Q&A: When To Adjust Macros, Deload Weeks, And Nutrition vs. Workouts!

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everybody, Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and welcome back to our viewer Q&A. So today in this video we’re going to discuss that time of the month, and if you should adjust your macros or your workouts. We’re gonna dive into talking about deload weeks and we’re going to discuss is nutrition more important or are workouts more important? So by the end of this video, you’re gonna know the answers to those questions, and hopefully be able to use this to your advantage, to tone up and finally get in control of your body forever and the results that you’re seeking to accomplish for yourself. So let’s dive in. Question number one from KJ. “When doing a cut and the time of the month rolls around, “should we increase our calories during this time? “I try not to and keep my macros consistent “but find it harder to push harder when weight training. “Today, for example, I found myself “having to go for lighter weights “just to get through some of my reps “and complete my workout.” This is a great question. So to all of my viewers, to all of the babes out there that question that time of the month and do I need to adjust my macros? What should I do with my training? Here is your answer, here is your answer, KJ. First of all, there’s nothing that you need to do with adjusting your macronutrients. You keep the same macros across the whole span of the cycle unless you’re due for making an adjustment to change up the progress that you’re seeing. Now for the workout portion. This is going to be as detailed as I can make it. When you do have your period, we’ll start with that, we’ll start with day one of your cycle through the seven days that the period may linger on for, you are going to have a decrease of energy around this time. And it is okay. So I don’t want you guys to feel like when you go into the gym, you’re not having a kickass workout. You don’t feel like you’re challenging yourself enough. Don’t beat yourself up. It is completely normal to have the feeling of being tired, to have the feeling of like you can’t push weights. And it’s hard. That is normal. All of your hormones at this point are completely lowered. Progesterone, testosterone, estrogen are at its bare minimum. So understand that it’s more of a quality that you’re showing up, you’re getting some movement in, you’re gonna feel really good after just showing up for yourself over the quantity of am I pushing my sets? Am I pushing my reps? Am I hitting PRs? That’s completely normal in that phase. And so much so the week before, the third and fourth week of your cycle, you’re gonna feel that same weight too as well. So it’s more quality over quantity, you may not be able to push as much. It’s gonna feel a little bit hard because your energy levels are decreased. Now let’s talk about like around ovulation, and after the seventh day of your period and so on into the next portion of your cycle. This is where you’re gonna feel like an absolute beast. This is where you’re gonna recognize that all of your energy levels are definitely improving. You feel like you can go Hulk mode in the gym. You feel like you’re gonna be able to hit personal best, hit PRs. And that’s where you wanna be able to do that. So when you understand that it is normal that you’re gonna have low energy as a higher energy at some points of your cycle, you’re gonna be a little bit easier on yourself to not feel like you have to go Hulk mode the whole 28-day cycle of your period, okay? So understand that. Once you grasp that, you’re gonna be able to go in the gym with a little bit more confidence, know when you need to focus on quality over quantity, and know when need you can go beast mode inside the gym. So question number two, Diane asked, “Hi, are deloading weeks important “and how do you incorporate them into your workouts?” Deloading weeks is an amazing concept. I will say first and foremost, I am horrible at implementing this for myself. And I’m sure you guys can relate to as well because rest days are sometimes challenging for people. Can you imagine a whole entire week of taking off from workouts? So I have two approaches to this kind of situation with de-loading. The first approach that I would take is if you don’t wanna go the whole seven days taking a rest, you could maybe train for three days and focus on max reps. So challenge yourself with what you can hit on a squat, what you can hit on a bench press and what you can hit on a deadlift, and then make the other rest of your training that day a little bit more higher rep and not as intense as going for max lifts. And you still have four days of rest after that in your deload week. The second approach is taking that full week off. Now, let me speak to the mindset of those individuals. You’re not going to lose all of your progress in one week, okay? So get that out of your head, get that out of your brain. All of your progress will not be lost in one week. And most importantly, in that week off, or even in the four days that you give yourself off, you’re allowing for optimal recovery, you’re allowing for your body to re-energize for things to stabilize, for you to feel like, then be able to go and crush your workout afterwards, okay? So a good time to incorporate this into your training is let’s say that you’re getting poor sleep, you’re not sleeping enough, you’re a little bit under stress in your life, more stress than normal, You’re not recovering from your workouts, your recovery time is taking anywhere from like three to four days and not feel sore. That would be a good time to be like, “Okay, hey, “I need to give myself a deload week. “I need to pull back on my training, I need to rest. “I need to recover so that I can come back stronger.” All right, question number three. Alicia asks, “Is it safe to say that diet “is more important than workouts?” They definitely go hand and hand, you need one for the other. But let me say this, and I’ve said this before. Nutrition is king, exercise is queen. They come together, though. You can’t have one without the other. You need exercise to be able to break down the muscle, but then you need nutrition to be able to repair, recover, and build that muscle. Now, if you are somebody who just solely focuses on your workouts and you’re somebody who is inside the gym five days a week, you’ve been doing it for years on end, six months, whatever, and you’re not seeing the results that you want, then I would question, hey, where’s your nutrition at? What does that look like? Are you eating enough of the right types of food? Are you at a good caloric intake or a caloric deficit that’s gonna facilitate the results that you want? Are you consistent with that type of nutrition? Are you following it as much as you should be so that you’re gonna be able to get the results that you want? So I would definitely question those things, especially if you’re not seeing the results that you want after six months of being inside the gym. Then your nutrition probably isn’t where it needs to be. You need them two together, but I would definitely preface that nutrition is a little bit more important than the workouts. Oh, that’s all that I’ve got for today, but I hope that you enjoy the answers to those questions. And maybe you had that same question along your own journey and now you have the answers to it. So again, I hope that you guys enjoyed it. Be sure to tune in next week when we have our next viewer Q&A, where I am supplying some new answers to questions that come through. And if you do have any further questions around the topics that we talked about today, please leave them below this video in the comment section. I am always happy to help you guys. And if you wanna be sure to get the sustainable macro and nutrition and workout information for your individual needs, head over to worriorbabe.com and check out the other resources that we have, even more resources around the topics that we talked about today, and to be able to understand how to get the results that you want and keep them forever. All right, you guys, I’ll see you next time.