Menstrual cycle tracking
Logging cycle days and symptoms, then reading training and fueling against them
Cycle day, how the session felt, sleep, mood, symptoms: it all goes into a paper calendar, a training log or an app. Over a few months the patterns become legible, and the week that reliably goes well separates from the week that reliably does not. Coaches in elite women's sport now use the same records to schedule hard blocks and adjust fueling, and the US women's national soccer team is the case most often cited. The value sits in the individual pattern rather than in any general rule about phases.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Stacy SimsRecommends
Exercise physiologist · Women Are Not Small Men
She has been pushing female athletes to log their cycles for over a decade, and points to the 2019 US women's national soccer team as the visible example. Paper and pen is fine. Apps earn their keep when a coach reads them, and the goal is learning your own pattern rather than obeying an algorithm.
Source: Dr Stacy Sims: How to Track Your Menstrual Cycle
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