Happy Monday! It’s a good thing it’s a holiday because this is a long email. Grab your coffee…

How is training going? Now that you’ve had a few weeks under your belt, how is the overall volume? Feel free to add extra easy time on your feet (or on the bike). If it feels a little unwieldy or unsustainable at the level it is, shorten the sessions, or take off the intensity.

We’re going to get into several aspects of our physiology and how it relates to training, but before that, I have been thinking a lot about women’s specific training, and what I mean by that. I’ve been interested in and studying this topic for years as it relates to puberty, training with our cycles, training through and after pregnancy, and now as I approach (or maybe already entered) perimenopause. There is so much “information” out there that it’s really hard to know what to do. Even as someone who is in this world, it can be very complicated to keep everything straight: eat a lot of protein; limit carbohydrates, but don’t do fasted training; lift heavy (but what if you’ve never lifted); do high intensity but don’t do anything to raise cortisol; and the list continues. I’m tired just writing it.

I have a different approach. Unfortunately simplicity rarely sells books and eating normal food doesn’t sell supplements, so it makes sense that the prominent people are focusing on certain aspects. I’m very happy that the topic of women’s training is more in the zeitgeist, but my goal with this group is to help you learn what YOU need specifically. There are obviously differences between women’s and men’s bodies, but within women’s bodies, everyone is slightly different so it still takes a very individualized approach, while using the same guiding principles. First of all, talk to your provider. I am not at all saying that we don’t need to make changes during whatever time of your life you’re in if you’re having mental health concerns, changes in energy, or anything else.

What I want to emphasize is the impact of stress on our bodies. This underlies everything else. Our brain is highly sensitive to estrogen and as estrogen levels change, the hypothalmus which is the part of the brain that regulates our autonomic nervous system (the fight or flight/rest and digest system) can go a little haywire. It’s a bit of chicken or the egg. Our hormones impact our brain and our brain controls the hormones. When our sympathetic nervous system is activated, the following physioloical changes happen: increased heart rate, increased respiratory rate, increase cortisol and adrenaline, blood is shunted to the extremities away from organs, and more (see photo below). All of those responses are great if we’re running away from a tiger, or doing a hard workout, but not great if that’s our normal day to day life. Our body responds to stress the same way, whether it’s a tiger chasing us, a fight with a partner, work stress, or sprinting. If our sympathetic nervous system is activated constantly, you can imagine what happens next: chronic high blood pressure, sleep interuptions, sugar cravings, weight gain (because our bodies want to be able to have children and will hang onto weight to ensure that’s possible; we don’t digest or process food well under stress; and the liver releases glucose into the bloodstream which is great for exercise, but if you don’t use the glucose, it gets stored as fat-more on this next week), digestive problems, and ultimately can lead to adrenal fatigue.

Now read through the list of what happens when the paraympathetic nervous system is activated: pupils relax, increased saliva leads to better digestion, the heart rate slows, and digestion increases (due to more blood flow and intesitnal and gall bladder stimulation). It’s all MUCH more sustainable for the body.

From a training standpoint, the biggest thing you can do for yourself is to be consistent over time. Fitness is built in years, not weeks, and can really only be sustained if your body can adapt to small changes. If you’re already in a high state of stress, you’re adding more stress on an already maxed out system: no good. You’ll get injured or sick, or burn out (or worse, get adrenal fatigue). Our bodies always win.

BUT! if you can mitigate stressors in your life (not just training), you can essentially be training all the time. Anytime you can lower stress, you’re helping your body be able to do more. The term capacity gets thrown around a lot, particularly in the fitness industry. I admit that I like the term as well. We talk a lot about aerobic and strength capacity, and trying to increase both. However, it’s worth thinking about capacity in a broader context. What is your capacity? Do you have capacity to be training right now? If you’re at full capacity just to get through work and other adult responsibilities, getting an hour of sleep will do more for you than going out to run for an hour. In that instance, sleep is your training, and it is REALLY helping you.

All of the workouts in your training plan will help you get stronger and fitter, but it’s really important to think about how it fits into the context of the rest of your life. If you have a day filled with meetings at work that leave you exhausted and you have intervals on the schedule, switch to a walk or easy bike ride instead. If that still sounds exhausting, sit for a few minutes alone. That’s training! That’s helping you toward whatever goals you have.

I write all of this to free you from all the rules and guidelines that are out there, but I also realize that for some people it sounds really depressing and might sound like I’m saying you can’t have any stress to be able to add training or fitness goals into your life. On the contrary, I want to lower the bar so it’s more approachable. Start by lowering stress and there are myriad ways to do that. Then think about what you can add from the toolbox (a little strength, a little aerobic, a little rest/recovery) to add a little more to your life when it works.

Whew! Thanks for sticking with me. Let me knwo what you think of all this! We have another Zoom on the books this Thursday at 10am (I’ll send an email Thursday am with the link, and post it in Slack). It will be a short one on any questions you have so far. If you have big topics in mind, I’ll make some notes before hand and share those too. I’ll send thoughts on stretching soon.

Have a great week!

Alison