym for an hour and a half, and without having to do the most, like, why would we want to do the most when we can do the least? Yes. So. I mean anyone who's done my programs in the first couple of weeks. If they've had a history of intensity, whether they've been a CrossFitter or bodybuilder Olympic lifter or whatever it was, I do always have to navigate those conversations of wait, but is that it? Like, I, I just like I did my workout and I felt like I could do more in the beginning. I want you to feel like you could do more. I want us to be able to test that limit of what is going to be the minimum effective dose for you and how can we get you to dial in and focus on things like breathing, focus on that core connection, that pelvic floor connection. And then about like week three is when I start to get that feedback of this is the best I've ever felt. Lifting nothing hurts. I'm recovering so
Diane: 58:44
so I've heard from doing the dynamic warmups and breath exercises that you've walked me through. Like I've had some soreness there because I was activating those muscles in a way that I haven't done in a long time. And I was one of those people who that, okay, I'm intermediate. I know I've moved a lot of load before too, but you're never too advanced to focus on these basics. And right now I want to speak to the woman who has never done strength training before and who is perhaps nervous, wary, worried what people might think, worried how she'll feel. It doesn't have to be painful. And this will open up so much more of your life to yourself. If you are worried about doing this in a gym, I guarantee people are more worried about what they were, they are doing. They're focused on themselves, their own gains. If they're not tell me and I'll talk to them or you can absolutely do these things at home too, in the comfort of your home, you don't need a lot of equipment as we've talked about on our, butt stuff, episode and other episodes. Um, so that's just something I wanted to stress on. If you're feeling a little hesitant
Adina: 59:45
yeah, you can see the group of women in my programs. It's such a wonderful balance of people who have never moved load before in their lives and people who have just had. Bad experiences with lifting in the past, whether that was, it drove their hormones further into the ground, they lost their period. They struggled with fertility. They experienced a lot of pain in their body. And so something that I've been learning is how to navigate that balance of catering to these women whose bodies have known intensity and catering to women who have never moved load before. And so it's always a challenge to strike that balance, but it is a lot of navigating those conversations. Um, but I have found that after doing this, after working with hundreds of women, that the way I program now really is that minimum effective dose and the thing that's so wonderful about strength training. Is that okay, so you're more advanced, advanced quote unquote. So you use a heavier bell, but we're all going to do the same thing or. I can program certain progressions that will just kind of shift things a little bit to provide that intensity, to meet that intensity craving for some women while still keeping it in that minimum effective dose where we can just recover so well from it. And it's not going to overload us with stress. And we've talked about this on earlier episodes, but stress hormones and things like thyroid and progesterone are inversely related. So when we are overrunning our body with that stress, whether that's mental, emotional, whether that's through poorly processed foods, whether that is through exercise, which it is for so many of us, it's going to under regulate those thyroid hormones and those progesterone hormones, those things that we need to navigate us in a hormone balance, like something like PCOS. So we don't want you to get too focused in on the nitty gritty of like what your specific hormone imbalance is. We just want to drive home the point that. We need to improve metabolism. We need to improve insulin sensitivity. We need to decrease inflammation. We need to decrease stress. And a way that we do that is by utilizing this minimum effective dose of strength training.
Diane: 1:02:01
yes. Great recap. I know that for some, they might have to hear this several times. I know that it might seem contrary, to what you've heard, but to me it makes so much logical sense. And if you've also spent time in the all or nothing, black and white diet culture world, as many of us as women. Culture have, I know that there might be a tendency to look for the all or nothing, but there, this is where the magic happens is the right Goldilocks amount of stress in order to support your best health, your best outcomes. And I promise it's not scary. I know that there are, hesitations people might have for this, but I promise you'll feel healthier. You'll feel stronger. chances are more confident too. It's just so amazing. Love, love, strength training.
Adina: 1:02:50
the best. And, and this is why I get so mad at those Instagram ads. We talked a little bit on our butt stuff. Episode Dani was cracking up. He's like, you guys are really pushing the boundaries on these episode titles. Um, the reason that we, I get so mad about like those anklets, right? We talked about the ankle weights, those pretty pink ankle weights it's just like, we're doing, women's such a disservice, like how are we still having this conversation and telling women that the heavyweights aren't for them? I, I know we're in a little bit of a bubble, like Diane myself, because. We're so deep into this strength world. And it's so obvious to me that women need to lift heavy things and have muscle, but I still come up against this resistance so much, or people are scared of lifting the load. They're scared of what their body might look like. Like there's
Diane: 1:03:43
you will not get bulky. I'm still waiting to get bulky.
Adina: 1:03:47
yeah, but I do want to say like, some people will carry muscle differently. Like you may look at me and think I'm bulky, you know, but this is the body that I feel strong and comfortable in. And so I don't want to discount that experience of like a person feeling like they put on muscle and they look a certain way. I just want society to shift his expectation for women. And I want everyone to understand that like the most important thing you can do for your body is make it strong and resilient to stress and strength training is one of the most amazing ways that we can do that. And it's so fun and you feel incredible. It's just about like opening your heart and mind to this as a modality that is okay for you to do as a woman
Diane: 1:04:28
Well, you gave me chills, you know, I'm on the same page here. It fires us up. And especially when you and I were back to school and we're in a program that is heavily focused on how to stoke that metabolism and make it, make it thrive and absent from even that space that is very research focused is conversation about strength training, because then I'm, I imagine it's because these instructors, this is not their scope. None of them are personal trainers or I've had the extensive continuing education in that realm. Like you have, they just aren't aware of this, but how can we talk about strengthening your metabolism without talking about muscle.
Adina: 1:05:08
I think too, the reason that so many people in that space are turned off of muscle. Cause when we talked about it on one of our recent calls in class, the response we got is strength training is stressful to the body. And I think that so many people's experience with strength training has been that maximum recoverable load where they consider it stressful because they don't know we can do it without intensity. They don't know that we can do it with one, two reps and three minutes of rest. Really move the needle with one, two days a week, you know, it's like, it, it doesn't have to be this thing that breaks your body down so much.
Diane: 1:05:40
there's a great middle ground. And the women in my root cause reset program, or some of my one-on-one clients who have worked on you worked on, you worked with you one-on-one or in your programs. I love hearing their feedback. They're like, I thought this was going to be a lot scarier or I wouldn't be able to fit this in, but they come back and tell me how good they feel doing your programming. Um, and also fueling them selves appropriately, uh, in our work together. And I just love hearing that, that they have tried something new and then it wasn't scary that they in fact enjoy it and are seeing the results of their work faster.
Adina: 1:06:14
Yeah, it's that is the best feeling. When women give us that feedback that they love feeling stronger and feeling fueled. It's like, yes, honey, this is what we want for you. This is what we want for every single woman. Like, I, I just can't get my head around why people are so resistant to the idea of bringing in strength training, and like why those trolls in my DMS are getting so angry about me suggesting that we should be navigating away from cardio a little bit. And it would do us a favor.
Diane: 1:06:44
and where the studies that's one that they end. Sometimes there is a valid reason behind that, but also I just have to chuckle when sometimes people are th where the studies for strength training, like, do you really, you and I were saying this together offline, do you really need to argue about that? Like, do you need a study to tell you that being stronger is better than being weaker? like shut the fuck up.
Adina: 1:07:05
when has it ever benefited anyone to be weaker,
Diane: 1:07:09
Think about it. Think about it. Think about why. Yeah. Why would that be better? So I just dropped the F bomb, but that one fires me up the most. And if we are waiting for a quality study, we'll be waiting forever. And for us, I mean, Adina has worked with hundreds of women hundreds and can tell you just how beneficial this is. And there's also the issue of who's going to fund that when women take their health into their own hands and do strength training instead of get on Metformin again, not your doctor, if they want you to get on
Adina: 1:07:39
You think we're ever getting that study me telling them that we should be utilizing the minimum effective dose of strength training for women with PCOS, a study, comparing the effects of Metformin and the pill. Like we're never going to see it. We're never going to see it, but I did want to say this cause I know there are a lot of us who love that data and love that research. And that's great. But like we said, like we can think logically about this one. When has it ever benefited someone to be weaker? And if we can figure out a way to get stronger without overloading that stress response without breaking down the body, without driving insulin resistance with actually improving insulin sensitivity, I'd love to talk about this because I have some clients specifically in my most recent rounds of strong foundations, I had actually in my most recent round of strong foundations and in the round before that I had one woman who wore a continuous glucose monitor and one woman who did regular blood work and measured things like A1C, which is a marker of our sugar handling. And. Both of them. Their doctors were literally shocked, shocked to see changes in those numbers. And when I told them that all that we did was had them eat more sugar and strength train two to three days a week, they were shocked. And what we are telling you here is like, we've been saying this entire episode, why would we remove carbs, remove sugar, remove glucose, and put you on medication to support your blood sugar balance. When we can introduce muscle with this minimum effective dose so that it is not overloading the body with stress, it is moving the needle for you, and it is helping your cells to better use that sugar. I had a client this most recent round of strong foundations who was literally shocked to think about how much sugar. How many carbs she has been eating and some chocolate she has been enjoying in the afternoons and how her A1C is improving. And she's never seen that number move in this direction. It's really wild how we're missing the mark with this. The answer is not keto and cardio. The answer is continue eating those carbs and get your body to be better at utilizing that sugar via building muscle.
Diane: 1:10:02
I'm so happy they had that experience, but it's so, uh, it just gives me the fuzzy. That's so incredible.
Adina: 1:10:08
why we do what we do.
Diane: 1:10:10
It really is. I mean, these trolls can try it all day. You can also do a cursory, Google search about muscle metabolism and, or go to pub med, and you can find some stuff there because I think we do plenty of free labor for you understand wanting, I mean, I'm feeling spicy. I mean, I understand where these questions are coming from, but, um, think about it. Logic is fast science is slow as Dr. Brad Campbell says, I love that because it's, it would take a lot of time to do a, a truly sound study about this and who is going to fund that.
Adina: 1:10:43
I know, I feel
Diane: 1:10:44
your work is the
Adina: 1:10:45
Yeah. Especially when it comes to PCOS Hashimoto's and minimum effective dose strength training. I truly feel that my work is the study. I see these women sharing their experiences. This is the first time they've ever tried this. And they've just never felt so good working out. So we're going to talk
Diane: 1:11:04
And they won't have people in validate those experiences too. Like, oh, well, I don't know about that. I'm like, look at how my, how great our clients feel through doing food and lifestyle adjustments. It can take a longer time, right? Especially if you've been conditioned to think that you need this quick fix or you've been in a situation, all you want to think about is how you need to get out of it quickly. It can take some time, but this is the shortcut and you have to eat. You have to sleep, you have to move anyway, and this will give you such a long-term reward and better outcome. I promise.
Adina: 1:11:36
yeah. Building muscle is absolutely the shortcut. And yes, it's really like hearing the stories from our clients and hearing just how much better they feel inside their bodies and how their energy has improved, how their sugar handling has improved things like those lab markers, A1C, glucose monitors, like wearing a continuous glucose monitor and really seeing those shifts with muscle. The other diet and lifestyle changes that we guide our clients to make. But the thing that, for me, that really drives it home is even in the first couple of weeks of strength training for happy hormones, I get feedback like this, of how workouts are making these women feel versus how workouts have made them feel in the past. And so we come from that conventional fitness space where there's no pain, no gain. And that attitude is really harming women. It's making us all have these negative associations with working out like that was another one. Oh, I should have read this, this real comment. I got a reel troll recently
Diane: 1:12:36
Was it that you're an exercise purist.
Adina: 1:12:39
Somebody commented that I'm an exercise purist and I'm the reason that so many people hate exercise.
Diane: 1:12:45
It's just,
Adina: 1:12:46
It's me. Um, but this was because I was talking about how yoga and cardio are not moving the needle for you on your healing. And so I was labeled an exercise purist, and I was told that I am the reason that this is why people don't like working out. And here's what I've observed with all of my clients. They have had an on again, off again, relationship with exercise. They've overdone it with the cardio. They've punished themselves with the hit training. They've punished themselves with the running and then they come into my program. And they can't believe how much easier it is to keep up with it because it's two to three days, a week of minimum effective dose strength training. They can't believe how much better they feel and how badly they want to come back to the workouts. I think so many of us have had this experience where we've laid ourselves out on the floor, doing a high-intensity bootcamp class or doing a CrossFit class. We made our sweat angel on the floor
Diane: 1:13:46
I can't walk.
Adina: 1:13:48
we prize though, we put those feelings on a pedestal like that soreness that exhaustion, but then say we're in a season of life where we're more symptomatic, say we're postpartum. Say we have recently come into some more symptoms associated with our thyroid with our PCOS it's so hard for us to get back into exercise because our association with exercise is that intensity is that exhaustion.
Diane: 1:14:11
and pain. Yeah.
Adina: 1:14:13
when we can make it a thing that's easy to come back to and lower the barrier to entry. It's like the funniest thing to me in the world. When these trolls come at me for being an exercise
Diane: 1:14:23
you're the reason
Adina: 1:14:25
I'm literally
Diane: 1:14:26
or
Adina: 1:14:27
everything I'm doing is trying to move us away from diet culture, to lower the barrier, to entry for strength training for women, and to make this a sustainable thing that we can do for the rest of our lives and feel good doing
Diane: 1:14:39
Yeah, I had a, um, I think it was a bootcamp coach said that I was ignorant and misinformed. Like I'm literally saying eat more, workout less and sleep like bitch where me respectfully, where? And also, I mean, I love yoga. I love hiking. I love walking, but strength training is my main and string training. It makes me better at those other workouts too.
Adina: 1:15:02
Yeah, there's a lot of yoga coaches who I would love for them to implement some strength training and see what it really feels like to get into those poses. When your joints are actually stable and resilient, it's really, it makes all the difference. Strength training one to two, two to three days a week, opens up the doors for all of those fun opportunities to be able to build resilience and do more in your life.
Diane: 1:15:26
Yeah. Uh, I can say. Pushups and you helping me learn the progressions to get to a good, solid, real pushup has helped me be better at chaturanga, inhale up dog and yoga, and I can hold different poses there longer and stronger because of the lunges, all of the things I've done in my strength training routine with you, or even my endurance. I mean, there was some cardio and some, I mean, when I've been doing heavy squats, a few of them I'm sucking wind. That's some cardio in there too. That's helped me with hiking and more arduous hikes. So I love that. I love hearing clients experience. Some of these wins for themselves to hearing my clients. Who's struggled with poor, low appetite, have their appetite return and they're hungry in the morning. And all of this goes hand-in-hand with the other things we're doing to support her gut function and her blood sugar balance, but they're sleeping better to just. The bonus bonuses, the side effects of strength training go well beyond what you can see physically in your body, whether you have PCOS or really any other condition of inflammation, honestly.
Adina: 1:16:35
Yeah. So let's round this episode out with signs that your workout is working for you. This, I know you were spicy on your stories the other day saying like, if you come at me saying that what you're doing is working for you, that's fine. That's fine. Power to ya. If your bootcamp classes are working for you, but let's examine, let's examine what working for you really means because so many of us are hopped up on stress hormones. And we don't really realize if these things are working for us or not. So one thing that we really want to see. Your workouts should be warming you up. And what we mean by that is not just making you sweaty. We mean body
Diane: 1:17:20
body literally.
Adina: 1:17:22
We want that hat by day. So we didn't talk about too much about this, but one of our favorite markers of metabolic health, there is excellent research by Dr. Broda Barnes all about temperatures using your body temperature as your baseline, body temperature and understanding your thyroid function. And like we mentioned, thyroid function is metabolic function. And like we mentioned, PCOS is a metabolic condition. So if we can see your body temperature, improving with exercise, that is a good thing. And there might be a cursory dip in your body temperatures right after a heavy training session, because that is recovery. That is our body utilizing those resources to rebuild that muscle. That is the stress response we talked about. With some strength training, but then the next day and the day after we want to see those body temps staying high, staying elevated. So we're looking for maybe over like 97.12 in the first half of your cycle and should be up to 98 point plus in the back half of your cycle. So we really want to see that body temperature warming up. And if these numbers are completely foreign to you, that is a great sign. That metabolism is slowed. If your body temps are in the 96 is okay or below we
Diane: 1:18:42
yeah, my hypo thyroid and Hashi's clients who do track, definitely see those low temps and all the more reason that I love when my women who have thyroid conditions are doing temping and also strength training
Adina: 1:18:55
yeah, because we can see how this muscle is driving that metabolism. So you want the studies do a study on yourself. Check your temps, check your temps in and around your workouts and see if your body is warming up from the exercise that you're doing. And I can almost guarantee you that if you are doing five days a week, six days, a week of high intensity interval training or intensive cardio, these, even these CrossFit workouts and some of these things that look like strength, training, but might be much more resembling high intensity cardio. See what happens to your temperatures that can clue you into what's going on with metabolism. And then generally we want you feeling energized, not exhausted. We want at the end of your workout, I want you to feel like you can do more. I don't want you to feel like you have to sit on the couch for the next six hours
Diane: 1:19:47
oh, I've been there with cycling and spin classes several years ago where I had to lay on the couch, take a nap. And I thought, oh, that was, I got so much bang for my buck with bad class, but no, we don't want you feeling laid out and exhausted. And along with feeling energized, not exhausted. What I like to see is solid mental clarity and mood, no brain farts or rapid changes emotionally, especially in the latter half of your menstrual cycle. And that luteal phase. If you'd still feel pretty clear and that's going to indicate that we have some good blood sugar handling going, you are in a good place physically and in turn mentally, and you also are not puffy or bloated and inflamed. I hear this often from my clients who formerly exercised once a day for seven days in a row, no days off, can it hashtag go away or they maybe worked out twice a day.
Adina: 1:20:39
Wait, you saw that one of my friends and other great coach was wearing a t-shirt that said some days off and I was like, I need,
Diane: 1:20:47
Yes. Take some days off, please. More isn't better as you've learned from our episodes. So yeah, I've had a, I have a couple of client case studies that are even up on my, my website. One of my clients who was working out, I think every day regularly with a trainer under eating overexercising and she was frustrated because her weight wasn't changing and she just felt stuck puffy and inflamed in many ways. So we don't want you to feel puffy or bloated. Of course, there can be other reasons why you might be bloated. If you got a lot of get stuff going on, then we can help get that together. But, um, yeah, if your, if your dog will stop licking his face, we can talk more. Okay. We could go on forever here, but if your workout isn't working for you, it could be a sign that you have too much stress and that can present in different ways. So these are some examples of signs your workout is working well, those warm, that warm hot body, higher temperatures, whether that's your basal body temperature or after your
Adina: 1:21:46
I would be, I would be remiss if I didn't mention libido here as well.
Diane: 1:21:50
Oh yeah. Yes.
Adina: 1:21:52
I think, it's twofold. I do think there is this component of like, you build muscle. You're just feeling better in your skin. I've seen that a lot with clients, but we do know about that hormone regulating effect of muscle. I think we briefly mentioned this, but I think muscle is being really underlooked as a endocrine organ. Like our muscle is sending out hormones. It is communicating notably myokines. We didn't really discuss this, but muscle has this anti-inflammatory endocrine effect in the body. And I've really seen with a lot of my clients that increasing muscle is driving libido as well. So for so many of us who struggle with low, low libido with things like PCOS especially if you're put on the pill, muscle can be a really key piece here.
Diane: 1:22:40
Yeah on a physical level, but I've also heard from clients too, that they feel just confident in how strong their body is. And if you have a physique that's fine too, and this can help get you there with strength training. And they just feel so good in their body, physically, the way that they look and feel like all of that it's can also play into libido and how you feel in the bedroom with your partner, with even yourself too, if you're not partnered. So that's really important to know,
Adina: 1:23:06
Yes. Your fitness should make you feel hot.
Diane: 1:23:15
there's our sound bite,
Adina: 1:23:18
Get that on Instagram. See how mark Zuckerberg takes it.
Diane: 1:23:22
hot and horny. To run this out to recap. Finally. Signs that your workout is working for you. A warm, hot body, solid libido. You feel energized. You have a good mental clarity and mood. Uh, you are not puffy. You feel good in your body are not inflamed. You should feel energized, not exhausted, but also be able to sleep through the night disrupted sleep, especially a few hours after you go to bed that can reassign to us that you are a blood sugar is dysregulated that we are under fueling. A lot of our clients will report. They sleep through the night after they are working out with appropriate strength training. So that's something we want to see. We want you to have a clear, clear mental clarity and good even mood throughout your menstrual cycle. That is possible. I promise you and not experienced so much inflammation and bloat. So inflammation can be bloat for some folks, but maybe they're puffy in their face, their hands. And that can show up in other ways.
Adina: 1:24:23
Yes. And we want to see your insulin sensitivity improving. We want to see your body getting better at using that sugar. And we want to see that metabolism increase.
Diane: 1:24:35
Yes, absolutely. We could go on forever here, but if your workout isn't working for you, it could be the it's too much stress and that can present in different ways. Here are some, some things to think about. We understand that the conventional space and even the holistic space can often be contrary to what we say here, but we want you to just think about some of these things and know that you don't need to just stare at the ceiling, do nothing, or in contrast to that, do all the things we are all about maximizing our resources, being efficient. And that includes strength training in a way that uses a minimum effective dose as Adina was talking about. So I know we covered a lot,
Adina: 1:25:19
So if you've been diagnosed with PCOS, first of all, ask how, ask some questions. If you present with symptoms of PCO, S we hope this episode was super informative. You learned a lot. You can use your brain to see that muscle is the most important thing that you can do for your insulin resistance, for your metabolic health, for your inflammation. And with that, stay strong and stay sassy
Diane: 1:25:45
We love you.
Adina: 1:25:48
back by.
