Have you ever wondered how your menstrual cycle impacts your workout performance? As women, we often experience fluctuations in our energy levels and workout quality, especially during perimenopause. In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the fascinating connection between period and training, shedding light on how hormonal changes can influence our fitness journey.
Have you ever wondered how your menstrual cycle impacts your workout performance? As women, we often experience fluctuations in our energy levels and workout quality, especially during perimenopause. In this enlightening episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I dive deep into the fascinating connection between period and training, shedding light on how hormonal changes can influence our fitness journey.
Many women report feeling strong and energized one week, only to be met with fatigue the next. This inconsistency can be frustrating, but understanding the science behind our cycles is key to optimizing our workouts. I emphasize the importance of recognizing how hormonal fluctuations affect not just our energy levels, but also our mental health and motivation for fitness. By tuning into our bodies, we can adjust our workout routines accordingly, ensuring that we maintain consistency while allowing for lighter workouts during the premenstrual phase.
As I share practical tips for navigating period and training, I encourage you to listen to your body and prioritize your wellness. Did you know that perceived exertion can feel higher during certain times of your cycle? However, actual physical performance may not be significantly impaired. This insight can empower you to approach your workouts with a fresh perspective, especially for women over 35 who are navigating the complexities of midlife health.
Throughout the episode, I also touch on essential topics such as nutrition for women, including how to eat for muscle and the role of protein for women in achieving fitness goals. Whether you're looking to lose weight, tone up, or simply maintain your health during menopause, the right nutrition plays a vital role in supporting your energy levels and overall wellness.
Join me as we explore the intersection of period and training, and discover how to harness the power of your menstrual cycle to enhance your workouts. Together, we'll unlock the secrets to better fitness motivation, effective toning workouts, and a healthier lifestyle. Tune in for insights that will transform the way you approach your fitness journey!
If you're interested in womens health, this is the podcast for you.
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What if your period is the reason that your workouts feel awesome one week and completely off the next, and you've just never been taught how to adjust for it? If you're struggling with workouts that feel inconsistent, and if one week you feel strong and great, and the next you feel tired and heavy and unmotivated, it's worth looking at the timing of your period and training cycles to potentially adjust the workout type and intensity. If you're wanting some tips to improve your workouts in perimenopause, keep listening. Hello, and thank you for being here. If you are new, welcome. I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women improve your body composition so that you are at least 70% lean mass, which is also known as fat-free mass, so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in the game of life and out of the rocking chair and look awesome along the way. And today's episode is one of those that I don't think many people are talking about, mostly because in some ways people don't talk about this, but also because it's a bit mysterious. And while the research is mixed, I believe that without a doubt, your period influences the quality of your workouts, your motivation, and your tolerance of discomfort. So when I looked at the research, the biggest through line that I saw is that your perceived exertion is what affects you the most. This means that your workouts feel harder when you're having your period or the week before, but this doesn't necessarily mean that your workout actually is harder on a biological measurable level. So if you're struggling with workouts that feel inconsistent because of your period, and training is erratic because of it, you know it's really hard to see results or to even just get stronger and feel better because you can't stay consistent. And as I always say, consistency is the number one thing that influences your success. If one week you feel strong and powerful and energized, and then the next week you feel tired, and heavy and unmotivated, you may wonder, how is this even possible that I felt so good last week, I was on fire, and this week I can barely rally? You might even be wondering if you should work out at all and skip it because you don't feel well. Well, I've got some answers and some guidance for you. So in this episode, you'll learn how your period and training are connected, especially in your late 30s and 40s, why your workouts feel inconsistent and what's actually happening, and how to adjust your workouts across the month, throughout the month, to actually improve your results. I believe that when you start working with your body instead of against it or forcing it, everything really starts to shift. Your hormones are. very different during your period. And training adjustments can really help you stay on track and actually feel better after the workout. And imagine that if your workouts actually felt aligned with your energy to the point where you stop forcing it so that you can work with your body so that you can feel better and see your body respond faster. There was a time for me in my 20s and 30s. where I would go hard in my workouts for about three weeks. And then seemingly out of nowhere, I would get sucker punched in the face and I would, out of nowhere, feel so depleted, so tired, so run down, I could barely climb a flight of stairs. And I had no choice but to skip my workouts and take a break. And the crazy thing... was that I would need two weeks to feel normal again. And then this cycle would begin again. I would go hard day after day for probably about two weeks. I would get sidelined mysteriously, and then I would recover, and then I would repeat. And of course, to no one's surprise, I didn't look fit. And in many ways, I actually wasn't fit. even though I was able to go hard for two weeks, that isn't necessarily a reflection of true fitness. I was simply in an on-again, off-again, self-defeating cycle. And this is super common. And it took me a long time, honestly, embarrassingly too long to figure this out, but it took a while for me to actually see the pattern. And then I started observing the factors that were influencing it. And that was the first time that I started to assess how my period impacted my training. And what I determined at the time that I think is still true is that after two weeks of being off, right, and having to either not exercise at all or do very low intensity gentle workouts, my energy would come back. It would bounce back with force. And my muscles had fully recovered and my muscle glycogen stores were completely restored. So my body actually Thank you. wanted to work out again once I was fully restored and recovered. And because I had so much time off, like two weeks, I had tons of just pent up, stored up energy. So with that surplus of readiness and physical energy, I had the desire and the ability to go hard again for a little while anyway. See the pattern? But see, here's the thing that few fitness people like me are talking about. If you're not mostly recovered going into your next workout and then you push hard, your body begins to slowly deplete energy reserves and glycogen over time. So for example, let's say you go into a workout on a Monday, 100% recovered. And your muscles and liver and brain have the fuel, which is glucose, that they need. And you crush that workout, right? You feel amazing. You have a lot of energy. Your heart rate response is good. You push it. You sweat. You feel awesome. Depending on your nutrition. And I'm not going to open that can of worms in this episode because that is a whole other episode in and of itself. But depending on your nutrition, you may end up depleting your glycogen stores in that workout, let's say arbitrarily by 25%. Okay. Now glycogen stores in your muscle is the stored up version of fuel and fueling and energy. Glycogen is stored glucose. Glucose is the blood sugar that's made you from the foods that you eat and your body prefers to have that glucose come from the carbohydrates that you eat. Now your body can produce glucose when it must, but that's an altered metabolism that we don't really want to be getting into. Now I have linked some research here as always, if you're curious, but the truth is it's really hard to give an exact amount of glycogen, stored muscle, carbohydrate, okay, that gets depleted during a workout. And there is research out there, but literally it would take me like a week to come up with the precise measurements here. But we know this. We've been looking at this for 20 years, 30 years. And the truth is when we try to determine how much of your muscle glycogen or liver glycogen or even muscle tissue gets depleted or destroyed during a workout, there's a million factors. There's you what your nutrition looked like, how you were rested, the intensity of the workout, the duration of the workout, the nature of the workout, your heart rate in the workout. There's so many factors. So what I'm sharing here is merely an illustration to explain the concept so you can just kind of understand it. And it makes a lot of sense. Now, let's say you then go into a Tuesday workout and you've recovered from that Monday workout where your energy stores were depleted by 25%. Okay. So you're recovered from that workout, but not fully. So maybe on Tuesday going into that workout, your glycogen stores are now at 80% instead of 100% like they were on Monday. And so now on Tuesday, you crush that workout again. You go beast mode, and you deplete your glycogen stores a bit more. And let's say today you deplete them by 30%. And so without boring you with more metrics or mental gymnastics, you can see how there is this slow diminishment of stored glycogen in your muscles and organs in general. So you're slowly depleting that stored form. of fuel and energy known as glycogen in your muscles. So let's now fast forward to Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. Maybe you take a day off and now it's Saturday and Sunday. So now we're 10 workouts in. And because of what I just illustrated, your glycogen stores are slowly Thank you. getting lower and lower and lower and farther away from that 100% restored and replenished. And this means that you will feel fatigue, loss of strength, stunted heart rate response during activity, soreness, hunger, food cravings. These are all the symptoms that come along with muscles that are not fully recovered and are operating at less than 100% of their preferred stored glycogen. They prefer to be stored up. And so they're going to seek out that replenishment by giving you symptoms that I just listed, all because your body is trying to get back to 100% energy reserves. So you can see how as the days progress, you'll find yourself more tired and more run down. and probably sore until your body hits the stop button so that you can start a recovery cycle. And this is that mysterious factor that comes in to sideline you. For me, it was often physical. I just literally did not have the resources within me, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, to show up for a workout because I thought I needed to go hard all the time. right? And or that can often tip into your motivation and your desire and your commitment. And so what I see with clients is all of a sudden they wake up on Thursday and they're just not in the mood anymore. They're not motivated. They don't care about their workout. They don't care about improving their health or their fitness. And they lose kind of the bug, if you will. And they're like, how is it? for the past two weeks, I've been so into my workouts and inspired by my workouts and wanting to go. And now all of a sudden, I don't care at all. I truly believe this is your physical body working on your psychology to get you to stop and go into a recovery cycle. Remember, upright homo sapiens have been around for about 1.9 million years. We are really good. at survival. Your physical body is really good at driving you towards behaviors that preserve your sustenance, resilience, and ability to persevere. So now let's layer in hormones and your period. Most women feel great in the week after their period, right? I remember for me thinking. Oh my gosh. If I could only feel like this all month long, can you imagine? I would be unstoppable. That first week after my period, I would feel so good. And I remember thinking, this was in my like 20s and 30s, I remember being like, oh my gosh, this is probably how men feel all the time. Can you imagine? And so for most women, each week brings a gradual shift in biology leading up to your next cycle, where in the week prior to starting your period or the week of, you tend to feel the worst, right? It's sort of like you've got week one of your cycle, week two, you feel awesome, week three, things start to change because then there's ovulation, and then week four, you feel terrible because you're premenstrual. And so literally every week, it's a different story. And the truth is your hormones are shifting pretty much every single day in this cycle. And without a doubt, your hormones are different and influence how you feel as you get closer to your period. You are not imagining it. Biologically, your body is in a different state because hormones are everything. Hormones drive everything in the human body. And so if they're fluctuating every week or every day, that you impacts who you are. So if you also layer on that any bad practices in your workouts, it absolutely leads you to not feeling great in the week or two around your period. It's kind of like the perfect storm. Now, the question becomes, should you adjust your workouts around your period? And for me, there's two angles here, okay? Number one, from the research, there actually isn't a clear and obvious physical need, biological need to adjust your workouts, okay? Now, you may experience a slight loss of power and strength, but it appears that it's a matter of keeping your exercise programming the same and accepting that your usual weight loads feel harder or that your performance will be a bit less. There's no doubt that you perform differently the week before or the week of your period, right? But when we look at the research, it's a bit inconclusive from what I saw. So in other words, according to the research, your perceived... experience and tolerance of effort is different. So in short, it feels harder, but it's not actually harder on your body. And so from this angle, the suggestion here would be approach your workout as you always do, right? Go into it with the intention of keeping your effort or your weight loads the same, but be okay if you can't push as much. Be okay if you don't increase your weight loads that day. Or maybe you move a bit more slowly or you take longer rest phases. And because you perceive that workout to feel harder, just know that that workout might kind of suck a bit more, right? Does that make sense? So you want to go into it with the intention of you've got the physical reserves that you need, but you're not going to enjoy it. It might not. feel good. And so you can adjust, but this is probably not the time to go for a harder workout or higher weight loads or push yourself. And so from my perspective, the second angle is this. Because on some level, your biology is different and your hormones are different. And undoubtedly, you feel like you have less energy, you absolutely can. adjust your workouts to be a bit easier so that your experience of the workout feels better. So instead of leaning in and just sucking it up because the workout doesn't feel well because of the change in your perceived exertion, it makes you feel better if you just lighten up that workout a little bit so that you can walk away feeling good. And this is what became my approach once I figured out the pattern. If my energy or my mood or my motivation was lacking because of my cycle, I would show up anyway, but I would allow myself to work a bit more gently. I would not radically change my workouts. It's not like I would skip the strength workouts and do gentle yoga for a week. I would stay the course of my programming. I would show up with the intention to work the same this week as I did last week or the week before. But if I didn't have the juice, I would just let myself move a bit more gently. And like I said, longer rest phases, maybe lighten up your weight loads a little tiny bit, maybe move through your reps a little bit more slowly. And when I do that, I usually discover that I can actually still perform just as good as any other day, I just feel kind of punky. And the research backs that up. If we could really measure the degree that your capacity is less that week, we would see that it's really a small amount. The bigger issue is your experience of how you feel. And so your personality may be such that you prefer to show up. and push through anyway. And there have been times in my life where that felt really good because then I kept my performance up. But then there were times where for whatever reason, I wouldn't feel as well. And that just felt almost like abusive and emotionally difficult. And so instead, there were times I would just lighten up those workouts a little bit. But it's not that there is a huge change in your real physical ability. And so the beautiful thing here is it's really your choice. But if what you want is to see results at the end of a month or two months, I will say the more consistent you can stay in your efforts, your programming variables, and your workouts, that is what's going to produce results. And there are going to be times where it just feels a little yucky. It just kind of sucks a little bit. But if you're able to move through that and stay the course, on the other end of it, you're going to get better results. Now, there is one misunderstanding or nuance that I think is worth mentioning here. And that is this idea of expecting your body to perform the same every week. And that was the mistake I made in my 20s. It was like, well, if I could crush it today, I should be able to crush it tomorrow and the next day and next week because that's what athletes do, right? That's the problem. If you're not an athlete, you're not an athlete. And so expect... your body to perform the same every single week is a piece of the puzzle. Your body just won't perform the same every day and every week, especially if you're always trying to push and go hard. And this gets more so as you move through your 30s into your 40s and into your 50s. For many women, every day is a different story. In my experience, I've been coaching women for 30 years now, day in and day out for 30 years. I know women, and I am one, and I am one who has very fussy, finicky physiology. And so I will say the vast majority of women, every day is a different story. There are, I would say, maybe 5% of the clients that I have worked with that are just solid every day. They are few and far between. And you're probably not listening to the podcast because you probably don't struggle with how you feel, with your energy, and with getting results from your workouts. And so it usually is a different story. And this is why consistency is so valuable. Because when you stay super consistent, irrespective of your mood or how you feel, your performance will be more consistent. too, but every day is a different story for sure. So the key is to not really expect it to perform well all the time, but to plan accordingly. Your body is cyclical and your strength, your energy, and your recovery shift across the month. And especially in perimenopause, these shifts can feel more pronounced because your estrogen is fluctuating. When it is down, your inflammation is going to be up. And that is one reason why you might feel different and respond differently to your workouts. When you expect your body to perform the same every single week, every single day, you might find yourself frustrated when your body doesn't deliver what you want it to. And understanding this helps you stop fighting your body, start listening and observing. and working with it so it's not these broad on-again, off-again stretches. It's a bit more of a gentle flow. Some days you're up, some days you're a little down, some days you're a little bit more up, and some days you're a little bit more down. It is a gentle river, and you have the choice to adjust your workouts or not accordingly. So here is what's interesting about the research. And something that I have also noticed in myself anecdotally, you might feel depleted and tired and run down and blue the week before or the week of your period. And this feeling influences your drive, your desire, and your motivation to work out. And it's hard for anyone to show up for a workout when you don't feel well. That is true. And that is what the research really doesn't touch upon because it's a bit more psychological than biological. But what the research shows that lines up with my own experience is that your actual physical performance isn't impaired much around your period. Instead, it's your tolerance and your rating of perceived exertion that changes. So the workouts just feel harder, but they're actually not. Wild, right? Another thing you may find helpful is to realize that your workouts should cycle throughout the month in a similar way that your hormones cycle. The mistake is thinking that you should train at the same intensity all month long. So just after your period, your body is more primed for strength, heavier lifting, higher intensity. And this is when you can push a bit more. But in the second half of your cycle, your body may need slightly lower intensity, more controlled strength training, and more recovery. If you were to keep pushing at max intensity, you might notice that the workouts feel harder to the point where you question your progress, your motivation, and your desire. And why am I even doing this if it just sucks and I feel like I'm not getting anywhere? That's when that enters in. And before I figured out this cycle for myself, I would catch myself saying, why am I always tired? Why am I always out of gas? Why do I always feel terrible today? But last week I was on fire. And the truth is... It's because I wasn't listening in and adjusting. And now in my 50s, as I'm moving into menopause, I pretty much always feel pretty stable. Some days are a little up, some days are a little down, but it's that gentle river. And really, this is not a motivation issue. That's your mind playing tricks on you. It's more of a timing issue. So adjusting your intensity a little here, a little there, helps you maintain program. progress and feel stronger more consistently. This is very much an argument for allowing yourself to work a little bit more in some weeks and a little bit less in other weeks, but show up anyway. Give it your best anyway, but as I said before, move a little differently if you need to, or keep your weight loads the same and don't try to push higher. And give yourself 30 seconds of extra rest in between your sets if you need it. And if this helps you stay consistent, this is going to make all the difference because consistency is the needle mover anyway. As you move into that later phase of your cycle, you might find that slightly shorter workouts feel better. Strength training with more control instead of max effort. support you more. Adding in recovery days, walking instead of going hard in a spin class or a hit class, mobility, gentle stretching. This can all improve how you feel. It's not necessary to stop just because you feel a bit underpowered or less enthused. It's more about staying aware of the overall journey in a month, where your hormones are, and where your recovery is. And if you should adjust your workouts instead of giving up. So here are five things that you can do to work with your body and cycle your period and training to match so that you can stay consistent, you can feel better, and you can get better results. Number one, have a monthly workout plan that stays the same all month in terms of the type of workout, the style of workouts, the number of workouts, etc. So if your programming has, let's say, three different strength workouts each week, keep that the same all month long. The same type of strength workouts, the same exercises, the same protocol all month long. And then number two, aim to find an even intensity level for your workouts in the sense that you don't go hard one day and then feel wiped out the next such that you have to skip a day. right? You can work hard, but find a version of hard that you can repeat three times every week. This was a game changer for me because instead of going hard when I had energy and I felt like it, I would actually hold back a little bit so that I could reserve some of that for the next workout.Number three, give yourself permission to go light on days when you would rather go home. And if you're prone to the like warrior beast mode mentality all the time, like I was in my 20s, trust me, it's not going to serve you, especially as you get into your 40s and your 50s. Realize that you'll be more likely to skip a workout if you don't have that energy to go beast mode. So instead, show up no matter what. But allow yourself to go a bit easier on a day when you risk not going at all. Number four, protect your sleep even more as you get closer to your cycle because you might need more recovery. Women often notice this throughout the month. That's like for the first 10 or 14 days of the month, I need less sleep and I can get up and I can go. But the second half of the month, I'm dragging in the morning. This is normal. So in that second half of the month or in the week before your period or during your period, go to bed earlier and find some practices that help you sleep better. Did you know there are sleep hygiene practices that improve how you sleep? So for me, that looks like crawling in bed a bit earlier so that my body can relax and I can still fall asleep on time. And that adds to the total rest that you're getting. Okay, number five, back up your consistent workouts with consistent nutrition. If your eating patterns are all over the place, eating different foods, eating different diet programs, skipping meals, diet hopping, going low carb and then getting carb cravings and so you overdo it on the weekend, et cetera. If your... eating patterns are all over the place, your fueling and your recovery are going to be all over the place. Don't skip meals. Fuel before your workouts, even the cardio workouts, and eat the majority of your calories from carbs. That means you're aiming for at least 40% of your total daily calories coming from high quality, healthy carbohydrates. around the clock, 24-7, the days of your workouts, the days not of your workouts. What you do today influences your workout tomorrow. And so if you're going low carb today, you're going to go into your workout tomorrow depleted. Okay, so now that you know how to adjust your training around your cycle, you may want some insights specifically into nutrition to support your workout. So be sure to check out my podcast episode, How to Eat for Muscle and Strength for Women. It is one of my most ever downloaded episodes, and it will help you understand the three biggest nutrition mistakes that women make when they're trying to perform better and build muscle. You can find it on my website or your preferred podcast listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Just search How to Eat for Muscle and Strength for Women, and it will come up. I'll also link it in the show notes below. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And remember, if you want access to my four-week Strength Without Stress program for free for a limited time, be sure to rate and review this episode right now. Grab a screenshot of your review before you post it and then send it to me over at hollyperkins.com forward slash review. You're going to upload it and you will get immediate access to this program for free. It's normally valued at $197. And stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.