Female Hormones & Training

As the conversation around training and the menstrual cycle is gaining momentum everywhere, so is misinformation on the same topic. My pet peeve is male trainers telling women to stretch and ‘take it easy’ in the later stages of the cycle, which couldn’t be further from the truth. To dispel these myths, I created a series of posts to present scientific facts and proven methods to allow you to discover your true potential. I have now adapted these posts into one blog for you to find all information in one place.

Firstly, to train hard and recover well, we must have an abundance of energy yet data shows that recreational female athletes are not eating enough to even fuel their everyday life. Add to this our ever-changing hormones and general lack of knowledge around our cycles and we don’t know how to take control of our training.

Let’s start by breaking down the cycle and looking at each individual stage. The average cycle is 28 days, but yours might be shorter or longer, so the timeframes presented are simply guidelines for you and I invite you to track your cycle to find out its estimated length.

FOLLICULAR PHASE

Follicular phase starts with day 1 of bleeding and runs up to day 12-13 (day 14 being ovulation based on the average 28 day cycle). This is your literal power phase and a time where women and men are most alike in terms of hormones, health and training. Body temperature and hormones are low, your body is anti-inflammatory, immune system is strong, you sleep well and carbs are easily processed for energy. In addition to this, recovery is fast and you stand to get the most out of your sessions, push your limits and unlock new PRs.

Your oestrogen levels start rising from day ~7 and peak around ovulation. If you’re not prone to soft tissue injuries, you can continue to train hard all the way through these weeks.

PS. Oestrogen for women is like testosterone is for men – it is an ergogenic aid that helps us get more out of training without putting in too much extra work so you will experience some very favourable adaptations during follicular phase. However, if you are looking for something to blame for poor performance in training in the later stages of the cycle, it’s progesterone. More on this later.

OVULATION

Your oestrogen levels will have been climbing steadily throughout the follicular phase. Around day 12-14, you will experience an oestrogen boost, which hyper-sensitises the serotonin receptors in the brain and allows for a surge of serotonin, leaving you feeling fantastic.

This short phase is usually accompanied by high energy levels, boosted sex drive, ‘glowing’ complexion and clear skin. Unfortunately, for some women, PMS symptoms start early and they might experience skin breakouts and sore breasts due to elevated progesterone levels, which usually comes with luteal phase.

EARLY LUTEAL PHASE

Once hormones start to rise post-ovulation, this brings on the pro-inflammatory state, a slightly weakened immune system and the body’s ability to use carbs for energy reduces. This is due to progesterone holding on to every bit of energy to make sure the egg is in the safest environment. This is the time to support one’s training with some extra carbs to increase readily available glycogen in the body. You don’t have to change your training but you will feel more tired as recovery is slower. Consider soft tissue treatments such as massage or foam rolling.

Post ovulation, around day 15-20, progesterone starts to rise. Progesterone is ‘everywhere’ in the body as it’s protecting the implanted egg and uses carbs, fat and protein to build the endometrial lining. These processes in turn increase the Basal Metabolic rate, turn your body pro-inflammatory, we find it harder to enter REM sleep and it’s harder to break down carbs from storage. This is where total carbohydrate intake needs to be increased in order to keep up with the same intensity of training and to support recovery as much as possible.

MID & LATE LUTEAL PHASE

As the menstrual cycle enters late luteal phase and the egg has not been fertilised, progesterone starts to break everything down. Here is where you, an athlete, are most at risk of losing lean mass so swap the extra carbs for high protein (around 12% more). Your body might start to feel achy, you might feel less motivated, more moody and for a few days everything can feel quite bleak. This truly is the best time to enjoy easier activities and move for enjoyment – this is the de-load phase.

Progesterone is catabolic and its job is to break down muscle tissue, carbs and fats in preparation for a safe environment the egg. If the egg does not get fertilised, around 3-5 days before the start of the new period, there is an inflammatory response from the body, which comes with PMS symptoms and mood changes. This happens due to the elevated progesterone and already dropped oestrogen, leaving our hypersensitive receptors starved for serotonin, which can leave us feeling really low for a few days. After this, your hormones will suddenly drop either before or at the start of the next period and you’re back to feeling top notch.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The best way to match your training patterns to your cycle is to track all changes. Since we only have about 5+ years of official data that includes female participants, currently your own personal experience (n=1) is most helpful to you. You might wish to use these data protected apps to start logging: Wild.AI, FitrWoman, Clue. I personally use the health app on my iPhone. Keeping a log will help you learn to predict changes in your performance based on where you are in your cycle.

As a friendly reminder, please know that there are no negative days in terms of performance during your cycle. This means that you do not have to take any days off, you simply have to adjust your nutrition and vary training intensity or type.

A lot of the restrictions to our training in the later stages of the cycle are psychological and data tells us that women are more likely to skip training entirely rather than change the session plan when they don’t feel great. Let’s change that – when you do experience lower energy days and are finding yourself lost for ideas on what workouts to try, why not dig up all the saved workouts or new skills and exercises you’ve wanted to attempt?

The goal of regular training is to make your body more resilient, so adjust your training intensity and general tasks to your hormones as and when needed to get the most out of them. Keep showing up and have fun with it!