Lifestyle
My gym knows when I’m on my period. Why ‘cycle syncing’ workouts are rising in L.A.
I was holding onto the barre, trying to keep my heels together in first position, but my legs were shaking. This wasn’t supposed to be so hard — especially for someone like me who regularly works out — but it felt like a total reach.
The Barrelates class at FOLM, a new studio that opened in September 2025 in Melrose Hill, blends barre and Pilates into a slow-burn flow designed for low-energy days. I was a few days from my period and even getting off my couch seemed like a stretch. Two other women moved quietly beside me, nobody chatting, all of us seemingly running on fumes. On the way in, I had seen women in the reformer room chatting animatedly as they packed up. Even that seemed exhausting.
At my old gym, a scrappy Muay Thai spot that has since closed, the trainers saw me on my best days and my worst. Some weeks I’d walk in and destroy everyone in sparring. Other weeks I couldn’t do a push-up on my knees. The coaches didn’t know the difference (which, fair, I wasn’t updating them on my cycle) — they just yelled at me to go harder. I’d push through, wondering why I was so lazy, so inconsistent, so weak.
It wasn’t until my late 30s, after I changed my birth control and started getting regular periods for the first time in years, that I started paying close attention to my body’s signals. The week I wanted a burger, I got the burger. The day I felt too depleted for kickboxing, I took a walk instead. I stopped fighting my body and started listening to it.
Malloy Moseley relaxes inside FOLM’s infrared sauna.
FOLM is built around this idea. The name stands for follicular, ovulation, luteal and menstrual — the four phases of the menstrual cycle — and the class schedule offers different intensities throughout the day so women can choose based on where they are hormonally. Circuit training and power reformer for high-energy days. Barrelates and classical Pilates for when you’re running on empty.
Two weeks later, I returned for the reformer class. This time, the room felt like a party. I’m something of a Pilates connoisseur, and the class hit all the familiar beats, challenging and satisfying. Afterward, two women made plans to hit a farmers market and grab coffee. Three others beelined toward the infrared sauna. I checked my phone and remembered I had a full day ahead, and the energy to tackle it. The workout felt almost incidental.
The cycle syncing trend is rising. But is it backed by science?
FOLM is part of a growing conversation around “cycle syncing,” the practice of tailoring exercise, diet and lifestyle to the hormonal shifts of the menstrual cycle. On social media, the concept has exploded, and the language of hormonal phases has entered everyday conversation. The science, though, is still catching up.
Instructor and co-founder Cindy Gomez, center, leads a reformer-based class.FOLM student, above. Micaela Ricca, exercises in the weight room studio designed with a blend of barre, mat and circuit training, below.
“Reproductive-age women from puberty to menopause have significant cyclic changes in their sex hormones during the course of their menstrual cycle,” says Dr. Kacey M. Hamilton, an OBGYN at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. These hormonal shifts affect more than just the reproductive system — they influence mood, digestion and potentially injury risk. Hamilton points to research on female athletes that found higher rates of ligament injuries at certain points in the cycle, likely linked to progesterone and estrogen’s effects on connective tissue.
But Hamilton stops short of endorsing cycle-based fitness programs. “There’s never been any literature that said, hey, women who follow cycle thinking have better strength outcomes or have more energy,” she says. “None of it has outcomes data to support it thus far.”
Her concern is over complication. “Lifestyle changes and healthy lifestyle choices are difficult for all of us,” she says. Hamilton worries that if a woman believes she should rest for two weeks out of the month, she might miss the resistance training crucial for bone health and longevity.
Co-founders Anna Collins, left, and Cindy Gomez at FOLM fitness studio.
A “recovery womb,” hormone-balancing snacks and lots of hormone talk
The founders of FOLM, Anna Collins, 30, and Cindy Gomez, 35, say they’re not asking anyone to skip workouts. Both came to cycle syncing through experience. Collins noticed her ballet pirouettes suffered during her luteal phase; Gomez saw women pushing through heated Pilates classes until they nearly passed out. “After class, we’d ask, ‘When was your last period?’’ Gomez said. “And they’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m supposed to get it tomorrow.’ It’s like, OK, maybe you shouldn’t be doing HIIT in 100-degree heat.”
The studio also offers what the founders call “the recovery womb.” An infrared sauna that fits five and runs 20-minute sessions. Unlike traditional saunas, infrared heats you from within, and the founders recommend going in after class when you’re already warm so you sweat more effectively. (Though they suggest skipping it when you’re actually bleeding, since you’re already depleted.)
There is also a vibration plate that, Collins and Gomez say, can help with lymphatic drainage before or after class. There’s bone broth and seed-cycling cookies, both made in-house by Gomez, who is a certified nutrition health coach, with seeds meant to support hormone balance at different phases. In January, a cycle coach joins the team to lead workshops on syncing not just workouts but nutrition, creativity — even finances — to the menstrual cycle.
At FOLM, nothing is mandatory. “We want our clients to be listening to what their body is telling them,” Gomez says. “Even during your luteal phase, if you take the lighter class, you’re still challenging yourself.”
Hamilton sees value in this body awareness. “My favorite thing about the current online conversation is that it’s getting people familiar with their cycle,” she says. A few years ago, her patients rarely knew the difference between follicular and luteal phases. Now they talk hormones fluently. “Information is so powerful.”
FOLM is also women-only, welcoming anyone who identifies as a woman or nonbinary. The founders expected pushback but say it hasn’t come. “I’ve been teaching for years, and I see a huge difference in how women feel here,” Collins says.
Whether this approach delivers measurable fitness results remains unproven. But that Barrelates class — hard, but not too hard — was exactly what I needed on a day I almost didn’t show up. The idea behind the Barrelates class, Collins says, is that you’re never not moving, so the flow keeps your mind on the physical rather than whatever is happening emotionally. After the reformer class two weeks later, I had energy to spare. Next time, maybe I’ll try Barrelates when both my body and mind are showing up.
The first time Pop’s Social, a catering company in South Orange, N.J., that specializes in dirty soda, served an alcoholic drink at an event, something strange happened.
At the event in December, its nonalcoholic offering, a spiced pear-cider seltzer with vanilla and peach syrups, cream, lemon and cold foam, was a hit. The Prosecco-spiked version? Not so much.
“People were more interested in the mocktail than the cocktail,” Ali Greenberg, an owner of the business, said in an interview.
Dirty soda — a customizable blend of soda, flavored syrup, creamer and sometimes fruit, served over pebble ice — has been crossing into the mainstream for years, especially after the cast of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the hit reality show that premiered in 2024, frequented Swig, the Utah chain that started it all.
But its reach has gone far beyond the Mormon corridor, and its rise in popularity has dovetailed with an overall decline in U.S. alcohol consumption. “There’s not a lot of Mormon people in our neighborhood,” said Greenberg. “But there are a lot of people who are sober-curious or not drinking.”
The reality show, which follows a group of Mormon influencers in Utah, helped popularize dirty soda beyond the Mountain States and inspired a wave of TikTok videos on the subject. Swig rapidly expanded — growing from 33 locations in Utah and Arizona in 2021 to now more than 150 locations in 16 states — along with other Utah chains, and spawned copycats nationwide.
Dirty soda has joined other Mormon cultural exports, like tradwife influencers, a “Real Housewives” franchise in Salt Lake City and Taylor Frankie Paul, the Bachelorette who wasn’t, that have captivated America.
With the recent rollouts of dirty soda at McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Dunkin’ — behold the Dunkin’ Dirty Soda: Pepsi, coffee milk and cold foam — and the appearance on grocery shelves of Dirty Mountain Dew and a coconut-lime Coffee Mate creamer for homemade dirty sodas, we may have reached peak dirty.
The idea for dirty soda came out of a desire for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has millions of followers in Utah and surrounding states, to have more options for social drinking, as the church prohibits the consumption of alcohol, hot coffee and hot caffeinated tea.
When Swig introduced dirty soda in 2010, it filled a need, providing a pick-me-up for car-pooling moms and an after-school treat for their kids. It was quickly adopted by many in the community.
“In other cultures, parents go, they pick up their coffee in the morning, and for me and for a lot of my other friends’ parents, it was, ‘Let’s go pick up our dirty soda,’” Whitney Leavitt, a breakout star of “Mormon Wives,” said in an interview.
Leavitt was surprised when her dirty soda order became a recurring question from reporters in recent years. “They were so excited to hear all of the different syrups and creamers that we add to our drinks to make whatever your go-to dirty soda is,” Leavitt said. (Hers is sparkling water with sugar-free pineapple, sugar-free peach and sugar-free vanilla syrups, raspberry purée, a squeeze of lime, and fresh mint if she’s “feeling really fancy.”)
In April, Leavitt became the chief creative and brand officer at Cool Sips, a beverage chain based in New York that sells dirty sodas.
“Mormon Wives” inspired Kaitlyn Sturm, a 26-year-old mother of three from Jackson, Miss., to post recipes for dirty sodas on her TikTok. The one she makes the most contains Coke or Dr Pepper, homemade cherry syrup, a glug of coconut creamer and a packet of True Lime crystallized lime powder, which she combines in a pasta-sauce jar filled with pebble ice. “It kind of has become like a ritual, where I make one for my husband as well, and we have it most evenings,” Sturm said in an interview.
The trend has also hit fast-food menus. The new “crafted soda” menu at McDonald’s is riddled with dirty soda DNA. The Dirty Dr Pepper, with vanilla flavoring and a cold-foam topper, is the chain’s version of what has shaped up to be the universal dirty soda flavor. Since 2024, Sonic, beloved for its porous, soda-absorbing pebble ice, has offered “dirty” drinks — your choice of soda plus coconut syrup, sweet cream and lime.
These drinks might feel new, but there are antecedents in the Italian sodas of the ’90s (fizzy water and a pump of Torani syrup); the Shirley Temple (ginger ale or lemon-lime soda with grenadine and maraschino cherries); and the egg cream, a tonic of seltzer, chocolate syrup and milk. And what is a dirty Dr Pepper with cold foam if not a descendant of the root beer float? “It’s just a soda fountain from 125 years ago,” Kara Nielsen, a food and beverage trend forecaster, said in an interview.
Though Leavitt moved to New York City with her family in December, her dirty soda ritual has remained consistent, with one key difference. “In Utah, we don’t get to walk to dirty soda shops,” Leavitt said. “We have to drive there.”
Annuals include flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums. They grow fast but won’t come back the next spring (though they will drop seeds and possibly propagate). Perennials like lavender and sage will return year after year, but they may take longer to grow. Wildflower and pollinator packets often contain both annual and perennial seeds but are frowned upon by some serious gardeners, because the selection can be haphazard and ill-suited to the area.
It’s a good idea to exercise a little situational awareness. How much rain can you expect? How much sunlight? Dig the earth and feel it between your fingers — is it sandy? Loamy? These are things to keep in mind as you prepare for your journey into horticultural chaos.
“You want to prepare your soil, your site, at least a little bit,” said Deryn Davidson, a sustainable landscape expert at Colorado State University Extension in Longmont, Colo. “Try to get rid of weeds. Make sure the soil is ready to receive seeds.”
Davidson, who has written about chaos gardening, strongly advised covering the seeds with a layer of soil, lest they become bird food. As for watering, that depends on where you live, she added. On the whole, though, the formula is straightforward: “Soil, sun and water is what these seeds need,” Davidson said.
Not everyone is a fan of the trend, or at least the way it has been portrayed on social media. “Nature is not chaos — nature is pattern,” said Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and the author of “Braiding Sweetgrass,” which recommends imbuing modern life with Indigenous wisdom.
“It seems unrealistic,” Kimmerer said of the chaos gardening videos she has watched. The feeling of effortlessness they convey — a common social media effect, almost always the result of deft editing — seems to elide the work that goes into a garden, whether chaotic or not, she suggested.
“I want my garden to be natural and biodiverse,” she said. “That’s a good impulse. I don’t think this technique is going to get you there, but that’s an important impulse.”
Boitnott, the maker of the viral video, offered a simple reason for why chaos gardening has become popular: “It just makes you happy.”
Admission: I suffer from eyestrain. Even right this very second. As a reporter working on a computer more than eight hours most days, my eyes often feel fatigued and itchy by evening.
I’m not alone: More than half of the U.S. population lives with computer vision syndrome, also known as digital eyestrain, and nearly 16.4 million Americans suffer from dry eye syndrome. So I was especially excited to stumble on New Vogue Spa, in the City of Industry, which offers a relaxing, if intriguing, treatment called “Eyeball Care” — something I’d never heard of before at a day spa.
New Vogue Spa is an Asian-style spa with Korean and Chinese influences. The spa’s offerings include massages and body scrubs — I was curious about the “Red Wine Body Scrub” — but I couldn’t help exploring eyeball care, which was much needed after my 50-minute drive from Silver Lake. (The City of Industry is about 30 minutes from downtown L.A. without heavy traffic.)
So it came to be that I found myself lying on a massage table, wearing what looked like protruding diving goggles, with clouds of cool, aromatic steam oozing from both sides of it and engulfing my face. A spindly plastic tube extended from my forehead to the “Eye Spa” machine. Serene spa music, a blend of classical piano and loudly chirping birds, trilled in the background as the machine sloshed and gurgled. It felt like lying, creekside, in a spa robe wrapped in a blanket of chamomile and rosemary-scented fog.
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As my esthetician, Jenny Chen, adjusted the eye mask and added essential oils to the mist, New Vogue manager Lesley Xie explained that the 60-minute, $125 Eyeball Care treatment aims to hydrate and stimulate blood circulation in the eye area, decrease puffiness and dark circles and aid eye fatigue and dry eye syndrome.
“It’s really helpful for overall eye health for people who are on computers for a long time or sleep really late or who are reading a lot,” she said.
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1. The Eyeball Care treatment included a mask filled with cool, aromatic steam to help relieve fatigued eyes. 2. Slippers in the Himalayan Salt Room.
Xie said that eyeball care treatments are common in China. When she was growing up in Guangdong in Southern China, elementary school students were given a break every afternoon to perform “eye exercises,” which involved gently massaging pressure points around their eye areas, for 5-10 minutes.
“It released eye stress because we studied from eight o’clock in the morning until almost noon time,” she said. “It was a break for our eyes to prevent nearsightedness and tired eyes.”
New Vogue Spa’s treatment was supremely relaxing from the onset — part Head Spa, part facial, part eye care. Chen began by massaging my scalp for about 10 minutes, as I tried not to fall asleep.
Next she cleaned my face, applied massage cream and gently massaged my face and eye area, manipulating the outer corners of my eye sockets as well as under my brow bones and on my temples. She was precise and firm but careful — as she pressed on the outside corner of my eye, I felt tension draining down the side of my cheek and neck.
Esthetician Jenny Chen conducts “Golden Eye therapy” on reporter Deborah Vankin.
Xie said the massage is based on traditional Chinese medicine, focusing on stimulating acupressure points around the eyes.
“Gentle massage of these areas is believed to help promote blood circulation, relax the muscles responsible for focusing and relieve visual fatigue,” she said. “While it’s not a medical treatment for vision conditions, it’s widely used as a preventative and restorative method.”
The massage was followed by “Golden Eye therapy,” during which Chen used an electronic device on my face with a metal roller ball on it. It uses “ultrasonic vibration technology,” Xie said, to help the skin absorb the applied moisturizing cream and combat eye puffiness.
The main event was the “cooling steam therapy,” which Xie said was meant to be calming and refreshing and help relieve tired eyes. Chen fitted me with what looked like an enormous diving mask that quickly filled with cool, hydrating mist — I felt droplets of water dripping from my eyes and down my cheeks. The Eye Spa machine uses a “cold mist atomization process,” Xie said, “that disperses micro-particles of moisture combined with soothing essential oils.”
At the end of my treatment, Chen gave me under-eye gel pad masks, for added hydration, while conducting one last head massage. She applied moisturizing eye cream, face cream and sunscreen before sending me off.
Dr. Kristina Voss, an ophthalmologist with Keck Medicine of USC, was enthusiastic about the Eyeball Care treatment.
“It sounds wonderful. Anything that makes you feel good, I generally support,” she said. “It sounds safe because they’re not putting pressure on the eye. Direct pressure on the eyeball [is dangerous]. And I’d be nervous if they were putting something in the eye, but they’re not. Steam, or even cool condensation from a humidifier, is effective for dry eye. Massaging pressure points probably doesn’t treat dry eye, but could potentially treat eyestrain or tension headaches that can be interpreted as eyestrain.”
Los Angeles Times features writer Deborah Vankin inspects her eyeballs after her treatment.
Temporary relief aside, however, Voss warned that the treatment is not a replacement for seeing a doctor if a condition is ongoing.
“It’s relaxing and complementary to a doctor’s dry eye treatments — like medicated drops or in-office treatments — but it’s not a simple fix or cure all,” she said. “Ongoing doctor’s care would be important.”
After my treatment, I was invited to linger in the co-ed Himalayan Salt Room and Red Clay Room or woman-only spa area, complete with a warm soaking tub, lounge area and treatment rooms for body scrubs. (I skipped the adjacent New Vogue MedSpa, where you can get botox, dermal filler or microneedling treatments.)
Guests are also treated to a cup of homemade snow fungus tea (made from tremella mushrooms) with a single jujube, or red, date, floating inside. New Vogue makes a fresh batch every morning for guests, simmering the collagen-rich drink so long it becomes somewhat gelatinous.
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1. The Himalayan Salt Room. 2. The co-ed lounge area. 3. The Red Clay Room.
“Snow fungus focuses on deep hydration and skin plumping, while red dates support circulation and a healthy glow,” Xie said, calling the concoction “a warm bowl of snow fungus and red date soup.”
I can’t speak to the medicinal benefits of snow fungus tea. But after a glass of the warm, woody-tasting drink — together with the hour-long tension-taming eye treatment — I saw the world in a whole new way while walking out the door: clearly, from a relaxed perspective and with the bigger picture in focus.
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