Women in climbing: training and the menstrual cycle

Women have always been part of climbing, from early alpine ascents to the hardest boulders and routes of today. Walk into any gym and you will see women of all ages training, setting, coaching and running clubs. Yet much of the training advice available was developed with men in mind, and questions about the menstrual cycle are often either ignored or answered with oversimplified rules.

This post looks at what the evidence actually says, and how to use that information sensibly. It is general information: for personal advice about your cycle, health or contraception, talk to a doctor or another qualified professional.

What does the research say?

The menstrual cycle involves changing levels of hormones, mainly oestrogen and progesterone, across roughly a month. It is reasonable to ask whether these changes affect strength, endurance or recovery.

The most comprehensive look at the question so far is a systematic review and meta-analysis by McNulty and colleagues (2020). They pooled many studies on exercise performance across the cycle and found that, on average, performance might be trivially reduced in the early follicular phase (around the time of menstruation) compared with other phases. Three points are important:

• The effect was trivial on average. Not large, not decisive.
• Individual variation was large. Some women notice clear changes; others notice none.
• The quality of the evidence was low. Many studies were small and used different methods to identify cycle phases.

The authors concluded that general guidelines for adjusting training to cycle phase could not be made from the current evidence, and that a personalised approach makes more sense.

There is no one-size-fits-all menstrual cycle training plan. Your own experience is the best data you have.

Why rigid phase-based plans fall short

You may have seen programmes that prescribe "strength in this phase, endurance in that phase". They can sound scientific, but they go well beyond what the research supports. Cycles vary in length and from month to month, many people use hormonal contraception that changes the hormonal pattern, and symptoms differ hugely between individuals.

A rigid plan risks two problems: holding you back on days you feel great, and pushing you on days you feel awful.

Track how you feel instead

A more useful approach is to notice your own patterns over a few months:

• How does your energy feel across the month?
• Do you notice changes in sleep, mood or motivation?
• Do symptoms such as cramps, headaches or bloating affect training?
• Does session effort feel higher for the same work at certain times?

If you find a consistent pattern, you can plan around it, perhaps scheduling a project session for when you usually feel strong and keeping a flexible easier day where symptoms tend to peak. If you find no pattern, that is useful to know too.

Energy availability and missing periods

One topic deserves particular attention. When athletes do not eat enough to cover the energy demands of training and daily life, the body starts to down-regulate systems it considers non-essential. This is described in the IOC consensus statements on relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). In women, one of the signs can be irregular or absent periods.

Missing periods are not a normal side effect of training hard. They are a medical signal, and a reason to see a doctor. Low energy availability can affect bone health, recovery, immunity and performance. Climbing's focus on being light makes this especially relevant. Read more in eating enough to climb.

Talking about it

Coaches do not need to be experts on the menstrual cycle, but they should make it easy to talk about. A simple "let me know if anything is affecting your training this week, no details needed" goes a long way. Athletes should never feel they must justify an easier day.

In Train Climb

• Log effort and how you felt after each session. Over a few months, your own notes and effort ratings can reveal patterns better than any generic plan.
• Use the notes field to record symptoms or cycle days if you find that helpful. It is your log.
• Use the morning check-in for sleep, fatigue and soreness, and adjust training when the signals say so.
• Talk to your coach through messages if you want a session adjusted.
• Read next: readiness check-ins and pregnancy and returning to climbing.