When your clients “healthy habits” quietly block their progress

Do you ever get that sinking feeling with a client clinic. You quiz them about food and everything they eat seems instagram perfect, they workout, get good sleep, follow your skincare routine perfectly, come to every appointment....yet their acne continues to flare?

We had a great discussion in the Skin Nutrition Community last week about one such client and after a little digging it became clear that her 'healthy' exercise routine was actually driving her breakouts. 

Here are the clue's that gave it away...

Like many women she trains hard; 3 strength sessions + 2 HIIT/cardio sessions per week. Every week. Without fail. 

🤨🤨🤨

She’s also been experiencing ongoing acne that was not budging, plus painful periods that were requiring painkillers but the flow was getting lighter - from a 4 to now light 2 day bleed. 

💡💡💡

These are 3 valuable clues that link her lifestyle with her hormones and skin health….if you know what to ask and what to listen for.

What was really going on?

In her case, the training style was stacking stress on a system that was already under pressure. 

Ongoing inflammation + breakouts = stressed out system

So although exercise is a ‘good’ stressor. In an already depleted system with inflammation going on, it was too much. 

Burning through her already depleted supply (bye bye zinc, magnesium, iron and amino acids)

And activating stress hormones that really needed dialing down. 

The sad thing was this client had a suspicion her exercise regime might not be serving her well. At certain times of the month she didn’t have the same motivation to get to the gym, or the strength to lift the same weights, or HIIT it as hard.

But she was advised to ‘push through’ and that her cycle doesn’t make any difference to her workout. 

So she overrode that instinct because… discipline, right?

The pivot - this is where your education can help change your clients life

We didn’t “stop exercise.” We educated her on what we believed were driving her breakouts and period symptoms, and made suggestions for what she could try next month to see if that made a difference in her PMS and period pain (FYI we suggested she lighten up her overall exercise load through her menstrual cycle, especially during the week before and during her cycle). 

This isn’t telling her what she should or should not do, but sharing the deep insights we have into stress, the gut-brain-skin connection and the natural hormone shifts in a menstrual cycle and how that relates to how we feel, perform and function (including skin health). 

Why this matters for skin therapists

This wasn’t a product problem, but it could have easily been mistaken for this and approached with another course of treatments, mixing up her actives, or throwing some supplements at it. 

This was a pattern problem - only visible because we did a thorough consultation, asked the right questions and were able to offer on the spot education.

When we include lifestyle habits (especially exercise) and period health in our intake and reviews, we catch the subtle stuff:

• Training load/intensity timing

• Fueling and recovery habits

• Cycle regularity, ovulation signs, PMS patterns

• Sleep and perceived stress

• Flare timing vs workout days/kit/sweat
  
  

I’m excited to see how this client gets on, but from her remarks in the consultation I know we are on the right track

 “that makes total sense, I can see all the dots joining together now”

My favourite kind of aha moments in clinic 🥰

Clients often feel what’s right for their bodies. Our job is to validate that intuition, use our expert knowledge on skin health to translate it into a plan, and hold space for the experiment.

What do you think, do you suspect some of your clients skin problems could be down to their exercise routine? I'd love to know in the comments below!

Chloe

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