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Having a good understanding of our menstrual cycle is essential to understanding women in fitness & progressions with women.
Unlike men who run on a 24-hour cycle, women's bodies run on a 28-day cycle. Meaning at 8am on day 8, you’ll feel differently to you at 8am on day 18 due to the difference in levels of the different hormones. Whereas a man’s hormonal level will be about the same on both days at the same time.
Female hormones - Estrogen & Progesterone (abundant in women but still present in men in much smaller amounts)
Male hormones - Testosterone (abundant in men but still present in women in much smaller amounts)
Hover over the following image for more information:
The point of understanding this isn’t to change or “train for your menstrual phase” as you may have seen people on social media claiming. This is to have a good understanding of how our body works and how it can affect our results.
“Training for your menstrual cycle” is the worst thing you can do for your strength & physique progress because changing it up every week defies the consistency we need to see continual progressions in your strength & physique.
Comparing Results
Comparing your results from week to week can be a little hard to assess given the changes as you can see above so it can be really helpful to zoom out and compare things from cycle to cycle.
E.g. Comparing scale weight in week 1 vs in week 5 (2nd week 1)
Comparing waist measurements in week 2 vs in week 6 (2nd week 2) and week 10 (3rd week 2)
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