Exercise & your cycle: how to workout in sync with your menstrual cycle 💪

working this out for themselves without any expert guidance. Most of them were solving the puzzle of what do I do or how do I do it around my menstrual cycle from an exercise perspective, based on trial and error, and they were kind of working out of this works

for me planned over a decade. So I'd love to learn from you, first of all about the different stages of our menstrual cycle, and then from an exercise specifically perspective or just movement in general, what are your rules around how we should move our bodies train our bodies during these different cycles.

by menstrual lives. And I just want to remind everybody who's listening to this, regardless of whether you're a male or a woman or however you identify, like, you exist because you were created through a menstrual cycle. And so I'm a really passionate educator for all genders because men

need education just as much as women do. Whilst it's the female experience for women when it comes to sport and movement and exercise, is that really a lot of these sports that people are really into, we're created for men by men. And the reason why that is is because men are very stable and so they're an easy subject to study. And when we think about that, men run on what I educate as a twenty four hour clock.

So most men like to eat the same thing daily for breakfast or the same thing for lunch or the same thing for dinner. They like to kind of stick within their norms. They find what exercise routine works for them, and they're like, got a down pat, We're just going to keep doing this. And what we've found over the last twenty thirty years in diet culture, we started to recognize that women couldn't sustain a diet in inverted brackets

like men could. And the reason why is because they run on this what we call a full week or a twenty eight day twenty nine day cycle, and so every day is different for them. We're trying to push against what's actually the norm, and that actually looks like us swimming up the river or swimming against the rip in the ocean, and instead of going with the flow of what actually suits our body, and so so many more men's durators are like, hang on a second, but

this doesn't feel right. And so I think we're starting to really have more open conversations and that's really empowering, but also it's really daunting. And so what I hear a lot sam women who were like, and I hope you don't mind if I swear no, no at all, But a lot of women are like, why the fuck wasn't I taught this at school? And why has it been twenty years or why have I had three kids?

And I'm entering my premenopause or time in my life and I'm only just discovering this ability to adapt and live in tune with my cycle. And this can be really confronting for a lot of people. And something I love about training and sport is I was the tomboy, you know. I grew up surfing and skateboarding and playing basketball and doing all the boys things and used to

wear you know, baseball cap to bed. So for me, when I got my menstruation for the first time at fifteen and a half, like what we would consider a late bloomer, like, I didn't want to be a girl, you know, I didn't want to have to deal with that.

And so we had an error or where a lot of women were happy to not menstruate, they were happy to go on hormonal contraception, that were happy to not talk about it, whereas fast forward to today, we have a lot of young menstruaders and women who were starting to be like, hang on a second, is this normal?

anything worse. And looking at the cycle is actually there's huge underlying keys there.

And when we think of the menstrual cycle, the first thing I want to highlight is that when I ask this question in like a pre assessment form for a new client, or I ask this in schools, is most people think the cycle is actually their men's duration. So they think, when I'm bleeding, I'm on my cycle. But your cycle is actually from day one of men's duration through to the next day one of men's duration, So

it's actually a much longer timeframe. So the menstrual time of your cycle, a healthy men's duration is anywhere from like three to five days in length. You might not bleed all of those days. You might bleed, say the first two to three, and then you have some spotting days. That's what we consider the first phase of your cycle, and that's mens duration. We link that season with winter. I love to ask, you know, well, what is it you like to do in winter? How do you feel

in winter? And most people respond with I don't really want to go out. I'm much less you know, much less social. I like to just you know, cook more warm foods. I like to be a bit more of a hermit. I like, you know, I withdraw myself a little bit and I'm more of a homebody in winter. That's what our ments duration is like this particular I call it the inner season, So the inner winter. I like to refer to them as the seasons of the animals too. So winter is like the bear season, Like

you're a bear. How do bears move in winter? You know? They move? So everything of training, this menstrual time is really about slowness. It's about restoration, Like this is the taper season for an athlete. So this is what the bears want. They want nurture, love and care. And so when we're menstruating, the hardest challenge that women face is that we live in a very patriarchal world and we're very much encouraged to like, oh, anything you can do, I can do bleeding, and so it's it's like this

unhealthy feminism. So I always encourage women that if you're menstruating challenge yourself. Like, people will take three days off the gym to go to all wedding for a friend. That's like a getaway weekend. But they won't take three days off to menstruate. And so you can last three

days for a good celebration at a wedding. But what about when you're menstruating, Like, what if The challenge here is what if whilst you were menstruating, your body was calling for so much care that it meant that you could peek and perform better at other times of your cycle. But that's the first phase of our seasons of our cycle. It's a really good simple introduction. Now the second phase

is spring. Every woman knows what it's like to menstruate, and then a day or two after they finish mensterating and they're like, oh my god, I'm back, and you start to have this what I call like the dolphin attitude where you feel really creative, you feel really joyful and expressive. And so this phase of your cycle, in the medical terms, they would say this is postminstruation or preovulation, and this spring time is where out in the hormonal

structure our body is starting to become fertile again. So where we have esogen rising, estrogen is a confidence hormone. As esogen rises, we are literally more playful, we're more creative, we are more actionable. So this is a really great time of the cycle to try something new because you have confidence is going to support your decisions and also the new changes. So this dolphin season is literally like a dolphin. You're splashing around. It's like rainbows and butterflies.

And think about the outer seasons here when it's spring outside of us, and knowing that you and I both in winter. When spring arrives in september's here and then you know we're moving into October here in the Southern hemisphere, people start to just be more joyful, you know, people start to like come more alive and they want to do more things, be more social, have more picnics, have more get togethers. And that's how we are in our cycle too.

want to do it all. Yeah, you have all this energy and you're like, Okay, I'm going to do this in the morning, and then I have this plan for lunchtime and the dinner we're going to do this, and then after dinner we're going to go see these people. And so summer is very much like that with your energy and the way that you train or move your body is that it's like the peak. This summer time is where if you are a female and you're a

mens strator, not on homon or birth control. But if you are a mens durator and you were trying to improve your speed, your agility, or your weightlifting, this is the time that you want to really peak or aim to peak for that in your session. So let's just say you do group training. This is the time you know in yourself to up to up your weights or to push yourself a little bit harder. So that summer time I call there's two animals for this time. The

first one is the peacock. You know, women love showing themselves off at this season, and that's because their peak fertility is occurring at this particular time and they are putting themselves out there. That's when women want to be seen. They feel sassier, they feel sexier. I also sometimes call this the Beyonce phase because that's how you feel in summer.

And the second animal is the lioness. Now, this is a really important important part here is the lioness phase is very much about the prow It's about the leadership, but it's also about the don't f and tell me what to do because I know my body so well. But I like to also share the lioness because a lot of women don't recognize that they can be a b tch sometimes too, And a lot of society says, well,

that's when you're pre minstrual. However, if there is something underlying going on in your life and you haven't addressed it, let's just say you've had a challenging conversation with someone at work and they've been itching at you behind your back and you want to just tell them where to go. If you haven't dealt with that, when you have your peak of confidence and you're ready to show the world who you are, when you're ovulating, that side's going to

come out too. And that's why I like to throw it in as the liones, is that you can really put your stance there. And so for people in heterosexual couples, is that this is where women are most likely going to convince their male partners to buy a house, or you know, let's get married on this particular day, or convince them of something that otherwise they wouldn't be as

convincing in sharing. So this ovulatory time is where we're really full, like summer, and it can be hot, it can be fiery, and it only lasts three or four days, so it's quite a short season, but when you're aware of that and you're training PBS and all of that, it can be a really really powerful time.

is the progesterone dominant part of the cycle. So we've gone from the first half being focused around estrogen, the second half flips and all of a sudden focused around progesterone. That progesterone cycle is really more analytical, it's more disruptive. We have a big peak and then we have a big dip, and so so this particular phase of your cycle, I call this the turtle phase. It's where you're like, you want to be out in the world, and then

you don't want to be out of the world. You want to be out in the world, and then you don't want to be out in the world. And so after summer has finished, so Southern Hemispherians, this is where like February March comes and people like, I don't want to deal with autumn. I just want someone to keep going. I've loved summer, I love the heat, I love the fire. I just want this more. And so instead of them dealing with autumn, they go traveling overseas where it's hotter.

And that's because a lot of the you know, the people in the world, unless you love the cold, avoid autumn. And so that's the same and said to be true in our mental cycle is that we've just gone through this huge lead up, like amazing spring and fantastic summer, and then we're like, oh, autumn, great, what do we do here? This is where you want to take your training and your movement outside, balancing with natural fresh air

being on the ground. So whether it's on the beach or in a park, or going hiking or riding your bike, like being outside in the elements is very very grounding for women in their pre menstrual, post of litory, autumn phase of their cycle. So I call this at the long and strong movement. So this is where you are more likely to do, like if we use weights as an example, you're more likely to do maybe a heavier weight and less reps as opposed to light away and

faster reps. And so this is where the body wants that long and strong style movement. And that's because our body is really getting all the things done in preparation for the bear to hibernate in the cave. And so when we think about the menstrual cave, we want to kind of get all the things done. So for women, this is where you might notice this in your wife.

I'm just going to clean the cutlery drawer and then all of a sudden, the whole kitchens redecorated, and you're like, what, Like, I was gone for five minutes, what just happened?

It's that in between both worlds as you get ready to transition into what we call the you know, the rebirth of the cycle, and that's where we get to literally taper. And I just want to wrap up by saying that, imagine if men every single four weeks they got an opportunity for three days to just veg the f out and not have to answer to anybody and not have to reply or respond or turn up like they would be much stronger, you know, supportive men. Women

are the same. We are going to be stronger and supportive women if we get that time to nurture ourselves and allow ourselves to, you know, step into what do I need right now? And how am I going to support myself? And what would I do differently compared to last cycle. So I got round about this forever, but I think I think that's the summary you're looking for.

at the moment for whatever medical or health reason. If you just go to Welson, which is we double L S O M E dot com forward slash l y C for Love your Cycle, and you're just it's a free download, so people can just get that access it as much as they want. Once you've got it, you can revisit and download as much as you want. But that's the best place to start. Welson Underscore GEMI Lee j E m A LW on Instagram. I love talking about this topic to all because it's it's it's awakening.

People hear it and they're like, oh my god, I've been feeling this like. It's not a teaching, it's a remembering. So that's where they can find me to learn more. Thanks so much, Sam.

big solution or quick fix. So we are going to dive in to your food questions and that's coming up next on the Woodluffe.

If you can afford to take at one level further and you're buying those same foods in an organic form, well that's probably the best option, but of course it has to make sense economically, and I don't think that should be dismissed. Our next question is one that I'm sure this time of year many of us can relate to.

green leafy vegetables, salmon. But I also think sometimes the damage is done by what we don't do proactively, because we tend to always look at how we eat with a magnifying glass once we've already fallen sick, and we perhaps haven't been taking care of ourselves or eating as healthily as well as we can, particularly during winter when

we sort of crave these heavier, denser type foods. So the key is still get those greens in, still get those healthy, high antioxidant foods in in a proactive manner, not just once you fall sick and you'll get sick less, I absolutely believe that, but also sleep, exercise, you know, particularly rest. I think when we're run down through not eating as well as we can, we're just vulnerable. We're just the same sickness that we may have beaten can sometimes beat us.

and whole grains across a week. Variety is important. Our body needs to get all the different vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and essential nutrients from our food. We want to spread our wings as wide as we can. I think embracing seasonality is a really good tip on that you know what in winter tastes great? Is in season is really accessible? Use the seasons to your benefit. But you know, maybe as a once off exercise, look back across a week and see how close to thirty you got.