Markus Andrews

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    How To Boost Your Fitness By Tailoring Your Exercise Routine To Your Menstrual Cycle

    Before the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) revealed that they planned their 2019 World Cup training (they won, btw!) around players’ periods, the topic of how fluctuating hormones could potentially impact workouts wasn’t talked about much, er, at all.
    But when you think about it, the idea makes so much sense that it’s shocking it’s not commonplace. “The way you move and breathe, how your heart beats, and your body’s reaction to exercise varies throughout your menstrual cycle,” says Dr. Georgie Bruinvels,  co-​creator of FitrWoman, the app the USWNT used.

    Any woman can maximise her workouts by learning to go with her flow.

    Turns out, tailoring your routine to your cycle, a technique known as phase-based training, empowers you to take advantage of your physiology to look and feel your best and to perform at your fullest potential, according to Women’s Health advisory board member Dr. Stacy T. Sims, who’s been researching female athletes for 20 years.
    And it’s not just for fitness pros either. Any woman can maximize her workouts by learning to go with her flow. No matter your goals, the right training during specific times of the month will optimise outcomes, says Sims.
    The first step? Get to know — like, really know — your cycle. A period-tracking app (there are many; you’ll see) can help you understand each part of it—and how it impacts the body.
    From there, use this guide to tweak your get-sweaty routine. You’ll be amazed by how good you feel once things are truly, totally simpatico.
    Menstruation: Days 1–5
    Right about now (the start of your period), low levels of estrogen and progesterone (plus extra inflammation) may have you feeling pretty unmotivated to get moving, says Bruinvels (womp womp). But it’s actually prime time to build strength and muscle, thanks to relatively high testosterone, Sims notes.
    Do whatever workouts feel good.
    If you’re craving easy, restorative movement, focus on low-intensity workouts like yoga, Pilates, and stretching during your period, says Bruinvels.
    But…if you feel energised, hit the weights and lift heavy, says Sims. In fact, go for loads you can manage for only six reps, tops. (Try five sets of five reps at 80 percent of your one-rep max — i.e., the most weight you can lift for one rep.)
    Follicular Phase: Days 6–14
    Between the end of your period and about three days before ovulation, estrogen levels spike, which means you’ll have more energy to work out and recover faster. Woo! “Estrogen is associated with feeling happy, engaged, and strong,” says Bruinvels.
    Now’s the time to up your training intensity.
    If you feel next-level amazing, make the most of it by continuing to lean in to strength training, plus sprints and intense workouts. Now’s the time to bust out that jump rope or join a boot camp class and really push!
    READ MORE: “I Worked Out In Reusable Period Panties — Here’s What Happened”
    Ovulation: Days 15–23
    Things get a little wonky in this part of your cycle. Around ovulation, estrogen briefly drops while progesterone increases. FYI: Higher levels of progesterone can contribute to muscle breakdown, making proper recovery even more important than usual, says Bruinvels.
    Stick to steady-state cardio and strength training.
    Help your body bounce back by switching to moderate-intensity exercise, Sims says. Swap sprints for easy runs and stick to weights you can lift for eight to 10 reps. If you feel super sore, give yourself an extra day between workouts, Bruinvels adds.
    Luteal Phase: Days 24–28
    At this point, both estrogen and progesterone levels fall. As a result, PMS symptoms — like irritability and anxiety — start to creep up, while fluctuating blood-sugar levels and inflammation sap precious motivation.
    READ MORE: This Is Exactly How Your Period Affects Your Workout
    Start winding down your fitness routine.
    Since your body isn’t in peak performance condition right now (and you probs don’t have World Cup glory on the line to fire you up), use exercise to reduce stress. Opt for Pilates, yoga, or slow runs.
    When strength training, focus on form. Nailing it now will prepare you to load more weight when a new cycle starts, says Sims.
    The Best Cycle-Tracking Apps
    To create the best routine for your body, you gotta become BFFs with your cycle. These apps can help you log (and decode!) each phase.

    Complete with a cycle analysis tool and the ability to predict oncoming symptoms (like cramps), Clue offers an easy-to-digest but science-based view into your period.
    Clue

    One of the most popular period trackers in the game, this app helps you understand and predict your menstrual cycle, PMS symptoms, and even potential fertility.
    Flow

    This unique app pairs detailed cycle logging with expert-backed training, recovery, and nutrition advice for ultimate peak performance all month long.
    FitrWoman

    This first-of-its-kind app uses artificial intelligence to generate a personalised plan (exercise and eats included!) based on the sweat goals and cycle info you track.
    WILD.AI

    This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com 

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    What Is The IT Band And How Can You Tell If Yours Is Injured?

    While feeling sore after a challenging (or new) workout is totally normal, it’s important to note that not all types of aches and pains are just byproducts of your bod’s natural healing process. One common place this comes into play is with an IT band injury. What is the IT band, exactly? Here’s everything you need to know.
    The IT band (a.k.a. iliotibial tract band) is a thick piece of fascia, or connective tissue, that runs from the side of the hip down to the side of the knee, says Bianca Spicer, exercise physiologist and owner of Spicer Fitness and Wellness in Atlanta, Georgia. You can think of it kind of like a rubber band, as it functions inside your body in a similar way.
    Whenever your leg moves forwards or backwards from under your hips, like during a stride, elastic energy is stored and then released when the movement is reversed. The IT band ultimately helps your system save energy, especially during a run, according to research from scientists at Harvard University.
    Given their starring role in keeping you moving, maintaining healthy IT bands is super important. So is knowing when you’re just achy from a hardcore sprint workout and need to do some extra recovery — or when you’re actually hurt.
    Signs And Symptoms Of An IT Band Injury
    Because your IT band is such a workhorse, it’s got a higher rate of injury than tissue or muscles you don’t utilize so frequently. That technical term for this is IT band syndrome, and it’s the second most common running injury, according to research from the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America. Symptoms of IT band syndrome include:
    Pain on the outside of your knee
    Swelling
    Pain when bending your knee
    Common Causes Of IT Band Syndrome
    Your glute muscles, hips, and hamstrings all run along your IT bands and work in tandem with it to help stabilise your knee. Because of this, after intense lower-body workouts, runs, jump training (a.k.a. plyometrics), or even a lot of brisk walking, the IT band may become inflamed.
    In general, there are three usual suspects that cause IT band injuries:
    overtraining
    overstretching
    sitting too much
    What To Do If You Think You Have An IT Band Injury
    If you’re not sure whether your pain is IT band syndrome, Spicer recommends getting a formal diagnosis from a physical therapist. For mild pain, changes like better form, more rest, and rehab exercises (e.g. strengthening your hips, butt muscles, and outside of your thighs) should help.
    One treatment Spicer doesn’t recommend? Foam rolling along your IT band. “You want to make sure you’re foam rolling the muscle,” she says. “The biggest mistake we see with adjusting the IT band is people mistaking the IT band for [muscle].” Since it’s tissue, it doesn’t benefit from this type of tension release. So stick to hitting your quads, hammies, glutes, and inner thighs instead.
    This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com

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    Your Guide To Intuitive Eating: The 10 Principles You Need To Know About

    Whether you want to lose weight or eat better, there are a lot of diets out there vying for your attention. Keto? Whole30? Plant-based?
    If all of the options have your head spinning (same), I’ve got just the thing for you. This diet actually isn’t a ~diet~ at all — but it can still help you with your eating goals. It’s called intuitive eating, and it’s a movement that’s gaining major followers.
    On a basic level, intuitive eating is all about getting in touch with body cues (like hunger and fullness) and learning to trust your body when it comes to food, explains nutritionist Keri Gans. There are no restrictions or forbidden foods; just an effort for you to eat well, feel healthier, and enjoy food more.
    “For many people, the traditional diet approach leads to nothing more than years and years of weight loss and weight gain and a negative relationship with food and their body image,” Gans says. Intuitive eating is here to put that crap to bed.
    Clearly, there’s something to it. Instagram is filled with comments from people who rave about how intuitive eating has helped them stop obsessing over their weight, quit binge-eating, and end feelings of guilt around food.
    Of course, there’s a little more to making this whole intuitive eating thing work. Here’s what you need to know about the eating approach — and how to make it work for you.
    What Is Intuitive Eating And Will It Help With Weight Loss?
    As the name suggests, intuitive eating is all about following your own innate intuition.
    “The biggest difference between intuitive eating and diets — or ‘lifestyle changes’ —i s the focus on internal signals and cues rather than external rules,” says nutritionist and certified intuitive eating counsellor Alissa Rumsey, owner of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness. “Intuitive eating uses feelings of hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and body knowledge to dictate eating choices in the moment. Traditional diets, meanwhile, use external factors like nutrient counts, calories, or food groups to plan food ahead of time without room for flexibility.”
    While you can lose weight by following an intuitive eating approach, it’s not necessarily the goal. Instead, the goal with intuitive eating is to foster a healthier, happier approach to food.
    Yes, it sounds suuuuper simple — but it definitely takes work to achieve. “We’re all born knowing how to listen to our body’s hunger and satiety signals but, as we go through life, our natural intuition is blunted on so many levels,” says nutritionist Karen Ansel. “As children, adults are constantly feeding us snacks, whether we’re hungry or not; we’re told to finish our meals even though our bodies may be perfectly well-nourished; we’re rewarded with food for good behaviour. At the same time, we’re told that hunger is an emergency, even though it’s a completely natural sensation, just like being tired.”
    Though intuitive eating offers the alluring promise of no food being off-limits, the process of reestablishing (and following) your natural cues is a tricky one.
    “It’s long and time-consuming, and sometimes you have to fail before you can succeed,” Ansel says. “The upside is that once you learn to eat intuitively, weight control often becomes infinitely easier, as your body naturally possesses all the tools to guide you.” At this point, you can easily eat only when truly hungry and stop when satisfied. No stress.
    How Intuitive Eating Got Started
    The intuitive eating movement has been around in some form since the 1970s, but the term “intuitive eating” was coined in 1995 by nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, authors of Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.
    In their book, Tribole and Resch encourage people to reject diet culture, find satisfaction in eating, and listen to their body cues around food. They also ID three different eating personalities that help define the eating difficulties you might have:
    The careful eater: This person spends a lot of time thinking about what they eat — reading labels, asking restaurant servers about details, and meticulously planning out each meal.
    The professional dieter: This person, meanwhile, is always on some kind of diet. They carefully count calories and monitor portions, all with the goal of weight loss.
    The unconscious eater: Unconscious eaters can be broken down further into different camps but, as a whole, they are not as meticulous about what they eat as careful eaters and professional dieters. Unconscious eaters tend to eat what’s available, whether it’s inexpensive, whatever is lying around, or stuff they just don’t want to go to waste.
    The ultimate goal, according to Tribole and Resch, is to become an intuitive eater, someone who listens to their internal hunger cues. When they’re hungry, intuitive eaters pick something to eat without debating about it or feeling guilty.
    The 10 Principles Of Intuitive Eating
    So, how does one become an intuitive eater, exactly? To help you get there, Tribole and Resch came up with the 10 principles of intuitive eating, which all focus on creating a healthier relationship with food.
    “The principles of intuitive eating are guideposts that help you unlearn the dieting behaviours and diet mentality you’ve been taught and instead learn to tune back into your own body,” Rumsey explains. “While it’s not always a linear experience, rejecting the diet mentality and learning to honour your body’s hunger cues are some of the foundational experiences.”
    Live by these principles, she says, and you’ll not only find a happier relationship with food, but more positive self-care and coping behaviours, body respect, and more intuitive, joyful movement, too.
    The 10 principles of intuitive eating, according to Tribole and Resch, are:
    1. Reject The Diet Mentality
    This means ditching diet books and avoiding articles that tell you how to lose weight quickly.
    2. Honour Your Hunger
    Learning to listen to your hunger cues is crucial, Tribole and Resch argue. Focusing on keeping your body nourished with the right foods can help prevent overeating.
    3. Make Peace With Food
    This means giving yourself permission to eat what you want, when you want it.
    4. Challenge The Food Police
    Tribole and Resch urge people to remove “good” and “bad” thinking from eating. Have a bowl of ice cream? Don’t feel guilty about it; it’s just food, and it’s part of your overall healthy diet.
    5. Discover The Satisfaction Factor
    Eating should be a pleasurable experience and, if you enjoy what you’re eating, should help you feel satisfied and content. Identifying this satisfaction can help you learn when you’ve had enough of a food you enjoy.
    6. Feel Your Fullness
    Trust your body to lead you to the right foods and listen for the signals that you’re not hungry anymore. Tribole and Resch also recommend pausing in the middle of eating to ask yourself how the food tastes, and how hungry you are at that moment.
    7. Cope With Your Emotions With Kindness
    Learn to recognize that food restriction can trigger loss of control and emotional eating. Learn to ID your emotions and find ways to deal with them that don’t involve food.
    8. Respect Your Body
    Embrace your body, so you can feel better about who you are.
    9. Movement — Feel The Difference
    Be active for the sake of moving your body, instead of tracking how many calories you burn during exercise. Focusing on the energy you get from working out can help keep you motivated.
    10. Honour Your Health With Gentle Nutrition
    Make food choices that are good for your health — and taste great — while making you feel good. Know that you don’t have to eat perfectly to be healthy. That one snack, meal, or day of less-healthy eating won’t torpedo your goals.
    How To Get Started With Intuitive Eating
    If you want to rethink your relationship with food, Ansel recommends picking up the Intuitive Eating book to get the full view of what it’s all about.
    It’s also a good idea to really immerse yourself in the concept. “You have likely been absorbing years and years of diet culture messages, so surrounding yourself with alternative messaging will be helpful,” says Rumsey, who recommends checking out different podcasts, books, and blogs created by registered dietitians and therapists certified in intuitive eating. “These will help you weed through a lot of your long-held beliefs about food and your body to start developing a new relationship,” she says.
    Some of her recommendations:
    Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
    The F*ck It Diet by Caroline Dooner
    This Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
    Food Psych podcast
    RD Real Talk podcast
    Nourishing Women podcast
    Love, Food podcast
    Another question to consider: What do you really want to eat right now? “Allow yourself to have whatever the answer is,” Rumsey says. “By allowing yourself to eat whatever you want, you stop the diet cycle in its tracks.”
    It can take time, but your mind and body will eventually learn that you have access to all foods and, with time, cravings and overeating should decrease. “If you’re unsatisfied, you’ll probably keep looking for that one thing that is going to make you feel satisfied and content, and you’re more likely to overeat,” Rumsey explains. “When you eat what you really want, the feelings of satisfaction and pleasure you feel will help you be content.”
    You’ll also want to start tuning in to your hunger signals, Rumsey says. Start noting when you tend to feel hungry during the day — and what you tend to do in those moments. “Honouring your hunger — eating each time you are hungry — is an important step in building back body trust,” she explains.
    If you’re looking for extra support, a registered dietitian can help guide you through the first few months of intuitive eating. “Each person is different and an intuitive eating registered dietitian can help you work through your unique challenges and questions,” says Rumsey.
    The bottom line: Intuitive eating is a great way to feel healthier in your body and create a happier, easier relationship with food. Experts say that it’s never too late to work on intuitive eating — and that it really does work for most people.
    This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com

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    This Multi-Sport Smartwatch Is Made For Anyone Who Lives For Outdoor Adventures

    Looking for a fitness device that can keep up with your unmatched passion? Want a training partner that lets you do more without backing down? Well, here it is…
    The Garmin fēnix 6/6S Pro
    Garmin has recently expanded on its solar charging technology. Building on the success of their first solar charging multisport watch, the fēnix 6X Pro Solar and the new fēnix Pro Solar range allows fitness enthusiasts to do what they love for longer.
    The fēnix 6S Pro Solar and fēnix 6 Pro Solar are the newest members of the Garmin flagship multisport GPS smartwatch line. It comes armed with significantly increased battery life and new purpose-built functionality that include mountain biking, surfing and climbing activities.

    Featuring Garmin Power Glass™ solar charging lens and a customisable Power Manager mode, fēnix 6 Series — Solar Editions harness the power of the sun to stay on and remain performance-ready for weeks, so you have more on-wrist time* to enjoy your different running modes, fitness activities, training features, music streaming and much more. The Solar editions also include Advanced Sleep Monitoring, which provides a detailed breakdown of light, deep and REM sleep stages as well as Pulse Ox and respiration data. This can be viewed on a dedicated widget that includes your stress score and sleep insights. The latest also comes set with convenience features such as Garmin Pay™ and on-device music storage of up to 2,000 songs, allowing you to sync playlists from several of the most popular music services, no phone required. Need running pace guidance that knows the terrain? Check out the PacePro™ feature.
    Gamin is committed to developing products that enhance experiences and enrich lives, Garmin believes every day is an opportunity to innovate and a chance to beat yesterday. For more information, or to check out more watch-specific features, visit www.garmin.com/en-ZA/

    *The Solar devices use Garmin’s Power Glass watch lens to convert sunlight into battery power, extending time between charges. The solar charging is not designed to be used as the primary charging source nor is it to be used to achieve indefinite power. The solar feature will slowly charge a flat watch, but this is not the intended feature.

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    Avocado Is One Of The Most Versatile Fruits You Can Cook With

    Is mealtime your favourite time of day? Are you always up for a treat, no matter what day of the week it is? We get you! But, we also get that nutritional value and a healthy body is super important too. That’s why we totally recommend avo-liciousness — you literally can have your cake (avo) and eat it too…
    It’s comfort food but it’s good for you!
    Avocados are both a rockstar in texture and in taste, and it totally enhances Mexican dishes, toasted sarmies, desserts, and so much more. But, incredible creaminess aside, avocados are also loaded with healthy fats that have protective properties against heart disease and cancer. Avocados are also a source of potassium, are high in copper, and are a source of fibre and antioxidant nutrients such as lycopene and beta-carotene. Together these powerful food components can help maintain and regulate immune function.
    Super versatile
    Perfect your meals at home, and even your take-aways, by topping them off with thick slices of yummy avo.
    Yes, salads, pasta, burgers and pizza should never be served without crescents of fresh, creamy avocado. It’s hard to think of another fruit as versatile as an avocado when it comes to snacking and mealtimes morning, noon and night. Mashed, diced, sliced or puréed, avos are always a delight, with a generous ability to make all other ingredients taste that much better!
    Plus, avo season is currently in full swing with dark-skinned (Hass-type) and green-skinned avocados on supermarket shelves everywhere. You can totally allow your inner chef unrestricted kitchen privileges! Wink-wink. And if you’ve been feeling slightly demotivated by the state of current affairs in South Africa lately, know that there still many up sides to being a local… Having access to avocados available almost all year round, is one of them. SA farmers grow both green-skinned and dark-skinned avos, which means we get an almost year-long supply of these two equally delectable (slightly addictive!) fruits.
    Ripe and ready
    Buttery, creamy green-skinned avo varieties include Fuerte, Edranol, Ryan, Reed and Pinkerton, and are available from March until October. Hass, Maluma Hass and Lamb Hass are all rich, nutty dark-skinned avos that are available from March until November. While a green-skinned avocado remains green when ripe, the dark-skinned Hass-type avos turn purple-black when ready to eat. And while they may vary in colour, shape and size, they are all extremely beneficial and versatile.
    When it comes to getting creative in the kitchen, dark-skinned and green-skinned avos shine equally brightly, as there’s no end to their uses in snacks, light meals, starters, main meals, desserts, bakes and even sweet treats.
    So go on, satisfy your hunger and add some delicious, versatile and nutritious South African avos to your meal today. Check out this cool avo-inspired recipe idea…
    Avocado, naartjie & caramelised pecan nut salad, with poppy seed dressing

    Preparation Time: 20 minutes
    Serves 6
    Salad ingredients:
    6 ripe avocados, peeled & sliced
    1 red onion, sliced
    2 naartjies, broken into segments or sliced
    1 orange, cut into segments
    100g caramelised pecan nuts
    Micro
    herbs to garnish
    Dressing ingredients:
    ¼ cup honey
    ¼ cup cider vinegar
    ¼ cup poppy seeds
     Method:
    Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a screw top bottle and shake to combine.
    In a small bowl marinate the red onion slices for 5-10 minutes in the dressing.
    Arrange the avocado on a platter, with the naartjies, orange segments and pecan nuts. Pour the dressing and marinated onions over the salad.
    Serve immediately.
    For avolicious recipes visit www.avocado.co.za or follow @iloveavocadoSA on Facebook and @iloveavosSA on Instagram.

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    Lace Up: Your 7-Day Free Virtual Workout Plan Is Here

    Does anyone else feel like the universe is out to sabotage their gains? Or is it just us? First, there was Lockdown Level Stay Indoors And Eat Your Feelings. By the time we could go run – yay! – 6am had become the dead of night and our window of freedom was all of five […] More

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    The Best Trail Running Shoes For Women In 2020, According To Athletes And Experts

    Same ol’ concrete running route feeling a little, well, old? Good news: Trail running is having a much-deserved (and much-needed) moment — and we’re oh-so-here for it. Those smart folks are onto something: Exercising in nature actually quiets the part of the brain associated with overthinking, says research published by . (Can we say “yes, please”?!) […] More

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    in diet and nutrition

    How To Go Vegan: 15 Easy Nutritionist-Backed Tips

    Going vegan is kind of like building your own furniture. It seems like a great idea in theory (nutrients! lower cholesterol! helping the environment!). But when it comes down to putting the pieces together… umm, it’s not exactly easy. “A vegan diet can be hard to start, mostly because you don’t know what to eat,” says plant-based […] More