Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple

I think it's good that we're talking about it.

It's good that people feel comfortable discussing it with their coach.

The unfortunate shift of because you have a menstrual cycle and because hormones are fluctuating, you need to change how you are exercising is way too simplistic and doesn't align with the data that we have.

So instead of worrying about whether you're in this phase or that phase or whether estradiol is high or low, I would really focus on how you feel

train hard, train consistently, train progressively.

If at some point in your cycle you experience menstrual symptoms,

or fatigue or a lack of motivation that you relate to menstruation, then having an option to skip a workout or adjust the exercises that you're doing for that workout or do another form of exercise that day is completely fine.

I'm not saying you have to grind it out, push through.

But you are not less capable that day because you have your menstrual period or because the hormone profile has shifted in one direction or another.

There's no danger.

You might feel worse.

But subjective...

measures of performance are different often from objective measures of performance.

And that goes for the menstrual cycles, symptoms, and other factors as well.

So you might go in and deadlift the same weight as last week, and you'd say, wow, this feels really heavy, or the weight's moving really slow this morning, but you're still lifting it.

So objectively, the performance was the same.

It's just your experience of what it felt like

differs.

It feels harder today.

To your point, that can be the case for a variety of reasons.