Ever feel like you are trudging through a workout only to find the next day..bam there’s your period. There may or may not be a connection between exercise performance and your menstrual cycle.
I personally just finished a half marathon and despite training, I was a whole 1 minute off my pace from training. Could it have been the weather? Could it have been a mistake in fueling? Or Could it have been more physiological than that?
Our hormones do various jobs in our bodies. To focus on a couple of them, we will be deep diving into how our hormone cycles can help manage expectations of performance and training.
Main hormones of menstruation are Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Luteinizing hormone (LH), Progesterone and Estrogen. During varying parts of our menstrual cycle, each hormone has a job. FSH and Estrogen are more predominant during our bleeding period up to ovulation. This also coincides with an optimal training time. Estrogen gives us energy! LH tells our ovaries, “Girl, it’s time to pop this egg out!” at ovulation. Then, from ovulation to the start of bleeding, our bodies are building up our uterine lining and secretions to provide nutrients to the uterus, pumping up progesterone and we’re in our bulking phase. Leading up to the start of bleeding on day 1, our bodies are preparing for “the purge.” This is a time where our bodies are in protect phase. Your reproductive system knows what’s coming and it’s telling you to chill out. [Fun fact: Your brain and ovaries are physiologically linked up to communicate with each other. This communication line is called the HPO axis which stands for hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. Your brain releases the FSH and the LH and your ovaries dole out the estrogen and progesterone.]
This may explain why leading up to your period you may feel sluggish, weights may feel heavier and you may feel a different RPE at 50% of your max, or your pace may slow down, or you may not have as much energy during those burst HIIT workouts or a Pilates 100 turns into, well, a Pilates 75. This is not saying you shouldn’t plan to workout during this time. It is GREAT to exercise throughout all parts of your cycle if you feel up to it. This just tries to say, “hey, let’s be realistic about what to expect during today’s workout.” It’s all about giving yourself a realistic framework and perspective. If you know you are just finished with the bleeding phase of your period and you feel like you can pick up that extra interval, do an extra sprint, go for that superset, now is the perfect time to do it! You have that “Spring” unstoppable energy just after your bleeding ends. Training harder here will make the “sluggish” period operate at a higher level later.
So bottom line, our periods are AMAZING, intuitive, regenerative yet confusing, painful, and turbulent. Understanding your cycle can help manage expectations. While the world or races or meets or class schedules don’t revolve around each woman’s cycle, knowing your cycle and how to train around it can help dictate training plans and manage performance expectations.
If you’d like to discuss anything further, set up a menstruation mentoring consultation with me! We can talk periods, performance and even which period products would be best in your lifestyle. Let’s embrace this, period.
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