This one is for the women...
Point Of View:
It’s Friday night, you have plans to get happy hour with some girlfriends and you feel throbbing pain radiating from your lower abdomen and a wave of exhaustion rolls in. Low and behold, it’s your period! You call your girlfriends, reschedule, throw on cozy clothes, and snuggle up with a movie.
It is quite socially acceptable for you to grace yourself and rest from social interactions when you are feeling less than 100%. Which is amazing and necessary, however, do you extend that grace to your workout routine? If you have the very common American mentality of ‘No pain no gain,’ you may be hindering your athletic efforts.
You are probably already familiar with how the hormone fluctuations that come with your period affect your mood, energy, and appetite. BUT, you have three other phases in your menstrual cycle that also come with hormone fluctuations and these fluctuations have an impact on your metabolism, endurance, muscle building and even injury risk: particularly in the early follicular and late-luteal phases.
To get on the same page, let’s do a brief breakdown of the four phases of your menstrual cycle and what that means for your hormones, because if you are anything like me, often times women don’t get an in-depth lesson on the different phases of their cycle.
The Menstrual cycle:
The Menstrual Phase: When the lining of the uterus is shed and bleeding occurs.
Hormone Profile: Low progesterone | Low estrogen.
Phase Highlights: May experience cramping, skin and breast tenderness, sudden mood swings, fatigue, headaches, and lower back pain.
2. The Follicular Phase: When the body is preparing for ovulation
Hormone Profile:
Early-follicular phase: Low progesterone | Low estrogen.
Mid-follicular phase: Low progesterone | Higher estrogen | Higher testosterone.
Phase Highlights:
Early-follicular:
Potential decrease in endurance and athletic performance.
Increased risk of athletic-related injury
Mid-follicular:
Favors fat loss
Gain lean muscle easier from higher testosterone levels.
Greater energy & endurance for intense workouts.
3. The Ovulatory Phase: When the ovary releases a mature egg toward the uterus to be fertilized by sperm. AKA optimal time to get pregnant.
Hormone Profile: High estrogen | Low progesterone.
Phase Highlights: Increased self-esteem, metabolism, endurance, energy, and potential increased caloric need.
4. The Luteal Phase: When the corpus luteum forms in the ovary (essential for conception) which houses a mature egg.
Hormone profile:
Mid-luteal phase: High estrogen | High progesterone
Late-luteal phase: Lower estrogen | Lower progesterone
Phase Highlights: Anxiety, hostility, and depression spiked. AKA this is when you may have PMS.
Hormones & Exercise:
Estrogen has a wonderful effect on the body when hormone levels are normalized. Estrogen is known for increasing energy utilization and muscle building. It is also thought to increase muscle activation during exercise. The high estrogen levels seen in the mid-follicular, ovulatory, and mid-luteal phase combined with the lower levels of progesterone make these phases ideal for optimizing endurance workouts. You may feel more energy to combat those challenging spin and boot camp classes.
Low estrogen and progesterone seen in the early follicular and late-luteal phases may have negative effects on athletic performance because the benefits from estrogen are not present. This can decrease energy levels and that cardio class you were crushing a few weeks ago now will seem exceptionally challenging. In the late-luteal phase you may also experience a decrease in the overall gains you make from strength training. Since this phase can come with typical PMS symptoms like exhaustion and brain fog, you are more likely to experience an athletic injury. When those PMS symptoms kick in or you are feeling lower energy, it’s a good time to tone down your workouts. Switching to Pilates, lighter strength training and restorative yoga can be extremely beneficial.
Birth Control (Oral Contraceptives):
Oral contraceptives are a beautiful resource for providing women the choice to protect against pregnancy. However, oral contraceptives are widely prescribed for many reasons other than birth control, like acne, heavy flow, period regulation, etc. This is a practice that does not come without many side effects but the one I am fixating on today is its potential effect on athletic performance. Those on oral contraceptives maintain the same hormonal profile of the early follicular phase (low estrogen | low progesterone).
This means those on birth control are possibly operating with a hindered athletic ability all the time. However, more research is needed and in current studies, results are quite controversial. In addition, this can not be applied across the board to all women on birth control. Just like nutrition, this is not a one size fits all, but simply something to be aware of. If you have more questions about this topic I would be happy to chat with you!
The Take Away:
There have not been enough studies to warrant a broad recommendation to women on how to workout in sync with their cycles. However, I do recommend to take this information with a personalized approach. This is not about painting your menstrual cycle as a physical liability but acknowledge hormonal fluctuations and their potential effect.
It is time to stop forcing your body to push it to the limits if your body is asking you to take it down a notch. By working out no matter how your body is feeling, you are ignoring your inner wisdom, creating more disconnection from your body, and sabotaging exercise efforts. In short, you are not being mindful.
Rather than pushing through to what you think you ‘should do’, choose to move in the way that leaves you feeling energized rather than deflated. When you honor your body and feel in sync with your biological rhythms you can feel more energy, boost your metabolism, and prevent injury.
Food for Thought:
Choosing foods that are a bit lighter during the follicular phase when your metabolism is lower and you may not be pushing yourself very hard may be something to consider. These foods could include whole grains such as early and oats, pressed salads (think kimchi and sauerkraut), string beans, zucchini, carrots, and lean proteins. These listed foods are foods that are easy on your digestion and are still packed with a ton of nutrients!
