No.
If you’re happy with where you are, and things are chugging along nicely to keep you there, you do not need to plan a whole lot.
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with chugging along and staying where you are.
That’s probably where we should spend most of our time.
But when you want to move forward (or laterally) to make a change, you need to plan.
-J
As you might know, Monday is when my clients and I look back on the last week and plan for this week.
There is a strong correlation between the plan and the success of the week ahead.
Yes, shit happens. But in general, the more thorough (but not rigid) the plan, the higher the odds for a successful week.
Here’s a plan from one of the clients to show you the detail it takes to move forward with your goals.
Now, how does your plan for the week look like? Hit reply and let me know.
-J
There are no simple answers. There’s no ONE thing standing between you and the results you dream of.
There’s no secret to getting where you want to be.
You will not transform your fitness, health, and life in 6 or 12 weeks.
The results you dream of are a culmination of a bunch of things coming together.
All the information you could ever need is freely available.
And those initial weeks start the process of transformation.
Promises of a solution based on ONE thing, some secret finally uncovered, or sustainable transformation in 6 to 12 weeks?
All lies.
-J
You already know about the physical benefits of strength training.
But strength training also improves mental resilience, sharpens cognitive abilities, and helps with emotions.
And by doing so, strength training is the glue that binds together the things that are an essential part of a fulfilling life.
And it’s freely available. All you have to do is to start.
-J
Most people approach daily workouts as punishment.
To burn off calories you accumulated after participating in all the joy life offers. Or to train begrudgingly so you can get your body ready to do something you actually enjoy. Like a long hike.
What if you flip your workout attitude on its head? Think of it as the reward. Something you get to do each day.
Sure, thinking of workouts as a reward for you might sound as likely as opening a jar of dill pickles with a purple crayon.
But stick with that mindset for a month and see what changes.
It’s easier to stick with the things we look forward to.
-J
If HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is the cool auntie, SIT (sprint interval training) is the uncle with the social skills of corned beef. The one that no one really wants to hang out with.
But people put up with him because he owns a big boat.
Whereas HIIT revolves around sub-max work and incomplete recovery, SIT is about ultra-high effort with complete recovery.
How to SIT
As an example, you go anywhere between 10-30 seconds of all-out effort and rest until the heart rate returns to normal. Depending on your conditioning, the work-to-rest ratio is anywhere between 1:2-5.
As with HIIT, the total workout should stay under 20 minutes.
Benefits of SIT
– Improved insulin sensitivity
– Increase in lean muscle
– Increase in fat-burning
All of those dive when estrogen and progesterone start flatlining in the perimenopause. SIT is a way to give the body an external stimulus that kickstarts a similar reaction as those hormones used to provide.
Ok Joonas, I get it. Show me an actual workout
Workout 1:
10-15x Kettlebell Swings
Rest until fully recovered
Go again for up to 20 minutes
Workout 2:
30s Hill sprint
Rest until fully recover
Work up to 10 sets
The modality doesn’t matter. Pick whatever you’re comfortable with so you can safely go as hard as you possibly can.
In HIIT, the intensity tends to drop as you get further in the workout. With SIT, the goal is to have the last set as hard as the first set. Hence the long recovery in between sets.
If you haven’t done anything like this for a long time (or ever), start easier. Gradually push your heart rate to those high numbers. The goal is to reach your theoretic max heart rate (220-Your age).
I told you SIT is like the obnoxious uncle you don’t care for. But he’s got a boat, so…
-J
Why HIIT
– Better blood sugar control, metabolic benefits to help with body comp. Especially belly fat
– Anti-inflammatory effect (inflammation being naturally higher from peri-menopause onward)
– Improving aerobic capacity, aka heaps good for your heart
– Improved cognition and working memory
How to HIIT
– Around 80% of your max effort (you could calculate 80% from your max heart rate: 220-Your age * 0.8)
– Around 1-4 mins per effort.
– Rest as needed. Some sessions are go-go-go. Some are less so. A good rule of thumb is to rest until you can talk in short sentences
Ok Joonas, whatever, I believe you, how does that look like in a workout?
A super simple version:
10x Kettlebell Swing
5x Push Ups
10x Goblet Squats
Do all the exercises back to back. Rest until you can talk in short sentences, and go again. Build up to 15-20 minutes.
You can swap those exercises for whatever you like. Favouring lower body exercises to help get the heart rate up.
How often?
In the perfect world, you’d work up to doing two of those a week. Or at least three in every two weeks.
But in the real world? One a week on top of SIT (more on that tomorrow) and strength training would be ace.
-J
I had two separate conversations yesterday with women asking my thoughts on creatine.
Creatine is widely researched, has significant physical and physiological upsides, and next to zero downsides.
And people much smarter than me back this up:
“Research shows creatine supplementation is most effective for those high-intensity, short-duration, or repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise with short rest periods like hill repeats, resistance training, and plyometric work.”
“Creatine supplementation may be of particular importance during menses, pregnancy, post-partum, during and post-menopause.”
“Creatine might have positive effects on mood and cognition and maybe even more effective for females by supporting brain health, and is especially useful for menopausal women who are more susceptible to increased inflammation.
“The review also included depression research, indicating that women with a major depressive disorder who augmented their daily antidepressant with 5g of creatine responded twice as fast and experienced remission of depression at twice the rate of women who just took the antidepressant.”
“[creatine] can also be helpful for mood swings during the menstrual cycle.”
Source: Dr Stacy Sims Why Active Women Need Creatine
How much creatine do you need?
Take 1-2 grams a day. You can mix it in your breakfast or whatever. Or if you’re really hardcore you can just eat it dry with a water chaser.
A basic creatine monohydrate is your best option. $17 gets you about 250 days worth.
-J
If you’re not yet in your menopause years
Prioritise building lean muscle. Because it’ll be way harder later.
Building lean muscle is difficult for most women as it is. Partly because of the low levels of testosterone and partially because most women (that I know) don’t eat enough to build muscle.
So, dialling in your workouts and nutrition to support lean muscle is crucial in the pre-menopausal years.
As for the actual workouts, here are some guidelines.
Resistance training with lighter weights is not appropriate for women in perimenopause and beyond.
The training to build lean muscle in the younger years doesn’t trigger enough muscle fibre contraction to produce the stimulus you want to get to simulate the effects of flatlining estrogen and progesterone.
This means that not only are you not building muscle, but you’re also leaving all the other strength training benefits on the table:
– Increase strength and power
– Increase metabolic rate and decrease visceral fat
– Build joint strength and stability
– Increase bone mineral density
– Enhances the immune system
– Reduces hot flashes
To trigger that stimulus, you have to go heavy. We’re talking <6 reps per set. You might be able to get away with sets of 8.
The lighter resistance training can still have other benefits, such as when doing high-intensity interval training (HIIT). But HIIT alone won’t replicate the benefits of heavy strength training.
-J
The hormonal changes from perimenopause onward affect how your body responds to strength and cardio training. Much of this is due to the decrease in estrogen and progesterone.
As the body has less of these two hormones, it affects muscle contraction and your ability to build lean muscle. Both of those go down. The lower levels also reduce the body’s ability to handle inflammation, insulin sensitivity, and fat-burning capabilities.
Frustratingly, as these two hormones flatline, it has zero effect on how your body stores fat. That’s the same as it’s always been.
To counteract these changes, you need to provide the body with an external stimulus that mimics the role of estrogen.
The best way to get that done is to build your training program around heavy strength training, plyometrics, and high-intensity interval training.
-J