Sports Nutrition & Training for the Menstrual Cycle

If you are a fitness coach, you know how popular cycle syncing is becoming and hormone balance is becoming. And you may have had your clients ask about it. And if you have not, you're here because you're curious about it. So if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, go ahead and do so by clicking that subscribe button somewhere down below here. And when you do, make sure to click that bell to be notified every time I post a new video on menstrual cycle health, fitness, and nutrition education for personal trainers. And today we are going to do a deep dive into sports nutrition for the menstrual cycle so that you can help your clients get better results. And as always, we're bringing in some recent research papers here. And I think above all else, the most common I guess comment I hear when it comes to the menstrual cycle from coaches is that there's not enough research.

So I wanna bust that myth. There is a lot of research and you're gonna learn some here if you are excited about that, give this video a like, and if you don't know me yet, hello, my name is Omega Zumpano. I am an exercise scientist and menstrual cycle educator and founder of one of the first certifications to help personal trainers balance and optimize their client's hormones. So if you are curious to learn more about exactly how to do that and my strategy that has helped so many coaches, you can click the link down below and apply for the program. And I wanna bring in one of the coaches that I've worked with already. I'm pulling up her testimonial right here. Her name is Anastasia, and I'll just read you the highlighted portion. She says that her clients are achieving amazing results, they're more in tune with their bodies.

That's awesome. They understand they're fluctuating energy levels, awesome. They are consistent and they're reaching their weight loss, muscle gain, endurance, and improved energy goals. And that is because she is periodizing to the cycle, not only their fitness but their nutrition as well. So by the end of this video, you are gonna know exactly how to do that. We're gonna go through each phase of the menstrual cycle in order. So first things first, we have the menstrual phase and we'll be discussing exercise and nutrition in each of those phases. So first I want you to understand that research typically breaks down the whole menstrual cycle into two parts. The follicular phase and the o and the If you are a fitness coach, you know how popular cycle syncing is becoming and hormone balance is becoming. And you may have had your clients ask about it. And if you have not, you're here because you're curious about it. So if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, go ahead and do so by clicking that subscribe button somewhere down below here. And when you do, make sure to click that bell to be notified every time I post a new video on menstrual cycle health, fitness, and nutrition education for personal trainers. And today we are going to do a deep dive into sports nutrition for the menstrual cycle so that you can help your clients get better results. And as always, we're bringing in some recent research papers here. And I think above all else, the most common I guess comment I hear when it comes to the menstrual cycle from coaches is that there's not enough research.

That's awesome. They understand they're fluctuating energy levels, awesome. They are consistent and they're reaching their weight loss, muscle gain, endurance, and improved energy goals. And that is because she is periodizing to the cycle, not only their fitness but their nutrition as well. So by the end of this video, you are gonna know exactly how to do that. We're gonna go through each phase of the menstrual cycle in order. So first things first, we have the menstrual phase and we'll be discussing exercise and nutrition in each of those phases. So first I want you to understand that research typically breaks down the whole menstrual cycle into two parts. The follicular phase and the o and the lal phase, and it's separated by ovulation. And ovulation is an event, it's not as much as a phase, however, we characterize it as a phase because of the hormone and energy differences that are happening. So let's go over each sub phase, which is like menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase, luteal phase. And if you wanna write those all down because you're not familiar with the cycle, go ahead, grab

The pen, grab your notebook and write those down. So that we have the four phases and they happen in that order. And if we're talking about just the follicular phase and the ovulatory phase, then the menstrual and follicular phase get grouped into one and the, I guess the ovulatory and luteal phase gets lumped into one. And so now let's take this and let's bring it back down into four parts. First we have the menstrual phase and what's happening with exercise in the menstrual phase. One article by Romero Parra says that we have increased delayed onset muscle soreness in this phase. And you might be thinking, well, why, why is that? And my answer for that is that our hormones are lowest in the menstrual phase and with that estrogen and testosterone can't do its jo, its job that it does during exercise, which is heal and grow muscle tissue.

Let's talk about nutrition. So there was another great study by Whoglemuth & colleagues that showed us in the, they broke down the cycle into two phases. So they have the follicular and they have the luteal phase. And what they found in the follicular phase is that we actually have more carb tolerance, we use carbs more efficiently and we use fat less efficiently when compared to the luteal phase. So let's synthesize all of this information here. So we, your, your client or you might have more delayed onset muscle soreness in this phase. And based on another research article that looked at 40 different research articles, the one by Carmichael, we know that anaerobic performance and aerobic performance could take a boost. And we know that we use carbs more efficiently in the follicular phase, which again is from the bleed phase to ovulation. And so with that we can summarize a few things.

One, it's most important to get to know yourself slash your client when designing any periodized program, right? So you need to find out if your client, one, if their goals are more anaerobic and strength-based or if their goals are more aerobic based. And with that, help them figure out what their energy capacity is in their bleed phase. And secondly, increase carbs a little bit. They might want more carbs in their bleed phase anyway because of cravings and things like that. So get to know what your client needs and then provide that for them. There's also a conversation to be had about iron in this phase as well. We lose a lot of iron when we're bleeding out of our vagina. So vagina, I said that weird anyway, we're gonna gloss over that. We are losing lots of iron. So to replace with high iron foods is going to be very beneficial.

There is a lot of research also supporting the idea that iron is synthesized better with Vitamin C. And so doing a combination of iron and vitamin C with meals or without meals might be really beneficial for your clients. So personally I have low iron and I make sure that dur before, during, and after my bleed phase when I'm bleeding, I am right now pregnant, but before, during, and after my bleed phase, I get enough iron with vitamin C that is so good. Sources of iron, obviously red meat kale can have iron, black beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, also great sources of iron, great sources of vitamin C. We have things like phytonutrients. So any, any red fruit, grapefruit, citrus bell peppers getting vitamin C raw is probably best. And vitamin C oxidizes quickly when it's cut into, so a melon can lose.

I think it's something like up to 20% of its vitamin C if it's left out for like five to 15 minutes without being covered. Anyway, the minutia of it all. Okay, so high iron, high vitamin C, carbs obviously. And then obviously help your clients get enough protein and fat too. But understand that carbs are used more efficiently during this phase of the cycle. Same with the next phase of the cycle that we're going into, which is the follicular phase. Hormonally, what's happening in the follicular phase is that estrogen and testosterone are increasing. So we get that boost in muscle recovery and muscle growth. And

With that we can program design more strength exercises because we have better strength performance and strength outcomes in this phase. We also have great aerobic performance in this phase too. So planning endurance type activities is going to be great in this phase. We again have more of a carb tolerance, less protein metabolism. And to be clear, that doesn't mean that your client should eat less protein <laugh>. It just means that we're gonna break down less muscle tissue, which becomes incredibly important let's say in the l in the ludial phase. So that being said, we can do more strength oriented exercise and endurance oriented exercise and we have less of a demand on our muscles for protein. Does that again mean that your body needs less protein? No. so estrogen is also, I'm sorry, I'm looking at my notes again. I feel like every time I look at my notes I need to announce it. <Laugh>.

Estrogen is also anabolic, meaning that it can, again, I keep saying this and I think I say it in almost all my videos, heal and grow muscle tissue. So to take advantage of that as a coach is going to be incredibly wonderful for you. Also nutrient timing. There aren't a lot of research articles on the menstrual cycle and nutrient timing for muscle recovery. However, we do know that nutrient timing is a thing for sports performance. So why not time protein and carb intake appropriately for your clients here too. Getting a carb, a simple carb-heavy meal prior to exercise, like whatever your client's gastrointestinal tract can tolerate of course, and then getting a protein carb combination after exercise is just going to help them recover better. So as you're doing more strength and aerobic slash endurance type of exercises in this phase, protein and carb replacement after is going to support them.

There's also something that is presented in the Whoglemuth study called glycogen super compensation, which means that we take glucose that we eat, put it in our muscles and essentially save it for a rainy day so we have more capacity at certain times of the cycle to take in glucose, convert it into glycogen, and then use it for another exercise. However, I do remember in that article they specifically said about the glycogen super compensation that more research needs to be done on that. Okay, so that's the follicular phase. And then we have the ovulatory phase. And what I, what I thought was really interesting about this Carmichael article is that they said that aerobic performance is not as good as strength and anaerobic performance in this phase. And so let's, let's take all the nutrition recommendations that we've given in the follicular phase. We can apply it to the ovulatory phase.

And for sport for I guess sports training, performance training, whatever you wanna call it, we are gonna wanna focus on strength and anaerobic performance most in this quote unquote phase. Remember, ovulation is an event, but the days surrounding it are when estrogen and testosterone are the highest. Remember those two hormones are anabolic, which means that we can use them to our clients' advantage when it comes to cyclical periodization bebe. And so with that yeah, just make sure your clients are getting a protein and carb-heavy meal to help heal and grow muscle tissue because that is what the hormones are doing anyway. And now let's skip into the luteal phase. This is the most interesting phase to me in general because I mean there's, there's so much biologically happening with the body clearing estrogen and increasing progesterone intake. And so this is where this is where things get interesting in terms of nutrition need.

Now there was an article that I've posted about many time by draper and colleagues showed us what nutrition we can use to prevent PMs. A result of nutrient insufficiency, I'll call it is PMs. And PMs can actually be resolved, mitigated, and even prevented with proper nutritions. Cuz if your client is having anxiety, bloating, breast tenderness, cramps, fatigue, irritability, they're not gonna show up as best as they can when it comes to workout performance. If we take the proper measures for sports nutrition, then we can actually help mitigate what's going on in our, in our luteal phase in terms of nutrition. So let's get into it. This article by Draper and colleagues showed that magnesium can help prevent PMs. This article also showed that omega three s can help prevent pain oriented PMs. So if your client has cramps or migraines or headaches, omega three s is a great one to take.

There was also a study that showed us that omega three s are incredibly amazing at managing cramps over like a three month period. People with intense and incredible cramps actually decrease their cramps to mild cramps omega-3 S anybody. Amino acids become incredibly important because the inner lining of the uterus is actually using a lot, lot of amino acids to build the lining of the uterus in case pregnancy happens. And then there's vitamin T, vitamin D, not T vitamin D as well, which has progesterone like activities. And if you know anything about the menstrual cycle, you know that in the lal phase we wanna create progesterones. So vitamin D is going to help our clients do that. So those are some micronutrients to focus on. And another question that I get asked all the time by my own clients is, can I supplement? And sure you can supplement, but food, actual food has co-factors that we absolutely need in order to synthesize and activate certain minerals that we're eating, vitamins and minerals and all sorts of things.

So I always go with the food first approach. So again, that list is magnesium, omega three s, amino acids, and vitamin D. Make sure you're getting all of those things. And then let's talk about the study from WOM and what they saw. But before that, if you are here and if you are liking this video still, go ahead, press that like button if you haven't already and if you have a question, comment or hilarious remark, make sure to post it in the comment section below. I love hearing from you and if you, this is really like lighting up your senses and if you're like, I wanna learn more from this woman Omega, then you can apply for the confident menstrual cycle. Coach Academy application is below. And this is really only appropriate for personal trainers if you are not a personal trainer, but you are really into what I'm talking about.

I have other programs that you can join too that are not application-based cyclical fitness coaching, nutrition and PMS prevention and you can find all that using the link below as well. Anyway, okay, let's get into that wo Gouth article and go into what Whoglemuth and colleagues said about nutrition for this phase of the cycle. They said that in terms of sports performance, we're actually using more fat for energy. In addition to that, we are a little bit more insulin resistant, so we don't use carbs as efficiently in this phase of the cycle. We are also a little bit more catabolic, meaning we use more protein. Again, those amino acids are building the lining of the uterus. So we're gonna use more protein for that purpose, but for some reason we're just more catabolic in this phase two. So some sports nutrition ideas that I have for you are to increase protein intake and make sure that you're getting enough carbohydrate from complex sources.

So something that happens in the lal phase, if we're not getting enough nutritious food, our body is going to turn on cravings so that we do eat enough. And that is one of the PMs symptoms that the article by Bruinvels and colleagues covers this experience we have around cravings can be mitigated by balancing our blood sugar. And I'm sure you agree. So eating fiber, fat and protein every two to four hours is not only gonna work to mitigate the blood sugar imbalances that are so common and prevalent in the LAL phase, but it's also going to work to perhaps get more of the micronutrients that we know that we need during this phase. Again, that is vitamin D, omega threes, magnesium, anything else? Oh, amino acids, right? We gotta get those amino acids in. Something that you may have already heard is metabolism in the lal phase.

Do we have an increase in metabolism? We do, it's about a hundred to 200 calories depending on your client's BMR and T D E E. And so let's focus less on like, oh my gosh, I have to get a hundred to 200 more calories a day and let's focus more on getting more nutrition in our clients' bodies during this phase of the cycle. Focusing on those, those nutrients that I just mentioned. The last thing I wanna talk about is oh, this. The second to last thing I want to talk about is the type of training that is most appropriate in this phase. So I'm not gonna get into this because I already did a video on luteal phase training and I'll post it here and I I will link that in the description section below. Make a little note with your pen to watch that video if you haven't already.

It breaks down our strength aerobic and anaerobic capacity in the three, three sub phases of the LAL phase. So if you really want to periodize your own or your client's programs in a way that super takes advantage of the menstrual cycle, I highly recommend that you watch that video. So the last thing I wanna talk about is the potential sleep disturbances that arise in the luteal phase and the decreased amount of sleep and how that can impact workout performance as well with the increase in progesterone and then the rapid drop of progesterone that happens in the late luteal phase. We could be having sleep disturbances. I guess all I wanted to say about this is that sleep disturbances and blood sugar imbalances sometimes go hand in hand. So if your client is having a lot of cravings and they report that they only got like six hours of sleep and they had restless sleep or stuff like that, make sure that you're helping them do the proper interventions to mitigate that.

So I guess I'll go into the proper interventions too. Remember vitamin D has progesterone like activities in the late luteal phase. Progesterone is decreasing and so helping them get enough vitamin D throughout their lal phase is gonna be really great. Don't just wait until the late luteal phase. So we have that. Also. Balancing the blood sugar is going to be incredibly helpful because with sleep disturbances sometimes they happen when our blood sh when our blood sugar dips, blood sugar dips, cortisol rises, and cortisol is the wakey wiki eggs and big hormone. And so that wakes us up, right? In addition to that, I myself have noticed a lot of success as well with my clients. They've noticed a lot of success using tart cherry juice as a sort of sleep aid because tart cherry juice increases melatonin, melatonin helps us go to sleep, and then the the neurotransmitters GABA helps us stay asleep as well. And so in extreme cases you might recommend a GABA supplement to your clients. That's just, that's not where to start. Start with balancing the blood sugar and then maybe use the tart cherry juice intervention and go from there. So let's do a quick review of what we covered so far today.

In the menstrual phase, we have increased delayed onset muscle soreness and increase in anaerobic and aerobic performance. And to get enough iron and vitamin C along with complex carbs during that phase of the cycle is an awesome thing. Let's lump the follicular and ovulatory phase together because hormonally they're very similar. Hormones, estrogen and testosterone are rising to get a simple carb meal prior to exercise in a complex car meal after exercise is going to really serve your clients. In the gluteal phase, we have that increase in progesterone that we need to support and we can do that with vitamin D and preventing PMs for your clients. It should be a part of your nutrition strategy as a personal trainer and fitness coach. And we can do that by increasing magnesium intake vitamin D, which I already mentioned, omega three s and amino acids. And if you wanna learn more about the gluteal phase, make sure to watch this video next. Thank you so much for being here, and again, if you are totally into this and want to get your certification as a menstrual cycle coach, make sure to apply using the link down below. And if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you subscribe to this channel so that you can be sent more ways to optimize and balance your client's hormones. Thanks so much for being here and I will see you in the next video. Bye.

phase, and it's separated by ovulation. And ovulation is an event, it's not as much as a phase, however, we characterize it as a phase because of the hormone and energy differences that are happening. So let's go over each sub phase, which is like menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase, luteal phase. And if you wanna write those all down because you're not familiar with the cycle, go ahead, grab

And so our job as coaches is to recognize where our client's energy capacity is during that phase and meet them where they're at. So there was also a study by Carmichael and colleagues and what they showed was that anaerobic strength and aerobic capacity all changed throughout the cycle. And if you want a refresher on that, what is anaerobic and what is aerobic? Anaerobic is like a one rep max. An aerobic is like endurance exercise. So with anaerobic performance, there was, I'm looking at the graph right here. Anaerobic performance was actually better in the bleed phase than it was in the late If you are a fitness coach, you know how popular cycle syncing is becoming and hormone balance is becoming. And you may have had your clients ask about it. And if you have not, you're here because you're curious about it. So if you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, go ahead and do so by clicking that subscribe button somewhere down below here. And when you do, make sure to click that bell to be notified every time I post a new video on menstrual cycle health, fitness, and nutrition education for personal trainers. And today we are going to do a deep dive into sports nutrition for the menstrual cycle so that you can help your clients get better results. And as always, we're bringing in some recent research papers here. And I think above all else, the most common I guess comment I hear when it comes to the menstrual cycle from coaches is that there's not enough research.

That's awesome. They understand they're fluctuating energy levels, awesome. They are consistent and they're reaching their weight loss, muscle gain, endurance, and improved energy goals. And that is because she is periodizing to the cycle, not only their fitness but their nutrition as well. So by the end of this video, you are gonna know exactly how to do that. We're gonna go through each phase of the menstrual cycle in order. So first things first, we have the menstrual phase and we'll be discussing exercise and nutrition in each of those phases. So first I want you to understand that research typically breaks down the whole menstrual cycle into two parts. The follicular phase and the o and the lal phase, and it's separated by ovulation. And ovulation is an event, it's not as much as a phase, however, we characterize it as a phase because of the hormone and energy differences that are happening. So let's go over each sub phase, which is like menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase, luteal phase. And if you wanna write those all down because you're not familiar with the cycle, go ahead, grab

phase. And aerobic performance was actually really good in the bleed phase as well. What wasn't so good in the bleed phase was strength performance. So put that in the back of your mind is anaerobic and aerobic performance are really goodness phase strength performance, like doing like four to 12 reps of anything not so great with that.

There is a lot of research also supporting the idea that iron is synthesized better with Vitamin C. And so doing a combination of iron and vitamin C with meals or without meals might be really beneficial for your clients. So personally I have low iron and I make sure that before, during, and after my bleed phase when I'm bleeding, I am right now pregnant, but before, during, and after my bleed phase, I get enough iron with vitamin C that is so good. Sources of iron, obviously red meat kale can have iron, black beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, also great sources of iron, great sources of vitamin C. We have things like phytonutrients. So any, any red fruit, grapefruit, citrus bell peppers getting vitamin C raw is probably best. And vitamin C oxidizes quickly when it's cut into, so a melon can lose.

So I guess I'll go into the proper interventions too. Remember vitamin D has progesterone like activities in the late luteal phase. Progesterone is decreasing and so helping them get enough vitamin D throughout their luteal phase is gonna be really great. Don't just wait until the late luteal phase. So we have that. Also. Balancing the blood sugar is going to be incredibly helpful because with sleep disturbances sometimes they happen when our blood sh when our blood sugar dips, blood sugar dips, cortisol rises, and cortisol is the wakey wakey eggs and big hormone. And so that wakes us up, right? In addition to that, I myself have noticed a lot of success as well with my clients. They've noticed a lot of success using tart cherry juice as a sort of sleep aid because tart cherry juice increases melatonin, melatonin helps us go to sleep, and then the the neurotransmitters GABA helps us stay asleep as well. And so in extreme cases you might recommend a GABA supplement to your clients. That's just, that's not where to start. Start with balancing the blood sugar and then maybe use the tart cherry juice intervention and go from there. So let's do a quick review of what we covered so far today.