Staying fit in today's busy world can be tough for us women. We juggle work, family, and the unique needs of our bodies, making it hard to focus on our own well-being. But, there's a way to make fitness work for us.
In this article, we'll dive into how personalised fitness can make a big difference for women. We'll look at scientific insights, share tips for finding time for self-care, and talk about what consistency really means in our busy lives.
Whether you're just starting your fitness journey or looking to boost your current routine, you'll find practical advice and inspiration here. Let's explore how we can make fitness fit into our lives.
Understanding Fitness and the Female Body:
The Missing Research
In "The Female Body Bible," Dr. Emma Ross, Baz Moffat, and Dr. Bella Smith talk about the unique physiological and hormonal changes women go through. These changes affect how we exercise and recover, highlighting why our fitness routines need to be personalised.
Despite how important these differences are, women are still underrepresented in sports and medical research. Ross, Moffat, and Smith point out that only 6% of the most recent sports science research focuses solely on women. Even worse, just 8% of research on sports and the menstrual cycle meets high standards for data reliability.
For health and fitness professionals, having solid, evidence-based research is crucial to give the best advice and resources. But most existing data is male-focused, ignoring women's unique needs. Between 2010 and 2020, only 4% of sports research was exclusively about women, which isn't much progress since the 1990s, when a law first required including women and minorities in clinical trials.
Research needs controls to spot patterns, and it's easier with male bodies because they don't have the same hormonal variations women do. Because of this lack of specific data, we need to be flexible and create fitness plans that fit our unique bodies and goals.
The Science of Exercise
Daniel Lieberman's book, "Exercised," gives us some great insights into how we can be kinder to ourselves when it comes to fitness. He takes a look at our Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) society and busts some common exercise myths. For example, “We evolved to exercise”, “It’s unnatural to be indolent” (that’s avoiding exercise to me and you), “Sitting is intrinsically unhealthy”, “You can’t lose weight by walking”, “its normal to be less active as we age”, and “’Just do it’, works”.
Lieberman's research, which looks at modern hunter-gatherer communities and our ancestors, shows an interesting paradox. Humans are naturally inclined to save energy when we don't need to use it (and therefor avoid activity when it is unnecessary), which helped our ancestors to use energy when they needed it to stay alive. But now, our energy-saving lifestyle has made us more sedentary, which can diminish both our health span and lifespan.
Comparing the activity levels of hunter-gatherer women, who typically walked five hours a day and engaged in physical tasks like digging, to those of modern British women, reveals a stark contrast. According to YouGov, only one in four British individuals are active for at least 30 minutes a week, highlighting a significant disparity.
Lieberman points out that hunter-gatherers stayed healthy until around 60 and then experience a decline in health in their mid-70s. In contrast, inactive people in our WEIRD societies might start having health issues in their 40s and could be ill for decades. Active people who keep a healthy weight and don't smoke can stay healthy into their 70s and live into their 80s.
So, what constitutes being an active individual? Research suggests that engaging in at least 150 minutes of exercise per week qualifies as an active lifestyle. With this understanding, the next question to arise is: how 'should' women exercise?
Women require a blend of activities not only to maintain their fitness and physical health but also to enhance performance. These include:
A minimum of 10 minutes of warming up before engaging in any activity, this is particularly crucial for women as we are six times more likely than men to sustain a knee injury.
Moderate-intensity aerobic exercises like fast walking and cycling.
High-intensity exercises such as sprinting and HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training).
Resistance exercises such as weight training.
Restorative and stretching exercises such as yoga.
Engaging in physical activity offers benefits beyond mere physiological improvement and sporting performance. It elevates mood, enhances mental health, and reduces the risk of obesity and illness.
What Does it Mean to be Consistent?
We often hear that consistency in fitness is about building sustainable habits. But this advice doesn’t always consider the many obstacles women face in creating strong habits.
Being consistent isn't about following a strict routine. It's about embracing the identity of an active woman and using your self-awareness to shape your daily activities to reach your fitness goals. This means considering the internal influences on your decision making, for example where you are in your monthly cycle or life, the external pressures that might divert your attention from meeting your personal needs, and working through that very human inner voice that sometimes says, 'Maybe skipping exercise today is the best thing to do.'
Consistency might require coaching or self-coaching. Using tools like mood, diet, and movement trackers, alongside menstrual and hormone trackers if available, can help you understand your own experiences and how they relate to your exercise routine. From there, it's easier to build a routine that works on a monthly basis rather than forcing yourself into a daily or weekly schedule.
For some women, a daily or weekly routine may not be suitable. External pressures and personal challenges, like experiencing reduced confidence or optimism during certain points in your menstrual cycle, can make prioritising self-care tough. And physical discomforts, like heavy bleeding or pain, can make traditional exercises feel impossible. In these cases, you might need comprehensive monthly fitness plans that meets your unique needs, along with overall wellness plans. For example, implementing stress-reduction techniques and prioritising self-care from day 19 of your menstrual cycle can help ease symptoms in following periods, alongside adjusting your diet at different points of the cycle.
Finally, it is fundamental to show yourself compassion for times when consistency falters. Use these moments to learn how your consistency changes and develop an understanding of how your relationship with movement varies or evolves. This self-awareness is key to getting back on track after motivation dips.
Making Time for Exercise
It’s easy to say we don’t have time, but often, we put our family's and work’s needs ahead of our own self-care, including exercise. The key is to recognise when we’re prioritising other areas over our physical health and bring our needs back into focus.
This mismatch in time allocation can come from a few things:
Unassertive responses to work or family demands.
Inefficient home systems or a disproportionate allocation of tasks within the home (it has been found that tasks within the home are allocated disproportionately so women do tasks that require more time compared to their male partners. In addition, even when both individuals in a couple work full-time, the woman in the partnership will do more tasks around the home than the male partner).
Distractions from digital tools that are designed to consume our valuable free time.
An opportune moment for exercise will not materialise on its own, so proactively set the intention to make time for it.
Taking Your Next Fitness Steps
Creating exercise routines that are fun, flexible, and adaptable to the demands of a busy woman's life is key. How this looks will be unique to you. Here are three great starting points for your fitness journey:
Find a Great Resource: My current favourite is 'The Female Body Bible.'
Hire a Trainer: A trainer can help you work with your body, prevent injuries, and make the most of your time.
Make a Wellness Plan: Create a personalised, achievable plan that covers fitness and all aspects of your well-being and busy life.
Balancing physical wellness with a busy life can be complex for women. It's crucial to have robust plans for monitoring and assessing both emotional and physical well-being while working towards fitness goals.
Time management strategies and a personalised approach to consistency are essential. These allow women to prioritise self-care even with physiological and biochemical changes and busy schedules. By embracing flexibility, self-awareness, and recognising that fitness isn’t one-size-fits-all, or even one-size-fits-me-all-the-time, women can develop wellness plans that support their physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
How To Start Making a Change
Use an action plan to set out your goals with adaptability and flexibility. Subscribe to my newsletter for monthly coaching tools to support your journey.
How Coaching Could Support You
Wellness coaching gives you the time and space to figure out your fitness goals. Together, we will explore and create fitness plans that you enjoy, help you experience regular movement, and maintain self-compassion when facing internal and external influences requiring adaptability. We will find solutions to the barriers you face in meeting your fitness goals, helping you become happier and healthier.
Find out more about coaching with me here.
Commentaires