WELLBEING - How Our Menstrual Cycle Affects Exercise

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Summary - 

I am confident that once you finish listening to this that you will never think about exercise in the same way again! In this episode, I share what has taken me over 30 years to fully process and understand and what I believe will be the most important lesson you’ll ever be taught about exercising as a woman. 

Things I Mention - 

  • Why you should change the way you exercise based on your menstrual cycle

  • How each phase of your menstrual cycle significantly impacts diet & exercise

  • The one thing you’re not taking into account when you compare the way your body looks to someone else online

  • Why men reach their health & fitness goals quicker than women do

PLUS, I share how you can track & stay in the know when it comes to your menstrual cycle which will help you adapt your diet & exercise to work with you, not against you.

Links & Helpful Resources - 

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Get excited beauties because this episode is going to knock your socks off. In fact, I’m confident that you’ll never think about exercise in the same way again! I’ve been creating this episode in my head for weeks now. I have so much to say on this topic and I really hope it empowers you because as a female myself, it’s taken me over 30yrs to fully process and understand the difference between male and female physiology (obvious differences aside!). 

I’ve done more online exercise programs than I can even count, I’ve joined so many different gyms, had numerous personal trainers throughout my life and not once was I taught perhaps the most important lesson about exercising as a woman.

I’ve touched on a few bits & pieces in previous episodes but today I want to get stuck into this because I want you to leave this episode feeling like you know way more about yourself now then you knew before pressing play. 

Ok, I’m sure most of you are familiar with this feeling - when it comes to exercise, sometimes you’re really feeling it and other times you couldn’t think of anything worse but did you know that although most people tend to write this off as just an increase or decrease in motivation, there’s a much bigger reason at play - our menstrual cycle. 

Without getting into too much detail about the nitty gritty of our menstrual cycle, I want to discuss a few important pieces of the puzzle. A normal menstrual cycle can be broken up into 3 phases - first we have the follicular phase, we then have ovulation (the middle of our cycle) and finally, we have the luteal phase. The length of time you spend in each phase depends on the length of your cycle (a normal cycle is usually around 25 - 35 days - any longer and you may have an underlying issue such as PCOS.) 

Let’s talk about the follicular phase first. The follicular phase usually occurs from about Day 1 to Day 14. During this phase, oestrogen is the dominant hormone and plays a big part in how you think, feel and perform during this phase. In the first 14 days of your menstrual cycle, you are more likely to see an increase in motivation, find more difficult exercises easier to master and should you be starting a new diet or way of eating (such as implementing a calorie deficit) , you have a greater chance of sticking to a new diet during both the follicular & ovulation phase.

Ovulation happens within 24 hours in the middle of each cycle and this is where you’re performance will be at its best.

The luteal phase is where things start to get rough. The luteal phase is usually 14 days long in most women and occurs after ovulation takes place. During the luteal phase, progesterone is the dominant hormone and with progesterone comes a whole host of unpleasant symptoms. One of which is a decrease in performance. In fact, studies have shown that performance can be almost halved which when you’re striving for a specific health & fitness goal can be incredibly deflating for a woman. It’s like going 1 step forward, knowing you’re guaranteed to go 2 steps back. Along with a decrease in performance, you also have a higher chance of injury and as I mentioned in episode #5, women should be consuming an extra 100-300 calories during the luteal phase to allow for an increase in metabolic rate. 

So what does all this mean for you if you have some serious health & fitness goals? It just means that as women are menstrual cycle does affect the way we exercise (some a lot more than others) but simply understanding and just being aware of the physical and mental changes that happen within our bodies creates a much healthier mindset especially if you’re known to compare the way you look to somebody else, particularly other women online. 

You’d be hard-pressed to find a woman who hasn’t at some stage compared the way their body looks to say a fitness influencer or social media personality. It’s hard not to when their flexed abs are plastered all over your phone. All I really want to say about this topic in this particular episode is this - next time you catch yourself comparing or looking at someone else’s body with green-eyes, stop to consider what you now know about womens physiology and what this might look like for them. I can tell you from my own personal experience that if you were to scroll back a year or two on just my account, the photos that got the most likes or engagement are the ones of me in my activewear. What you can’t see though is the fact that I didn’t even have a menstrual cycle at that time - it was nowhere to be seen - gone for up to 6+ months, all at the cost of trying to look a certain way! 

Amenhorrhea is a word used to describe the absence of menstruation and aside from pregnancy, one of the most common reasons is a low body fat percentage caused a lot of the time by a lack of calories coupled with too much strenuous exercise! Now I’m not saying that every “fitspo” person on the internet has Amenhorrhea but it’s not something we stop and think about enough. We are very quick to compare but let me tell you, I know a lot of women, myself included, who’ve dealt with the side effects of Amenhorrhea and all for a short-term glimpse at their abs. Is it worth it? Absolutely not. Is that “fitspo” goals? Absolutely not! Instead of comparing what someone else has gained online, ask yourself what they might be missing? 

I also want to touch on men just quickly because if you’ve ever lived with a male or perhaps you and your hubby both exercise, you’ll know how deflating it can be to see them smash their health & fitness goals a lot quicker than you. There is one giant reason for this and that is because men burn calories quicker than women do! There are no buts or what ifs here, it’s just the way it is. So say, you eat the exact same meal as a male friend of yours (quantity and all) and you both decide to burn off the same amount of calories that were in that meal, your male friend would be done & dusted within the hour and it would take you on average, about a third longer to burn the same so you’d be on that treadmill for an extra 30mins to achieve the same result. It’s truly powerful once you know these things!

My advice for all women between the years of first menstruation and menopause would be to track your cycle using a period tracker app. There are literally hundreds available (most are free) however I use and would recommend Clue as it uses science to connect the dots between your hormonal, physical and mental changes throughout your cycle. This can help you adjust your exercise or diet according to your cycle. So for instance, you can use the surge of estrogen to your advantage during the follicular phase (weeks 1 & 2) and push yourself harder, get stuck into more complex exercises and begin to lift heavier weights however know that next week when progerstone kicks in, it might pay to continue to target the same muscles but do it with an exercise that’s more simple to perform and perhaps slow down the exercise to challenge yourself as opposed to loading up the weight. 

Lastly, I’d also recommend that if you are looking to change your body composition in any way, either through fat loss or muscle gain, ensure you measure your weight/ progress at the exact time of your cycle each month. So measure progress on Day 1, Week 2 for example and only measure again on Day 1, Week 2 of your next cycle. This will give you the most accurate reading of your progress. 

Elisha CasagrandeFEEL BE LOOK, Brisbane Health Coach, Brisbane Personal Trainer, Menstrual Cycle, Amenhorrhea, Clue App, Clue Period App, Womens Exercise, PCOS, Comparison Trap, Estrogen, Progesterone, Luteal Phase, Follicular Phase, Ovulation, Fitness Influencer