Train around your cycle
The physiological changes that take place around a woman’s period can affect her training. Let’s assess when to take it easy – and when you should go hard!
How well do you think you know your body? As I started researching menstrual cycle training I was surprised at how little I actually understood my own. I knew some workouts felt incredible and nothing could stop me and a week later I would feel depleted and weak.. but it was not until I dived into this concept of working out around my menstrual cycle it all started to click.
Women are beginning to notice the physiological changes and adapting their training accordingly. There are apps and cycle trackers, but the area is still woefully under-researched (blame male-dominated medicine and sport).
“There are also a lot of conflicting results, while almost half of the existing studies are low quality, says Kelly Lee McNulty, a PhD student at Northumbria University, who is investigating the effects of the menstrual cycle on performance, adaptation and recovery. “While performance and training based on the menstrual cycle is such an interesting concept, and very popular at the moment, there’s not enough published high-quality evidence,” she says. (There is even less on the impact of hormonal contraception on exercise performance, so where we refer here to the menstrual cycle, it is for women who are not on the pill or using an implant.) However, there are generalities that could be helpful for some women. Here is how your cycle may be affecting your workout.”
Learning about our cycle:
The 28-day cycle is split into two halves – follicular and luteal, either side of ovulation.
Say your cycle is right on the 28 days, here is what we are looking at:
Days 1-5 early follicular with low estrogen and progesterone
Days 6-12 late follicular with high estrogen and low progesterone
Days 13-28 Luteal
Day 20-23 mid-luteal with high estrogen and progesterone.
Every woman cycle is different and there is no one size fits all approach, so make sure to listen to your body first.
Phase 1 - Menstrual Cycle: Your estrogen and progesterone hormones are at their lowest, which can leave us feeling unmotivated and depleted. Exercising can be very beneficial in this stage, even helping ebb some of the symptoms of menstruation but start slow and with low intensity.
Phase 2- Follicle Phase: After Day 1 of your cycle estrogen begins to increase, boosting our energy. This can be a perfect time to start increasing activity, as we have the potential to recover more quickly.
Phase 3- Ovulatory Phase: Only about 3-5 days long our estrogen peaks while, testosterone and progesterone levels rise. In this phase our energy and performance will be at its peak.
Phase 4- Luteal Phase: During the first half of this phase, we may feel very energized, but energy slowly start to decline towards the 2nd half. Our resting body temperture may also be on the rise making hot outdoor activites all the harder.
There are so many symptoms right before and during your period, like breast pain, headaches and nausea … so if you are not feeling great maybe take some recovery days, but then it’s also been shown that movement during period can help offset some symptoms. Around days three to five of your period, estrogen starts to increase, so you might be starting to feel better and up for exercise around that time. Training on your period is a good way to offset your symptoms.
When to start increasing the intensity?
In the late follicular and the mid-luteal phases, estrogen is higher and increasing, one of its many effects is to help build muscle mass. During this phase we can really push ourselves with strength training and higher intensity. Our bodies don’t have a huge amount of testosterone, but it rises during ovulation and makes this an ideal time to really push, because of the increased energy levels. This is the part of your cycle you feel like you can crush a workout and make the most “gains”. However, it is not always a given because also starting mid-luteal phase, progesterone rises; that has its own physiological effects, so you might not notice that difference, but workout in a way that feels good in your body.
Another thing to notice here is … injury around ovulation time
Some evidence has shown that during ovulation, around the late follicular phase (right before ovulation begins in the middle of your cycle), there is an increased risk of injury, because the hormone makes ligaments and tendons more lax. I wouldn’t say do not train during this phase but if you notice a increase to injury maybe spend more time in the warmup. However we can take advantage of this rise in estrogen here also. While it might make you more prone to injury, estrogen also provides benefits.
It is thought to have a positive effect on mood, so this could help us have more motivation to move.
Neuromuscular benefits (a signal to increase the body’s ability to activate muscles)
estrogen can also help us recover more quickly, as this hormone may have a protective function against muscle damage.
It reduces the inflammatory response, so this could help reduce muscle soreness.
All of this to mean that we may recover more quickly and therefore adapt to training more readily.
In the mid-luteal phase, progesterone rises along with estrogen. This increases your basal body temperature, so, if you’re doing an endurance sport, you might be struggling in a hot environment a little bit more in that mid-luteal phase and you might have to adopt cooling strategies. After the third week of your cycle, perhaps start to taper down and do more restorative exercise, such as yoga or pilates. It’s not the time to try to beat any records or do a whole bunch of strength training. This is a really good time to do long walks and low-intensity training. In a world where we’re surrounded by these super high-intensity workouts and we beat our bodies into the ground, working with your cycle is a much kinder way to look after your body.
Need help designing a workout around your cycle? Reach out for a personalized program.
