Emily Dugan ON:

depression, strength training, infradian cycles, and empowering women in the fitness world

The PLTFRM team recently sat down with Emily Dugan, aka @_emilydugan on Instagram, and had an eye-opening conversation about fitness and the female cycles. Emily is on a mission to empower women with knowledge when it comes to understanding, accepting, and learning about their bodies and cycles.

Prior to the pandemic, Emily was a personal trainer in Toronto. During the pandemic, Emily moved her training online but didn’t find that she connected with clients as much. This led to her taking a slight break, eventually leading her to the work she does today.

“At the time my desire for change was fueled by the physical component. I had gained weight and was battling depression and I decided to start by controlling what I could control. I couldn’t control the job market so instead I’m going to start using my time in the gym.”

We started our conversation going all the way to the beginning of Emily’s personal fitness journey. “My fitness journey started in a dark time in my life when I was trying to get all these corporate jobs that just weren’t working out. I wasn’t prioritizing myself, I had no sleep hygiene and a terrible diet.” Emily went on to talk about how in this dark place she had a moment of realization when she knew she had to make a change. “At the time my desire for change was fueled by the physical component. I had gained weight and was battling depression and I decided to start by controlling what I could control. I couldn’t control the job market so instead I’m going to start using my time in the gym.”

Emily talked about how even though her goals at the start were based on her looks that quickly shifted to a focus on how working out made her feel. Emily shared, “When people around me started noticing the changes in me they would ask if I could create a program for them and that’s what led me to think that maybe I could make a career out of this for myself.”

“I want to shed light on how someone can train as a woman or as someone with a menstrual cycle.”

Today, a big part of Emily’s new brand focus on women and strength training. This focus and passion have come from years of personal and professional experience. Emily believes, “Women are grossly underrepresented in the research done on fitness. The machines in the gym are not designed for women.” Emily went on to explain how women’s bodies run on, roughly, a 28-day infradian cycle, and this cycle impacts their strength training abilities. There are times in the month when a woman can lift heavy and times in a month when she needs to do something lighter. Emily shared how her new brand focus on this, “I want to shed light on how someone can train as a woman or as someone with a menstrual cycle.”

Emily told our team how she wishes more women understood how they could work with their bodies instead of feeling like their bodies were working against them. She shared how the knowledge should start young, “boys and girls should learn about this way to view cycles whenever sex ed comes up in school. Boys' cycles and journey through puberty are often glorified while women are somewhat apologetic for theirs and receive sympathy. Girls are told they are going to be moody, have cramps, and that's just the way it is. That is not the way it has to be.” Emily shared how we need to start empowering girls with the knowledge that they can eat a certain way, train a certain way, and do other things that support their cycle.

"Girls are told they are going to be moody, have cramps, and that's just the way it is. That is not the way it has to be.”

Our conversation with Emily was fascinating and we are so excited to watch the brand she is growing come to life. If you would like a sneak peek into our conversation with Emily head to our Instagram channel. If you would like to connect with Emily you can find her on Instagram and Tiktok @_emilydugan.