All Women Should Track Their Cycle (And How To Train Smarter Using Your Female Physiology)
DO YOU TRACK YOUR CYCLE?
Here at the Badass Lady Gang, something I’m adamant about is getting my athletes to track their menstrual cycles. Because when I took my RRCA coaching certification course back in 2019, want to know what no one taught us? How to coach women using their female physiology. HELL, I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible coaches over the years and no one ever asked me to track my cycle.
But after taking Dr. Stacy Sims Women Are Not Smell Men course, let’s just say how we do everything at the Badass Lady Gang is different.
I CAN NOT BELIEVE that we aren’t teaching running coaches how to train women! Here’s the thing gang, training plans don’t take your cycle or life stage into account, it’s up to you to know and understand where you are in your menstrual cycle and what you can do to put yourself in a position to feel stronger, recover smarter, and prevent injuries. EVEN HERE at the Badass Lady Gang, all of our running plans are cookie-cutter training plans. We work really hard to help all of our athletes understand how to track their cycles and WHY IT’S IMPORTANT that they do so that they can feel confident making modifications to their plans so that they can run stronger, recover better, and run their personal best regardless of whether they’re post-menopausal or in the high hormone phase of their menstrual cycle.
SO LET’S TALK ABOUT IT!
Three Female Life Stages
There are three different life stages I focus on with my athletes (I don’t really talk about puberty because I don’t coach kids/tweens/teens):
Pre-menopause: Our reproductive years when we’ve reached sexual maturity.
Peri-menopause: The years leading into menopause.
Post-menopause: We spend 1/3 of our lives in post-menopause so it’s important that we are armed with the tools and knowledge we need to stay strong, healthy, and able to continue with the activities and movement we love.
Exogenous and Endogenous Menstrual Cycles
Below you will find three different charts. The first is of an endogenous menstrual cycle (a natural cycle without contraception), second, an exogenous menstrual cycle using a birth control pill, and then peri-menopause into post-menopause.
But before we go any further, I really want everyone to understand one thing:
GETTING YOUR PERIOD REGULARLY IS THE SIGN OF A HEALTHY ATHLETE. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to our athletes in the peri-menopause and post-menopause life stages, but period health is VERY important. And this is why it’s so important to track your cycle! There can be so many variables from PCOS to forms of birth control, and EVERYONE can benefit from tracking their cycle REGARDLESS of the life stage you’re in.
But let’s start by talking about what happens to our sex-hormones during our cycles. On all three graphs above, you’ll notice Estrogen, Progesterone, Luteinizing Hormone (LH), and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH).
Here is a video that does a great job at breaking down the female reproductive system as well as the hormones involved.
Here’s the thing, most of us were raised with this idea that our cycles are 28 days long, AND SHOCKING TO NO ONE, we’re all different. You may have a longer or shorter cycle than the textbook 28-day cycle. You may have a longer luteal phase or follicular phase. The only way to know is to track.
The point of tracking your cycle is to figure out your specific cycle because there are things we can do to really optimize your training to support your female physiology.
Let’s get into the phases of an endogenous menstrual cycle, the low hormone phase and the high hormone phase.
Follicular Phase/Low Hormone Phase
On day 1 of your period, you enter into the low hormone phase/Folllicular Phase. During the low-hormone phase, female sex hormones are at their lowest and we are able to handle intense training much better than when we’re in the high hormone phase. So this is the time to play with your top-end V02 Max/speed, lift heavy, play with more reps, and go for it during workouts.
At the end of the low hormone phase, lutenizing hormone (LH) rises, and we ovulate. After ovulation, we move into the second phase of the cycle, the luteal phase/high hormone phase. For some women, ovulation may be the period where they feel like a superhero. If this is true for you, that’s when you want to go for a PR or race. Some women feel flat or fatigued during ovulation, so if that’s the case for you, 36 hours after ovulation may be your secret sauce. TRACK YOUR CYCLE AND FIND OUT :)
Luteal Phase/High Hormone Phase
After ovulation, we enter into the Luteal Phase/High Hormone Phase. During the high hormone phase, we have a harder time recovering and adapting after workouts so we want to make sure we aren’t pushing it too hard. Mobility work, low loads, steady-state work, and prioritizing recovery are the name of the game when you’re in the high hormone phase.
In addition to having a harder time adapting and recovering, you have an elevated core body temperature, a change in your sweat response (you sweat more), AND, you can’t access your glycogen stores which means how we fuel our hard and long runs changes. Carbo-loading only works when you’re in the low hormone phase. When you’re in the high hormone phase, you’ll need to add carbohydrates during your harder and/or longer runs to sustain your effort and stay fueled.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Understanding and working with your female physiology is SO IMPORTANT if your goal is to move well for life. How you train in your 20’s and 30’s will be very different from how you’ll train in your 40’s and then your 50’s on.
But it all starts with tracking your cycle. So how do you do that? (To learn more, join the Badass Lady Gang Training Team or one of our training experiences to really deep dive training with your female physiology.)
How To Track Your Cycle
There’s more to tracking your cycle than just noting when you get your period.
-You can use a basal temperature chart. (Head to your gynecologist or Google to grab one of these.) But, you’re first going to need to head to the drug store to purchase a specific basal temperature thermometer. Our core body temperature dips right before ovulation and then raises and stays raised after ovulation. The point of tracking your temperature is to look for that trend every month by taking your temperature first thing every morning. Then, you can use your chart to track where in your cycle you are.
-You can use an app like FitrWoman, Whoop, Garmin, or an ovulation app to map your cycle.
-Urinary ovulation predictor tests that you can get at the drugstore or Online are pee sticks that detect an LH surge. Once you get a basic idea of where you are in your cycle, about 7 days before your period, you want to start using these strips every day. Once you see the LH surge, you can note that you ovulated the day before.
-Manually write down how you feel etc. in the Badass Lady Gang journals that I provide to all athletes who join the Badass Lady Gang Training Team or participate in one of our training experiences. Over the course of 8-12 weeks, we can start to look for patterning on performance and how you feel. (EVERYONE should be tracking how they feel.)
-And last but not least, you can get your hormone analysis done through blood work with your doctor to know exactly where you are in your cycle.
GANG, TRACK YOUR CYCLE.
It is empowering to know what is going on with your body. EVEN if you only run a few days a week because you enjoy it. TRACK YOUR CYCLE. Every single woman should know how life stages work and how to move in ways that will make them feel strong. Information is power. So track your cycle! Remember, it takes 8-12+ weeks to really get an idea of your individual cycle so the sooner you get started, the sooner you can start to understand what you can do to feel stronger both on the run and in your everyday lives.
Kick ass and take names,
