The Most Important Cycle for Female Footballers is Not a Training Cycle

Firstly, I am pumped about the Collingwood/Western Bulldogs practice game tonight so if you're not doing much then head down there.

You've got Katie Brennan, she of the unbelievable follow kicking follow through action versus Moana Hope who's life story is a Channel 9 movie in the making.

It kicks off at 6:30 at the Collingwood Football Club base Olympic Oval tonight (Thursday).

OK, onto this blog.

Hopefully by now I've made you aware of some of the extra challenges women have over men in regards to how their body's work in relation to peak performance.

One of the main reasons for this is their menstrual cycle.

I am by no means an expert on this but I have had a file on training females that I add to every now and then with training stuff I come across for years now - and now I can finally use it all!

So below is a little checklist of what to train and how to train at various parts of the 28 cycle. I assume every female handles this time of the month differently, mentally and physically, but there are certain things you should and should not do to decrease the risk of injury.

PHASE 1A	Follicular Phase
DURATION	Days 1 to 5
WHAT HAPPENS	High Estrogen, Bleeding
GOOD STUFF	Body Uses Fat as its Main Fuel Source
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Increased RPE / Fatigue / Joint Laxity /  Lower Back Pain = Increased Injury  Risk
RECOMMENDATIONS	You’ll need to go low volume and low  intensity so use as a deload training  week and perform your cardio at  60 – 70% to take advantage of fat  being used as you’re primary fuel  source.

PHASE 1B	Follicular Phase
DURATION	Days 6 to 13
WHAT HAPPENS	High Estrogen
GOOD STUFF	Increased Mental Focus
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Might be some Residual Effects from  week one in regards to Injury Risk
RECOMMENDATIONS	You should be able to ramp up your  training volume and intensity from  here and with the increase in mental  focus new exercises should be  introduced here as well. Plyometrics  can also be re-introduced but start with low level variations and work into them.

PHASE 1C	Follicular Phase
DURATION	Days 14 to 15
WHAT HAPPENS	High Estrogen, Testosterone Peaks
GOOD STUFF	Everything!
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Hopefully Nothing!
RECOMMENDATIONS	Your training cycles should all be  geared towards this phase as this is  the time to be setting personal bests  in max effort lifting and/or testing.  You would continue to introduce  new exercise and gradually ramp  up plyometrics intensity.

PHASE 2A	Follicular / Ovulation Phase
DURATION	Day 16
WHAT HAPPENS	Moderate Estrogen, Increasing  Progesterone
GOOD STUFF	Increased Mental Focus
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Increased Joint Laxity,  Decreased Strength,  Altered Jumping Mechanics
RECOMMENDATIONS	Things can start to go a bit pear  shaped here so you can possible  continue with what you were doing  training wise but be very aware of  any mental and physical changes  and alter your training accordingly.

PHASE 2B	Ovulation / Luteal Phase
DURATION	Day 17
WHAT HAPPENS	Progesterone Increases
GOOD STUFF	Increased Mental Focus
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Increased Joint Laxity,  Decreased Strength,  Altered Jumping Mechanics
RECOMMENDATIONS	Be very aware of any mental and  physical changes and alter your  training accordingly.

PHASE 3A	Luteal Phase
DURATION	Day 18 – 21
WHAT HAPPENS	High Progesterone
GOOD STUFF	Increased Mental Focus
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Possibly some Residual Effects  from Phases 2A/2B
RECOMMENDATIONS	Be very aware of any mental and  physical changes and alter your  training accordingly and you can  again learn new exercises and  maintain plyometrics.

PHASE 3B	Luteal Phase
DURATION	Day 22 – 28
WHAT HAPPENS	High Progesterone, Water Wt Gain
GOOD STUFF	Decreased Mental Focus, Body Uses  Fat as Primary Fuel Source
NOT SO GOOD STUFF	Decreased Reaction Time / Dexterity / Agility + Increases RPE / Fatigue / Joint Laxity = Increased Injury Risk
RECOMMENDATIONS	More of the “not so good stuff’ starts  to come back again so you’ll need to  alter your training and start decreasing  volume and intensity either immediately  or gradually leading to a training deload  week. Fat is the body’s primary fuel  source so it’s time to hit the 60 – 70%  exercise intensity again to take  advantage of that.

If you have any questions on this then please let me know!

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