More and more soccer players and clubs focus on the menstrual cycle to optimize training and to contribute to new knowledge.
– You adapt a lot to that, says Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who plays in Chelsea.
So far, there have been limited studies on the influence of the menstrual cycle on sports performance, but what has been presented is still convincing enough that elite clubs and the Swedish national football team focus on it.
– We work a lot on it. We have an expert at the facility who keeps close tabs on everyone’s cycles and what phases they are in, says Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who plays for Chelsea.
The effect of estrogen
The national team players participate in studies on the subject for further research, something that is needed to draw clear conclusions, says Cecilia Fridén, associate professor of physiotherapy at Karolinska Institutet.
– A number of training studies have been done to see if it is the case that estrogen has a building effect. In that case, it would be more beneficial to do strength training during the first two weeks of the cycle until ovulation, and perhaps sparse the strength training in the last two weeks, says Cecilia Fridén.
Lectures and minutes
The Wolfsburg club also studies the players’ menstrual cycles and follows up the training accordingly.
– We look at it a lot, we have had lectures and are very attentive to it and get to share all our thoughts about it. We also fill in protocols and such. It is something that the club works a lot with and that the club also runs, and they show that very clearly to us. So it’s very nice, says Rebecka Blomqvist, who plays in Wolfsburg.