Ep 174 – The Period Episode

Dani:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins, Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Dani I’m Giacomo and this is episode 174. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode. We have a kind of big one here today. I think it’s one that people ask us about a lot and it is gonna be the menstrual cycle and how to sort of change your

training, your diet. Like what happens that that’s, that’s what we’re gonna be talking about today. But before we get into that, like anything interesting going on right now.

Giacomo:

Well, you see the shirt that I’m rocking. This is from 2015. You see this Rhino over here? That was the, and you have a play blue shirt on too. Which year is that? Did it say it? We were still writing years on it? 2017. I think. There we go. So each year we design we get a drawing going and we do, we do something new for plant built. And David Flowers is designing this one this year he did. What was that? What was that book that he did with, with the animals.

Dani:

I don’t remember what it was called but it was basically, it was a, it was a comic style art book, sort of, that was like a bunch of vegan activists but drawn as like superheroes. It was really quite cool. Yeah.

Giacomo:

And unlike previous years, you’re gonna be able to grab that limited edition print right away. We’re gonna put it right up on the vegan song set, which by the way, I think it’s crazy. Even those of you who listen and watch us and everything don’t even realize that we now have vegan strong merch on the site for purchase. So we’ve gotten that question so many times in the past. If you want a vegan strong shirt, go to the historically.

Dani:

We’ve only done fundraisers. So like Kickstarter style fundraisers to help raise money for plant built because it’s a very expensive event and it’s a nonprofit event and people miss the fundraiser, but then they see the super cool merch go out and they’re like, oh, I wanna get one of those and we’re like, dude, you missed the fundraiser like they, we don’t have them anymore.

So we’re trying something a little bit different this year. We’re not going to do a formal fundraiser the way we have in the past, but we have put all of the clothing and all of the clothing that vegan strong makes up on Vegan strong.com and it’s still the same. It’s still a fundraiser, all of the proceeds from it

go to help support. not just this event but also other events where we go out and just do like education.

So, because it’s not, it’s not cheap to get there. So it really helps us and you get some really awesome vegan merch out of it. And I don’t feel like there’s a lot of great vegan fitness apparel out there. There used to be a ton and it was saturated. Now, I feel like there’s way less.

Giacomo:

I don’t get it. I don’t know.

Dani:, Giacomo:

Where’s all the cool vegan merch going check it out.

Dani:

Yeah. So, all right. What? Well, I already said what we’re talking about today. I feel like is this like a weird one for you to talk about? because you’ve never had a period.

Giacomo:

Obviously I don’t, I’m not gonna have the same context here and I can, there’s gonna be some stuff it’s gonna be harder for me to speak on. I, I can’t relate to others, of course. But no, I mean, I’ve been training female clients for like forever now. Most of our clients that come to us historically have been women. So we, this is not taboo for me to speak on and it is something I’m somewhat familiar with.

Dani:

I don’t think it’s taboo. I think you’re mature enough that it would not be a taboo topic. But I mean, I imagine it’s, it’s just like I don’t know. I guess I can only imagine it would be sort of a difficult thing to speak about as somebody that’s never actually personally experienced it. I don’t know. So I was just thinking about that yesterday while I was, like, putting down my notes and things that I wanted to talk about. Like, huh, how’s Jack? And we gonna talk about this sort of thing

because, and I think this is a really good segue, I guess. And not, this will not be surprising to almost any women watching this. But there’s not a ton of research on this shocking. I know and the menstrual cycle is actually one of the reasons why there’s not a lot of research on female athletes period, like a lot of the research that we look at about like strength training and even dieting, performance, weightlifting, like most of that data.

Dani:, Giacomo:

And, and this is also true for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with strength training, just data, just studies in general are most of the time done on men only because to control it better as opposed to worrying what the variability of a menstrual cycle and thinking that’s going to affect the scientific method perhaps instead of taking maybe that extra step to control menstrual cycles, they just skip it all together and cut women out of the picture.

Giacomo:

Which is really weird when you think about it because that should have every you can still use a scientific method for a variability.

Dani:

See, the fact that you think it’s weird just tells me that you’re a guy because, I don’t know, as a woman, I’m just so used to all of the research about everything. Not ever including women at all.

Giacomo:

so, no, I’m frustrated just like you. I think it’s ridiculous.

Dani:

Honestly.

Giacomo:

I know you’re frustrated. It’s just, it’s just stupid. It’s crazy. Like that’s, that, that the fact that that is even a fact is just frustrating. That’s all.

Dani:

So in, in looking for research about this, there is some, there is some, I don’t think it’s great research. Like a lot of the sample sizes were small and it’s like you said, it’s not an easy thing to control for, but there’s some insight in the research. But first I wanna hear like your experience of training women with menstrual cycles. Like what have you noticed as a dude as a dude.

Giacomo:

What I have noticed is that during that period of time cravings definitely go up and it can be harder to stick to a plan, a program, a goal during that period of time for some, not for all who do, in fact have their period. They’re not on contraceptives. I also have noticed that there can sometimes be some fatigue or some pain that can keep women out of the gym or thinking that they’re gonna, they should train.

So it’s like that question. It’s like, put it this way, I’ve had clients who have wanted to experiment with training differently during the menstrual cycle. But for the most part, most of my female clients wanna just try to keep pushing and push as much as they can. But also at some point, they have to give into the fact that like, they’re, they’re just too fatigued or they, you know, they got to skip a day or they have to do a little, they have to modify their workouts.

But all in all, I have not encountered the, the majority of clients because I remember you had a client or two that was like this as well. Back in the past, I the majority of my clients, they don’t look to like, modify their training during their menstrual cycle, like intentionally interesting.

Dani:, Giacomo:

OK, well, what’s your experience?

Dani:

I mean, I can, I could sum up this entire podcast and my experience in one sentence that everybody is different and very, like, very, very different. So, OK, let’s talk about, first of all, a regular menstrual cycle, let’s talk about a regular menstrual cycle because I think that’s the best place to start a regular menstrual cycle is somewhere in the vicinity of 28 days.

Day one is the day that somebody starts to bleed. It’s their actual period. And at that point, we’re gonna talk about the two major players in the hormones here, estrogen and progesterone. So those are the two main hormones here on the day that somebody is to start bleeding. Day one, both of those hormones are very, very low. And then in the first half, the 1st 14 days of the menstrual cycle, it’s called the follicular phase.

And during this phase, estrogen goes up, up, up, up, up and it peaks ish at the top. And meanwhile, progesterone stays pretty low like it starts to go up a little bit at the end, but it’s still pretty low all the way through it. Then we go into the second half of the cycle. So follicular phase ends with ovulation. That’s when the egg actually or the ovary actually like spits out an egg, right. As soon as you ovulate, estrogen starts to drop and progesterone starts to go up quite a bit.

And basically towards the end of this is the luteal phase. Now, we’re in, at the end of the luteal phase, both of the hormones start to drop again, leading us back to day one, low hormones of both and you start bleeding. So that is the 28 day cycle if it were on paper scientifically. But II I actually don’t know the, the data on this, but I, I would say more than half of my female clients don’t have a regular cycle, like about half of them could probably set their calendar sort of to it.

Giacomo:

I’ve experienced that as well, honestly.

Dani:

Yeah, a lot of them can’t, or it’s not 28 days, it’s like five weeks or six weeks and then, and then all of a sudden it’ll be like, three weeks for no reason. And, so it makes it really hard to one predict what’s gonna happen for a lot of women. Like, like I said, some women can set their watch by it and it’s exactly what I just described, but for a lot of women it’s very, very different and in both directions and that’s not even counting which I was

won. Like, how much should we even get into this on this podcast? I actually feel like it should probably be its own, its whole own podcast about birth control. Do you think?

Giacomo:

I think so. Yeah, absolutely.

Dani:

It’s too much to talk about in this podcast. But again, this doesn’t even take into consideration women who are taking some sort of hormonal contraceptive, which also changes everything. So, yeah, we’ll just, we’ll put that in a box mostly. Sure. Now it might come up a little bit. But do you guys wanna hear a whole podcast on that? Because that’s another question that we get a lot, let us know. So again, when they’re doing a lot of these studies and they’re picking the people that

they’re gonna take for the studies, they’re picking people who have regular quote unquote normal 28 ish day menstrual cycles, and also meet a lot of other criteria. But in my experience, that’s only somewhere around half of women I would say I would agree. So, like how applicable is this data across a broad spectrum of women? And that’s, that’s sort of the tough thing about it. So you got anything to add in there?

Giacomo:

No, I’m looking at all the studies that you’re wanna reference here and talk about and I’m definitely curious to start digging into them one at a time and I agree with you. If you’re going to sum up this entire podcast in one sentence, it is that everyone is like individuals. It’s a case by case basis, like everyone really is different, but that wouldn’t make for a fun conversation.

And there are some actual patterns here that do repeat themselves as far as like what you wind up doing with a client when they like during their men cycle during, you know, the pre post menopause phase, et cetera, et cetera. And what general, what typical recommendations are more likely.

Dani:

You said menopause, you meant menstruation, right?

Giacomo:

No, no, I didn’t.

Dani:

OK. All right. Interesting. So, yeah, I guess I, I’m really curious to hear where you’re gonna go. It’s taking all of my power to not kick my feet up on this table right now because we’re on camera. Fun fact, I actually struggle to sit in a regular position without kicking my feet up, drives everybody crazy, but I struggle to sit, period.

Giacomo:

I just run around in circles. So everyone’s got their thing.

Dani:

Ok. So the notes that we have here, that’s why I have my laptop out. It, it’s a lot of notes. We can go ahead and get into it. So, 1st, 1st let’s talk about some of the studies. So go for it if you want to pick one of them and talk about it.

Giacomo:

Ok. Cool. We’ll go in order here. Let’s see. We most pre pre menopausal women, not on hormonal contraceptives report symptoms affecting their training. Though many do not adjust their training programs. Stop, stop, just stop.

Dani:

That is not that’s not a study. That’s just a weird sentence. OK. So let’s see if I have the treadmill study here.

Giacomo:

OK. So I don’t have the studies in front of me.

Dani:

I have the yeah, that’s, I mean, you could have added your own notes anywhere you wanted to. That’s just a summer summarization of the notes. So there was a study where they checked women’s performance on a treadmill. So how applicable is this to strength training? Not very, but let’s just talk performance in general. So they had women in both the follicular, remember towards the end of the follicular estrogen is peaking end of the follicular phase, they tested him on the

treadmill and then at the end of the luteal phase or I was actually kind of the beginning of the lal phase which makes the study kind of murky anyway, during that half of the cycle progesterone is higher, which I actually think we have to talk about that first. So we’ve talked, so we’ve talked about this on the menopause podcast about how estrogen gets this really bad rap.

But actually estrogen is really protective and does a lot of good things including makes women stronger, faster, build more muscle, et cetera. So one would predict by looking at that chart of the first half estrogen being high progesterone being low and the second half progesterone being lower and sorry, estrogen being lower and progesterone being higher that women would perform better during the follicular phase when estrogen was higher because progesterone while it’s

not bad, it does negate some of the good effects of estrogen in general on paper anyway. So they put women on a treadmill and they just sped it up every minute that they were on it to see like how, how, how far they could push it and what they found was there was almost no difference, right? That’s what I’m seeing too. Yeah, it was, it was like a negligible difference even though of course, they predicted higher estrogen better performance right now.

One of the limitations is like I said, they did it towards the beginning of the follicular phase and I remember estrogen is going up throughout. So estrogen might not have been that high and then they did the during the luteal phase, they did it kind of at the beginning. So, estrogen could have been equal in both times of doing it. So that could be a limiting factor. But essentially, they found no difference, right?

Giacomo:

And the thought is that there is some individual variability as well though they’re outliers essentially.

Dani:

Well, again, that’s, that’s how I would sum up this entire podcast really.

Giacomo:

So about birth control and training. What about that study? The study on untrained?

Dani:

We’re not gonna talk about birth control on this podcast. We just said that we literally just said that they did another study similar but with a maximal strength where they were checking the strength of the quadricep muscle and they tested the women three times throughout the cycle. And this was really interesting because there actually was a difference in the, in the strength, there was a difference, the women were stronger and they did build more muscle during the tail end

of the follicular phase when estrogen was highest, which sounds awesome, right? But again, the difference was not enough to be the to, to like make significant changes like they couldn’t say, oh, well, because of this, make these significant changes for every woman where they train harder during this week and less hard during this week. as a blanket statement for women across the board.

Giacomo:

OK. So what are you getting out of this so far? Other than inconclusive evidence that with these particular studies, exactly that inconclusive evidence, do you feel like having studies that were a little more controlled or with a wider body of participants or with the right kinds of variables? Do you think that it’s hard to say? But do you hypothesize that we would get better insight?

Dani:

Maybe so in the strength study, like when they looked at the average, which is what studies do they look at the averages of the results, they graph them, the average was like negligible difference. difference. Yes, stronger in the follicular, more muscle in the follicular but like such a small amount that they could chalk it up to error. But when they looked at individual differences, that’s where they saw big changes.

When they looked at like one woman, they might see a big jump during the follicular phase versus the luteal phase. Whereas the next woman might have no difference whatsoever, which again brings me back to like everyone is different and I think that is incredibly key. So I’m gonna get to what that means at some point during this, what I think that should translate to in like real world application.

Yeah. But here is the most interesting study that I found and I can’t remember, I can’t remember who it was. And I have so many notes here that I kind of can’t remember which part of the notes this was in. But they did do a study where they studied women’s performance, their strength performance, their, their training performance and they had the women basically say whether or not they felt like their period was making them perform worse, like wherever they were in their cycle.

Like, hey, how do you feel like your menstrual cycle affected you today? And the vast majority of the women said it made them perform worse. Like they, they performed worse and when they actually looked at the data itself, they did not perform worse. They performed just as well.

Giacomo:

So how they felt versus what they did were two different things. They felt like crap.

Dani:, Giacomo:

They were still able to do the thing precisely.

Dani:

So that is exactly what that particular showed, which I found to be fascinating because, this is side note, kind of personal, but I don’t have a menstrual cycle at all. because I have a condition called endometriosis. It’s hormonally treated. I no longer have a cycle, but I did for 15 plus I remember. Yeah, I bet you remember. And, it was absolutely debilitating for me.

But even when I could like, cram enough ibuprofen to be able to walk around on those days, I still felt like shit while I was training. But I’m curious now, I wish I hadn’t noted if I could go back and see, like, did my performance actually change or did I just feel like dirt while I was doing it?

Giacomo:

But when you could actually get to the gym and you weren’t writhing in pain because it was pretty severe.

Dani:

Yeah. But that’s, I don’t think that’s comparable to most people. I know there are some women out there dealing with the same thing. You have all my support. You ever want to talk about it? You shoot me a message. I’m happy to, but it’s not common enough to make a podcast about or is it, do you guys wanna hear about it? But I think that, you know, so many of my clients report to me that they feel like trash during a certain point in their cycle, but that may not actually be affecting their

training outcomes. Now, that kind of sounds like gas lighting to me like, oh, I feel like shit, I can’t train. Yes, you can, you’re fine. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is I think it’s just interesting to talk about perception and how that actually plays out and does it matter? I think it does, but does it matter as much as maybe we think it does? Probably not.

Giacomo:

Well, it matters in the sense of one, how you treat yourself and two, how the people who are working with you, your team, your coach, your squad, your friends, your family level with how they treat you. If you have the wrong kind of support, then I feel like that could actually shoot you in the foot and if you

beat yourself down, then you might wind up not training as much or not pushing as hard because you’re worried or you’re frustrated and thinking this is going to be something you

can’t do or shouldn’t do. So, you don’t try as hard. So, I think it can affect, I think those kinds of feelings are to be expected, however they can impact your mindset and your approach. If you let them put it that way, that’s what I’m thinking.

Dani:

Yeah, I, I do, I actually do, do agree with that. so, so how does this, how does this information this data and hopefully again, there will be more data in the future. Like we have to study this better. There has got to be a way to study this better.

Dani:, Giacomo:

I’m not a scientist but like I know they exist and you’re out there and you’re a scientist and you’re listening, please.

Dani:

Yeah, it, it would, I would just be, it would just be nice to have better data on all of this stuff. But the way that this has been sort of warped into reality in the fitness influencer space, that’s for shit. Sure. Is this thing called cycle syncing, which, you know, based on the charts again of a perfect 28 day normal regular cycle would at least on paper indicate that you’re probably the strongest during the second week of your cycle and probably feeling the crappiest like the

fourth week of your cycle. So the cycle syncing idea is that you would do these different kinds of exercise during each week of your cycle and I should actually pull up a picture of what that looks like. Have you had any clients, talk to you about this at all?

Dani:, Giacomo:

Like this idea of cycle, thinking a small handful in the past, but no one ever, no one pursued it.

Giacomo:

I did not pursue it.

Dani:

So I’m just, I just pulled up on Google, like the first thing that came up for me and it recommends that

during menstruation, you do walking and yoga for that week, just walking and yoga. during week two, when you’re the strongest, you could be doing your, you’re swimming, you’re bike riding, you’re hiking, you know, we’re ramping up and then during ovulation, remember this is when estrogen is the highest progesterone is just starting to ramp up.

This is when you do your hardest, hardest stuff, your high intensity interval training, your strength training, your circuit training. And then during your luteal phase, you do low impact exercises like Pilates and yoga.

Giacomo:

So the question of how many days is all that 28 over the course of 28 days, you have one solid week of strength training. Don’t do that.

Dani:

Exactly. OK, don’t do that.

Giacomo:

Don’t do that.

Dani:

This is a terrible frigging idea. I mean, if you ever wanna, I mean, ok, I guess if you’re just trying to like, live your life and do healthy stuff in general, whatever, do this, I don’t care. But if you’re trying to change your body in some way. If you are trying to get stronger, Leaner Fitter, any of those things this as it is written and as I have seen it pop up on Instagram and Pinterest and all of that stuff is an awful idea.

There is precisely zero specificity in here. Right. You’re just all over the map. You’re never gonna get good at anything on here because you’re only doing it one week out of every four. I don’t even know where to begin with. What a terrible idea.

Dani:, Giacomo:

I wanna know whose idea this was and why it became viral everywhere.

Dani:

It’s everywhere disappointing all over podcasts. It’s all over youtube in my research for this. Oh, I came

up against it again and again and again and as a coach to mostly women for nearly 15 years, this is a, this is not a good idea at all, but that doesn’t mean that every principle in here is trash. Correct? And to me that’s where that individualization comes in. And this is what I do with my women, female bleeding clients if they need it. And that’s key.

Giacomo:

And these are the same principles that we use for all kinds of reasons though, not just for when someone is at a point in their menstrual cycle where they’re unable to train at max capacity. We apply these principles for when someone’s traveling for when someone has to prioritize other things in their life for when someone is overly fatigued for when someone doesn’t have the time, all, all kinds of reasons, but the principles are the same.

Right? You’re not just gonna take that week and be like, this is a wash week. That’s ridiculous. You take up maybe it’s like, ok, take off a set of every, of every, of every exercise as needed. Take it day by day, for example, don’t, don’t just go like, on a straight on de load, for example.

Dani:, Giacomo:

Well, well, it’s a possibility but not I have some.

Dani:

So this is important. Like I, a good chunk of my women, their period affects them. Zero. They don’t even, they don’t even tell me about it sometimes because it doesn’t even blip on their radar that it matters. Doesn’t affect, their training, doesn’t affect their sleep, doesn’t affect their cravings, doesn’t affect anything.

So, why would we change something? Just because they’re in a certain phase? It doesn’t make sense. Right. And then there are other women who they are trash for like, two days out of the month or two days every five weeks. They’re just worthless in the gym. Am I gonna make them go train on those days?

Dani:, Giacomo:

No, rearranging. You know, it’s like two days.

Dani:

What’s the big deal? And then there are other women still that a particular week or more than a couple of days, they just know they feel kind of like the, like every month. They just kind of, they can feel it coming, you know. So for those women, if they’re regular enough, I will put their de loads during that

week.

If we can kind of get ahead of it and know like, ok, you’re pretty regular, so likely on this week you’re not gonna feel very good. But I’m gonna, I’m gonna give you a de load in the next five weeks. Anyway, let’s put it there. That just makes the most sense.

Giacomo:

And it de, it depends on every single person, right? Because if it’s the kind of person who’s training consistently and their cycle is consistent, then yes. But if it’s the kind of person who has to wind up juggling or prioritizing their schedule and you program in a de load and all of a sudden, like there’s another week where they’re just not

training as hard and not able to. And that’s a bad idea. So, again, it’s, it depends on the individual and what they have going on in their life with their routine and whatnot.

Dani:

But even the women who don’t feel super good, like, don’t forget that study. Most of the women thought that their menstrual syndrome, symptoms were affecting their performance and it actually wasn’t, it just felt like it because like, yeah, maybe, maybe they had some, like low back fatigue. So their squats felt shittier but they actually got the same weight, the same reps as they did the week before.

I mean, should we be forcing ourselves to feel shittier just so that we can perform the same. That’s entirely up to the individual. For some people’s goals, it doesn’t make sense to like go out of your way to make yourself feel worse just so you can check a box and be like, I got it. But for some women who have very specific goals on very specific days or they’re like, you know, elite athletes like, yeah, some, sometimes we gotta push,

sometimes we got to push through some of that because I’m not saying it’s not real because it is real. I’m saying it might not be affecting your training the way you think it is.

Giacomo:

Yes. Yes, exactly. And there are all kinds of feelings that can mess with what you think you’re actually doing what your output is in the gym. Stress, for example, you’re not a 20 year old with no responsibilities, how you might be speaking and you’re a 35 year old with a ton of responsibilities and so many days in the gym might just feel like you’re spinning your wheels. But when you start to actually look at things and reward yourself and be like, what am I doing?

How am I doing it? Am I doing well? You probably are doing maybe not quite as well as that 20 year old for a variety of reasons, but you’re doing better than you think so. And I feel like with your menstrual cycle, it’s similar where your feelings are gonna put you in a position where your mind is

going to mess with you thinking that you’re not actually pushing as hard as you actually are spoiler. You probably are.

Dani:

Yeah, it’s just, you know, I think if you do struggle with symptoms of like, you know, P MS or P MD D or just anything in that spectrum, it’s always a good idea to look at your life And I please do not take this as you like, you just need to eat less salt and drink more water and you won’t have period problems because listen, I got that shit for almost 20 goddamn years before they were like, oh you’re actually very, very ill.

But obviously it stands to reason, like, look at your regular lifestyle habits, see if there’s anywhere where you could probably make it a little bit easier for yourself. Like, you know, don’t eat a crap load of sodium if you know, you’re already going into a time of the month where you feel bloated and uncomfortable. That just seems like it makes sense.

Try to get good sleep, try to, you know, keep your stress low. eat well, eat lots of nutrient dense foods. Like all of that stuff can only help but you know, for a good chunk of women, it’s not going to like fix the problem and any asshole out there that tries to tell you that going on a particular fast or cleanse or whatever is gonna fix your very serious period problems.

I would like to meet them in a back alley somewhere. I would, it’s one of my biggest like gripes in general. It’s just how women are treated in the medical field, but I’ll stop right there. So you have to, you really have to, you know, look at the data, learn the data. It’s interesting to see what this stuff looks like. But then remember you are not the data, you are, you and your personal situation may look so different than that data and it’s OK. There, there may very well be like

nothing wrong with you. It’s just, that’s the way your cycle runs and pay attention to how you feel throughout that cycle so that you can make appropriate adjustments. Likewise, on the flip side of that de load, if you know there’s a week every cycle that you feel like a goddamn beast. And you’re, let’s say, yeah, training for maximal strength, like let’s put those M wrap tests during that week or go closer to failure than you normally would.

Giacomo:

For example, juice up a couple extra reps, go for it.

Dani:

But sometimes this stuff is not possible. You know, like I have client, I have female clients that are training for powerlifting meets if they’re during their weakest week of their menstrual cycle and that’s the week of the powerlifting meet too damn bad. That’s when you’re gonna do the meet. how many of our clients get their period right before their bodybuilding competition?

Giacomo:

High percentage.

Dani:

It makes sense when you think about it.

Giacomo:

Exactly.

Dani:

Because like, they probably haven’t had their period for a long time and then you start carving them up for the show and their body is like, yay food. We can house the baby again and then you just start bleeding right before the show. So unfair. But like, what are you gonna do about that? There are some things you could do about that but not putting that on a podcast.

So, you know, it’s gonna, it’s, it’s gonna come at the most inopportune times sometimes and finding a way to sort of know your strengths, your weaknesses within that calendar, whatever that calendar is for you is gonna be helpful and communicate it to your coach, right? You know, Jomo is a great example. Like most may I have never met a male coach that was weird about this stuff, have you?

No, I mean, maybe like back in like the nineties or something, but I feel like maybe I just run in great circles and that’s probably true. the coaches that I, I’m friends with the coaches that I look up to the researchers in this field that I look up to like, they don’t even blink, talking about this stuff. So I know a lot of women are really uncomfortable to talk to a guy about their period.

But if your coach is worth their salt at all, they should be like sympathetic. I was gonna say empathetic, but you can’t really be empathetic to this, sympathetic to this and willing to listen and not tell you you are a data point. This is how we treat periods and you just fall right into that box.

Giacomo:

Absolutely. No.

Dani:

Anyway, anything you wanna say about food because that’s a, that’s a big one like women because progesterone when it increases, that’s trying to get your body ready to house a baby, right? So your body starts like being like, let’s eat more food because you’re about to have a baby and we need to

make sure you have plenty of nutrients for that.

So a lot of those cravings women feel during a particular time in their cycle, that’s not psychosomatic. That’s, that’s real, you know. So, but sometimes that is counter to what the goal is that they’re trying to meet. How do you handle that?

Giacomo:

It’s a very good question. Hm. I suppose you can move days around so that you can eat a little more on the days that are extremely difficult if you’re gonna have do calorie cycling anyway, like if you’re doing refeed days, move the refeed days, the kind of programming that will allow for that. Sometimes you don’t though and you really do have to suck it up. Buttercup. Unfortunately.

Dani:

Yes. Like bodybuilding prep is a good example. Like No, no, we can’t give you extra high days when you’re 28 days out from your first show. I would love to, I want to believe me, I want to make this as easy for you as possible, but certain goals will not allow it. but most people’s goals will. You know, will it slow down your fat loss? Pro probably, like, probably a little bit. But, I mean, it’s up to you. Is that worth the trade off?

Giacomo:

And it might not be worth it for you if you’re feeling really hungry and, and craving whatever on a Tuesday, if it means you can’t have more food on a Saturday, that might not be worth it to you.

Dani:

So you have to decide basically, you know, to recognize like, oh, maybe coach me, I, I’ll give you a diet break for the next five days or something that’s in the long run. That’s not gonna hurt anybody. But it might take your day of reach. You know, especially if you’re doing this every month. Right? I mean, that will add 25% of time between you and the goal.

Giacomo:

It will slow things down again. A choice.

Dani:

A choice, right? And it’s all, all comes down to choices. So, and again, a lot of women don’t experience this, they don’t experience any noticeable effects whatsoever. I am, I have always been like, in awe of

those women because I, that was not, not even one time my experience, fun fact. This is, this is kind of a funny story. I’ve told you this.

I love stories. Shoot. I remember the very first time I got my period, I was 12 and I vividly so my, I had bad cramps before it even happened. I didn’t know what was going on. But I remember when it did happen, I was like sitting at the end of my hallway next to the bathroom like against the wall, rocking myself back and forth, like screaming and crying.

And my mom being like, it’s a beautiful thing, honey. It means that, you know, someday you’re gonna be able to have a baby because of this. And I remember saying like, I don’t even want a freaking baby, just take it out. I never wanna deal with this again and she was all ha ha ha ha. That’s so cute of you. You’ll change your mind someday. And I like to remind her of that frequently because I did not change my mind.

I would have been totally fine if they had scooped some of that apparatus out at 12 years old. I mean, I guess I understand why the medical community doesn’t do that, but just putting it out there. And just one more thing I wanna say about this. I’m sorry, I’m talking so much during this podcast.

Giacomo:

Yes.

Dani:

Ibuprofen Tylenol painkillers. when you have those really debilitating cramps, like sometimes you have to take those things, those, those nsaids. I took way too many for way too long. It was a big problem. But even if you don’t do that, you know, a lot of times people have to take like Advil to get through their day and I get it, be very careful taking Advil Tylenol, Aleve NSAID, anything like that and then going to the gym because it is a, it’s a painkiller.

So if you, let’s say yes, it will knock out your cramps. So you can go do whatever it is you gotta do at the gym. But if you drop into a squat too quickly and like pull your quad a little bit or something, you might not feel it like. So you might go back and do another set and another set and another set and then when the Advil wears off, you’re like my leg is destroyed.

What happened? You know that painkiller can mask pain. That is very important pain for you to feel while you’re training. So anytime you have any kind of painkiller in your system before you go train, like you have to be super, super careful of how hard you’re pushing your form.

Giacomo:

And there is that idea that you’re not, you’re going to damp the inflammatory response after training, which would affect your ability to recover and build muscle. Yes.

Dani:

So to explain that we always talk about inflammation like it’s a bad thing because chronic inflammation is a bad thing.

Dani:, Giacomo:

But acute inflammation after you train that is necessary, it’s your body’s response, your body’s response to that is to repair muscle tissue and grow it.

Giacomo:

So if you remove that response, it’s gonna be less effective. Correct.

Dani:

You know, and Advil all these things, yes, they’re painkillers. They’re also anti inflammatories. So that’s why chronic use. I mean, it’s one of the many reasons chronic use of these things is not good. So my final thing, I will say if you are a woman whose period is debilitating for you, if you cannot function for a full week out of the month or five days out of the month without fistfuls of ibuprofen just to survive.

I will say it because your doctor very well may not, that is not normal. You should not have to live like that. There are ways to help that fix that, improve that make your life more livable if you are in that situation and I will die on that hill. And I have helped so many of my clients get out of that situation, not because I’m some hormone expert or anything, but because I’ve been through it and I know the treatments that help that sort of thing for a lot of women.

So don’t let a doctor tell you that’s no, that’s just the pains of being a woman. And sometimes it’s the women doctors who are the worst about this thing. So one doctor pushes you away go to another doctor because nobody should be living like that. I missed an entire year of high school when you added up all of my absences, which shocking is 25% of the time, which is one week out of the month for all of high school. Don’t live like that. That’s it. Wrap us up.

Giacomo:

Alright, thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of vegan proteins and muscles by Brussels radio. Stay in touch with us at vegan proteins at Mussels by Brussels. Hit the contact button on vegan proteins.com. We’ll answer you right away right away.

Dani:

Once again, my name is Jar and I’m Dani.

Giacomo:

I’ll talk to you soon.

Dani:

Bye.