Menstrual Cycle Basics for Personal Trainers

Fitness coaches are missing a large piece of overall health if they don’t understand how hormones impact client’s day to day lives. This blog post is going to help you understand how the female hormone cycle impacts your clients!

My name is Omega Zumpano, I am an exercise scientist and menstrual cycle educator and this is one of my Confident Menstrual Cycle Coaching Academy students who has been able to get her clients to their goals faster.

So, coach first things first, there are 4 phases of the menstrual cycle and they work in this order..

Phases of the Cycle:
First, there is the bleed phase, the first day of the bleed phase is day 1 of the hormonal cycle.
It lasts about 3-7 days. And after that is the follicular phase. The follicular phase is characterized by a stop in bleeding and a boost of energy.
About 14 days after day 1 of your client’s period, we have ovulation. Now ovulation is literally a moment in time, but the ovulatory phase is the 3-4 days window around that phase.
The final phase is called the luteal phase. This phase lasts 11-14 days and is usually when we see PMS issues come up as a result of hormone imbalance. 

Understand that physical fitness, motivation, energy and even hunger will shift throughout the cycle 

In the bleed phase hormones are the lowest, leading to a dip in energy. After the bleed phase, research from Romero Parra et. al suggests that since the hormones are still rising, female clients might experience more strength loss and delayed onset muscle soreness. While in the ovulatory phase, since estrogen and testosterone are highest, we are likely to experience more motivation, strength and muscle recovery. After ovulation happens, and we dip into the luteal phase we actually have a boost in basal metabolic rate. This boost, makes us more hungry and if we don’t get adequate nutrition, we will find ourselves with more cravings. 

Important Question to ask:

Ask your client what the first day of her last period was in her initial assessment!!

Now this can be her initial assessment or the next assessment you have coming up. If your client asks why you need to know that, tell her this. “Your period is your fifth vital sign. I’m asking because I’ve learned that hormonal health impacts fitness performance and I want to help you take advantage of your hormones”.
Getting to know what day her period starts and the length of her menstrual cycle is the first step in supporting your client’s hormone health. The average menstrual cycle length is 28-32 days, but this can vary from 22-36+ days. Knowing the average length of her cycle is going to help you determine which phase of the cycle she is in, which can then help you determine what her hormones are doing and how you can train her best.

Personal Trainer Continuing Education:

If you want to go from not understand how to help your clients optimize her hormones to feeling confident in helping your client workout with her hormones and get the right nutrition for hormone balance so that you can get her to her goals faster and help her be aligned with her cycle, apply for the Confident Menstrual Cycle Coaching Academy. The application process is simple. Just book an application call here. On our call I’ll ask a few application questions and you and I will decide if working together is a fit for both of us.