I've posted several posts about the way I've been working out after getting my first recovery period, and sharing post hypothalamic amenorrhea workout advice otherwise. 

Here are some posts on that topic:

One More Reason to Want Your Period Back: Better Workouts

Getting Back to Working out After Hypothalamic Amenorrhea

Today, I thought, it's a good time to do another update on how things are going for me on the workout front now, when I've had 16 cycles.

Long Recovery from Back Injury

As you may know, I've been suffering from back pain for a long time — about a year now, to be exact — and it wasn't until a few months ago that I started to feel much better, thanks to an amazing chiropractor. The past two weeks though, have been REALLY GOOD. I'm so super grateful for having been practically free from pain for the last 2 weeks!

During the time my back pain was really bad, I of course worked out less than I would have wanted. When I still had hypothalamic amenorrhea, I couldn't work out because of that; then, when my hormones were better, my back didn't allow me to train the way I wanted.

It was frustrating, yes. But I make myself to think that all these kinds of things are good for something.

In this case, the fact that I threw my back out, meant that I was forced to take even longer break from working out (at least from heavy lifting, HIIT and running). I decided to see it as a positive thing because now I gave my body the chance to really calm down and enjoy the rest and recovery even longer. I feel like by doing so, I allowed my healing to get even deeper, and get my hormonal health even more solid.

A few months ago, when my back started to feel better, I jumped back into weight lifting. Not a great idea… I took a step backwards again, after making such a great progress. I had a serious conversation with my chiropractor, who told me: You do know that there are other ways to strengthen your body too, than by doing deadlifts and other heavy lifting??? 

Of course I knew. I'm a trainer, after all! But receiving this kind of tough love was important for me. I decided to step away from iron for a little bit, and see what I can do with just bodyweight.

Bodyweight Training Can Be Done In Many Ways

Many people would say: Bodyweight training is awesome! You can burn tons of calories by doing jump squats, burpees and sprints!

They're right, but first of all, my back didn't allow me to run, sprint and jump. Secondly, my goal isn't to burn tons of body fat. I'm still quite careful with HIIT training — I've been playing around with it a bit (more on that in a second) but I don't think doing HIIT 5 or more days a week would  be healthy for someone who has suffered from hypothalamic amenorrhea not so long ago (and possibly even for healthy people).

I had to find other ways to do bodyweight training, and I decided to keep things really simple. I'm at a point where I know I've lost incredible amount of strength. I've been building some of it back, as much as my back and hormonal health has allowed, but physically, I am nowhere near to where I was 1.5 years ago, so I decided to start training really simple again.

The Type of Bodyweight Training I'm Doing Now

I found a workout program that seemed very, very basic. I simply told myself: You're going to do the very basics. Yes, these workouts may have been your workouts once, but today, they're your workouts, just throw your ego out of the window accept it.

The crazy thing about this program is that the exercises are incredibly simple. The breaks are long enough. I've been working out three days a week, about 30-40 minutes each time, and I've been feeling energized instead of drained after working out.