Your Menstrual Cycle Might Affect Your Lifting…. But Probably Not How You Think.
As a coach, researcher investigating the menstrual cycle, and female who lifts, I am fascinated by the relationship between menstrual phase, hormonal status and training & performance. And I know I'm not the only one.
If you've spent any time in the female strength-sport space, you've probably heard that your menstrual cycle can make you stronger at certain times of the month, weaker at others, or that you should change your training depending on which phase you're in.
Yes, your menstrual cycle may affect your training and performance - but probably not in the simple, predictable, phase-by-phase way that social media wants you to believe.
So, what does the research actually tell us?
And more importantly, what does the literature tell us about (strength-sport athletes) weightlifters and powerlifters specifically?
AREA 1: EXPERIENCES
Before we talk about what happens in a laboratory, let's talk about what athletes and coaches actually perceive, experience and do day-to-day.
Female strength-sport athletes commonly report menstrual cycle-related symtpms, and changes in how they feel and train across their menstrual cycle.
In my study, I spoke directly with elite female weightlifters and powerlifters (and seven coaches) about their experiences across the menstrual cycle and similar experiences have been reported by strength-sport athletes (Santabarbara 2024), weightlifters (Brown 2021), powerlifters (Nolan, 2022) and strength trained individuals in other (I've linked all these papers at the end of the blog if you want to read further).
Athletes described symptoms including low-back and joint pain, cramping, heavy bleeding, increased fatigue, reduced energy, emotional/behavioural changes, perceived reductions in strength and changes in execution of lifts. Coaches described a similar spectrum: for some athletes, their cycle was barely noticeable. For others, symptoms were significant enough that they changed how training was approached. And even within the same athlete, the impact could vary from cycle to cycle. That variability is one of the most important things to understand when talking about the menstrual cycle and training or performance.
AREA 2: EVIDENCE
In this "evidence" section, we are going to discuss a few things.. Is there evidence that shows objective performance (i.e. the weight on the bar, the competition performance, etc) changes throughout the menstrual cycle? And also, how are coaches and athletes approaching management of the menstrual cycle.
For this section, I will still discuss the 3 studies mentioned above, as well as a few others, including Niering 2024, Isenman 2024 and Schatz 2026, (again, all linked below if you'd like to read further)
1. The broader strength literature: Niering et al. (2024)
Niering and co. conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 studies involving 433 women, examining different types of maximal strength across menstrual-cycle phases. The researchers found small effects favouring the late follicular phase for isometric and dynamic maximal strength, and small effects for isokinetic maximal strength in favor of the ovulation phase, and concluded that early follicular performance appeared less favourable across the strength measures.
BUT — here's the really important part: This isn't a meta-analysis of elite weightlifters and powerlifters. There was also substantial variation between the studies in how menstrual-cycle phases were determined, who was studied and how strength was measured. So while this provides some evidence that menstrual-cycle phase may influence certain measures of maximal strength, we need to be careful about taking a finding from a broad laboratory literature and turning it into:
"You will be stronger in the late follicular phase." That's not what the evidence actually allows us to say.
2. Isenmann et al. (2024): Let's put the athlete under a barbell
This paper is particularly useful because it gets much closer to the question your audience actually cares about.
If the broader literature gives us one piece of the puzzle, Isenmann and co. bring us closer to the actual training environment. This study included 24 female strength-trained athletes (not strength-sport athletes….) and tested their 1RM back squat performance and psychological state. what did they find?
No significant differences in overall lower-body performance between menstrual-cycle phases.
There was, however, a significant difference in well-being, with lower well-being during menstruation. So…
Niering says there may be small effects in maximal strength. But Isenmann puts trained strength athletes through 1RM squats and doesn't find a significant overall phase effect.
So once again, the answer isn't: "The menstrual cycle doesn't matter" nor "You are stronger in the follicular phase."
It's: "There may be small and individual effects, but they aren't consistent enough to create a universal training prescription."
3. Schatz et al. (2026): What happens when we look at elite weightlifters?
If we want to understand whether the menstrual cycle affects performance in strength-sports athletes, it makes sense to study… strength-sport athletes. And although we need more literature in this area, a recent paper did do just this!
Schatz and co. followed 8 elite female weightlifters for six months, monitoring their menstrual cycles alongside training and back-squat performance.
And the headline finding? There was no overall effect of the menstrual-cycle phase on back-squat performance.
However, things became more interesting when the researchers considered training load.
During moderate training weeks, back-squat performance was significantly lower during the late luteal phase compared with the early follicular phase and low-training weeks. There were no significant differences across the other combinations of menstrual phase and training load.
So, again, this doesn't give us a simple: "Luteal phase makes me weaker."
Instead, it gives us something much more interesting: Menstrual phase and training load may interact.
This is important because athletes don't train in isolated menstrual-cycle phases. They train within weeks of different workloads, alongside changes in sleep, stress, nutrition, recovery and everything else happening in their lives. And that is a much more useful way to think about the menstrual cycle than simply assigning every phase a training prescription.
AREA 3: SO WHAT SHOULD YOU BE AWARE OF?
There is currently no evidence that all women are stronger or weaker during one particular menstrual phase.
The menstrual cycle involves fluctuations in hormones that can impact many physiological systems and interact with things such as thermoregulation, fluid balance, substrate metabolism, neuromuscular function, mood, fatigue, force output, and pain perception. But a physiological mechanism does not automatically equal a meaningful change in performance.
Your cycle is one piece of the puzzle - training load, sleep, nutrition, stress, illness, life circumstances, recovery and psychological state all influence performance.
Reviews of the literature have found that athletes commonly perceive worse performance during certain phases, particularly the early follicular and late luteal phases, while objectively measured strength and other performance outcomes show much less consistent effects. So yes, your hormones are changing, but your performance is the product of far more than your hormones.
AREA 4: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
So, what does all of this mean when you're actually standing in the gym with a barbell? Sometimes nothing…. Sometimes something… work with your coach & learn your individual response.
1. Track the things that actually matter and look for repeated patterns
Start with: menstrual cycle/bleeding, symptoms, sleep, fatigue, stress, motivation, and over time, you may start to notice patterns.
2. Autoregulate when you need to
Athletes and coaches in my study describe managing individual symptoms and making adjustments when necessary rather than automatically programming around menstrual phase. They reported reducing intensity, adjusting load to match RPE, changing exercises or moving training sessions when symptoms were particularly disruptive.
3. Don't be afraid of a hard session during your period, but don't ignore significant symptoms
There is no rule saying you can't train hard because you're menstruating. If you feel good, train hard.
If menstrual symptoms are repeatedly interfering with your training, recovery, performance or quality of life, don't just accept that as "part of being a woman." Tell your coach, and talk to an appropriate healthcare professional - Your menstrual cycle is health information.
References:
Santabarbara 2024 - https://doi.org/10.1177/17479541241228986
Brown 2021 - https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13818
Isenmann 2024 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-024-01010-4
Nolan 2022 -https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2021.2024774
Niering 2024 - https://doi.org/10.3390/sports12010031
— MWBC Coaching Team
