Our next guest on Femspace is Barbora Dávidová; a great trainer and coach who helps women with their physical and mental health.
Barů has been dedicated to a healthy lifestyle for 8 years. She is a fitness trainer, coach and now also a guide to the online program for women - "Cycle your training like a woman". Barů helps women with their physical and mental health and approaches individual training sessions with respect to the female cycle. An integral part of a healthy lifestyle is also proper nutrition and mindset. These are also attributes of the Barů program.
Baru, I quote from your profile and website: “I want to create physically and mentally healthy women with respect to their cycle.” Why did you decide to focus on the female cycle as a trainer and coach?
Thank you for the nice introduction, and above all thank you for the invitation to the interview, I appreciate it. Before I get to why I decided to focus on incorporating femininity into training plans, it's important to mention that it's been going on for quite a while and has been for quite a while.
I've been training for about 6 years, mostly women, of any age. Sometimes it was quite challenging to mentally handle so many stories, be a part of so many lives and not let it get to my body. My head was fighting back and couldn't understand why they weren't putting in their best effort into training and wanting to talk so much, in short, I was their 'hairdresser', an unofficial name for a psychologist. Looking back now, I'm proud that I was already aware of my clients' cycles back then. Naturally, according to their words, as I was bloated, sore, unfortunately ugly and stuff, I knew that my period was coming and training would be that much easier. I never pushed the saw. In the first wave of quarantine, I realized that my career of training athletes wouldn't be that easy, because breaking through as a woman is much more challenging. At that time, I met Káťa, Bagniari, became interested in femininity, and finally, I was grateful for my clients, for my correct intuition that I had been on the right path all along.
I am a trainer who cares about women's health, adapts training to it, but at the same time I am their partner and psychological support. I feel the mood of my clients and sometimes we prefer to spend more time talking than training itself. I used to feel guilty, but now I see it differently, positively, because she always leaves with a smile on her face. For me, this is more than taking pictures of the results. That's why I say, I create physically and mentally healthy women.
I have already experienced for myself that we women are different and I never understood what it is. Now that I myself perceive my body, I am educating myself, I am starting to understand that we cannot be compared to men. We are cyclical, we have different hormones, we are more emotionally based and all this must be taken into account not only in training, but also in overall health.
What works for 10 men won't work for a single woman. Every woman must realize this, otherwise she will be an eternal slave to diets, overtraining, and the subsequent health consequences.
Should women adjust their training to their cycle?
All women usually deal with the same things. Our figure, whether it's our butt, hips, belly, arms, in short, our overall appearance, and unfortunately we quickly get into an endless cycle and don't know how to get out of it. We want everything quickly, right away, and we're willing to do anything for it, usually at the expense of our health.
I am not one of the women who lost my period, maybe because I like to eat and I have never gone on extreme diets, but I am one of the women who overdid it with training . The more, the better, right? Unfortunately, the subsequent weight gain definitely guaranteed me psychological suffering and intolerance of my body, there was a negative perception of myself. Also associated with this was fatigue, pain, and water retention.
“It’s time to accept the fact that we women are cyclical. All in one. And if you understand your cycle, your diet and your training settings , believe me, your life will finally be freer”
This is exactly the reason why we women need to start perceiving our cycle in our entire lives , especially in training. Our hormones change during the month, and therefore our physical strength also changes, and we need to stop ignoring that, because it will have counterproductive consequences anyway. There will be no results, we will only harm our health, but also our psyche. For example, if you have your period and you really don't feel like training because it is normal to feel tired, don't force yourself to train, or on the contrary, make it easier. It's about listening to your body, not listening to your reflection in the mirror.
On your website you primarily offer training to clients, but also coaching and consultations. What can you help women with? What makes your approach unique?
From my perspective, I really can't judge what makes my approach unique and whether it is unique at all. I believe that the number of women's health experts in the Czech Republic is really starting to increase, which is why I believe that our advice is more or less similar. That is, if we follow the female cycle.
How I want to affect my clients is my nature. I show women that I am one of them. I am not super, nor exemplary, and I am definitely not 100% perfect in everything. I tell them my experiences, my advice, but from practice, I speak their language.
No expertise, no learned lessons, or unfulfillable tasks that I can do them more harm with. There is an infinite amount of information everywhere, and then we can't understand it and we want to try everything right away and wait for the result after a week. I teach women the exact opposite and follow a simple rule - there is beauty in simplicity. I always try to explain everything simply and everything with examples, human imagination works better in practice than in theory.
Last but not least, every woman needs something different, one needs to adjust her training, another her diet, and another her psychologically, but everyone needs to understand that life is not about appearance.
How can women adjust their training according to their cycle?
It is difficult to advise women what sports activities they should prioritize in each phase, because every woman enjoys something different. Group classes, fitness, running, or even walking. Every movement counts and every woman should do it with joy and in the knowledge that it is beneficial to health.
I personally am a supporter of strength training , and that every woman should have it in her training . But I don't mean classic fitness, where after a whole day of sitting you sit down on the weight machines again. Comprehensive training for the whole body, where all muscle groups are involved, incl. the core of the body and the nervous system.
During menstruation, I would prefer to focus on a calmer form of training, such as strength training with less weight, yoga, walking, and focus on active regeneration. I would rather skip unnecessarily demanding group classes where the heart rate is high.
In the follicular and ovulatory phases, we can afford more demanding training , we have much more strength and energy, but be careful - even in these phases, you may be mentally tired and while exercise is definitely beneficial for someone with stress, someone is tired and it is better to skip the training. If we look at it only from the physical side, we are definitely most efficient in the dynamic phase, i.e. the follicular phase. I personally love strength training in this phase.
In the luteal phase, training is slightly reduced, it is important to perceive your body, because every woman experiences the premenstrual phase differently. I prefer to skip the dumbbells, take a skipping rope, rubber bands and make training more fun.
In each phase we have to perceive our body, not only how hormones change, but also psychologically. In addition, we are influenced by X factors during the day, such as work, family, relationships, but also daylight, or the season. Our female intuition really works, so let's perceive it mainly during training.
In which phase of the cycle do we gain muscle most effectively?
I'm a little afraid to answer the question of when we gain muscle mass most effectively, because unfortunately many women are still afraid of it. But our body really doesn't work like a man's, after lifting a barbell our muscles will never grow as big as men's, and certainly not as quickly. Effective training in terms of muscle mass is in the menstrual and follicular phases, this is thanks to estrogen in our body . Nevertheless, I would recommend milder training during the menstrual phase, at least the first two to three days. Even though we regenerate best in these phases, also thanks to carbohydrates, please allow women to regenerate equally in each phase. Regeneration is just as important as training.
A woman's cycle affects water retention. Why do some women retain more water? Is it possible to influence water retention during the cycle?
Water retention bothers many women, but there is no such science to it, unless we address the lymphatic system and its dysfunction, which is associated with significant water retention in the body.
During the ovulation phase, our body naturally becomes more waterlogged , it is natural and women have to accept it and not fight it unnecessarily - our hormones are to blame. We can influence unnecessary waterlogging with our diet - exactly at this stage we can reduce carbohydrates a little , and on the contrary, do not be afraid of fatty foods , I just note fatty foods.
What advice would you give women regarding nutrition and diet plans?
I am not a nutritional consultant, although I hope to soon be a consultant for Performance University, where we deal with health in general. I want to mention right away that I am not a supporter of diets , unfortunately I don't see the point in it when a woman will follow something for a month and then return to her old habits anyway. I want to teach women to eat and above all not to be afraid of food, not to worry about every bite and every calorie . Again, I return to the rule - there is beauty in simplicity.
I teach each of my women to buy as little processed and high-quality food as possible, to put something on their plate that they like, and to think about 'bad' food, what it does to them and how it harms their health. When they put all this together, and also understand eating according to the cycle, i.e. when we as women can indulge in carbohydrates, and when, on the contrary, more fats - believe me, at that moment every woman will become free.
Fats fill us up much better, they even improve concentration and brain performance , and above all, we avoid uncontrolled eating of sweets before menstruation, so a tip for you women, if you have a sweet tooth, don't be afraid of sour cream or mascarpone, with nut butter, forest fruits and a little cinnamon. It will satisfy you mentally that you have something sweet and your body will thank you.
Can you tell us something about your new online program " Cycle Your Workout Like a Woman" ?
I've been thinking for a long time about how I could also work online and secure some income. Not only has this situation affected me as a fitness operator, but I also don't want to work 13 hours a day anymore.
So the idea for an online program came to me, I just didn't know how to pull it off. Yes, I could have created a home gym program, but I'll never be an online person, I want to keep my personal approach, and it broke my heart to turn women away from training because of my busy schedule.
This is how the program "Cycle your training like a woman" was created, I dare say it is the only one in the Czech Republic that takes into account training related to the female cycle. The program is for a limited number of women, lasts three months, and each month has 4 phases, with each woman starting in her own phase.
It's not just about training, diet, but also about a lot of tasks, new knowledge, pushing the boundaries of comfort, but above all about our online calls, where we all communicate together. We all respect each other and show each other that we are all dealing with the same thing. We are in this together and my main goal is to teach all these women to respect other women, but above all, themselves .
Every woman in the program is supposed to learn to train according to the cycle and not to overdo it, but at the same time understand that movement is essential for our health. Every woman will be able to eat freely, not to be stressed about the reflection in the mirror, and every woman will learn something new. But above all, it will create a community of women who will support each other.
We are currently at the end of the first month and my biggest goal is to get these women through because there is a sweet spot waiting for them at the end. Self-worth, self-love and self-respect. When this is done and all the women achieve the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the program, I will be the happiest woman because I created something that is meaningful.
What is your life motto?
There is beauty in simplicity, there is the magic of life , but the real motto for me is " stay strong " , maybe I sometimes overdo it, maybe it sometimes fits more, sometimes less. It should definitely fit less in my person, so I'll tell you a secret about me - I'm still looking for my inner woman, I'm looking for her in an emotional, sentimental way, I can't yet enjoy those real uncontrollable emotions, but that's exactly the work on myself, that's my story.
What are you most proud of in your life?
Just like each of us has our own story, so I ask all women, do not judge appearance, behavior, or emotions, because you never know what is hidden behind it. Sometimes it is simply better to listen or be silent.
But what I definitely don't want to be silent about is my body of work, which I have created over the past eight years. I am proud of where I am taking my gym every day, where I am taking myself as a trainer and a person, that I am educating myself every day and trying to help and inspire the women around me. I humbly want to announce to the world that I am proud of my work.
I am proud of one more thing and I also want to mention an inspiring woman for me, which is Michelle Obama , a woman who has endured a much longer journey than just being the first lady of the president (one of the best books I have ever read). This is also about my partnership, which I have been proud of for 8 years – because a relationship is endless work and if you stop working on it, it will fall apart. That is the magic of long-term harmonious relationships, not only enjoying the joy, but above all overcoming obstacles.
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