Should you sync your workouts to your menstrual cycle?

The idea has taken off on social media: women should sync their training to their menstrual cycle, lifting heavier weights around ovulation and switching to gentler movement such as yoga in the second half of the cycle because, it is said, hormones affect strength.

Dr Marianna Apicella, a University of Leicester researcher specialising in female physiology, says the evidence for that approach is thin. "High-quality evidence supporting that is seriously lacking," she says. "There's not really much concrete evidence for it." Her research into muscle-building across the cycle has shown no clear differences between phases: early follicular, late follicular or luteal all appear broadly consistent in the body’s ability to build muscle.

At the same time, individual experience varies. "What I will caveat that with is that everyone’s different, so some people might feel stronger at certain points," Apicella says. Symptoms such as cramps, fatigue or low mood can make performance dip, while others experience few symptoms and feel unaffected.

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