The Pros and Cons of Cycle Syncing for your Workouts

You might have seen more online and in the media about something called cycle syncing. This is the practice of adjusting your workouts to fit the fluctuating nature of women’s hormones across a monthly menstrual cycle. If you’ve ever been unsure of the benefits, or confused as to the concept, this article aims to pick fact from fiction and help you decide what’s best when it comes to potentially applying some of the tools of cycle syncing to your own training.

In 2017, Chelsea Women’s manager Emma Hayes proudly detailed the fact that her team were introducing cycle tracking to the team’s overall approach to player health and performance.

At the time, the concept was relatively new, and Emma spoke about how she believed that in recognising the importance of menstrual health in athletic performance she could then aim to optimise player performance, reduce injury risk, and enhance recovery by tailoring training loads to the different phases of the menstrual cycle.

The results spoke for themselves. Players experienced more tailored approaches to training, leading to increased awareness of their own bodies and how to manage their performance throughout the month. They experienced less injuries as a team, particularly soft tissue injuries which are common around certain points in the cycle (like during menstruation and ovulation). And players reported that they felt they performed better by avoiding overtraining during times when their bodies were less able to recover or handle intense exertion.

More widely, Chelsea’s strategy helped normalise discussions around female athletes reproductive health, challenging taboos around menstruation in sport.

This had a trickle down effect to all women who exercised, who realised that unlike men, we can experience noticeable fluctuations in energy, performance, and recovery across a typical monthly cycle, giving rise to a huge trend of people training more adaptively around their cycle.

It sounds simple doesn't it? Well, in theory perhaps, yes. But there are pros and cons to cycle syncing your workouts, and it’s important to explore these first before launching into a rigid training structure.

What are the potential benefits of cycle syncing?

1.A greater understanding of your cycle in general

Tracking your cycle can be so beneficial in so many ways. Across an average 28 day cycle, a woman experiences fluctuations of hormones (namely oestrogen and progesterone) than can influence how we feel, function and perform during exercise. Just generally having a greater understanding of where you are in your cycle can therefore help you become more attuned to your own individual variances.

For example, you might notice a big dip in energy right before you get your period, and a big surge in energy once you come out the other side. These can be helpful in giving you an indication as to when you might feel you will perform your best if you’re planning a big race, event or workout.

2.Potentially greater strength advantages in the follicular phase

Some research has found potential benefits to heavy lifting in the first half of your cycle (the follicular phase) over the second with a 4-month RCT of trained women. Those who did high-frequency leg strength work in the first two weeks of each cycle gained more 1 rep max squat, jump performance, hamstring torque, and leg lean mass than those who loaded in the last two weeks.^[1]

This could therefore influence your decision on timings of when to plan to hit that big PB, or even to just centralise your more heavy weight training in the first half of your cycle.

What are the potential cons of cycle syncing?

1.No clear evidence for a one size fits all protocol

The issue with cycle syncing as it stands is that women experience such a variety of symptoms and cycles that creating protocols that suit everybody is pretty much impossible.

In the case of Chelsea Women’s team, they were high level athletes who were able to have tailored and individualised care depending on a single player's needs.

When we start to bring these practices to the general population, it’s impossible to have such individuality and broad statements such as ‘lift heavy in the first half of your cycle, do endurance work in the second’ may actually hold some women back who feel best doing differently to this.

2.Use it as a tool, not a rule

Recent research reviews argue that the evidence is currently still very mixed and/or insufficient to mandate cycle syncing for all women, noting methodological issues and individual variability. The conclusion is that whilst there are some interesting observations to be taken from women adapting their training across a monthly cycle, it’s best to become attuned to your own individual variances and to use cycle syncing as a tool, not a rule.

What this could look like for you, is tracking your cycle and any menstrual related symptoms across a number of months, and then noting after each workout how you’re feeling. Tracking your work output like total volume in a session, and/or times for things like how long it took you to run a certain distance for example could give valuable feedback in you then being able to potentially make adjustments if you notice any relevant changes.

Again, it’s about learning to understand your cycle and your body so that you can make your own specific changes depending on how you respond to your chosen training stimulus.

In conclusion

So, the practical takeaways are that if you do choose to sync, the most evidence based protocol is:

• Schedule strength training during the follicular phase (most evidence-based window)

• In the late luteal phase, if symptoms are present:

  • Opt for lower-intensity activities.

  • Include deload sessions (reduced training load)

The biggest take home though is that it should be personal to you. So your best approach is to monitor your symptoms and performance, and make tweaks that feel suitable for you and your body.