Female Hormones + Training
Being a girl is so interesting!
I clearly remember the day when I had my first period: it was terrifying and my mom was… happy? I was really young and I wasn’t ready for these changes to occur in my body. I was probably the first girl in the classroom to have developed breasts and… a period now!
In school, I learned the basics of biology but, I never dug deep into really understanding what being a “girl” physiologically meant until I started studying female changes (mentally, physically, emotionally, and hormonally).
Let’s go back to biology basics, I promise I won’t scare you!
If you see the graph above you can see 2 “mountains”. A red one and a green one. This means that our menstrual cycle is broken down into 2 phases or 2X 14 day phases. If you see in the middle there is a line in which ovulation happens.
The red mountain and “first day” is the day of our period. Five or Six days after our period ends our hormones gradually start RAMPING UP. You can see Estrogen (blue line) how it ramps up as well as LH or Luteinizing Hormone (yellow line). Then later, Progesterone (green line) kicks in and reaches its peak 5 days before our next period.
BOOM! DONE! I TOLD YOU IS NOT THAT SCARY!
Now, what does that have anything to do with my activity level/performance?
Women have greater STRENGTH gains and produce more force when training during low-hormone phase of our cycle compared to the high-hormone phase and we are likely to feel less pain and recover faster.
STOP! READ THAT LITTLE PARAGRAPH AGAIN 😂
That is correct! The days that you have your period (low-hormone days) are the BEST days for training/exercise/working out. We are not talking about crapping or any of the symptoms you might have, we are talking PURELY physiologically and the force of your body and what is capable of doing. So if you are an Athlete: this is when athletes have their BEST TIMES IN RACES. WOW!!! Unfortunately, if your event lands 5 days before your period or “just before your period” this is when we are the slowest.
So, what to do with this information?
Understanding hormones and how the female body operates is important because then you know when is a good time for training to maximize your goals and when is a good rule to “recover”, “stop” or simply “feed more”.
As a rule of life if you are a female:
Week 1 of your period: train hard! Even if you are not “feeling it” physiologically speaking, at this point we have the strength of a “man”
Week 2 after your period: continue the hard training but know that at the end of the week, you will start feeling some changes (force, motivation, etc)
Week 3 after your period: periodize a mixture of training hard with recovery is best!
Week 4 after your period and 5-7 days before the next: it is a great time to do more on recovery, mobility, mindfulness, and be ready to kill it again!
OF COURSE! if you are an athlete or a recreational athlete, events will land in the “wrong hormonal timing” 😂 but there are nutritional strategies you can implement to continue sustaining your body and supporting it for your activity level or sport and this is why a Performance Nutritionist can help! I’m here for you!
