Overview
Fitness professionals often hold the opinion that results can only be attained by persistent hard work, regardless of gender.
The majority of research on efficient exercise programming, however, is conducted on male test subjects due to gender bias in the field of exercise science.
Exercise guidelines are provided as one-size-fits-all prescriptions, and women from all walks of life eagerly try the newest exercise fad in hopes of seeing favorable effects.
Many women’s workout goals are driven by the desire to attain a certain body type. However, the “always work hard” attitude runs directly afoul of low energy days at some time in the month, and women risk being victimized by their own harsh judgment.
As someone who has always exercised, and is also a personal trainer, I’ve developed a new perspective on fitness and the menstrual cycle [1]. Understanding our monthly hormonal variations can help us increase our workout intensity when our bodies are ready to do so and decrease it when they can no longer handle the physical strain.
Working smarter, not harder, we may use our female biology to our advantage when we learn how to cycle our activity with our cycle.
We must first be acutely aware of the menstrual cycle’s phases if we are to work with our bodies rather than against them.