👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #47 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (6 min read):
⚡️ Harnessing hormones through the menstrual cycle
🙋♂️ Alright. Alright. Alright. Cut the shit. I know what you're thinking.
I don't have any experience managing a menstrual cycle.
Yes, but I am super interested in the performance of the everyday athlete. And that means men and women.
So without experience, I've gotta lean heavily on experts in these fields.
Hopefully it's helpful...
88% of active women say menstrual symptoms negatively affect their training at some point in their cycle.
But the authors of The Female Body Bible reckon it doesn’t have to:
“One of the most empowering things we can share with you is that, with a healthy cycle, your capacity to perform is not limited by the ebb and flow of your hormonal rhythm.”
See a 2020 meta-analysis of 78 studies found female capacity for physical performance (endurance, strength, power, speed) wasn’t affected by the cycle.
But just because your body is capable of performing, doesn’t mean you’ll always feel like it. Or that your cycle won’t make it harder for you at certain times.
Because hormones affect mood, metabolism, motivation and more. So strategies for peak performance may vary during your cycle. Like:
- 🍌 What/when to eat
- 💤 How much sleep
- 🧘♀️ Anxiety management tools
- 🏊♀️ Training preparation and recovery
So how can females harness hormones at any time of the cycle to be at their best?
We'll dive into each phase one by one.
1. Period phase
⚖️ Iron deficiency
Iron is a mineral that affects everything from your energy levels to immune system function to the production of haemoglobin (which transports oxygen to organs and muscles all over body).
So we've got a bunch of dramas when your iron levels are low – fatigue, shortness of breath, light-headedness, cold hands/feet, headaches, poor focus and more.
There’s more risk of iron deficiency when having your period, because:
- 🩸 You lose iron through blood
- 🥩 Your ability to absorb iron from food is reduced because of increased inflammation
Active women are at even greater risk, because:
- 🏃♀️ Foot-strike haemolysis – high-impact training (like running, jumping, skipping) ruptures red blood cells in the feet that contain iron
- 💥 Inflammation – part of the natural training recovery process is inflammation which further reduces your ability to absorb iron from food
So… active women + period. Quadruple-threat.
How to tackle it?
- 🧑⚕️ Firstly see your doctor about getting a blood test to get your levels checked (supplementing iron when you don’t need to is a risk in itself – constipation, nausea, stomach pain)
- 💊 Then if appropriate, supplement iron (liquid form is easier on the guts)
2. Follicular phase (oestrogen peaks)
Oestrogen levels rise and peak in the follicular phase.
Oestrogen looks after the female reproductive system (and more). Including the production of serotonin (the ‘good mood’ hormone). So positivity, motivation and energy levels tend to be high.
Which helps you feel more sociable. You might crave group sessions. Enjoy team dynamics. And feel emotionally resilient.
🦵 Joint laxity
Oestrogen can loosen your joints.
So there’s a greater risk of injury.
But before sitting on the sideline in fear, we can tackle it with a bigger focus on warm-ups and taping in this phase.
I’ve written more about this here.
🏋️♀️ Training intensity
Glucose is a type of carbohydrate. It fuels shorter, higher-intensity efforts.
And in this follicular phase, generally, more glucose is transported to muscle fibres.
So females tend to enjoy and perform better at high-intensity training (HIIT) around this time.
How to harness it?
Fuel with carbs before training. And top-up during longer sessions.
😴 Enhanced recovery
Oestrogen switches on and multiplies satellite cells (critical for muscle repair and growth).
It also has an antioxidant effect. In fact, a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research measured a muscle damage marker in the blood. They found it was lowest when oestrogen was highest.
This recovery boost ties in well with your ability to tolerate HIIT.
A license to push it up in this phase.
In fact, there’s really interesting research looking at stacking strength training sessions in the follicular phase (more sessions in the follicular phase and less in the luteal phase). Rather than spreading them out evenly over the month.
The results?
Greater strength gains 😮
They did strength training every 2-3 days in the follicular phase, then 1-2 times a week in the luteal phase.
One study saw a 40% increase in max strength vs a 27% increase from spreading sessions out evenly over month.
Another found a 30% improvement vs 13%.
Really relevant stuff for elite athletes after the edge.
Super applicable idea for the everyday athlete too.
If you’re running ClassPass, you might get to more HIIT and strength sessions in the follicular. Then get right into your yoga and barre in the back half.
3. Luteal phase (progesterone peaks)
Progesterone is like a natural anti-anxiety medicine.
It makes your brain feel calm and happy.
💧 Sweatier
Your body temp can go up by half a degree in this phase.
Causing you to sweat more.
Tackle it with a bigger focus on hydration + electrolytes.
🤹♀️ Skill and coordination
Early research has highlighted the potential negative of progesterone on skill and coordination.
It makes sense. If progesterone is calming your circuits, activities that need your motor neurons firing (like skill and coordination) might take a hit.
How to tackle it?
- 🔥 Focus on firing up your nervous system in your warm-up – strong muscle contractions, skill and agility work.
- ☕️ Caffeine – shown to help counter any of the effects
🥖 Insulin resistance
You might be more sensitive to energy spikes and crashes in the luteal phase.
Tackle it with:
- 🥦 More low GI foods like veg, beans and lentils. Rather than pasta and bread
- 🚶♀️ Walk after meals
- 🫗 Add cinnamon to food (can help glucose metabolism)
4. Premenstrual phase (hormone hangover)
So over the cycle, you’re feeling oestrogen's good mood effects.
Then, progesterone kicks in with its calming and anti-anxiety goodness.
But when these hormones drop off in the premenstrual phase, you can feel pretty shit.
How to tackle it:
- 🎶 Prepare for it – self-care, bloody good music, yoga, baths, whatever gets you going
Understanding the hormones hitting you, what they do, and when they’re coming can help you prepare, tackle and harness them. Hard, yes. But a plan to help you be consistently closer to your best... Hope so ✌️
🖥 Anti-fatigue mats
Anti-fatigue mats are these rectangular foam mats.
You stand on them when at a stand-up desk.
They work by improving circulation (because they promote subtle movements in your feet and legs).
I reckon it’s doubled how long I’m out of the chair at work.
Great for posture, metabolism, energy, focus.
$40. Tax-deductible. Good investment.
😴 Article: 7 types of rest
I wrote about recovery matching in newsletter #36.
I think it's one of the most important ideas I've written about. Because it's often overlooked by the everyday athlete.
And a big part of the recovery side of the equation is rest.
But not all rest is created equal.
Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith wrote an article: the 7 types of rest.
My highlights:
- 🧠 Mental rest: doing nothing time
- 🌳 Creative rest: get inspiration from the outdoors
- 📺 Sensory rest: tech-free time to self
But my biggest takeaway:
Some "rest" isn't actually that great of a rest. Like watching tele is physical rest but definitely not sensory. And a hike isn't physical rest but it ticks a few other boxes.
It's helpful to be aware of each type. Then we can find the balance. Recharge. Then perform.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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