Blog Sports

What is a Cycle-Syncing Workout Method?

Women athletes have unique physiological needs, especially when it comes to their menstrual cycle. But sports data and daily questionnaires are now being used to better understand how hormone fluctuations impact performance, so women can develop effective cycle-syncing workout methods.

Women athletes are now combining the analytics they get from sports technology with personal information they keep in a daily planner to orient their menstrual cycles to their practice schedules.

With the Women’s World Cup just a few weeks away and the WNBA season in full swing, there’s no better time to begin an initiative to develop cycle-syncing workouts for women athletes. It’s a movement that applies to all women’s sports from college to the professional level.

So, let’s take a closer look at the four phases of the menstrual cycle, how it can affect sports performance, and how sports technology is helping players, coaches, and trainers manage it better.

Menstrual Cycle and Sports Performance

The menstrual cycle can affect sports performance among female athletes, but sports technology is helping to change all that.

Before delving into the role of technology in sports, it’s important to understand how the menstrual cycle can affect sports performance. 

The menstrual cycle consists of four phases: 

  1. Menstruation
  2. The follicular phase 
  3. Ovulation
  4. The luteal phase 

Hormonal changes during these phases affect energy levels, strength, endurance, and recovery. Which is why women-specific requirements are needed. One study even examined the influence of the menstrual cycle on fluctuations of muscle performance in women athletes. 

By tailoring workouts to specific phases, women can harness their body’s natural rhythms to maximize results. 

After gathering feedback and insights, we have the first menstrual-cycle oriented dashboards ready and on-hand for teams to use. 

Download The Demand Planner for Women Athletes

Sports Technology Provides Insights

Jana Hubel, Sports Science Consultant at KINEXON works with women athletes to develop menstrual cycle workout plans.

Sports technology plays a vital role in helping women athletes create a menstrual cycle workout plan. Athletes can track their menstrual cycles using various ways, including: 

  • Mobile apps
  • Wearable devices
  • Keeping a journal 

These tools provide valuable insights into individual patterns and allow athletes to anticipate changes in performance throughout the cycle.

By analyzing data on strength, endurance, and recovery, women can identify trends and make informed decisions about training intensity and volume. It may also help prevent ACL tears in some women athletes.

For example, during the follicular phase, when estrogen levels rise, women may experience improved endurance and recovery. This could be an ideal time for high-intensity training or focusing on building strength. 

Conversely, during the luteal phase, when progesterone levels increase, athletes might benefit from lighter workouts or incorporating more active recovery exercises. But every athlete is different, so it’s impossible to come up with a one plan fits all” approach.

Creating Menstrual Cycle-Oriented Plans

A group of women athletes work with a sports scientist to come up with a menstrual cycle workout plan.

Developing a menstrual cycle workout plan involves tailoring exercises to each phase. Here’s just one example: 

  1. During menstruation, when energy levels may be lower, women can focus on low-impact activities such as yoga or light cardio.
  2. As the follicular phase begins, gradually increasing the intensity and volume of workouts can take advantage of improved endurance.
  3. Ovulation, the peak of the menstrual cycle, is an excellent time for high-intensity training, speed drills, or power exercises. The increased hormone levels can enhance performance during this phase.
  4. Finally, during the luteal phase, it’s essential to prioritize recovery and incorporate exercises like stretching, foam rolling, or yoga to support the body during this phase of decreased energy.

Once again, every athlete is different, but developing an individual player performance ensures you’ll always play your best. Sports data analytics and dashboard planners make it possible to look for potential overload risks and other tendencies that could impact sports performance.

Align Workouts with Women Athletes

Women athletes are now using a combination of sports technology and conversations with their coaches to develop cycle-syncing workout plans.

Sports tech and the data it provides women athletes is extremely valuable. It, combined with conversations players are having with coaches and trainers, provides insights into their menstrual cycles and how it may be affecting their performance. This allows everyone to work together to optimize workout plans for each individual player. 

Studies show that a personalized approach works best. By aligning exercise intensity, volume, and recovery with each phase of the cycle, women can achieve better results, minimize injuries, and maximize their athletic potential.

Cycle-Oriented Workouts for Women Athletes

A menstrual cycle workout plan (like this one) helps women athletes optimize sports performance.

KINEXON advocates for the individual treatment of women and men in the field of sports science and training planning. It’s one of the reasons we’re one of the leading sports analytics companies in the industry.

Since 2022, AWS (a leading company in data analysis) has been supporting this process. The goal is to drive innovations with a focus on the needs of women athletes.

Selected women’s teams like FC Viktoria Berlin, known as flagship teams,” receive support to make the best use of data in their training. 

We’re also working with Swedish National Team defender Amanda Ilestedt as she prepares for the Women’s World Cup. They’re all getting access to tools, including: 

  • Athlete tracking devices 
  • Software for analyzing data 
  • Advice from KINEXON sports science experts 

Additionally, AWS provides their expertise in sports data. In exchange, these teams assist in identifying and understanding the needs and possibilities of women’s teams and athletes. 

If you’d like to learn more about our women’s sports initiatives, feel free to contact us at any time.

Or read how the TSG Hoffenheim Bundesliga women’s team used player tracking and cycle-oriented workouts to generate groundbreaking information that will impact women athletes around the globe, and then join our initiative, by clicking the link below. 

Learn more: Women’s Sports Initiative

More stories

Unlocking Player Potential with Shot Profiling

In college basketball, players spend nearly 80% of their time in practice — yet many teams lack effective systems to monitor practice shooting and translate those insights into improved game performance. Without a structured approach, coaches often rely on subjective observations rather than objective data to assess player performance. This disconnect leads to missed opportunities for talent identification and development, limiting a team’s ability to tailor training to individual player needs.

How Stanford Volleyball Uses Micro-Dose Training to Stay Match-Ready

Managing the demands of the volleyball season while keeping athletes healthy and ready to perform is a chess match for coaches. Tyler Friedrich, the Marie and Alex Shipman Associate Athletics Director of Applied Performance at Stanford University, has refined this approach for the Cardinal women’s volleyball program. His philosophy: train hard enough to stay resilient, but smart enough to remain fresh.

Building a Culture of Data-Driven Performance at Benfica

In elite sport, the goal is not just to measure, but to measure with purpose. At Benfica, performance monitoring begins with a question. What do we want to know? What outcome are we trying to influence? Data collection, then, is a means to an end: informed decision-making that improves the physical readiness, longevity, and consistency of athletes across multiple disciplines. 

Unlocking a New Era in Sports Performance: What’s Ahead from KINEXON Sports in 2025

In elite team sports, performance is often decided by the smallest details – how efficiently an athlete sprints, how they handle fatigue, and how well a team manages training loads throughout the season. Coaches and performance staff need more than just numbers – they need meaningful insights, in real time, to make the right calls when it matters. 

KINEXON Sports App Guide: Phase Index Widget

The Phase Index Widget is a powerful new feature in the KINEXON Sports App that provides coaches with deep insights into training drills. By displaying the normative range of key performance metrics for different drill types, it helps coaches understand typical versus high-end workload demands, compare phases across single sessions (POST) and historical data (DEVELOP), and design training sessions that optimize player development while preventing overtraining.

Revolutionizing Youth Football: Red Bull Wings Cup Meets KINEXON Sports

What if youth football wasn’t just about the score — but about the players who shape the game? That’s the bold vision behind Wings Cup 2025, hosted by RB Leipzig, and why KINEXON Sports proudly partnered with this first-of-its-kind event. From April 22 – 24, 2025, the tournament became the world’s first global youth football competition to feature live player and ball tracking — marking a new era in data-driven player development. 

Optimizing Offseason Training: How the Ragin’ Cajuns Prep for the Football Season

The Ragin’ Cajuns football performance staff enters the heart of the offseason following spring camp, facing player performance and conditioning challenges common to other American Football programs nationwide. Their approach: optimized practice schedules designed to help players reach performance goals, backed by data.

Trust, Autonomy, and the Art of Performance Management in the WNBA

In the high-performance landscape of professional basketball, the pursuit of championships is a given. Yet, true impact often stems from a deeper purpose — one that prioritizes sustained athlete development, both physically and mentally. This perspective underscores a broader definition of success: positively influencing performance on a day-to-day basis, beyond wins and losses.

From Court to Code: The Analytics Behind Athletic Success

In the high-stakes world of competitive basketball, small margins make the difference between winning and losing. This is where optimization becomes the cornerstone of athletic performance. The focus is not just on finding a magic formula, but on creating the conditions for athletes to consistently operate at their best.

Increasing Shooting Efficiency With Data-Informed Insights

As basketball training evolves, teams are embracing data-informed insights to augment shooting efficiency. With every shot carrying potential season-changing weight in competition, refining practice intensity and replicating in-game pressure are key to gaining a competitive edge.

Maximizing Performance During March Madness: Key Strategies & Load Metrics for Coaches

March Madness is one of the most intense and physically demanding periods in collegiate basketball. The congested schedule, high-pressure stakes, and minimal time for recovery require an evidence-based approach to reach and maintain peak performance while mitigating injury risk throughout the tournament. 

Optimizing Performance and Reducing Injuries in Professional Basketball

The landscape of professional basketball is evolving rapidly, with teams placing a greater emphasis on performance optimization and injury prevention. In a highly competitive environment like the EuroLeague, where the ultimate goal is to win games and championships, maintaining peak player performance while minimizing injuries is a fundamental challenge. 

The Perfect Training Week: How KINEXON Sports Supports Smarter Coaching Decisions

Every coach knows the feeling – standing on the sidelines before a game, confident that the team is fully prepared. The training week went well, the players were engaged, and everything felt right. And when the final whistle confirms the win, the inevitable question arises: 
What made this week so effective? How can we replicate it?

How Texas A&M Women’s Basketball Used Data to Prevent Knee Injuries

Knee injuries are a major concern in women’s basketball, with ACL injuries accounting for a significant portion of these issues. Managing player workload is key to injury prevention, but achieving the right balance between training and recovery is challenging. The Texas A&M Women’s Basketball team faced this dilemma and turned to a data-driven approach to optimize player health and performance.

KINEXON Tracking Technologies Earn Top Marks in FIFA EPTS Performance Tests

When it comes to tracking technology in sports, precision is everything. And once again, KINEXON has proven why it’s a leader in the field. Our cutting-edge KINEXON PERFORM GPS Elite, GPS Pro, and LPS tracking systems recently underwent FIFA’s 2024 Electronic Performance and Tracking System (EPTS) performance tests — and the results were nothing short of outstanding.