Our first walk with a baby carrier when Freya was 6 weeks old.

If you have found this post it means that you know something isn’t right with your current or previous training plan. It either doesn’t give you the expected results or leaves you drained, out of energy and unmotivated to exercise again. If this is how you feel, I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. It simply means that this workout doesn’t serve you and it isn’t what your body needs or can cope with. Most likely you have been following one of the latest fitness trends, which are designed mainly for men. The good news is that when you start training like the woman that you are, you will not only finally stick to your daily exercise routine but also start getting results you are looking for, regardless of your age.

In the last few decades, we lost sight of what healthy training for women is and how to train in sync with our body.

Many of us feel guilty or lazy when we don’t have energy to train hard every day, so we force ourselves to crush it anyhow (I’m talking by experience).

And it still doesn’t work. Or your body looks amazing but you are completely burned out (been there as well).

Most research that inspire all latest training trends is based on man. Which is great if you’re a man.

Unfortunately, the female body doesn’t work the same way. Everyone knows that but it is still ignored in the wellness world.

Female hormones fluctuate throughout each menstrual cycle. These fluctuations are so significant that they allow us to divide our menstrual cycle into 4 distinct phases: follicular, ovulation, luteal and menstruation. In each of these phases our hormones (including cortisol), metabolism and energy change.

Our body needs a different training approach for each of these phases to match our hormones and energy.

I have been working with women for 8 years now. I used to love high energy (and high impact) training. I literally had no patience for classes like pilates or yoga. They were sooo boring. After a year of changing my career (from desk to gym), only teaching high energy classes I completely burned out. I was fatigued, injured and I was catching every silly infection possible. My body was getting weaker and my muscles would get into spasms while I was teaching, making it challenging for me to even finish my classes (work). It was 7 years ago. Since then I have been on a journey to become healthy again.

After many trials and errors, two miscarriages, one healthy pregnancy and a 16-month-old who still doesn’t sleep through the night, I love exercising again and I finally feel relaxed about it.

One January morning when Freya decided that 3am is a play time and refused to sleep for the next 2 hours…

For me understanding that training and the menstrual cycle are best buddies and that I have to adapt my exercises to my daily energy, made it so much easier for me to exercise regularly after my pregnancy. It is like a huge weight fell off my shoulders.

We all know someone who lost all the baby weight within weeks after giving birth or trains hard 6 months after having a baby. I tried all that and I could not keep up. I simply had no energy. I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep at night, my body was still recovering after pregnancy and birth (c-section) and I was still 11 kg heavier than before having a baby. I got numb.

I was confused and didn’t know what to do.

As a personal trainer with a lot of experience, fond of studying human body and training systems I though I had all the answers. Yet I could not sustain the stress and challenge of any long training sessions. I tried to train like a man again, ignoring what my body was going through. I didn’t want to accept the change that happened to me. I didn’t want to accept that I needed to change. I didn’t want to feel weak. But my body didn’t like what I was doing and it wouldn’t do it. Simple.

Having a baby who doesn’t sleep through the night (I haven’t had a full night sleep for over two years now) keeps my cortisol levels elevated the whole time. Paired with disrupted melatonin production (making it difficult for me to fall asleep sometimes) it made me feel tired, stressed, irritable and not in the mood for exercise at all (I’m a personal trainer for crying out loud!). We may try to push the body but it will fight back. I was exhausted so I started looking for more answers. It all didn’t make sense to me but I knew, there was nothing wrong with me. The new path of my journey has begun.

In the book “ The fourth trimester” by Kimberly Ann Johnson I learned that I missed some important post pregnancy recovery elements like belly wrapping and 30 days of just pampering my body and eating more specific foods that support recovery. I felt like I had to be back to my “normal” life immediately (it was my own expectation) and of course I didn’t ask for help.

I was also struggling with the trauma of the challenging birth that ended up with a c-section.

Recovering from that is a long process that makes everything else harder (ps. Traumatic birth is any birth that went differently than what you expected. It doesn’t have to end up in tearing or c-section. If you experienced that check out this book as there are great exercises you can do to deal with it. Or go and talk to a specialist. Just don’t leave it unaddressed).

What I did really well was my belly rehab exercises that helped me fix my 8-finger-wide diastasis recti in just a few weeks. This was easy as I knew what I had to do. Those exercises are designed for women who just gave birth so don’t require too much energy. They work most of the time if done regularly.

That book led me to another great publication: “Women code” by Alisa Vitti, HHC. It finally all made sense to me.

As females we must start living in harmony with our hormones to be healthy, happy and have the energy.

. When we stop fighting the nature and acknowledge our menstrual cycle we can have the body we always wanted (well considering your body type and characteristics… nothing will make me grow 10 cm more and have skinny legs… nope, not going to happen).

Today I adjust my training to my cycle.

I do more Pilates and yoga style exercises (yes I do these and they feel really good now) in my luteal and menstrual phase. I do high intensity workouts only when I have the energy for that (and it is mainly in the middle of my cycle, if I do get enough rest at night) and I do feel brilliant. As I still don’t sleep through the night even this schedule may be disrupted. I always adjust my exercises to my energy levels, even during my ovulation.

To me it feels like I have found my way in the darkness and it is simply freeing. I stopped forcing myself to do exercises that aren’t right for me on the day when I don’t feel like crushing it. Knowing why I don’t feel like that makes it easier to choose the right type of training, which will serve me better.

Here are a few guidelines I follow (as mentioned in “Woman Code” book):

During the menstruation I go very gentle. On the first day of my cycle I have abdominal pains, cramps and lower back discomfort so I only roll and stretch. After that I do what feels right, slowly building up my workouts and energy through the follicular phase. The research suggests that female metabolism is slowing down during this phase, being the lowest a week before the ovulation. As our energy increases at the same time (being the highest as we ovulate) it does make sense to do more intense workouts, including HIIT. For women it is a recipe for weight loss and muscle gain.

As we reach luteal phase we fatigue faster during training and we need more time to recover. We also have less energy as days go by as we are getting closer to our menstrual phase. The good news is that our metabolism is a bit faster now (are you surprised? I was) and you can eat a bit more, even though your training is less intense. It is time to shift gears and start getting easier. It is a good time to do more strength training, pilates and yoga.

What I like the most about training in sync with the cycle is that it makes the training more interesting.

We don’t have to stick to just one training routine but rather be more creative and try new things that match our hormones and energy. Go dancing in your follicular phase and try yin yoga in the days before your period.

You may also wonder how long you should train.

For as long as you don’t sleep through the night and get no chance to fully recover after your training, I recommend exercising from 5-20 min. Start with just two to three sessions a week and slowly build it up to daily routine. Doing more than that can stress your body too much. After your baby is older and you get your full night sleep you can go for much longer if you want to. From experience I can say that short trainings are easier to fit into our daily life and therefore are easier to sustain, which is the most important thing for your health and energy. They can be as easy and as hard as you want to so there is no need to do more than that.

Finally, walk every day.

There is no better exercise than walking. It is a great way to reduce stress and recharge. It is good for the body, mind, soul and the baby (and dog in my case😊). Make walking your daily must and enjoy the incredible benefits no other training can provide.

With love,

Karo

#19: Cannot stick to your exercise routine since you became a mum? Here's why and how to "fix" it.