EP 4 - PELOTON AND YOUR PERIOD: HOW CYCLING IS RUINING YOUR CYCLE
In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:
🧡 The difference between exercise, movement, and training
🧡 How "HIIT" workouts, bootcamp classes, and Peloton can trash your metabolism and hormones
🧡 Restorative movement that’s actually restorative
🧡 Syncing your workouts to your menstrual cycle
🧡 When to include cardio in your routine
& more!
The Get Your Shit Together Mini Course - relaunch coming May 2021
Did you miss the launch gift of the GYST mini course?
Through 4 video modules, we walk you through how to:
Get Off the Hot Stress Express
How to Eat Like An Adult
Movement Makeover
Step Up Your Sleep Game
If you didn’t get in on enrollment last month – no prob. We’re bringing it back later this month with some upgraaaaades!
The expanded course will include all the above plus:
4-week strength training program
Favorite recipes from Adina & Diane
Stay tuned on Instagram and here on our website for relaunch details!
Resources & Good Shit
What We’re Consuming
The Story of Lovers Rock (Amazon): Adina’s movie pick
The Sound of Metal (Amazon) and The Hustle: Diane’s movie picks
The Night Of (Amazon): if you enjoyed The Undoing, check this one out!
Bullet Journal: Diane’s pick for jammin’ on your planner, analog style
Super Pooper and Whizz Kid: Potty Power! By Sabrina Moyle: A beautifully designed, NTP-approved potty training book for kiddos!
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Connect with Diane
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Transcript
Transcript was auto-generated! There may be some errors, but you get the…GYST 😜
Diane 0:02
You're listening to get your shit together with Adina and Diane, a digestible health and fitness show for women real quick. The content of this podcast is intended for general information only, and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment chat with your healthcare provider before making changes. Okay. Okay, cool. I think they got it. Let's jump right into this week's episode.
Diane: 0:32
Hey Adina, welcome back. No, that's not what we say. Hello and welcome back to G Y S T. How are you doing over there? Adina
Adina: 0:45
I'm good. How are you?
Diane: 0:48
doing well. I think the last episode recorded was last year.
Adina: 0:54
God. I hate that joke.
Diane: 0:57
I know I hate it too, but I had to make one dad joke. So here we are. We got it out of the way
Adina: 1:02
daddest of the dad jokes, like see you next year. Sure.
Diane: 1:07
Can you maybe add in a little,
Adina: 1:10
No, I'm not upping any more editing work on this show,
Diane: 1:14
right. I'll just make my, I'll just make these little side effects. Audio effects myself anyway.
Adina: 1:21
You know, crazy IRA and the douche from parks and rec
Diane: 1:24
Yes. That's the vibe.
Adina: 1:27
on this show. Just lots of various fart noises and the like,
Diane: 1:32
I mean, it's on brand well for the holiday for the new year. Did you take some time off and unplugged?
Adina: 1:40
yeah, a little bit. I actually, I feel like because I am so swamped lately with no childcare and you've heard it all before when Dani's off from work. I like like that opportunity for him to spend time with the kids and me to actually have a little uninterrupted work time.
Diane: 2:00
Yes.
Adina: 2:01
lame answer, but I do like having a little time to myself to just like focus on business.
Diane: 2:10
Yeah. And I know this might be neat to us, like running our practice, um, on top of me and all the other things that we're doing, but I kinda like lately working on Sunday or it's like my day for creative work, because no, one's really asking anything of me. And it's just the time for me to kind of start my day slow and create. And that's been fun, but definitely loved unplugging over the holiday. And I know that you and Dani are big TV movie. buffs did you watch anything new? What are you consuming?
Adina: 2:39
are we consuming? Ooh, that's good. Um, did we talk about lovers rock yet?
Diane: 2:48
No
Adina: 2:48
That was a beautiful, beautiful movie. Um, levers,
Diane: 2:53
I don't know what.
Adina: 2:54
Um, Steve McQueen. He did like these, it's not a mini series, like they're not related. I forgot what it's called. They're not the stories aren't related, but they're all set in similar time period. It's like the black experience in England, I believe. In like the seventies. Dani is going to scoff at me for not getting this. Right.
Diane: 3:18
what platform is it on? I mean, we got all the apps over here. We got to know which one it's on. Where do we watch?
Adina: 3:24
um, I want to say Amazon, I'm getting this all wrong. You know what I was thinking? We need a segment called Oh shit where in post Dani just comes in and correct all my pop culture. Snafoos
Diane: 3:37
actually, it was directed by, yes.
Adina: 3:42
that is that. And basically the film takes place over the course of like one day, and it's not plot focused. It's experience focused. You're sort of just very much there at this party with all these people. And it was so beautiful. And I think specifically because of. The COVID experience and feeling so isolated and everyone lacking human touch and human connection, just watching people like sweating on each other and dancing in this small apartment with loud music and just joy. It was so, comforting to watch. I, it was really great. I highly recommend
Diane: 4:25
Oh, I'll add that to my, add it to my list. I have not heard of that one. I went in on like seven, eight different movies and I had been missing like doodling and drawing. Like that's something I love through high school college and kind of haven't made as much space for, so instead of scrolling on my phone, I was setting up my jammin' on my planner as Leslie Knope would say on my bullet journal, it's, I've been doing this for four years. Um, but I had a page for what I'm watching and just kind of tracking what I've been watching and they weren't all bangers, but a few standouts that I watch the sound of metal. Have you heard of this one? Um, this one I think was on HBO max and the actor was also in the night of which if you enjoyed the undoing with Nicole Kidman, Hue Grant similar vein, but this one, he's a drummer and he loses his hearing and that's not giving too much away. You know, that, um, from the trailer, that was a really well done beautiful movie. Um, and then I started watching the hustle. So with rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway,
Adina: 5:29
film. Love it.
Diane: 5:31
I thought it was hilarious. It's a remake of what a dirty rotten scoundrels with Steve Martin,
Adina: 5:36
Is that right?
Diane: 5:36
something like that. Yeah. It's a remake of that, which is also remake of like a sixties version of it. Again, maybe Dani can pop on and. Clarify more, but they were really good and it was nice to not scroll because I know many of us can be like two, three screens deep. When we set up to watch a movie, Neil calls them movie chores. He has to have like a movie chore, whether it's laundry or doing something. But I just like tapping into my creativity and, and watching stuff over the new year's
Adina: 6:04
Yeah, I think there are some movies that like, you can have a movie shore for. And then there are the ones that like, chore you're doing anything else, while you're watching this movie, you are sinning you know what I mean?
Diane: 6:15
yeah. And then being that person, that's like, Whoa, wait, what's going on? Wait, what?
Adina: 6:18
hate that. Um, and then as far as food stuff, what are we consuming over here? We have been doing snack time. As many as like, if you have a toddler, I feel for you right now, because all day, every day is I want to snack.
Diane: 6:38
yes. Wait, I identify as a toddler then I guess, cause I want to
Adina: 6:42
has this accent. That's like, we don't know where it came from, but it's like the. Quarantine has just been a pressure cooker for toddlers and their snacks needs. So we, um, I, when I went my gut healing protocol for my eczema, which I don't know if I've talked much about this on the show yet, but
Diane: 7:05
Oh, I think we will. In our skin episode coming
Adina: 7:08
going to dive deep, but I had to cut out dairy specifically. Cows milk was really reactive for me. And since I have healed my gut and been feeling wonderful, I've been reintroducing a lot of dairy and I've been doing pretty well with like a whole milk grassfed ice cream.
Diane: 7:29
Ooh, what's your brand?
Adina: 7:33
I haven't really dove into like getting from specific farmers around here, but in East coast, specifically, New York area, whole foods, you can find a brand called blue marble, which is that right? I think there are. Based in like the Brooklyn area, but they make their ice cream from grass fed cows. And there are some ingredients I'm not obsessed with in there. There's a couple of gums, but otherwise the ingredient list is pretty short. Um, and by that, I mean like guar gum, locus, bean gum, which some people don't do well with. Yeah. They can be a little irritating to the gut, but otherwise we've been doing pretty well with it, but Minnie has grown a recent appreciation for this ice cream, which I'm so happy to give her because when you can tolerate dairy, it's an extremely nutrient dense food, especially if you're sourcing it from a properly raised animal happy cows, um, as opposed to something conventionally farmed and super inflammatory, you know, injected with lots of hormones and antibiotics. This is not that this is happy cows doing what they supposed to be doing and making sure.
Diane: 8:40
cow stuff. Yeah.
Adina: 8:42
making luscious milk. So, um, yeah, so we've been eating that ice cream, but then this weekend I made the King Arthur gluten-free brownies, which we both
Diane: 8:52
Oh my
Adina: 8:54
and Minnie
Diane: 8:54
They're so
Adina: 8:56
good and Minnie. And I crushed up the brownies and mix them into our ice cream as like a making it like a fudgy brownie situation.
Diane: 9:05
Ooh. While they were hot.
Adina: 9:07
good. It was so good. No, like so blue marble also makes a like chocolate cookie crumble flavor, but the ingredients on those cookies I'm not down for.
Diane: 9:18
yeah.
Adina: 9:18
like imitating that, but with brownie chunks.
Diane: 9:23
in like it love it. Gotta have it. If you remember cold stone, that was Mike, my middle school. Shit that and dairy queen buzzers bubble guts.
Adina: 9:36
a vivid memory of, Was boarding a plane. I was getting on a flight with
Diane: 9:44
Oh,
Adina: 9:45
No, it's not. Well it's it's it came out the other end. Don't worry.
Diane: 9:49
you didn't have to zip your butt up.
Adina: 9:51
I ate cold stone for the first time in who knows how long and was sitting on the plane. It was like, I don't feel so good. Like I think I have to throw up and I threw up Coldstone. Sorry. If this is no, did not sit well. No, no, no.
Diane: 10:11
Oh, no, that that's, that's no fun. Like when you feel that rumbling, whether it's going to go one way or the other, both, when you get on a plane, I'm like sweating, just thinking about it because I've been there with Bali belly, a tale for another time. Um,
Adina: 10:25
by the way, you know, I feel like I showed you this once. Um, Minnie has this book about potty training by, um, I actually, you know, it's funny, I showed you this as brand inspo for the gyst podcast, but one of the lines, so this book is it's called potty power and it's by Sabrina and Eunice, Moyle, I think is how you pronounce her last name. Um,
Diane: 10:50
show notes. It.
Adina: 10:52
they make these children's books that are just so much fun. Their style of illustration is just so fun. But one of the lines in this potty power book is when you feel a rumble in your Bumble or a toot in your boot that's exactly how I felt
Diane: 11:11
Oh, my gosh. I love kids books about like potty stuff. Like everyone, everybody poops, like, yes, we just got to normalize it. We, we all do it or we should be doing it if we're not, um, Tasty stuff over here, transition back to food. I've been on the savory route. I've read really been loving, like I'll find a recipe developer and just kind of go through a bunch of their recipes. And right now I've come back to half baked harvest and specifically some of her instant pot recipes and my brother for his birthday requested bulgogi, which typically Korean dish made with beef. Right. But I made it with chicken thighs and she had these bulgogi tacos. So it was like this Korean Mexican fusion situation. And it was so delicious. And what I love about it is that this recipe could be made, uh, pretty dietary friendly. Like it's pretty flexible. I did make some adjustments for us and I like when, a protein can be easily repurposed. So you could add it with leftovers, with eggs, you could crisp it up in a cast iron. You can put it with a bowl of rice or with other roasted veggies. So it was so good and it, it gets better kind of, as it is. sits, but we added kimchi on top some mangoes, I made some tomatillo salsa, or you could go creamy route on that and add some yogurt to the salsa. Like it was just, it was so good. Next time I plan on making like a triple batch because we just, or through
Adina: 12:35
never enough.
Diane: 12:37
and no rumbles in our bumbles to boot, whatever, and just no rumbles in our bumbles. Yeah. So very good. Um, and moving on, in today's episode, we are going to be talking about workouts and specifically, um, a trend that I'm sure a lot of you have heard about maybe even partake in and as always, there's no judgment here. We're just going to offer some information, our perspective as both NTPs, but also the Adina's forte, uh, talking about fitness and movement. So we're talking about. Popular workouts and things you should know before you choose them. So without further ado, Adina let's first clarify. What's the difference between fitness exercise, workouts training. I hear a lot of these words used sometimes interchangeably. So what, what's the deal there?
Adina: 13:34
All right, so no judgment, but also I'm judging you. No, I'm not really judging you. I just know there's a better way and I want to open your eyes to help you stop obsessing over calories, burned and shift too. How are we building up our body? What signals are we sending to our metabolism? Are we communicating to our body that she safe? And this shift can be really monumental. And I think it's really important. It was a really big piece of my journey. And it's a gift that I am proud to give to so many women who I work with. And so we want to really just give you a little taste of what that might look like and how you can really utilize fitness to contribute to healing and optimal metabolic health and optimal vitality and overall health, as opposed to what it's so commonly become in our space of break yourself down, try to get smaller, know, especially so much of the guilt and shame that comes up with fitness. Here. We are having this conversation right after the new year. And how many ads did you get served for? Challenges and slim
Diane: 14:53
new year new, you
Adina: 14:55
year, new year, new yo, and just like really trying to break you away from the need to seek out those things and try to find a happier relationship with fitness, where it does become this thing that feels really good in your body. Not that you're just craving it because you're addicted to it or you're addicted to the cortisol high or at which we're going to definitely get into more, but just, that's kind of framing our conversation, I guess. And to answer your question more specifically, what I see go on a lot in the fitness space a lot of exercise. And what I mean by exercise is this focus on burning calories, breaking a sweat. It doesn't really have. A destination, there's no structure and guided nature to what you are working towards. You know, especially we see trends like before we were all banished to our homes for the year. We would see a lot, I don't know how popular this was by you guys, but certainly on the East coast, certainly in the city, in New York city, um, we were seeing a lot of like ClassPass and yeah, people would just pay for this monthly service of, you can go to whatever class you want and just bouncing around between this bootcamp, that hiit class, that boxing class, that cycling class, and none of those classes are on a program. None of those are communicating with one another. That is
Diane: 16:39
right. It's all over novelty perhaps, which can have its merits. Right. And maybe I would argue in some ways, right. Because you're figuring out what you like and the best in. I think a good workout might be one that you're going to consistently do, but then what we're going to get into as well is, are the one are there, our workouts exercise. Gosh, see, I can't get them straight yet that maybe are not serving your goals.
Adina: 17:06
Yeah. And that's the thing too, is we talk about this with nutrition a lot too, of what is the protocol phase? What is the healing phase and what is the maintenance phase where you can kind of experiment with some more of those things? encourage my clients to step away from those mindless sweat sessions while we're working together to really focus on healing and building up the metabolism, balancing out the hormones, we're going to get into this a lot more, but these. Exercise classes where again, you're chasing that calories burned. You're chasing that sweat session. You're chasing the exhaustion, the soreness, and it's sort of, it's not building on itself and working towards something. And if it is working towards something, the only thing it's working towards is being better at cardio, right? So like maybe you took the spin class and you felt dead 80% of the way through. And then two months later you felt like you could do a hundred percent of the class. That's certainly is an increase in aerobic capacity, right? Your ability to utilize oxygen, but it's not building you up. It's breaking you down. We're going to talk way more about that. Um, but I did want to something you mentioned actually triggered a thought that I was having is it's always a complicated conversation to introduce. Nuance to what type of movement we should be doing, because at the end of the day, we do want people moving more, right? If you enjoy movement, movement is important, it's also really difficult because I've seen so many people trash their metabolisms and wreck their hormones with these spin classes and high intensity boot camps. And so, yes, like I, it's hard for me to vilify movement because at the same time, there are so many people who are just sedentary and I would love for them to get up and move. However, being sedentary for 90% of the time. And then taking one super intense spin class once a week or once every month, because you feel like you ate too much and are guilty. And, Oh, I haven't worked out in so long. I need to do this. That cycle is really dangerous as well. And so
Diane: 19:25
it's not sustainable and it's just so extreme and we want them to walk away and all things in food and nutrition and, and, and fitness from staying in those extreme sides of the spectrum. So being totally sedentary or all in balls to the wall, like crazy hiit classes,
Adina: 19:44
see, obviously I have, I have so many thoughts swirling around my brain about this topic and it's so challenging to talk about because again, like, I don't want to vilify movement. I want people to know that movement is important and we need it in our everyday lives. I just really want to reframe for you. Take a step back and look at what you're doing with your fitness. Is it serving you or is it hurting you? Are you still stuck in this vicious, mental battle with yourself of, Oh, I have to get my workout in or, you know, working out shouldn't be that hard. We want to show up for ourselves and there is certainly a challenging nature to creating a new habit. But the objective with our fitness is to create a pattern and a routine that is sustainable now and sustainable. When you are 70 years old, when you are 80 years old and five days a week, seven days a week of hit training or cycling is not that, you know. And I think this conversation became even more complicated when we all ended up at home this year, because. At home workouts are even more trash, garbage than a lot of the stuff in these fitness studios. And we see the accessibility becoming the priority the role it's playing in your health and the sustainability of it is going out the door. So, you know, this is the year of the Peloton. Everyone is purchasing a Peloton and I have some thoughts and feelings about that.
Diane: 21:26
Oh, yes, we do. Oh, so yeah. Before you order one, do we will have some things for you to think about for sure. And I also, in the past, this has been going on for a few years, but fitness bands or those workout bands that track, um, different metrics. And there are some that are awesome, that tracks, sleep and recovery and other things like that. But right now I'm noticing a lot of, uh, there's still. So many people who use Apple, the Apple watch or Fitbit, that really just focus on steps, but not other forms of movement. And so I see a lot of challenges around getting those steps in, but is that what we need to be tracking and like is there in, there are in our opinion, better ways to track your movement and, um, fitness and your progress than just chasing steps or competing with friends at steps and seeing how intense you can go at the expense oftentimes of your period or your metabolism, inflammation and all that other stuff
Adina: 22:23
I thought you were going to say calories because when people
Diane: 22:25
calories burn. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Duh calories
Adina: 22:28
track calories doing this? Like when was the last time you thought about a calorie? Like that's insane to me. Um, which will definitely, definitely be breaking down for you. But I actually like having my clients take steps. Here's a disclaimer though, so, okay. Let me finish explaining. The answer to your first question, the difference between exercise movement and training. So like we said, we just kind of broke down what exercises it's really, this there's no destination, there's no progress. It's just, there's no intention behind what you're doing. It's just sweat sessions, calories burned, exhaustion, soreness, random workouts, piecing together random workouts. And I will let you out on a little secret, a lot of things that are disguised as quote unquote programs, when people sell you these at-home fitness programs. A lot of those are just a whole bunch of exercise. It's like random collections of exercise taped together and marketed as a program. And sure, if you are complete novice, like you've never really done anything before you might get stronger, you might feel better. Your metabolism might increase a little bit, but that's like a short term. Thing. And then if you tried to continue to do that, long-term, it would really trash some things about your bod. Um, as far as hormones, metabolism, gut stuff, all the things we love to focus on with our clients and then movement is just daily movement. Taking the stairs, unloading your washing machine, taking
Diane: 24:07
Dancing with your dogs.
Adina: 24:09
dancing with those pugs, um, hiking, you know, things that movement that you just do to enjoy moving your body in space, dancing around your kitchen, going for walks, like those types of things, things where it's really even like going skiing, doing activities that you love to do. It's just about moving your body. It can be really mindful that this can be related to mindfulness practices. If you just enjoy the way that you feel, when you move your body in space, again, there's no emphasis on the intensity and the calories burned and the sweat and the soreness that is just about doing things that you love to do. Moving your body, doing things that are practical, that help you get stuff done around your house, just movement and people do not move enough. So that's why I do like to mention steps to my clients. And I always disclaim it with, if you are the type of person who will get obsessive about this. Yeah. Got to hit my 10 K steps, then I don't recommend it. But if you are a person where it will just kind of give you a gauge of, did I forget to move today? If you're a person that's trying to implement a habit, you're not really in the habit of taking walks. You're not really in the habit of if you are a lazy person and you don't really. Think, Oh, I should get up and move my body. I think it can be helpful to kind of remind you, you know, when you look down at some sort of step calculator and you're like, Oh my God, I've taken 500 steps today. How is that possible? It can be a good reminder and just wake up call for, for you about how much you actually moved during the day. But again, if it's something you're going to get obsessed with, I don't recommend it. And then we have training, which is when your workouts are strategically designed to get you stronger and to get you better, to get you more powerful, more athletic. And this is the sweet sauce. This is the magic recipe for boosting your metabolism, balancing your hormones and telling your body that she is safe. We are going to break it all down for you, but I highly highly recommend that if you are a person who chases exercise, you are a proud member of ClassPass. You frequent, like.
Diane: 26:25
orange theory,
Adina: 26:27
bootcamp, soul cycle peloton
Diane: 26:31
we include Tracy Anderson in there? That's like,
Adina: 26:34
name. Are you kidding me? Um, but yeah, if you're, if you're just kind of chasing that sweat, that exhaustion, those calories burned, I highly encourage you to put your guard down. Listen, hear us out hear what we have to say. And when it is appropriate to incorporate some of that exercise where you're just getting sweaty, having fun, you know, chasing that intensity and what we should really be focusing on, certainly in more of that healing protocol phase, when we're trying to get out of a hole that we've dug ourselves into
Diane: 27:14
yes, thank you for those distinctions. And like I said, sometimes these terms are used interchangeably, definitely by myself and also, um, there is nuance there, so we're going to hopefully bring some more clarity to all of this.
Adina: 27:27
semantics aren't really important. Like if you call it exercise, but you're really training. That's fine. It's not about whatwords you use. Just about the intention behind it and what those workouts are actually doing to your metabolism. What kind of messages they're sending to your body?
Diane: 27:41
like it, we love it. So by now, if you caught our first few episodes, you kind of know who this is for. This is for you, if you are a woman of cycling age, but this actually goes for all, female identifying folks, especially those of you who feel chronically tired or fatigued. Maybe you wake up feeling tired and you're white knuckling through your afternoon. and then trying to find the discipline, the motivation to get to your workout. And you just want to feel more energized. This is for you, if you want easier periods, perhaps you are irregular, your period just totally went Mia, or you have, uh, otherwise difficult cycles. So what I mean by that is maybe PMs is strong. You feel like a totally different person a week before your dot drops. I call it my dot, um, others call it shark week, you know, whatever you call her. Or maybe you have other, cramps back pain, hormonal migraines. So those things that we. Have begun to think of as normal, but they aren't common. They are not biologically normal. So what we want for you and we'll get into this in future episodes is for those periods of your cycle to be pretty easy. And maybe there's some slight discomfort, but it's not going to lay you out on those first days of your menstrual period. So that's what I mean when I say, you know, this is for women who want easier
Adina: 29:05
Yeah. And if you're sitting there thinking, what does my period have to do with the exercise? Or if you saw the title of this episode and you're thinking, what does my Peloton have to do with my period? We are going to break it down for you. It it's all related. Your whole body is connected. And so even if you thought that your PMs, your cramps were normal and they had nothing to do with the type of fitness you were doing, or the type of food you were eating, which we'll get to in later episodes, but we're here to tell you that it does and keep listening for all the goods.
Diane: 29:40
yes. Another distinction I want to add here because I work with and Adina I know this is the same case for you. A lot of women who are on hormonal birth control or transitioning off and trying to have. A healthier cycle. Um, there are things that we will want to note about, cycle syncing and how your energy is going to fluctuate because of those hormonal shifts throughout your cycle. And so those are things that we like to keep in mind, um, with the way that we approach fitness. Would you agree
Adina: 30:10
Yes. And on that note too, if you are listening to this and you are on hormonal birth control, I also want to clarify for you that what you call your period is not a period. A pill bleed is not a period and the energy fluctuations and all of the things that we're going to be talking to as far as cycle syncing for fitness, do not really apply to you. So it's really, really hard to get in touch with your natural feminine rhythms when you are daily. exogenous hormones. So hormones that are packaged up in a lab that come in a pill that you put in your body and not to, if you are a person who feels you have no other option besides for being on hormonal birth control, that's very valid. And I've been there. There are certainly a time and a place where it can be a choice that you can make for yourself and your own body. But if somebody else has made that choice for you, if somebody has convinced you that hormonal birth control was the only way to quote unquote, regulate your cycle. Um, we do want to open your eyes a little bit to some of the things that are accessible to you. If you support your body in the appropriate way. But I did just want to make that disclaimer, because I work with so many women who say, Oh, I just started my period and I take a second and I'm like, wait a minute. I, she told me she was on hormonal birth control. So.
Diane: 31:40
Yeah.
Adina: 31:41
It's very difficult. I struggled a lot with my mental health when I was on hormonal birth control. And I think it was really challenging for me that I never kind of found my rhythm and never felt like I could really tap into my female hormonal rhythm because my hormones were being muted and blocked by these artificial hormones that I was taking. So I think that is really important too. If you feel like you're listening to this conversation and you're trying to figure out how any of this applies to you, um, if you are on hormonal birth control, like the pill, it can be really challenging to kind of sort out what some of those monthly shifts are. Because again, they're being manipulated. It's not your natural rhythm.
Diane: 32:24
And we can, we will absolutely dive deeper into, um, considerations for women who are on the pill. But another one too, that we, a conversation we have a lot with our clients is whenever you're taking something like that or any other long-term medication, uh, there are nutrients that are invariably going to be depleted. And I know Adina you've talked to your clients a lot about the importance of building strength and nurturing your bone density and bone remodeling for women, especially as we hit 30 and, beyond. So we'll get into the workouts that support that bone density and strength as you mature and, um, considerations. If you are on the pill or hormonal IUD, So next up, this is for you, if you have metabolic issues. Um, and if you have autoimmune conditions, if you have experienced a lot of inflammation, so that can manifest in many ways. So for some, they might feel like they're bloated. Like they are sluggish. Like they, um, don't recover very easily. All of these things are for you. And, we'll talk about what it looks like to actually do restorative movement coming up here. And this also is for you, if you have physique goals, now we didn't lead with this one intentionally because in our practices, we do not like to focus on physique goals. And I know that as a reason, um, that many might embark on challenges or new types of workouts and programs and plans, right? And it's certainly valid to want to change your, to adjust your physique. But we want to invite you into a. Approach that cares and cares for and nourishes your body first. And then those physique goals are so much easier. So keep that in mind as we are continuing this conversation, it's not bad or wrong to have physique goals, but it is just not the focus. If you want sustainable results.
Adina: 34:19
I think something that happens a lot in my practice too, is that I have women who have this history of obsessing over their physique and in our work together, I really shift their focus away from that and shift them towards nourishing their bodies, communicating to their bodies that she's safe, building themselves up via building nutrient dense plates, shifting to strength training, as opposed to all of that high intensity exercise we talked about. And at the end of it, they feel a million times better and they have reached the physique goals that they were. Pining over for years and years with no avail. So when we stop obsessing over what our body looks like and start focusing on how good we can feel, how damn good we can feel. A lot of times your body lands in a place that she wants to be, and a place that you were trying so hard to get her for all of those years. So again, nothing wrong with having physique goals but if you are in a phase where you can't sleep through the night and all your joints ache, and you have terrible acne and your hair's falling out like worrying about your pant size is not going to solve any of those things.
Diane: 35:34
You have an idea of who this is for. I want to further break down workouts that we suggest avoiding. So you've probably picked up what some of these might be so far, but we want to go a little deeper. So first step let's cancel those boot camps, those intense. Workouts. So specifically things that are like an hour long, you are doing these intense circuits. Uh, some things that might bring about because they are so popular right now are your bootcamps, your orange theory, a lot of Peloton workouts and the like that, um, really just leave you exhausted or are asking for an all out effort. And if you, like I was saying earlier are spending most of your time outside of that gym or that workout, um, sitting, or have not built up the strength to do those things. They can leave you having a difficult recovery and also worsen or exacerbate the inflammation that you were experiencing before you even went into those classes. So intense workouts. That's the first one to avoid.
Adina: 36:43
Um, let's call a spade, a spade. If you are feeling a lot of resistance right now, and you are like, it is my stress reliever. I need my high intensity classes. Let me reframe this for you for a second. You might be. Addicted to cortisol and adrenaline, which are our stress hormones. And I know traditionally, we think of people who are like, quote unquote, adrenaline junkies as the people jumping out of planes and scaling buildings with no harnesses. But if you are finding it impossible to let go of your high intensity classes, there is an element of cortisol and adrenaline addiction there as well. If you are a person who feels like I need those, I need those because they make me feel good. That feeling that you are feeling is stress, hormones, surging through your body. They feel really good. It's designed that way in our physiology, that when those stress hormones are coursing through our body, it feels like a rush. That's what it feels like. And
Diane: 37:49
it's exhilarating. It's exciting. Want to chase that next peak, right?
Adina: 37:53
Yeah. So again, there might be a place for these at some point, but if you are a person who feels like you, can't let go of it for those six days a week, there's something deeper we need to look at here. We need to look at the role of these stress hormones in a lot of these other symptoms that you are experiencing, these digestive issues, these hormonal issues, these painful periods, this exhaustion, um, there's definitely something deeper going on here.
Diane: 38:23
Yeah. We also want to think about what does your stress load look like outside of that workout? Because oftentimes I will work with women who they love these workouts and it is, they describe it as their stress relief for the reasons that you just described. But then outside of that class, they also have a very high stress lifestyle mentally, emotionally. So maybe that's a very demanding job. They're very career driven. They work long hours. Um, maybe they have relationships that are stressful. And so a lot of these things we want and there's also, you know, a Pandy might be going on, which is a very big stressor. That's also in the background. So, sometimes we noticed that, there's a lot of cortisol being an adrenaline, just go and strong outside of that workout. And they are just chronically, chronically pumping that through their bodies and does not make for a very good recovery.
Adina: 39:16
a lot of times it fits that picture, right? Like I used to, I used to be part of the problem when I was working in the middle of Manhattan and teaching these high intensity classes. And a lot of the people that were coming in there were these people living these really high stress jobs. First of all, if you live in Manhattan to begin with, oftentimes your life is just stressful, but you know, really burning the candle at both ends. And if this is you. If this is you and you were listening to this, you are probably feeling so much resistance right now. You are probably feeling like, no, no, no, she's not talking about me. I'm the exception. It's not stress. So
Diane: 39:52
fine. Everything's fine.
Adina: 39:54
And so we are, are inviting you to let your guard down for a second and just open your heart to this conversation and see what you might find out about yourself. If you were to step away from that exercise intensity for just a little bit.
Diane: 40:12
I was also in this, in the past too, and thinking that more is better. And I think this speaks to the larger issue in our society of the fact that we equate success with doing more and going harder at doing the most. You can get the results that you want by doing less.
Adina: 40:29
And you can still feel really good. Doing your workouts, except that now that good feeling is coming from building up your metabolism and your body feeling really safe and happy. And those hormones that are being released, being your safe, happy hormones, as opposed to breaking down your body and tasking it with releasing all of those stress hormones all of the time. Because like we said, like our stress hormones, those are our survival hormones. And so they're not bad. They're just bad when we ask them to show up chronically. And that's when they start to run amuck and introduce a lot of these other issues that we start to experience with our fatigue, with our cycles, with our pain, just joint pain. I have so many clients who started working with me that just everything hurts and that's not, you know, I hear so often, Oh, I guess this is 30. Or you know, that, that kind of
Diane: 41:29
my back. Yeah. That should not feel that way.
Adina: 41:32
This just comes with age, but it really doesn't have to be that way you are. If you are 30, you are still super young, a spry little chicken, and you should feel amazing. Your joints should feel great.
Diane: 41:45
you should feel like a vibrant and glowing chicken. And alongside the something that I hear often, uh, if you are a career driven woman, maybe you work for yourself and you have a lot going on, or maybe you're just trying to fit in your workout around if you have children around their schedules. So you tell yourself, I need to get up at five to do this class, to fit it in, never miss a Monday. Right. Um, but sometimes that can happen at the expense of your sleep and your valuable recovery time, furthering the inflammation that we are talking about, and our body's going to react to stress. Chemical in the same way. So whether that is physical stress, mental, emotional, spiritual, all environmental, all of it. So we need to consider that load. And if you are waking up after three hours of sleep to go do your bootcamp class, or your Peloton ride, you're telling your body we are in a stressful state. We're going to stay here. Uh, you might notice more inflammation, so maybe difficulty reaching your physique goals. You are, you're going to feel laid out afterwards and fatigued. Um, maybe your periods missing
Adina: 42:50
That's such an important one too. Right? If you're the person who feels like I'm doing all the right things, I never miss a Monday. I'm crushing my Peloton five days a week. Why am I gaining weight? That's a red flag that your body is holding on to excess fat because it doesn't feel safe. It's trying to figure out what the heck you are doing every day. Because even if you think. I'm on my Peloton. Your body registers that as is she being chased by a lion every morning. Like why is she popping out of bed at 3:00 AM at 5:00 AM to start cycling to her heart's desire. Like what the heck is going on here? And so it starts to hold onto that excess fat, because it doesn't feel safe. It thinks there's a famine because you're not eating before that Peloton class. And it thinks you're being chased by wild beasts. So we need to think about these messages that we're sending because our body is very smart, but it's also pretty stupid. And it hasn't really progressed to understand our modern environment. So when you're sending these signals, you need to think carefully about what you are communicating to your body.
Diane: 44:00
And this is not your fault too. Like we were saying, there's that larger message in society that more is better. And that you've got to go hard. Quantity over quality is really the underlying message there. And I have worked with many women who have this big aha moment afterwards where they're like my, my personal trainer Adina. I know you have thoughts on this one. My personal trainer has me on this, like this low calorie plan. I've been following it. I've been showing up every day for over a year, but I've just reached or just hit a wall, a plateau with my, my weight loss or fat loss goals specifically. Um, and I'm so frustrated. And then. I'm thinking of a case study. I shared a while ago, my client Maxine, she was doing this for five, six, sometimes seven days a week. And not seeing any progress had her step away, rest more and really cut down those workouts. And she just, her body found where it wanted to be her sleep improved effortlessly, and she was eating more and working out less
Adina: 45:01
Yeah, because when we do that, when we eat more and we exercise less, we're telling our body you're safe. You don't have to hold on to all that excess fat, because there's food, there's ample food available and I eat it and there's no wild beasts. There's just some kettlebells or some barbells and some dumbbells. And I lift them and I get stronger, you know, a couple of days a week, you're really communicating safety to your body.
Diane: 45:28
Yes. And I love that. And another big. Topic. I want to tackle here is the message of restorative movement. So we've talked about healing, phases and nutrition, but also in fitness and then a maintenance phase. And many of you might've been told by a coach by, another provider that you need to just focus on restorative movement. And oftentimes what that, um, look like for you or for that provider was to totally sit out exercise or to just do yoga walking mat Pilates bar.
Adina: 46:05
The complete other side of the spectrum.
Diane: 46:08
yes. Yeah. So it there's no middle ground there. It's all right. I'm going to step back from my bootcamp classes and just do either nothing or I'm going to do some stretching. So Adina as a fitness professional, what do you think of that?
Adina: 46:24
Yeah. So I get why this becomes the dominant recommendation, because a lot of these holistic health professionals are not trained in fitness. They don't really understand what goes down with the metabolism. They don't really understand the role of muscle in the body and at no fault of their own, like there, that's not their scope of practice. And they see their clients tanking out their hormones with these high intensity classes and increasing that stress load so much with these high intensity classes. So they think, okay, we need to dial it back. Let's just focus on these really restorative movements, this walking on yoga that don't. Introduce that stress hormone to the body and actually lower those stress hormones. And those are really wonderful things. And walking and yoga can be an amazing, part of a well-rounded fitness protocol. But what happens with our stress hormones, like we said, stress hormones are health protective and they play a really big role in our metabolic health. And the problem is when they are so chronic and we are just overloading our body with those stress hormones. But if we swing the pendulum in the complete opposite direction where we've been burning the candle on both ends for so long, and then we just go and blow out both ends of the candle, and we just shut the fire down. That doesn't feel good either. And that doesn't communicate safety to the body that sort of can communicate this like stagnancy to the body where it no longer recognizes those stress hormones at all. And so we were. Overloading our body with those stress hormones for so long. And then we completely removed any stress from the body. And the way our body works is we have a stress and adaptation cycle. We need to introduce stress in order to get better in order to get stronger in order to keep progressing in order to feel better. The problem is when we introduce too much or we don't recover from the stress that we've introduced. So when we switch to these super, super, super low intensity quote, unquote restorative movements as our sole modality of fitness, we really limit our body from reaching her optimal health. That muscle starts to waste away and things go awry when muscle wastes away. So we want to be very delicate with how we introduce. Our cortisol, our stress hormones. And this is what I was saying about, you know, we go from burning the candle at both ends to blowing out both sides of the candle. We need to stoke the fire again. We need to introduce enough stress hormone with enough rest and recovery for a body to recognize those stress hormones and utilize them for building. We want our metabolism to always think we're building something here. We're building muscle, let's show up for this body. And so the way that we do that is you guessed it strength training. So a well-designed strength training program. This can be two days a week. If you were going from doing seven days on your Peloton and never miss a Monday like that mentality to just two days a week. Of a well-designed strength training program with tons of rest and that's rest periods. And rest days, again, two days a week is plenty three days a week. That's like, really what we're looking for. You don't need more than that and making sure that you are increasing load every week. So, you know, I always say just because you're holding weights doesn't mean strength, training, like people get really confused about what that actually looks like. And they're like, no, no, I, you know, we have this all the time. Right? How often do
Diane: 50:13
Lightweights.
Adina: 50:14
come to us and say, yeah, I do strength training. And then we say, can I take a look at your program? And it's very not strength training.
Diane: 50:23
Stronger than that. And this is something I see you talk about on your, your stories. And I find this really empowering. I know there are a lot of, those spot reducing classes like butts and guts and arms, but they're using three pound weights and you're stronger than.
Adina: 50:41
Yeah. So you're stronger than you think you are. You're so strong, especially if you're a mom, like, come on, you're a freaking superhero, like who convinced you that you should only be using five pound dumbbells If you really want to send the right messages to your metabolism, the healing phase needs to be progressive overload meaning you are adding load and seeing where this journey takes you. Building muscle, getting stronger.
Diane: 51:04
So how does someone know if they are in the healing phase and when it's time or a good time to add in other things that they enjoy, if they really do like, um, some cardio or something that might be more intense.
Adina: 51:20
absolutely great question. And it's all the stuff we talked about in the beginning. Like if you don't feel good, you're in the healing phase. If you feel like you wake up with good energy, you have stable energy throughout the day. It's easy for you to fall asleep at night, you stay asleep throughout the night. You feel like things don't really hurt your periods are easy. Like you don't have a lot of pain around them. They're pretty regular quote, unquote, as far as you bleed for four to seven days and your cycle is like 28 to 33 days long. Um, those types of things, your body feels warm, right? Like no freezing fingers and toes all the time you have. A libido and a good one at that. Again, this is going to be different if you are on hormonal birth control, because that will impact a lot of the metabolic and hormonal function. Um, so if you're listening to this and you feel like you're doing everything right, but you still have no libido whatsoever, it could be the hormonal birth control talking.
Diane: 52:27
that is a big side effect of, of the hormonal birth control for sure. Something that we want you to think of that Adina and I tell our clients is that you earn your workout from eating enough and sleeping enough, not the other way around. So we've, we've took a stab at the never miss a Monday hashtag that I see every week. But keep that in mind. So did I sleep seven to eight hours? And if not, let's start there and start optimizing that. Did I eat enough? So we'll be talking about this in future episodes too. You need to fully and completely feed and nourish yourself in order to earn your workouts that are more intense. So certainly those can fit in, in more maintenance phase. I, for one, as I have been working on my cycle, will find that. Mid cycle around ovulation. I have a lot more energy. That's where I might go for heavier load. I love strength training. I learned from some of the best wink, wink, Adina and then right before my period starts, it's a little bit more gentle. I might feel a little bit more tired and I'm really happy with how my cycle is right now. But, I ease back and so remember
Adina: 53:42
in here for a sec. I think this is we're going to break down exactly like what this looks like. I think this is also a big issue in the holistic health space, the cycle sync link cycle, syncing world, where there's no attention being paid to programming again. And people say, Oh, when you're on your period or leading up to your period, you want really gentle movement. That's just a good time to go for a walk or to take those rest days. And then when you're leading towards ovulation. That's a great time for intensity. You might want to be really social, great time to take a high intensity class. And then when you're in your luteal phase, which comes after ovulation, Oh, you know, this is kind of, you might start to be sheltering already and getting ready for your period again. So let's slow it down. This is a good time for just like gentle strength training. And that is completely ignoring programming. How are we ever going to make progress? If one week we're just walking and then one week we're going to high-intensity bootcamp classes and then the next week we're doing gentle strength training. It's like exactly what we talked about in the beginning. It's, there's no intention behind that. And so I like to tell people that if you are following a well-designed strength training program, again, you're doing your four to five major lifts. Like you, you joked before about arms and abs butts and guts. Like if you are doing a well-designed program, what it looks like is there's three days a week, You're squatting your hinges at the hips. So that's things like a deadlift, a bridge, a hip thrust, you're doing a split squat, like a lunge type pattern, you're pushing and pulling at the upper body. So things like pushups, chest presses, overhead presses pulls are things like pull ups. Yes, ladies, you can do pull ups. You are strong enough to do pull-ups. You just need to be on a good program and learn how to use those muscles. Things like rows and then I would incorporate some sort of carry, like some abs to stabilization stuff like carrying heavy things around your house. And that is really all you need. You. Alternate between those you rest between them. You do like three to five reps. Max. We're not talking about 50 reps here, you rest in between all those exercises and then you do it again the next week with heavier weights. So it's really, really simple. That's what it should look like. And if you are doing that, when you are thinking about the phases of your cycle, you will just think about in the phase of your period. You might take longer rest periods and lighten the loads a little bit. Those that's a good time for a de-load week, a week where you're really focusing on form lifting much lighter. You're not doing any kind of high intensity quote-unquote finisher or circuit at the end of the workout. It's really just strength focused on those major movement patterns. And again, scaling back that load and then leading up to ovulation push for those PRS. Let's try a load you've never tried before and really pushed for, I think I might be capable of this, but I'm not positive. It will feel really good that week. And that's a great week to, again, add on a short finisher or a high intensity circuit, no longer than five minutes with rest and just pushing some of that intensity. And again, phasing back into just that normal strength training program for the next two weeks. And so that's really what it should look like. And I love, I always have this experience. I just had this last week with a client who I've been working with for a while. I love her. She's the sweetest and she in her. The platform that I use to deliver the workouts for my clients, her whole workout review was, Oh my God, this felt so heavy. Everything felt like crap. This was such a crappy workout. I know bad workouts happened, but like, everything felt so heavy. My back was hurting a little bit. And then the next morning I got a text from her. I got my period last night and it's, it always happens that way that you just like, everything feels really heavy and you're like, Oh, okay. I get what's happening here.
Diane: 57:38
Yeah. I've had the experience of like right for my dot drops. Like you're saying I can, I'm just noticing I need to take longer rests. And I work with a coach in person now. And I mean, he has a, he has a girlfriend. He's got daughters, like, but sometimes it's interesting. Sometimes I'm like, listen, my dot's about to drop. So we're going to have to, like, I don't know what you have planned today. We're gonna have to adjust a little bit, I'll find I, I take longer rests, like Adina was mentioning. So we'll take three to five minutes in between, and I'm not going for my, my heaviest best squat ever. Um, I've also had experiences. Cause I believe we keep issues in our tissues where everything's fine. Everything's fine. And I'm lifting. And in between, I'm like, I feel tearful. Like I need to just release. Um, yeah, that's an interesting experience. But then my period might start that night or the next day I'm like, Oh, we're moving some stuff
Adina: 58:30
Yeah. I've had that experience in like yoga classes before where it's like, you're doing a hip opener and the room is dark and there's candles lit and all of a sudden you're like, what was I holding on to here? It all
Diane: 58:39
Yeah, your body's like, bitch, we're gonna, we're gonna cry right now. Yeah. It's always in for me in child's pose and I've been in yoga, like we're in the dark, we're connecting to our breath finally. And that's something I love about, about strength training too. Um, if that's something that you appreciate, in, something like yoga, the breath is, I mean, your breath has to be on lockwhen you are strength training and I'm sure Adina, we'll go deep into that one too. But, um, one thing I love about strength training is connecting to my breath and to my body. And just making you feel so much stronger for your everyday
Adina: 59:12
what you're capable of. Like, it's amazing to see, like I never thought I could do this load and here I am and, and it feels good and I can do it and I can do more. Um, yeah, like again, we talked about more is not better as far as quantity of days that you work out, but more can feel better as far as load on the bar and just getting stronger and feeling your body get more resilient to life stressors, be that physical. Like it's just easier. Like those are my favorite texts to get from clients like, Oh, I was pushing my kids double stroller up the Hill at the zoo. And I was like, wait a minute. This isn't hard.
Diane: 59:51
or I squatted the ups, man, when he asked if I needed to help with my packages.
Adina: 59:57
Like those physical wins, but then also the emotional winds that come with that of taking that step back to realize I've gotten so much more resilient. I can do such hard things, things I never thought I could do. And that carry over from what happens in the gym or for a lot of us now, your living room to how you tolerate the stresses of your life and how you can step away from, you know, we listed off in the beginning, all of these chronic symptoms and these quote unquote conditions, right? If you have these, if you have been labeled with an hormone imbalance or an auto-immune disease, and you feel like you're just going to be stuck there forever. The power that you get from shifting to strength, training, building up your body, again, all the physiological benefits that come with that, what it does for your metabolism, how it really helps to balance your hormones, but then how it allows you to step away from a person who is weak, a person who has a disease, a person who has this imbalance to a person who's really just capable of anything. And for me, that's a big piece of why I get so frustrated by that recommendation from practitioners to just stick to gentle movement, walking in yoga, like it, I feel like, yeah, I feel like it, it traps people in that existence of a person with a problem who can't get better, who can't get stronger, who can't incorporate intensity. And so when we move people towards this, and again, if you're really, really symptomatic, it might just look like five reps of a squat in air squat, a body weight, squat, whatever you wanna call it. Resting two minutes doing it again, and that's your whole workout. And then the next week we do the same thing, but now you're holding a five pound dumbbell and then the next week you do the same thing, but you're holding a 10 pound dumbbell. Like it can be as simple as that, and that can have a profound impact on your metabolism, your hormonal health, and again, that mental component to it, of just feeling really capable of anything.
Diane: 1:01:59
and that has been a game changer for my clients, especially, my clients who are hypothyroid or have a Hashimoto's who were told that they just need to totally sit out. And that is not something that we want for you. We're emphasizing here quality over quantity. And if you are a career-driven woman or someone who has an action packed schedule, maybe you're feeling really seen in these episodes. If you appreciate, I would guess efficiency in other parts of your life, right? You want to do things in work that are the most efficient. So that is what we're inviting you to try with this approach. To movement and to exercise is how can you do the least and get the most reward.
Adina: 1:02:41
Yeah, that's the
Diane: 1:02:42
It's a lot more fun that way.
Adina: 1:02:44
Yeah. And if this is resonating with you, if this kind of opened your eyes, if you feel like, wow, I need this in my life, Diane and I have a, the get your shit together, mini course. And inside of that, we go deeper on stress and movement. And part of that, there's also a PDF beginner strength training program. So you can get started with that. You can test it out for four weeks and see if it doesn't shift all these things in your life. So we would love for you to jump into that course. So in the show notes, we'll put some details of how you can get your hands on that baby.
Diane: 1:03:19
We covered a lot of ground in this episode. And we look forward to busting more myths about fitness, especially with all the messages that you probably heard the beginning of this year. And we look forward to seeing you next week. Go be strong and stay hydrated.
Adina: 1:03:39
Love you babies.
Diane: 1:03:40
Love you byeee
Thanks for listening to the G Y S T podcast as always your ratings and reviews mean the world to us. If you enjoyed this episode, take a second, take a little screenshot, throw it up on your Instagram story and tag us so we can thank you properly for sharing this show with other women that it might help see you next week. We love you. Bye.
