Women are not small men, and shouldn’t be trained in the same way. The menstrual cycle, it matters and here’s why;
Women are not small men, and shouldn’t be trained in the same way. The menstrual cycle, it matters! As women, as young girls, as coaches, this has to become something we speak about in order for it to become normalised, and here’s why;
I have been sharing a series of posts I have written up on this topic over on my Instagram account (nikkibrammeier / mudiiitacoaching) but I wanted to also share them via 2 blogs on my website so here goes part 1;
Part 1 “It takes years as a women to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for” - Amy Poehler.
Powerful right? Something which I started to become interested in during my last few years I was racing was the menstrual cycle, some of you have probably already read some of the posts I’ve done on here about it. It's something that I always get a lot of reactions to people wanting to know more.
I'm by no means an expert, but I do have an experience that you might find helpful. During the last couple of years of my career, and since I’ve been retired this has been something I’ve become more interested in, I saw what an impact the menstrual cycle had on my own career and now through coaching, I see exactly why this area needs to be talked about more. Through my own experiences I began to understand why my body would feel a certain way at different times of the month, why some days regardless of training or recovery I would feel utterly terrible, had no power, I couldn’t focus, my sleep would be interrupted or I couldn’t seem to function in any sort of way, and then other times I would feel invincible as though I could just do everything, some points I would feel like everything had come together, I had great races or training, and I would be in the Flo with what I was doing. This was my menstrual cycle, once I began to understand what was happening monthly, once I understood my physiology I could work with it, rather than against it.
I feel from a young age we are miseducated on what we are taught about periods. Growing up, we didn’t really talk about it, it was just something that happens to women when we become teenagers, most of the time it's spoken about in a really negative way, but the more I learn about what's happening monthly within our bodies it not only makes me realise incredible we are but more than anything its made me realise that we need to begin to acknowledge, treat, train and fuel women as the different physiological humans they are, in sport and life. So, just like I did my series on here about cyclocross I’m also going to do a little series of posts on the menstrual cycle, my story, & in turn, I hope it might help you ladies too
Part 2. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus….In hormones terms, this couldn't be more true!
So in my own unscientific way I'll try to explain this a little further. Men have the same hormonal cycle every day, and it's all about testosterone. In the Morning their testosterone and cortisol levels are at their highest making them more energetic and super-efficient (A good time for training). In the afternoon testosterone dips, but it's still around 10x higher than the levels of women and for them evening is when testosterone is lowest. Exercise can make these testosterone levels peak higher throughout the day but generally, this is the same pattern, every, single, day!
This is one of the reasons why when any research is ever done on hormones, most of the time the studies have always been from men because their hormone pattern is the same every day, it's comparable. Most of the time one male's hormones is the same as the next. The pattern is the same so research can be controlled. Women, on the other hand, bear no resemblance to this 24hr schedule, which is why research is difficult because every single women’s cycle is different. Our energy is not static day to day or week to week and the fluctuations throughout the month with estrogen and progesterone influence many of the systems within our bodies. We have a pattern, but we are all at different stages within that cycle so it makes things much more difficult when it comes to research.
We are taught from a young age that the above hormonal rhythm in men is what we should strive for, lots of energy throughout the day and then winding down at night.... if it were only that simple! Our energy changes daily and weekly meaning our productivity could be completely different depending on where we are at in our 28-34 day cycle. We have 4 phases every month, The follicular phase lasting 7-10 days, ovulation phase lasting 3-4 days, Luteal phase lasting 10-14 days and finally the menstrual phase 3-7 days. Each phase has a part to play in our brain function, metabolism, immune system, and much more. So in terms of thinking about this alongside sport, it's a big deal!
Part 3. The Myth “Its ok to not have periods”
“It’s ok to not have a period at the moment” …. NOPE, it isn’t. Between the ages of 23-27 I didn’t have periods. I wasn’t on the pill, but overtime my periods vanished. This became pretty normal for me, I thought great I don’t have a period at the moment this makes me life so much easier.
In reality this was really naive, having a period is a key sign we are healthy, we have balance in what we do and our body is working as it should. Generally if that stops theres something not adding up. For me it was under fuelling and over training. Looking back now, I think I knew this wasn’t right but it didn’t change what I was doing. That was until I started to get sick more often, or I became injured more than I used to, or the thoughts of having a family started popping in my head. How can I begin to have a family I thought if I don’t have periods, then the more thoughts popped in my head, but why don’t I have a period anymore ? Is that normal? I started to ask team mates “ hey I don’t have a period, do you?” …. most of the time I would get the same answer. Nope not had one for ages, or ahh I only get mine twice a year. Its shocking isn’t it ?! That this was actually a ‘normal thing’ and its still the same now. I work with riders who tell me they haven’t had a period in a couple of years. Let me tell you that this is NOT NORMAL and presents a red flag in terms of how I then coach riders or pass information on to them to help them. I would advise any one of you who thinks that this relates to them to stop and have a look and what your doing, are you getting enough balance within your training and race program, are you taking efficient rest and recovery between sessions, are you fuelling your workouts properly?.
In reality this was really naive, having a period is a key sign we are healthy, it shows we have a good balance in what we do and that our body is working as it should. Generally if that stops theres something not adding up. Looking back now, I think I knew this wasn’t right but it didn’t change what I was doing. It didn’t change anything because I assumed this was ok. But then after a while I started to get sick more often, I became injured more than I used to, and then the thoughts of having a family started popping in my head.
How can I have a family I thought if I don’t have periods, then I started questioning why I didn’t have a period anymore ? Is that ok? I began to ask team mates the question, do you get your period ? And most of the time I would get the same answer; “Nope not had one for ages”, or “ahh I only get mine twice a year!” ….Crazy right, that this wasn’t an issue? that for so many, this was actually a ‘normal thing’ and its still the same now. I work with riders who tell me they haven’t had a period in a couple of years. Let me tell you that this is NOT NORMAL and presents a red flag in terms of how I then coach riders or pass information on to them to help them. I would advise any one of you who thinks that this relates to them to stop and have a look and what your doing, are you getting enough balance within your training and race program, are you taking efficient rest and recovery between sessions, are you fuelling your workouts properly?.
These concerns lead me to go an see a gynaecologist and after some blood tests I was told my body had stopped producing Estrogen. This meant that I wasn’t producing the right hormones to ovulate, which meant no egg wold be released, no shedding of my uterus would happen, no period. The advice I was given wasn’t the best, “Ahh your a professional athlete, so you will probably be training quite hard and your watching your diet, we see it a lot, its quite normal.”
It was true, I was over training, I was under fuelling. Pushing my body to extremes which In turned off my menstrual cycle, most likely because it didn't need any other stresses on top of those I was creating?!! Whats normal about that?
Part 4. This was the moment I realised things needed to change.
Looking back I think I did have RED-S, it was never diagnosed although it did cross my mind, I didn't think I was skinny enough for it to be that. I guess this shows the mindset I was in.
I took it upon myself to start researching the menstrual cycle. There wasn't much info out there so it was hard, but I soon realised for those hormones to return to normal levels, I had better start managing my energy better.
I began looking at what I was doing on the bike, I gave myself more days off to recover between sessions, I also had to begin fuelling my workouts better to give my body what it needed to train and race efficiently. I could still train hard, but the key to me adapting to sessions was to rest harder ;). This was a long process it wasn’t easy, but the more I started to take accountability of what I was doing, the better I started to feel.
I had more energy and recovered from training faster. I looked forward to my recovery days instead of feeling guilty for them. The same went for food, I realised I had picked up so many habits that I was in this cycle of constantly feeling like I needed to do more, and be more to stay at the top of my sport, & it turned out by doing a little less I was far happier both on and off the bike.
Over the next couple of years, I began getting my period back until eventually in the last year and a half of my career I had a monthly cycle. It was quite a shock for my body to get these hormones again, but when I did, I begin seeing patterns of how I was feeling at certain times of the month against my training and races.
Some days I would feel like a superhero, and others days would just be a total struggle. This often wouldn’t match up against what sessions I had done either, these feelings I had happened regardless of what I was doing on the bike. This was my menstrual cycle, and what I was experiencing was the 4 phases within that; the follicular phase, the ovulation phase, the luteal phase & menstruation.
Working with these hormones, rather than against them was a game-changer.
Part 5 - Its obvious we have been living in a mans world within sport
We are so used to relying on the male model of what we should do that as women we have been missing a massive performance opportunity in understanding our own unique physiology. We hear so much about marginal gains, everyone is always on the search for those small percentages, and yet something which could be huge in terms of performance is only just beginning to be recognised. We hear so much about marginal gains, everyone is always on the search for those small percentages, yet something which could be huge in terms of performance is only just beginning to be recognised.
Women have smaller hearts, lungs, a smaller vo2max to men this is a fact, but we are not just a small version of a man, our physiology is completely different. Our hormones ebb and flow monthly, and although there is still lots of research to be done in this area I believe recognising what is happening within our bodies is our very own superpower.
I got to the point in my cycling career where I could sync my workouts alongside my menstrual cycle. I understood what was happening with my hormones at different times within the month. The fundamentals of training still applied, but the power that came from understanding my body gave me confidence, rather than working against my body, I worked with it. This is something I continue to encourage with the riders I coach now.
In my last professional season, my 3 target races were Koksijde, Namur & Worlds, I picked these based on me knowing they all fell in the Follicular / or ovulation phase of my cycle, the point in which my physiology was on my side. It was the part in the month that I usually felt great, I could dig deep in training, focus well, and recover fast. It's no coincidence that estrogen, one of our most powerful hormones is on the rise during this point. Estrogen helps the release of feel-good chemicals within the brain, it helps with recovery, improves muscle mass, strength and more. Tuning in to my cycle gave me the confidence to perform my best, it helped me with consistency & allowed me to be more forgiving of myself in the times of the month which would be a total struggle (my luteal phase).
I'm sharing all this because I want to empower other sportswomen & coaches to look at this themselves, we are all unique and experience different feelings within these hormonal phases, if we fail to acknowledge them we could be missing out on huge performance opportunities.
