Exercise for the PCOS gal is so controversial. Do you do HIT, Yoga, cardio, what is the best? And there are a lot of opinions about this as well. So I invited a PCOS personal trainer on the podcast to talk to us about the right approach to exercise with PCOS. For the full episode, click above. These are the key questions we discussed in the interview.
Why are you so passionate about working with women who have PCOS?
I got started with PCOS when I developed symptoms at age 15. I felt really isolated. I ended up finding fitness as a way to lose weight. But I didn't know I had PCOS. I was just beating myself up all the time to lose weight. I kept restricting more and more on what I would eat. And I got to the point where life was so miserable. I just wanted to stop working out, so I quit the gym, I stopped watching what I ate.
And that's kind of where I discovered that I had to redefine my relationship with food, and exercise. And because I knew I couldn't leave it out of my life, I had to go back eventually, especially with this condition, I had to go back and address all that. I couldn't just ignore it. So I took two years where I just was gentle with my exercise, ate what I wanted, and got myself back into a more healthy outlook on fitness. And that's when I developed the mission or the philosophy of my current business. Making sure you're careful what you think about when you're working out and making sure you're careful about why you work out and not working out just to lose weight, because losing weight is a byproduct of working out.
I still struggle every day with my relationship with food and exercise. But I am more in tune with those emotions and how to deal with them.
Is there a right exercise for women with PCOS?
There are so many different exercises that are good for you. I tell women to do what they like to do. If they hear of some sort of workout that makes them cringe, that isn't for them. Then don't do it. If you hear that swimming is really great for your PCOS, which it is, then go do it. If that really gets you excited, go do it. And then the day it's not exciting anymore, go pick something else. Like there's no set exercise where all women with PCOS will respond to. The body doesn't know this is the best for me, the body just knows that it's moving. And it's getting its heart rate up. And it's challenging its muscles, but it doesn't know what type it's doing. Only your brain knows that. So pick something you enjoy doing. That's what I usually say.
What does mindset have to do with exercise?
Well, one of the things I have them do is make sure that they do mindset check-ins before each of their workouts. I like to have them sit down before they work out. We just take three minutes to go over what their goals are for that workout. I have them pick something that they love about themselves. After all, we really want to approach this with love for ourselves and not hatred, because a lot of us work out because we hate ourselves. I want to change this. We're not trying to change ourselves here.
What steps do you do with your clients who have PCOS?
Step 1:
Pick something you love about yourself. Write down those affirmations and tell them to youself.
Step 2:
How are you feeling right now? We're all about immediate results and fitness. We want to work out and we go to the mirror and say do I have the ABS now? Do I have the biceps I want? Or did I lose the weight? IT doesn't happen in one workout. So what I've kind of done to satisfy that part of the mind is have you check in with how you're feeling before the workout. Usually, it's a little negative. I'm depressed, I'm tired, I'm anxious. Take note of the feelings you have prior to working out.
Step 3:
And then we check-in at the end of the workout with how we're feeling. Did we meet the goal that we set? These goals can have nothing to do with your aesthetics with changing your body or losing weight or anything like that. It needs to be about something you do. Like, I want to be able to play with my kids or I want to be able to climb the stairs better, or I just want to have a better grip on my mental health.
Ask yourself these questions:
Where do you want to be in a month from now? Or in two months, six months, a year, whatever is right for you.
What is our goal today?
What direction do we want to move in?
What are your thoughts on weight training?
I love weight training, any type. I'm actually trying suspension training with TRX straps. But that still counts as resistance training. The body really doesn't know the difference between weights and resistance training, as long as you're having some sort of way to break the muscles down. It doesn't have to be done with weights.
I think it's extremely healthy for PCOS because it can make your cells more sensitive to insulin. And it can increase your metabolism. And on top of that, you can also get very good cardiovascular work done with weights. You can do it all at once. Get your cardio in and your weight training. If you do it right. You can do it all at once, which is amazing.
To learn more about Coach Emma, visit her a @mind.body.pcoshttps://www.instagram.com/mind.motion.pcos/
