"Do 80% of your workout and get into the flow": the tips from social media's most famous trainer for exercising.

Crys Dyaz 's (Madrid, 1984) life has always been closely linked to sports. She has been an elite professional, and after her time on the Spanish National Swimming Team , exercise has never been a secondary priority. She is currently a physiotherapist, trainer, and CEO of CrysDyaz&Co, with four sports centers spread across the country. Her goal is clear: to help people improve their health through sports.

And to do so, it also relies on social media. While reading its name, you may have begun to think it sounded familiar, and this is no coincidence. If you follow influencers or celebrities , Dyaz or one of its facilities will have made its way into your stories. Public figures such as Laura Escanes , María Pombo , and Blanca Suárez have visited its centers.

Beyond sports, this trainer has also focused on women's health throughout her professional career. Proof of this is the fact that she is also behind SaludFem CrysDyaz and has participated in numerous talks and workshops focused on this topic. The next one will be on Saturday, June 14th, at the Womanhood Summit in Madrid, an event focused on menopause, where this expert will discuss, along with other professionals, the perfect tandem: the combination of nutrition, physical activity, and rest—precisely the three pillars that, for Dyaz, make up a healthy life.

QUESTION: What are the foundations for a healthy life?

ANSWER. I always say that the foundation of health is a three-legged table. One of them is physical activity , that is, how much you move throughout the day plus the exercise you do.

Another would be nutrition and supplementation , which I currently consider necessary given how we eat, our stress levels, and the general intoxication we experience. And the third, and equally or more important, is regulating stress levels and rest , which has to do with sleep and allowing our immune system the necessary time to recover day after day so we don't accumulate fatigue that causes hormonal changes.

Q. How should we change the way we take care of ourselves as we get older?

A. We need to know that with each passing year, our hormones and metabolism slow down. There's more degradation in the body, both at the joint and neuronal levels. Furthermore, we experience a loss of muscle mass starting at age 30-35.

Therefore, we must be aware that we need to pay more attention to all the tools that can help us improve our health: proper circadian rhythms , getting up early with the sun and going to bed earlier; what we eat, every nutrient we put into our bodies; movement, reaching the 10,000 steps recommended by the WHO daily , and avoiding that sedentary lifestyle; and freeing ourselves from digital intoxication and from alcohol and tobacco.

We also need to seek advice on preventive medicine to help us prevent diseases that are within our control. Finally, we need to know that we need plenty of quality sleep , with at least an hour and a half of deep sleep and REM sleep, which also helps ensure our immune system is where it should be.

And, of course, in that part of exercise, including strength and mobility , and knowing that our body is the tool that will help us continue.

Q. What does sport or physical exercise contribute to women's health? And what about during menopause?

A. Exercise reduces the loss of muscle mass or increases its construction , protecting our joints and bones, which also lose density after a certain age. It helps us with hormonal regulation, as hormonal balance helps all of our body's systems—cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and neuronal—function properly. Of course, it also promotes better rest because it keeps fatigue levels at the right pace.

With all this, it also affects mental health, our self-esteem , our aesthetic state and, consequently, our well-being.

Q. What about strength training?

A. I think strength was previously disparaged. All women thought that working on it with weights would make us grow bigger and have a very masculine body, but it turns out that's not the case. There are hundreds of studies with scientific evidence that support the idea that strength training is necessary for hormonal and metabolic functions, to prevent muscle loss, to protect those joints...

And also to maintain proper cardiovascular health : moving loads raises the pulse rate and generates that contraction of the heart, with the resulting pumping of blood throughout our body. Many studies show that it promotes neurological activity and helps us avoid diseases like Alzheimer's and others that can directly impact our health.

Q. How can you incorporate exercise if you've never done any sport? Is it true that it's never too late?

A. For me, the phrases would be "it's never too late ," "today is the day," and "now is the time ." That is, let's try not to think that after the summer, this New Year , or on Monday I'll start. Instead, if we have the theory, the practice, and the intention clear, let's execute it now.

I always say that when we organize our Sundays in our calendars and schedule work meetings , pick-up times for the kids, dinners, or social events, we should try to do so and know when we're going to dedicate ourselves to exercise. And from there, try to fulfill at least 80% of that intention. The other 20% will flow, but not the other way around, because then we'll enter the vicious cycle of non-achievement.

Thirdly, when we do it, try to think about how the sport feels, how we feel physically after that particular workout , and then save it in a little box so that when we get lazy later, which happens to all of us at some point, we can try to remember it.

And the fourth and final tip is to set goals. You don't have to be an elite athlete to do this. You have to set them in the short, medium, and long term—that is, for this week, this month, and three to four months from now—and they have to be achievable. Let's not be ambitious, because otherwise, we won't achieve them and will fall back into that frustration of "I've never been able to incorporate exercise ."

"It's very important to be flexible with ourselves, to flow, and to understand our bodies."

Q. You just mentioned that plans should be 80% fulfilled, and in another interview you mentioned that it's important to listen to our bodies and maintain a certain degree of flexibility.

A. It's very important to be flexible with ourselves, to flow, and to understand our bodies. And the more exercise we do and the more we monitor our health, the better we'll be able to identify which days are lazy and which are just our body's needs.

And the more we control our sleep, the better we'll be able to know when we're overwhelmed by stress or when we're capable of pushing forward or backing down. The key is to listen to your body and ensure that your sensations align with what's really happening in your body and mind, so that physical and mental health always go hand in hand. We're also clear that it's also important, at some point, to have a glass of wine or a brownie or say, "I had planned to train today, but I'm listening to my body, and it's telling me not to."

Q. There's been more and more talk about the pelvic floor. What is it and what does it do?

A. The pelvic floor is a group of muscles found in both men and women. They protect the lower back and seal the entire pelvic cavity. They bear the weight of many viscera, which are involved in the reproductive and digestive systems, and are closed at the top by the diaphragm. They have a powerful impact on health, on our pelvic dynamics, and, of course, on protection.

What interference does it have? Through impact exercise, the degradation of muscle fibers typical of aging, pregnancies, the effort we make when lifting weights, poor posture... sometimes it suffers wear and tear that generates pathologies such as incontinence , pain in relationships, lower back pain, or chronic pelvic pain, which cause many problems in women, especially those aged 40-50 and over. With a good specialist, who can help you with both prevention and treatment, symptoms can improve and even disappear, depending on the case, and thus avoid self-esteem problems and the taboos that arise.

"Sport is a fantastic tool for self-control, confidence, self-esteem, and a stronger sense of self."

Q. When people talk about this topic, they often focus on pregnant women and women of a certain age. How can you take care of yourself at any age?

A. First of all, you need to consult with a professional who knows how to guide you. Just as when I want to work on my glutes or mental health, I consult someone who can help me create a program for it, exactly the same goes for the pelvic floor, with a specialist physical therapist. From there, with good hydration and a regular assessment that helps you know where you are, both at the abdominal, diaphragmatic, and pelvic floor levels, with respiratory control during physical exercise that helps us know when to activate the transverse muscle through exhalation and support the pelvic floor at all points. And also with a good correlation of pelvic floor activation with sports, with specific exercises that help us contract the pelvic floor, if necessary, relax it, or do coordinated series with our regular physical activity.

Q. Is there an estimate of how many people have pelvic floor disorders?

A. There are many studies; each one says a different thing, depending on whether it's in Spain or abroad. Pelvic floor pathologies are increasing, and I don't think they're increasing, but it's just that it's being reported now. Nowadays, women are going to professionals for evaluations, and we're able to support or diagnose problems that were previously taken for granted after a certain age and considered impossible to solve. Now, it's done in a very direct way.

Q. Regarding abdominal diastasis, how does it occur? Has this topic become more widely discussed in recent years?

A. Yes, it's being talked about more, just like with the pelvic floor, because it's a problem that affects many women, especially during pregnancy. It's physiological; the rectus abdominis muscles must separate so the belly can grow and accommodate the baby's position, but then they have to return to their normal position. When the abdominal diastasis remains above three centimeters and isn't functional, it requires surgery because otherwise, it can cause lumbar pathologies, incontinence, and very uncomfortable symptoms.

We currently work with the Madrid Institute of Abdominal Diastasis Recti on preventive care, including preoperative care when necessary and postoperative care. We offer highly effective prevention with highly conscious abdominal activation during pregnancy and postpartum. As soon as we can, we begin abdominal work so that the diastasis recti returns to its normal state and becomes part of a pregnancy scar , but without future symptoms or unpleasant sensations, including aesthetics.

Q. In recent years, training and running have become popular. Is this trend linked to increased mental health issues related to diet and exercise?

A. I think going out to exercise doesn't generate it if we do it properly, with that 80-20 ratio, if we rely on professionals who know when to slow down, when to push our bodies and when not to, how to create a good program that's associated with good nutrition and rest, and we understand that health is the priority. Therefore, the aesthetic consequences shouldn't be associated with more pathologies such as eating disorders or obsessions related to them.

In fact, quite the opposite: sport is a fantastic tool for self-control, security, self-esteem , making us stronger, and tackling any obstacle that may arise along the way.

Q. In sports and physiotherapy, what is still missing regarding women's health?

A. We have to continue on the path we're on, where we're increasingly seeing what's happening in a woman's body and how hormones intervene to adapt those workouts and rest periods even more specifically.

In terms of addressing rest and stress regulation, we still have extensive research on how to help women incorporate exercise and a healthy diet that's tailored to their hormones. We also need to know how to help them cope with the pace of life we ​​lead and the burden placed on us, doing it all in the right way, in a specific and specialized way.