Training With Your MENSTRUAL Cycle as a Female Athlete

Amber
Dec 14, 2025
5 min read

(Without Letting It Hold You Back)

For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me.

Some weeks I felt strong, confident, explosive and capable, other weeks, the exact same training sessions felt heavier, harder and mentally draining despite nothing changing.

My sleep was good, my nutrition was consistent, my training effort was still there.

What had changed was my hormonal environment and for years, I didn’t realise how much that mattered.

As female athletes, we don’t operate on a perfectly linear system and pretending that we do doesn’t help the situation it usually just leads to frustration, self doubt and eventually burnout.

There’s a narrative online that suggests women should only train hard when hormones are optimal and back off the rest of the month. Training with your menstrual cycle isn’t about excuses. It’s about context and strategy. Training with your menstrual cycle does not mean only training hard once a month.

In fact, if you only push when you feel amazing and constantly hold back the rest of the time, you’ll almost certainly limit your long term progress.

The goal isn’t to train less. It’s to train with awareness, consistency and better intent across the entire cycle.

A Simple Overview of the Cycle (Without the Science Lecture)

A typical menstrual cycle can be broken into four phases:

Menstrual phase (start of your period)
Follicular phase (post-period, leading into ovulation)
Ovulation
Luteal phase (post-ovulation until your next period)

Hormones like oestrogen and progesterone fluctuate throughout these phases and can influence:

Strength and power output
Energy availability
Recovery
Heat tolerance
Mood and motivation

Most women feel their best during the follicular phase and around ovulation and feel more challenged in the late luteal phase and early days of menstruation.

That doesn’t mean half the month is “bad” it just means it feels different and out training needs to be considered during the two different times.

Training Inside a Group Programme (The Reality for Most Women)

Like most of the women we coach and train alongside, I follow the Athlete group programme.

I don’t get to decide when heavy days land, I don’t rearrange workouts around my cycle. I don’t save all the hard sessions for when I feel at my best.

But what does change is how I approach the session that’s in front of me.

When I Feel Strong (Follicular + Ovulation)

In this phase, I notice that I feel more confident, competitive and mentally switched on. When that happens, I don’t try to change the programme I lean into it.

If the session includes strength work, I’m more willing to:

Sit toward the top end of the prescribed loading
Commit fully to lifts without second guessing myself
Take ownership of my setup and execution

If there’s gymnastics or skill work:

I’ll choose a more challenging option if it’s appropriate
I’m happier to stay composed under fatigue
I trust my coordination and timing more

In conditioning sessions, I’m more assertive with pacing. I’m willing to be uncomfortable and take risks because my tolerance for intensity and recovery is higher.

The workout on the programme hasn’t changed, but my intent, confidence and way I attack it have.

This is often where performance shines. But that performance only exists because of what happens during the other phases.

When Training Feels Harder (Late Luteal + Early Menstrual)

This is where most women start questioning themselves.

When I’m in the later luteal phase or the first few days of my period, I don’t assume the session will be a disaster, but I do stop expecting my body to feel the same as it did two weeks earlier.

Instead of asking, “How do I smash this today?" I ask, “How do I execute this well today?”

That mental shift changes everything.

In this phase, training might look like:

Choosing a slightly more conservative load while maintaining quality
Slowing lifts down and focusing on positions and control
Being more deliberate with rest and breathing
Managing pacing so I don’t redline too early
Letting go of comparison (this is key) even with my own previous performances.

I still train hard, I still show up, but I redefine what “hard” means.

Some days, hard means restraint, some days, it means focus, some days, it means finishing the session knowing I trained well, not recklessly.

This phase is where aerobic capacity, technical efficiency and mental resilience are built even if it doesn’t always feel glamorous.

Why Only “Pushing on Good Weeks” Holds You Back

If we limit ourselves to committing to the programme for only 1-2 weeks of the month, that will equate to almost half a year of missed opportunity, progress will never take place, it will lead to:

Lower total training volume
Fewer meaningful strength exposures
Slower skill development
Reduced tolerance to discomfort
A lower performance ceiling

Adaptation comes from consistent exposure, not perfect timing.

Functional fitness demands that we can perform across a wide range of internal states, tired, stressed, heavy, flat or fired up. If we only challenge ourselves on our best days, we never build that capacity.

Training through the tougher phases, intelligently is what allows you to capitalise on the strong ones.

Eating to Support Training Through the Cycle

Nutrition is one of the biggest tools that is underused when it comes to cycle management.

Protein

Protein intake should stay consistent across the cycle:

Around 1.6–2.2g per kg of bodyweight per day

Muscle doesn’t stop responding to training just because hormones fluctuate.

Carbohydrates

This is where small changes can make a big difference.

In the luteal phase, progesterone increases energy expenditure and perceived effort. That often shows up as:

Lower energy
Poorer recovery
Stronger carb cravings

Instead of fighting that, plan for it.

That might mean:

Slightly increasing carbs in the late luteal phase
Or shifting macros to prioritise carbs over fats
Being more intentional with carbs around training

Often, this is as simple as 20–40g extra carbs per day, not overeating, not “cheating”, just supporting the work I’m asking my body to do.

Managing the Mental Side of Training

Some weeks, motivation dips. Confidence wobbles. Everything feels harder.

That doesn’t mean you’re regressing.

What’s helped me most as an athlete is:

Tracking my cycle alongside training (Know where you are in your cycle)
Rating sessions on effort and execution, not just numbers
Separating short term performance from long term progress
Removing guilt from harder feeling weeks

Consistency doesn’t mean every session feels good. It means you keep showing up with honesty and intent.

The Bigger Picture

Training with your menstrual cycle isn’t about excuses. It’s about context and strategy.

You don’t need a different programme every week. You don’t need to stop pushing altogether. You need to understand when to push and when to refine.

I’ve trained through great weeks and awful ones. I’ve learned when to lean in and when to steady the ship and over time, that’s exactly what’s made me a better athlete.

Your cycle isn’t a limitation, it’s information and when you learn how to work with it, you don’t just train harder, you train smarter!