Allow your hormones to work FOR you not AGAINST you!

Part of being a healthy woman includes a menstrual cycle of 28 days. How we feel throughout the month changes and so do our hormones! What exactly goes on throughout the menstrual cycle?

Throughout your (roughly) 4 week cycle there is a rise and fall in the three key hormones estrogen, testosterone and progesterone. By being more aware of how the cycle actually works and how this impacts your health, behaviours and mood, you are better able to plan ahead, take advantage of hormonal benefits in terms of exercise and training and deal with any hormone challenges you might face.

Week 1 (first day of period) – day 7
Estrogen reaches low levels and then begins to steadily rise. This can cause a suppressed appetite, however once you’re past this fatigue phase you will find that the rise in estrogen will have a mood boosting effect and you are likely to start and feel optimistic again.

Week 2
A key hormone that increases towards the later part of this week is testosterone and as a result you are likely to experience a higher threshold for pain and discomforting activities. A perfect week to take advantage of a peak in testosterone levels in the gym!

Week 3
We can think of this as a ‘pre menstrual’ week. You may experience less intense PMS symptoms e.g. Irritability, fatigue and low mood. However, another hormone that is on the rise this week is progesterone, this can make you feel sleepy, mentally foggy and triggers cravings for sugar and ‘comfort’ food.

Week 4: For (approximately) the last 6 days of the cycle both estrogen and progesterone hormones decline quite rapidly which can trigger the common PMS symptoms of moodiness, sadness, tiredness, muscle aches, insomnia and headaches. This will differ from person to person and other factors will have a impact too, i.e diet, stress, nutrition, exercise, health, medication etc.  However it’s not all bad, as libido and energy should return this week making you feel more clear headed and back to a ‘normal’ state. Ready for it all to begin again!

It can be really frustrating to think that you’re not ‘training hard enough or well enough’ when this time of month comes around. It’s easy to fall into this trap and beat ourselves up about it thinking ‘but I could do that last week’ and fall into a failure mentality.

Personally, for two weeks of the month I feel awesome, strong and really upbeat in and out of the gym. The third week (around a week before my period) PMS symptoms start to kick in, this can vary from fatigue, stomach cramping, bloating, headaches and in terms of lifting ‘heavy’ back pains can be experienced with certain lifts.

Just by being more aware and not so fixated on a ‘one plan fits all’ mentality, you are able to better adjust exercise and training to suit your needs throughout the different stages of the cycle.

I love talking about this stuff, being more open about it and maybe if it was discussed more openly as a topic in school, activities such as P.E would have been more enjoyable back then!  I’d also encourage women to be more open about it to allow them to get the best out of their training and reach their goals.

Weekly Blog feature

Credit: Amy Lawrence

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