Female bodybuilding, low rep ranges and optimising the menstrual cycle

Now, I'm not sure whether this applies to other ladies out there or if it just me - but come the PMS week, I am a fairly dismal human being: tired, forgetful, humourless, libido-less, tearful and I have to fight my natural urge to do bench press with nothing more than a box of chocolates. I get extremely hot (progesterone I expect), hungry (diet most likely to fail!) and my motivation dwindles for training. To add to the indignity, I have on occasion been known to turn up at the gym still wearing my pyjama vest top, because I forgot to change.

You can scour the literature on whether strength or performance changes with hormone fluctuations of the menstrual cycle and there is very little conclusive evidence about this. The majority of evidence suggests that there are no significant changes to strength in the premenstrual phase, but as I pointed out in a previous post;

1. There are various different types of strength; speed strength, strength endurance, maximum strength etc

2. Women are very different -the physiology of a "trained" women is also  different from an "untrained" woman.

3. Scientific studies looking at strength and performance are going to be biased, because the very nature of a "testing" environment will increase motivation. Behavioural changes that accompany being watched are really interesting - the phenomenon is called the "audience effect", which refers to the impact that a passive audience has on a subject performing a task.

It is well established that motivation is a huge factor in training outcome and we are now only starting to understand some of the driving forces behind this. I talked about the role of testosterone and motivation to train in earlier posts and there is accumulating evidence to suggest this is one main mechanism to explain the correlation between testosterone levels and muscle mass (and/or strength) Increased motivation to train = greater likelihood to induce progressive overload in muscles and hence muscle growth. Intuitively it makes sense to structure heavier load training when baseline testosterone levels and motivation are higher.

Experimentation: Trial and Error

My intolerable stubbornness sometimes means the red mist descends and I will "head bash" through pre-menstrual training sessions regardless of how I feel. That is fine and works to a point but it can leave you feeling like you have been flattened by a steam roller. Perhaps it is tiredness, age, wisdom or something else but I'm beginning to think there maybe a better way, so I'm going to be experimenting with a couple of things over the next few months:

1. Training with lower rep ranges (4-6)
2. Manipulating volume and intensity to align with my menstrual cycle

The majority of my training plan for this bodybuilding contest is built around the moderate rep range (8-10), aimed at maximising hypertrophy and the higher rep ranges (15-20), for the muscular endurance phases. It has served me well for building lean muscle but there is no doubt that I have plateaued in both muscle gain and strength. My 10RM squat weight hasn't moved for the last 8 weeks.
Program design is a funny combination of science and art and involves a careful manipulation of: exercise choice, sets, reps (volume), rest and tempo. The "time under tension" that these variables create dictates the amount of progressive overload one is going to get. And yes....there is a VERY fine line between too much and too little - neither is good, but doing too little is probably a bit easier to rectify than a full on overtraining syndrome.

The Hypertrophy spectrum and how you deal with big quads!

The primary objective of bodybuilding is about sculpting - creating symmetry in the human form, so strength is not really an issue....but overload is. I'm probably the most unsymmetrical person I know, even my eyebrow has its own trajectory of growth. A combination of genetics and competing in a variety of sports has given me a good set of quads - and I can't quite see how these are going to downsize, so the other option is to create size in the hamstrings and upper body to balance this out. I also somehow need to cultivate another 4 "abs" to keep my 2 -pack company. If all else fails, I'm just going to get creative with the spray tan and draw it on. So "selective hypertrophy" is what I need. I'm not even sure that's possible but hypertrophy - yes. 

Muscle physiology is not my area of expertise and there are scientists who do a much better job of understanding it. In simple terms, you can get hypertrophy both in the contractile (actin/myosin) and non-contractile elements of muscle fibers (myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, respectively). 

In myofibrillar hypertrophy there is an increase in protein synthesis in actin and myosin that comprise the cross bridge cycle; and an accompanying increase in diameter of the muscle's contractile elements. 

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy refers to an increase in the cytoplasm that surrounds the muscle fiber, so the volume of the muscle increases. This type of hypertrophy is not associated directly with gains in strength. In reality, it is difficult to get one without the other as hypertrophy occurs on a spectrum - but certain loads (and consequently rep range) will stimulate the contractile or non-contractile elements better. 

For example: As a very general guide, maximal voluntary contractions are essential to recruiting motor units to develop force. So high load (85% +1RM)  and lower rep ranges (1-6) work well to build strength but not necessarily mass, whereas moderate rep ranges (6-12) with submaximal loads (70-84%1RM) work well for inducing size. If an athlete needs to get strong but not bulk, they may want to spend less time in the moderate rep range and there are various ways to structure a training cycle to make sure that can be safely done but I'm not going to talk about that here.

Wandering into unknown territory

My theory is straying into lower rep ranges (4-6) that are fairly unknown to me may well have positive adaptations in both strength and size. Because of a higher training age and ability to tolerate high load relative to my body weight, I don't anticipate too many musculoskeletal problems but I wouldn't recommend this for a beginner.

I hypothesise that the success of this high load training may work best if timed with natural testosterone and oestrogen peaks, when motivation is at it's highest. There are few good graphical representations of female endogenous testosterone throughout the menstrual cycle - because the range is so large and determining baseline levels is difficult, but I have included an image from a study looking at hormonal predictors of sexual motivation in natural menstrual cycles! Amazing where you can find information! I've also included a "wiki" image of a typical oestrogen profile.

There is an assumption that testosterone is converted to oestrogen via the enzyme aromatase; testosterone peaks occur prior to oestrogen peaks (this has been debated as some studies show a continued fluctuation pattern). These peaks would occur prior to ovulation (primary) and towards the end of the luteal phase (secondary) - so perhaps prior to ovulation is the time to schedule heavier lifting; more testosterone = more motivation, which is critical if one is aiming for failure in a set. Of course this is not a comprehensive overview of all the hormones implicated in performance, but intuitively this feels like a good time, in terms of morale and physicality. (OK...there is a slight risk of decreased "stiffness" in tendons associated with peaking oestrogen but we shall see).

Estradiol (main variant of oestrogen in reproductive years) during menstrual cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estradiol

Mean testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone concentrations aligned against  estimated day of cycle (day 0 represents the estimated day of ovulation) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23601091

The plan is to do 3 sessions/wk of heavy lifting (45mins total), 2 conditioning sessions + steady state cardio for 2 weeks (pre-ovulation) followed by a pre-menstrual "deload" week, where total volume is decreased by 30%. I'm going to try this for a 4 - week training cycle and then back to moderate repetitions (8-12). My hope is strength will filter into this rep range so providing an adequate stimulus to adapt in this rep range as well. The joys of theory and then.....the reality!


I'm also experimenting with doing more cardio sessions at the beginning of the "prep" phase when energy levels are still high. In my mind, in an ideal world I'd be ready 4 weeks out so I just "coast" and tweak slightly. I'm envisioning a comatose state towards the end of this journey so brushing hair and putting on trainers will be the bulk of my training!

Pre-menstrual training - a survival mechanism for self and loved ones

So much of training is trial and error..tears, laughter and learning one's limits. Sometimes the illogical works and and the logical doesn't. Working with one's psychology and physiology seems to make perfect sense. This is where the anecdotal might just work as well as the pure science as we are all so different. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to training and my energy waxes and wanes regardless of cycle but I am hopeful that this approach might just make life a little bit easier on everybody come that time of the month!