How menstrual cycle PMS affects Sports Performance
If you are a coach, athlete or fitness enthusiast, you are going to want to understand how PMS affects sports performance and how you can work around it!
If you’re new to my channel, My name is Omega Zumpano, I am an exercise scientist and menstrual cycle educator and I use to have PMS in a way that impacted my training, but now I live PMS free and I know it’s possible for all athletes to get there too!
First things first, this incredible article 2021 Bruinvels et. al. showed in their study of over 6,000 athletic women using the strava app, that 90% of these women suffer from PMS that interferes with their athletic performance!
How it impacts athletic performance, we’ll get into in a moment, but pause really quick - If you’re a coach, do those numbers. If you have 10 female clients, 9 of those clients have PMS. And if you’re thinking “my client’s don’t have PMS”...think again. Maybe your client’s aren’t telling you about it because you don’t ask!
Mood / Anxiety
One of the most common PMS symptoms reported in this study was Mood / Anxiety oriented PMS. This was most common for me too actually and it sucked big fat ovaries. Here is how mood changes and anxiety can impact sports performance…
Decreased motivation because they just feel crappy. And with anxiety, your clients can experience increased prevalence of body dysmorphic tendencies especially if they have this as a part of their history. Think food restriction, negative self talk. Even the phrase “I feel so fat, I ate an entire thing of ice cream” can clue you into hormonal issues at play. Anxiety’s role in sports competition can also decrease an athlete's confidence on game day. Or it can affect one’s personal belief in themself to actually crush a workout.
Mood can also be affected by sleep. Progesterone’s drop towards the end of the menstrual cycle, just before the bleed phase can lead to sleep disturbances resulting in less muscle recovery and your client feeling crappy.
You as a coach can help “meet your client’s where they are at” when you notice mood and anxiety by giving clients a “plan-of-action” for when this strikes.
The first option is - Exercise variation - if someone comes in, in a really low state of mind, varying exercise intensity and volume to be a little lower when PMS strikes can work in 2 ways.
#1 it can help build more self efficacy by supporting them in meeting their goals
#2, most important, it capitalizes on the fact that hormones are lower when your client has PMS, so she has less capacity for muscle growth and recovery.
Also, studies like this 2021 Willet et. al shows us that more fat is being used for energy at this phase of the cycle, and the female body has an easier time using fat for energy at submaximal exercise intensities.
Increased Appetite:
Now let’s move to PMS #2, which is increased appetite. First off, if you asked me, increased appetite, isn’t so much a PMS symptom as it is an “Actual Body Cue” or (as I teach in the Confident Menstrual Cycle Coaching Academy) an “ABC” of this phase of the cycle.
I say that because this study shows that we actually have a higher BMR in this phase of the cycle. A higher BMR is just going to result in a need for more calories simply to maintain. Here’s what an increased appetite could mean for your client’s sports performance.
Overall, an increased appetite could result in overall better performance during workouts because she has more fuel to work with. But conversely, if your client is depleted and goes for a pizza, ice cream or pasta binge, she could relay that she feels bloated, sluggish or simply bad about herself. This could in turn impact her self efficacy and maybe even her desire to show up for her workout. Here’s how you can handle that as a coach:
-Let her know that an increase in appetite is normal and her metabolism’s way of keeping her in balance.
-Identify what she likes to eat during this time and encourage her to eat the things that she wants in an amount that she feels about and aligns with her goals.
Breast Pain
Next most common PMS symptom that could impact sports performance is Breast Pain. Breast pain is a result of potentially high(er) estrogen + sodium potassium. And I made a whole video on how to counteract breast soreness with your cycle and you can watch it here.
Breast pain can impact sports performance because when your boobs are in pain and you try to do anything athletic, your boobs are going to talk to you. I used to have breast pain so bad that wearing a sports bra was literally painful. Now considering breast pain is partly a nutrition issue you can help your clients with this by informing her that certain foods help reduce breast pain by excreting sodium from the body. This has worked for me and my clients.
High potassium foods that can do just that includes:
Asparagus
Banana
Citrus
Melons
Dates
Prunes
Cooked broccoli and spinach.
Tiredness & Fatigue
The last PMs symptom that can impact sports performance is tiredness or fatigue. Fatigue is a result of progesterone's effect on the brain. When we enter the luteal phase, progesterone increases. And the result of progesterone can sometimes be a small as feeling lack luster to having full on fatigue.
Also consider, that in the luteal phase there is a drop in hormones estrogen and testosterone, which also serve to support energy levels. Putting those two factors together, less estrogen and testosterone and more progesterone can kind of suck for some people. As I mentioned before, the dramatic drop on progesterone late in the cycle can result in disturbed sleep, which also impacts overall energy and muscle recovery.
When your client comes to you complaining of fatigue or tiredness, you as a coach can help her deal with this by reducing exercise intensity to help decrease the overall muscle damage that her body has to deal with post exercise. You as a health professional can also encourage her to go to bed earlier, take naps or even ask her if it’s possible if she can sleep in.
Your client’s hormone health is a part of their overall health. And since you as a coach are being hired to help her address her health, hormone health is a huge consideration and I know your client will be grateful that you have this knowledge to help her reduce PMS.
If you want to earn a certification to assess and address hormone balance using science based menstrual cycle fitness and nutrition so that you can not only help your clients get fit, but also help them be aligned with their cycle, apply for the Confident Menstrual Cycle Coaching Academy.
The application process is simple. All you do is click this link to book an application call. On our call, I’ll ask you a few applications and you and I will decide if working together is a fit for both of us.