Are hormones your training super power?

I think we can all agree that celebrating our cycle health and illuminating the importance of female sex hormones is becoming more common and for want of a better word, trendy.

While we now appreciate that hormone health has a role in our mood, libido, bone health and even appetite did you also know that it impacts on our physical ability? From muscle strength to recovery, the fluctuating presence of Testosterone, Oestrogen and Progesterone alters our requirements as female athletes (including you weekend warrior!).

Research regarding sports performance is dominated by male participants but the work of leaders in this field such as Dr Stacy Sims is changing our perception of period health and performance. New Zealand marathon runner and coach Lydia O’Donnell has recently launched an online coaching platform, Femmi, which aims to support females to reach their performance potential by training WITH their cycle. Not against it. Lydia is joined by coaches Esther Keown and Paige Gilchrist.

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Your Monthly Dietitian, Sara, interviewed Lydia to find out more about Femmi as well as her personal experience navigating normal hormone fluctuations while training and competing in the international running stage.

Lydia, congratulations on your new coaching platform Femmi! Tell us more about what inspired you to develop this online coaching service just for women?

Femmi was developed with the idea that women should be celebrating their menstrual cycles and the incredible way the female body can adapt and perform. Growing up as a young female athlete, I despised my period. Not because of the inconvenience it created, but because society, especially media, created this idea that having a period as an athlete would mean we couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to physically perform well. That during our period we would just have to accept that we aren’t in our prime and that throughout this 4-7 day window we should really just ‘take it easy.’ I didn’t think it was fair that girls had to accept this, and deal with it, and that boys didn’t.

Once I was educated on the fact that our female hormones and the way the fluctuate can actually benefit us and that our periods are an important sign of female health, I realized that all those years of dreading getting my period on race day were a waste. Understanding that if we can pay more attention to our cycles and learn how we all individually work, we can train to these hormone fluctuations and make the most of them. And by doing so, not only can we benefit our physical fitness as runners, we can also focus on putting energy into balancing out our hormones as best as possible. With more balanced hormones we are able to train harder and adapt better.

At Femmi we work closely with each athlete to make sure every run, every session, each hard day and each rest day is built around what day of their cycle the athlete is on. We make the most of the low hormone phase to push our athletes a little harder, and pull back the intensity on the high hormone phase. We talk openly about additional stresses that may cause hormone imbalances to allow each female to take a holistic approach to their training. As each of our coaches understand the concept of training smart, not hard, and how important this is, especially for females.

We know that the perception of period health is changing among women and we know that being hormonal is a sign of vial health and not something to be wished away. How would you describe the perception of periods among athletes?

I believe the perception of hormone health, and overall health, for female athletes is also changing. There are many more conversations going on and athletes speaking up about their own experiences from when they were young, vulnerable and uneducated. These young women, myself included, who once believed that losing your period was a sign of success have grown up and are now potentially facing the repercussions of over training and restricting their food intake. It is widely known the unfortunate cycle of RED-S and more young athletes are being educated on this – with a huge part being around the importance of our periods.

But as myself and other athletes who have gone through this are now speaking up, the perception is definitely changing. With incredible scientists, such as Dr Stacy Sims, coming out with the education behind why we need to focus on our female physiology, working with our hormones now against them, I am hoping many more females, especially the next generation of athletes, will work with their menstrual cycles and put a focus on creating healthy hormones for the long term benefits.

You have spoken on your social media about the negative impact of body image concerns and your own story regarding body image in your sport, running. How do you think body image distress impacts on cycle health for women?

There was a time I truly believed I needed to look a certain way to be an elite level runner. I put ridiculous and unattainable goals in place and thought if I was ‘that thin’ I would be seen as the athlete I expected myself to be. I compared myself to the athletes I was on the start line with, as well as elite athletes all over the world.

By removing certain food groups from my diet and increasing my training, not only did I lose my period for months on end, I also sacrificed my running career. My times started getting slower, I felt terrible in training, my hormones were so imbalanced I couldn’t recover well and I began to face some pretty severe mental health battles.

I truly believe this is a common story amongst so many females – athletes and non. Historically society has created this unfortunate perception women have towards women. This systemic issue of females always being in competition has forced us to be constantly measuring ourselves against each other. Which has been exacerbated through the age of social media and has led to women of all ages wishing, hoping and striving for something they don’t have.

This was absolutely where I was.

I ignored the fact that we are all built in our own unique and different way. And that there is no perfect running body that I should be striving for. It is important for female athletes to know that our aesthetics and the way we look have nothing to do with how fit or fast we are.  Focus on your strengths, work with your body, be grateful for your ability to move, run and jump. Use your period to your advantage and embrace your inner self, as this is where you will find success.

We know that female Olympians in various disciplines have won gold in various phases of their cycle (Follicular, Luteal, and period!). What is your own experience with hormone variation with training, recovery, and performance?

From my own experience and through the work I have been doing, I know that if I have my period on race day I am lucky!! Personally I always perform the best in my follicular phase, more specifically around days 1-3 or days 8-12 (day 1 being the first day of my period). During this period my progesterone is low, I can access carbohydrate stores better, and push my intensity up higher. Also throughout this time it is easier for me to build more muscle (as progesterone can inhibit muscle building abilities) and recover a lot faster!

During the high hormone phase, the luteal phase, I find it a lot harder to recover, I am much more fatigued and struggle to reach higher intensities as well. This is common amongst most women – although not all women are exactly the same.

Each female, either with a natural cycle or not, will feel different throughout the month. This is why tracking your period and your symptoms throughout your cycle is important. Once you can understand where your hormones are at you can truly make the most of training to them.

Tell us more about who would benefit from Femmi?

All females would benefit from the help of Femmi. As we pay so much attention to each individual athlete our training programmes are very specific to the female. We not only take into account the athletes menstrual cycle (and we work with athletes on the differing forms of contraception) we also take into account the external stresses that may be impacting the females physiology, in particular their cortisol levels. We put effort into adapting the programmes regularly depending on the life of the athlete – for example, if an athlete is under pressure at work we take this into account when programming the intensity of their running sessions.

We also work with all level of runners from beginner females just starting out to the more elite or competitive athletes. Some may say a beginner runner does not need this level of attention but at Femmi we believe that if you can get the fundamentals right from the start you are in the best position to build a sustainable relationship with running and your hormone health long term.

You can learn more about working with Lydia, Esther and Paige over on Femmi and be sure to follow Femmi over on their social channel @femmi.co