Blog

Optimize Your Workouts to Your Menstrual Cycle

By: Rani Helvey-Byers, PT, DPT, OCS During a woman’s monthly cycle, the concentrations of hormones will vary significantly. But, what we don’t often realize is that these fluctuations can affect our athletic performance. Two hormones—estrogen and progesterone—play central roles in our energy levels, recovery, and exercise tolerance. Understanding how these hormones shift across the menstrual...

Women’s hormones and cycles are very sensitive and very complex to understand. Many high intensity or endurance athletes (but not all) will experience irregular or total loss of menstruation which can bring with it consequences to bone density, injury risk, and compromised fertility. Regarding athletic performance through a women’s cycle, a systematic review published in...