"There's a body of research going back at least 40 years, with scientists asking whether hormonal shifts in women influence strength, fatigue and recovery. Over time, that research has filtered into gyms and social media, often simplified into rules like "take it easy during your period" or "push hard mid-cycle." The menstrual cycle is a monthly rhythm of hormones. During the month, two key hormones, estrogen and progesterone, rise and fall, shaping how many women feel, move and recover."
"They found 707 studies but focused on just 22, which met specific criteria. These included studies which had selected women a regular menstrual cycle and where the measurement of muscle strength was done in a clearly defined cycle phase. On average, women performed slightly better in week two of the cycle, when estrogen is rising, but the differences were small."
The menstrual cycle involves monthly rises and falls of estrogen and progesterone and is commonly divided into four stages: menstruation, the lead-up to ovulation, the post-ovulatory phase, and the premenstrual phase. Fitness advice often recommends adjusting training by cycle stage. Systematic reviews of research found many studies but only a small number met strict criteria; pooled results show a slight average performance advantage in the mid-cycle (rising estrogen) but wide individual variation and small effects. Muscle protein synthesis shows no meaningful differences between cycle weeks, indicating that muscle repair and growth can occur throughout the month.
Read at www.dw.com
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