5 Ways to Make the Most out of your Workouts
Stick to 30 Minutes
For women, exercise is not as simple as keeping energy out > energy in. Burning more calories than you take in does not necessarily result in shedded pounds. During exercise, the body meets energy demand with glucose in the blood—a supply that runs out around the 30-minute mark when cortisol spikes to signal a shift to fat stores for energy. Sounds like a fat–burning dream, right? For women with elevated estrogen however, the newly circulating glucose gets converted right back to fat.
Pro tip: Escape the cortisol–estrogen trap. If you experience symptoms of hormone imbalance, keep the high-exertion portion of your workouts to 30 minutes prevent this metabolic cycle from sabotaging your efforts.
Target Specific Muscle Groups
When you isolate muscle groups during exercise, you create space for two key processes—muscle building and muscle recovery. By concentrating on a specific muscle group i.e. upper body or lower body, you are better able to exhaust the primary movers which allows the muscle fibers to break down and rebuild. Alternating muscle groups on different days also creates more time for adequate recovery.
Pro tip: Aim for 2-3 workouts per week that target upper body + lower body separately.
Use Food as Fuel
Fueling for workouts can be challenging if you’re limited on time or grabbing a quick sweat session first thing in the morning. It's imperative to give yourself adequate fuel to sustain a quality effort during movement and prevent resource depletion. As discussed in #1, your body has a limited reserve of readily available glucose to fuel exercise. Once it is gone, your body can enter an unfavorable metabolic state that ultimately stores fat and wastes muscle.
Pro tip: Consider a quick protein shake or nutrient-dense snack at least 15-20 minutes before exercise.
Mix it Up
For women, varying workouts is not just a matter of maintaining interest. Though it does help to keep you coming back for more and help prevent the dreaded fitness plateau. The distinct phases of the menstrual cycle bring changing internal chemistry that influence the body's energy levels and inflammatory response. This means you may not only find more motivation during certain points in your cycle, but you may be more prone to injury in others.
Pro tip: Modify movement patterns with your cycle to preserve energy + reduce the risk of injury.
Breathe
A simple, yet often overlooked component of any workout is breath. Not only does conscious, active breathing facilitate greater mind-body awareness, but it can also improve the quality of exercise and yield better results by delivering oxygen to participating muscles and allowing greater exertion with less effort.
Pro tip: Focus on consistent, diaphragmatic breathing during movement through the nose where possible.
Want to learn how to adjust your workouts to match your energy levels throughout the month?
Check out my 14-day cycle-syncing workshop for women who are burned out by exercise & want more from working out.