Training Around Your Cycle: What the Latest Research Says About Strength, Mood, and Performance

What a new study suggests about strength, mood, and why personalized training beats cycle-based rules.

For years, women have been told one of two stories about the menstrual cycle. The first is that it dramatically dictates athletic performance and every workout should be planned around hormones. The second is that it doesn’t matter at all. Neither view captures the full picture.

A recently published study in Scientific Reports offers a more nuanced perspective. Rather than asking whether the menstrual cycle affects performance, the researchers examined how physical performance and psychological well-being changed across six hormonally validated phases of the menstrual cycle in trained female athletes. The findings are interesting. More importantly, they remind us that physiology is rarely as simple as social media makes it seem.

The menstrual cycle influences more than reproduction

The menstrual cycle is a coordinated conversation between the brain, pituitary gland, and ovaries. Estrogen and progesterone do far more than regulate fertility. They influence neuromuscular function, energy metabolism, inflammation, thermoregulation, and mood. These biological shifts have led many researchers to ask whether athletic performance changes alongside hormonal fluctuations.

The challenge has always been that previous research has produced inconsistent results. Many studies relied on calendar estimates instead of physiologically confirming cycle phases, making it difficult to know whether participants were actually being tested during the phase researchers intended. This new study attempted to address that limitation by following women across six validated menstrual cycle phases using luteinizing hormone testing to identify ovulation before measuring both strength and psychological variables.

What the researchers found

The study followed 18 naturally menstruating female athletes from a variety of sports. Across the cycle, several patterns emerged. Dynamic lower body strength, measured with a one repetition maximum half squat, was highest during the late follicular phase and around ovulation. Performance declined during the late luteal phase, when both estrogen and progesterone begin to fall.

Interestingly, this pattern did not extend to every measure of strength. Isometric handgrip strength actually reached its highest values during the late luteal phase, reinforcing an important concept that different types of strength may respond differently to hormonal changes. This is one reason blanket statements like “women are strongest during ovulation” oversimplify what is actually happening. The answer appears to depend on what type of performance you are measuring.

Mood changed more consistently than motivation

Perhaps the more clinically relevant findings involved psychological well-being. Toward the late luteal phase, participants reported:

• Higher fatigue
• Higher depression scores
• Lower vigor

Interestingly, motivation remained remarkably stable throughout the cycle. Sleep quality and perceived exertion also showed no meaningful differences between phases.

This distinction matters. Feeling more fatigued does not necessarily mean someone becomes less motivated. An athlete may be just as committed to training while simultaneously feeling physically or mentally less recovered. That difference is important when making training decisions.

One size fits no one

One of the strongest messages from the paper is not about hormones. It is about variability. Although clear trends appeared at the group level, individual responses differed substantially. Some athletes followed the expected pattern. Others did not.

This helps explain why previous research has often produced conflicting conclusions. Menstrual cycle physiology is highly individualized, and group averages may not reflect how a particular woman experiences her own cycle. Rather than prescribing rigid cycle based training plans, the authors recommend individualized monitoring that combines objective performance markers with simple assessments of mood and fatigue. In other words, pay attention to what your own body consistently does rather than assuming it follows an average.

Strength and mood may be connected

The researchers also explored whether physical performance and psychological well-being were related. They found a moderate negative association between lower body strength and depression scores. Athletes with greater average squat performance tended to report fewer depressive symptoms.

Importantly, this does not prove that stronger athletes are less depressed or that increasing squat strength improves mood. The study cannot establish cause and effect. It simply suggests that physical and psychological readiness may sometimes move together, highlighting the value of monitoring both rather than focusing exclusively on physical performance.

What this means in practice

For athletes, coaches, and clinicians, these findings support a more thoughtful approach. The goal is not to build an entire training program around the menstrual cycle. It is to recognize that hormonal physiology may influence readiness differently from one individual to another.

Simple tracking can be surprisingly informative. Monitoring a few consistent variables, such as maximal strength, perceived fatigue, mood, and recovery, may reveal patterns that allow training loads to be adjusted when appropriate. That approach respects biology without allowing biology to become deterministic.

What this does not mean

This study should not be interpreted as evidence that every woman should avoid training during the late luteal phase. Nor does it suggest that performance is inevitably worse during menstruation.

Several important limitations remain. The study included only 18 athletes. Participants represented multiple sports with different training backgrounds. Hormonal phases were confirmed using luteinizing hormone testing rather than comprehensive hormone measurements. And many factors that influence performance, including nutrition, stress, and daily training load, were not experimentally controlled. These findings should therefore be viewed as informative rather than prescriptive.

The bigger lesson

Longevity and performance medicine increasingly recognize that health is rarely about finding the perfect protocol. It is about recognizing patterns. The menstrual cycle represents one of many physiological rhythms that influence readiness, recovery, and adaptation.

The question is not whether hormones matter. They do. The more important question is how much they matter for the individual standing in front of you. That is where personalized monitoring becomes more valuable than generalized rules. Understanding your own physiology will almost always outperform trying to follow someone else’s.

Reference: Niering, M., Schilling, V., Beurskens, R., & Seifert, J. (2026). The effects of the menstrual cycle on physical and psychological parameters in female athletes. Scientific Reports, 16, 12034. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47706-0