Personal Trainers, stop messing up your clients luteal phase!
These 3 luteal phase workout mistakes actually mess up luteal phase hormones and metabolism.
This is one of my personal training clients who started using the nutrition guidelines on herself first because she had painful periods…before she started implementing cyclical nutrition and fitness she was taking 9 motrin per day, now she is taking 0 motrin because she has 0 period pain.
Not only that, she is empowered to help every single one of her clients do the same exact thing because she has a method to do it! So let's get into ways to help your clients have an easier luteal phase, which if you didn’t know is the 11-14 day phase right before the period.
1. Working out too hard
Hard, sweaty workouts invariably use stored carbohydrate (aka glycogen) for fuel.But the truth is that, in the luteal phase, we actually aren’t using glycogen as efficiently as we do in the late follicular and ovulatory phase. Nay, we actually have better fat burning potential in this phase of our cycle.This 2021 article is by Wohlglemuth et. al. had a great chart in there that depicted how our body’s exercise capacity changes based on what our body uses for energy - fat or stored sugar (aka glycogen).
This study also told us that we have an increase in oxidation of free fatty acids, which improves endurance performance. And this study is just one study that shows us that lower intensity long duration exercise is most optimized in this phase of the cycle. Before we dive into point number two, I want to also share this study by Charmichael and colleagues that showed us that aerobic performance is actually best in the early luteal phase.
2. Avoid telling your clients to eat a high carb meal before a low-intensity fat-burning workout Eating food before a workout is great if you’re trying to gain muscle. But, like I mentioned in this video about the science of working out, we only have the hormonal potential to grow muscle tissue during a very specific time in our cycle (the follicular and ovulatory phase). So if your client were to eat a high carb meal before a lower intensity workout in their luteal phase, it would be counter-productive to any cut or fat-loss goals that they have.
3. Not taking advantage of fat-utilizing cardio!So this point dove-tails into my previous point in that there are more beneficial times to use cardio. The same study I mentioned early by Charmichael actually reviewed 40 different studies that showed us that aerobic exercise is best performed in the bleed and early luteal phase. Keep in mind that aerobic exercise looks different depending on your client’s goals. If you have a runner client, this might look like longer lower intensity runs. And for a weight lifter client this might look like higher reps. Always keep your client’s goals and sport specific training in mind when creating a cyclical workout program.
If you want to go from only understanding surface level cyclical knowledge to becoming an expert so that you can not only help your clients become the fittest, but also most aligned with their cycle so that they can be empowered in every area of life, consider enrolling in my Confident Menstrual Cycle Coach Academy. This course is application only and the application process is really simple. All you need to do is book an application call using this link - https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=18481934&appointmentType=28999296 On our call I’ll ask a few application questions and together, you and I will decide if working together is a fit for both of us.