Cycle Syncing® Workouts: Why Your Typical Exercise Routine Isn’t Working

Not Meeting Your Goals? Here's Why

If you’ve been trying different diet and exercise plans to lose weight, or simply to feel healthier and less plagued by period problems, fantastic! Feeling better is a whole-systems approach, and a journey that involves food, movement, and lifestyle changes.

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But if you've been feeling like things aren't quite...working out, there's a reason. That’s because the diet and fitness industry offers well-meaning solutions, but those solutions are not universally applicable. The truth is that most of the research behind most mainstream diet and fitness recommendations is conducted on men — and women have unique biochemical needs that go unaddressed by male-centered research.

At the same time, women are the largest consumers of wellness industry products and protocols! But because women’s bodies work differently, this creates a vicious cycle, causing unnecessary stress, and depleting your time, energy and money. When these protocols are positioned in such a universally applicable way,  struggling to achieve results can feel like your fault. But it's not your fault! And we're here to set the record straight. The time is up on the gender bias in the diet and fitness industry.

As women, we’re biochemically different than men. When we adopt approaches that are designed to work with our unique biological distinctions—and stop biohacking with the boys—we will start to see results. The key to biohacking your unique female biochemistry is to understand your 28-day cycle & to match your food and exercise to your natural hormonal shifts. When you sync with your cycle, you’ll experience easier periods, less PMS, reduced bloating, get clearer skin, and see improvements in weight and body composition. By acknowledging your hormonal reality, you’ll finally be able to look and feel your best.

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The Science of Cycle Syncing®

Your body has different micronutrient needs during each week of the 28-day cycle, because your ovaries and uterus are doing different jobs during each week of the cycle. When you think about it, it makes sense: your body isn’t the same every day so your diet shouldn’t be either! But this isn’t just speculation.

‍Research suggests that our fluctuating hormones affect our nutrient levels—and, in turn, our nutrient levels affect our hormones (the research also shows that micronutrient deficiencies play a role in the severity of PMS symptoms). This means that we have different micronutrient needs at different times in our cycle.

All of today’s most popular diet plans— from keto and grain-free to a raw vegan diet—require eating the same way everyday, which ignores the natural interplay between micronutrients and our rhythmic, fluctuating hormones.

Add to that the fact that many nutrition and weight loss protocols emphasize calorie restriction, and you have an additional problem. Calorie restriction has been linked to thyroid hormone imbalances, which can cause sluggish metabolism, lackluster hair and skin, fatigue, and brain fog. Limiting calories also drives up cortisol production (cortisol is one of the body’s stress hormones) and high cortisol is a known factor in weight gain.

As women, we need to eat specific foods in order to make hormones. Healthy fats are especially important since estrogen and progesterone are made from cholesterol. Without enough cholesterol, we can’t adequately produce enough of these hormones to support healthy periods and fertility. We also need to eat specific foods to help break down and eliminate used-up hormones (so we don’t become estrogen dominant). Eating the right plant foods supports the liver in eliminating excess hormones and helps a specific group of bacteria in the gut microbiome, called the estrobolome, process estrogen overload.

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What you Can Expect When You Cycle Sync Your Diet

The Cycle Syncing® Method provides key foods at critical times to help break down excess levels of estrogen and keep estrogen and progesterone in balance. When this happens, you can expect fewer breakouts, less severe (or nonexistent) PMS, no more hormonal headaches, and less bloating. You can also expect improvements in fertility, sex drive, energy, and mood.

Another benefit of Cycle Syncing® your diet? Because you’re switching the foods you emphasize in your diet with each phase of you're cycle, you’re freed from the pressure from “sticking with a diet”. Not only is this practice more fun and satisfying, but it’s more sustainable in the long run.

‍Your big hormone-diet takeaway: You need to eat specific foods at specific times to maintain robust micronutrient levels and support hormone production and elimination. When you enjoy the right foods at the right times, you’ll experience remarkable results.

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Cycle Syncing® Your Exercise

This cyclical self care method extends into exercise as well.  There is a time and a place for short, intense workouts—but that’s not how you should workout all the time. When you consider your cycle, and when you look at the evidence, you’ll see that you may be able to handle the stress of intense exercise in the first half of your cycle, but doing a full-throttle workout in the second half of your cycle will sabotage your health and weight loss goals.

Here’s a closer look at why working out out hard all the time isn’t ideal: When you get your heart rate pounding, you burn through the glucose in your bloodstream (which is a good thing!). But you’re only burning glucose for about half an hour. After that, your body starts to pump out cortisol, the better to convert your fat cells into blood sugar so you have energy to keep working out.

At this point, you might be thinking, great! More energy to keep working out! But If you struggle with estrogen dominance, that excess estrogen tells your body to convert any leftover sugar back into fat. So instead of burning fat, you get stuck in a vicious cycle of burning stored fat with cortisol, only to have your high estrogen levels send it right back to all the wrong places.

Lots of women wonder if they should exercise during their period. Our answer is to listen to your body and to expand your focus to your entire cycle. Instead of just asking, "Should I workout on my period?" look further into the best times for higher intensity workouts and balance that with the best times for other types of movement.

You can use the MyFLO app to track your cycle and know what type of movement to do when, and you can look here for more on movement and exercise during each phase of your cycle.

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Workouts For Each Phase of Your Cycle‍

Here are the different types of exercise Alisa Vitti recommend for each of the four phases of your menstrual cycle:

Menstrual Phase

The 3 to 7 days during your bleed:

• Workout: Gentle Walking, Light Yoga - Keep your workouts relaxed, even if you’re not feeling discomfort. It’s a time to take things slowly and prioritize rest. Your hormones are at their lowest levels during this phase.
• Timing: An evening stroll is the perfect way to get some simple movement.

Follicular Phase

The 7 to 10 days after your period ends:

• Workout: Running or other cardio
• Timing: Mid-day – Your estrogen will be low and your cortisol levels will be just right for a challenging cardio burst.

Ovulatory Phase

The 3 to 4 days in the middle of your cycle, right after the follicular phase:

• Workout: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) or bodyweight circuit
• Time of Day: Early morning – you’ll have tons of energy during this time of the month, so take advantage of that natural high! Your testosterone is higher during this phase, so whatever you do, feel free to go all out.

Luteal Phase

The 10 to 14 days after ovulation and before your bleed:

• Workout: Pilates, yoga
• Time of Day: Keep it early during the first half of this phase, and then transition into the early evening in the second half. You might still feel full of energy during the first days of your luteal phase, so feel free to keep doing more intense workouts early in the day. But if you start to experience PMS symptoms in the days before your period, it’s time to tone it down and switch to Pilates or strength training in the early evening. Restorative (yin) yoga before bed can also be hugely helpful in combating issues like moodiness and bloat.

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What you Can Expect When You Practice The Cycle Syncing Method® With Your Exercise

You’ll deepen your intuitive sense of what type of movement your body wants and needs every day (and at every phase of your cycle). You can expect to lose weight and gain muscle more easily and sustainably, as well as prevent injury by varying your movement consistently.

‍Your big hormone-exercise takeaway: How you work out during the first half of your cycle shouldn’t be the same as how you work out during the second half of your cycle. When you sync your exercise with your cycle, you’ll experience remarkable results!