Periods and Powerlifting
For something that is so natural and common, it’s not talked about often enough. Understanding our period, and how it affects our training, can help us make better decisions around our time of the month. Decisions that will help both athlete and coach, maximize the positive effects of our menstruation cycle, and minimize the negative impacts. Periods can affect our training in two ways: physically and mentally. I want to talk about both, because both are of equal importance.
There are four phases of the menstrual cycle, each having a different effect on training performance:
1). Menstruation
2). Follicular
3). Ovulation
4). Luteal
The first five days of your cycle are the menstruation phase. In this phase your hormone levels drop (oestrogen and progesterone), fatigue and bloating are at their highest during this phase, as is our cravings for all things sweet and sugary!
The next phase is the follicular phase (day 1-14), and in this phase your hormone levels start rising again. People typically find themselves in a better mood during this phase. This study found here concluded that women who trained during this phase of the cycle, saw greater increases in muscle strength versus training in the later phases.
A significant amount of research has been carried out to investigate the effects of our menstrual cycle on strength training. One such study (found here), observed the differences in training during the follicular phase versus the luteal phase. It concluded that women saw greater effects on both strength and muscle size in the follicular phase, than in the luteal.
Have you ever trained and thought, “why the heck do I feel so weak today?”, if so, it is likely you’re in the later phase of your cycle (between luteal and menstruation). Therefore, it’s so important to know your cycle. If your numbers are down and you don’t know why, look at your cycle, what phase are you in? Is that the cause?
If we know our cycle, then we best position ourselves to know two things:
1). When to take it easier: DO NOT beat yourself up if you experience a decline in numbers during your period. Everyone’s period is different, some don’t feel too bad at all while others feel lethargic, either way, cut yourself some slack and give yourself some credit for showing up to the gym and still attempting to train.
2). When to use it to your advantage: If you’re able to identify what phase you’re in, you can make some serious progress by knowing when to maximize the extra hormones during the follicular phase. With the influx of hormones, we tend to have more energy and our mood is generally much better. We all know the positive effect our mood has on our training. If we combine good mood, good energy, and some extra hormones, you get one hell of a training week!
Our period can have a psychological impact on our training, just as much as it can have a physical impact. When you know mother nature is about to grace you with her presence, sometimes instincts kick in and say “oh well I’m on my period this week so obviously my training numbers will be down”.
Straight away, if this is your attitude, then yes, your numbers will be down, but not because of your period, because of your mindset. Do not sell yourself short. As mentioned above, yes in the latter half of the cycle we tend to be weaker, but in the first two weeks (this includes that menstruation phase), you are in a better position to make progress. The important thing is to always give it 110% and whatever happens on the day, take it as a win.
For anyone taking some form of birth control and wondering what, if any, impact it has on your training, the answer is.... possibly. Studies conducted to date are somewhat inconclusive. Oral contraception has been found to negatively impact training in some studies, but in others, it showed positive effects. My advice, listen to your body. If you’ve been on some contraceptive for a while now and training throughout, you know your body and whether you responded well to it from a health and training standpoint. You know what works for you better than anyone.
For someone that is perhaps newer to contraceptives and worried about its impact on training, listen to your doctor, communicate your concerns, and be self-aware when you start training – look out for any negative impacts, again listen to your body and communicate with your doctor.
Competing on your period
Finally I wanted to talk about competing on your period. Anyone that has done so knows exactly what I mean when I say it’s a pain in the ass (or uterus if you want to be literal) and it’s the last thing you want on comp day. My best advice is to just be prepared. There are enough stresses on comp day without your period adding to the mix.
Paracetamol will be your best friend, as will keeping yourself hydrated. One thing I cannot stress enough is to let your coach now that you’re on your period. It will help them make better judgement calls for you on competition day. They are there to help you and have your best interests at heart, so don’t be afraid to openly tell them it’s your time of the month.
If you are cutting for competition I would recommend taking note of when your period is expected to happen versus what the competition date is. Reason being, we tend to hold extra water during our period, so if you’re close to missing weight, then you’ll need to plan your cut as best you can to avoid weighing in slightly too heavy. You put in hours of hard work training, so it would be a shame to miss out on competing because of stubborn period water retention. Be prepared, as the old saying goes “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.