For the study, seven women and 10 men completed intense cycling sessions, the women at three points during the menstrual cycle confirmed through blood draws and ovulation tests, and the men at 10-day intervals.
Women’s exercise performance increase during menstrual cycles: Research(Pexels) Any women’s publication you read will probably have tips on how to increase exercise. But many people are unaware that the majority of fitness advice is based on research that almost exclusively involves men. Over 90 per cent of studies on exercise performance and fatigability do not include female volunteers because it is assumed that menstrual cycle hormonal changes affect exercise capacity, which, if accurate, would muddy the data and make including women in the study too difficult.
A new study from Brigham Young University researchers, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, shows why that assumption is misguided. Analyzing women’s exercise performance across their menstrual cycles, researchers found no variability in endurance thresholds or performance : from workout to workout, women’s performance was just as consistent as men’s.
"Females with regular cycles performed the same between the high-estrogen phase, the high-progesterone phase and during menstruation, when there are low concentrations of both," said Jessica Linde, who led the study for her BYU Master’s thesis in exercise science. "That information lifts a big barrier. It shows we shouldn’t be excluding women from research based on the idea that their menstrual cycles are going to skew the results."
In fact, the study demonstrated why it’s crucial to include women in research. […]
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