Does Hormonal Phase and Training Intensity Change How Hard You Can Train? New Science Finally Tested It

Everyone's asking the same question seemingly across timelines and platforms on social media. Does hormonal phase change how hard you can train? But before you decide that answer for yourself, there's something that you need to understand about what science can and cannot measure when it comes to high-intensity exercise. Stay tuned. We've got it in this episode. This episode is built around a brand new study accepted in 2025 that's been over 3 years in the making, long before cycle syncing became internet doctrine, but not before a certain expert or two were really talking about what your cycle, your regular cycle, has to do with intensity of exercise. Instead of telling you what to do, we're going to unpack today how researchers actually tested this question, and it may give you a new basis, a new angle with which to look at yourself. And the answer is always, you're a study of one, and how you feel never lies. So we'll talk about what they measured, why intensity is the missing piece in most conversations, and why we shouldn't ignore it anymore. So let's start at the very beginning. Very good place to start. If we start with just the basics and state them out loud, things that you already know, I think it will help us all get a, "Okay, let's think about this logically from that standpoint." And you don't have to be a scientist, a physiologist, a kinesiologist to understand this. Hormones influence your physiology. I like to say hormones influence exercise and exercise influences hormones. It goes both ways. There's no debate about that. But influencing physiology is not the same as changing performance. So I think that's really what we're asking. And before you say, well, You know, I'm not an athlete, so it's not about my performance, like whether I'm winning or going the fastest or against the most resistance. And yet I would say we have to be careful with this because we don't treat everybody like athletes. 'Cause let's face it, you and I were a paid athlete worth millions, we would probably make some very different decisions than we do if you are you and I who mostly care about living a great life, being there for our loved ones, for doing what we feel is our purpose here, it's a little different, right? I think you can agree. I'd love a personal chef and a masseuse, but I don't see it happening today or tomorrow. So what we need to look at here is thinking about your performance is maybe that you fully show up in great energy, in good mood, with great focus, concentration, bandwidth, mood, emotion, love, right? You have the bandwidth to get the things done you need to in the time you have, so you have time and energy left over to work and do the things you want to when you're at home. All right, let's talk about this one. High-intensity exercise is where things get hugely distinguished. There's a big differentiation around what happens during versus low versus high-intensity exercise. And that, I think, is really what's in question. There's a whole army of people that would say, I don't think women should do high-intensity exercise because it's bad for their hormones. I'm not that person, by the way. I'm also not the person to say everybody should be doing high-intensity interval training because it's good for fat burning, because it's not for every woman. It is at the right place at the right time is a great tool, but for some women, at the wrong place, the wrong timing, the wrong situational stressors are happening, it's the exact opposite of what you or I might need to get the best fitness. Not to settle because we have to go backward, but because if you want the best fitness, we have to complement what else is going on with our physiology, our endocrinology, if we lump it all together. So high-intensity exercise is where differences should show up if they matter, meaning how you at 20, how you in perimenopause, and how you in postmenopause respond to exercise isn't just a blanket statement. It is really most important when we talk about the intensity of your exercise. So What I'm doing is banking on a study that, although the team and the initial researcher on it was— this is from Sam Moore et al., meaning his group, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which is a very respected journal from one of my favorite anchors in certification, the National Strength and Conditioning Association. I have been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach since 2000 and presented for them multiple times across the board at national and personal training congresses. And they're just kind of a great and very rigorous kind of a certification and training. So there are different levels. There's simply personal trainer, but strength and conditioning coach is kind of above and beyond that, really nailing that you know all of the basics, but you know a little bit more for true performance. And that is how I've chosen to be certified. Now, originally, I will tell you, I went after that certification because I was teaching at the university level and teaching core courses for our kinesiology majors who often were pre-med and pre-PT, but often also wanted to become certified as trainers. And really they were looking for direction and like which is best. And because I also hired, trained, and unfortunately fired a lot of personal trainers in a private sector, I had a little knowledge about who were the best trainers, who really were the best, not just showing up earning the most money but getting the best results with their clients, not hurting anybody, actually getting progress, doing it safely, having great start and progression. And above and beyond, you know, NSCA was a huge one. And so we've put a lot into that. So knowing this study, number one, was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning and accepted in 2025. So know this, it's new. It's like a brand new baby. The title of the study is Does Hormonal Phase Impact Acute High-Intensity Interval Training Exercise? An Evaluation of Performance and Fatigue. One of the reasons we've plucked this one out today to talk about is of course the title, the study and the publication that we feel have a great deal of, earned a great deal of respect. And yes, that is my dog most likely barking at a wild turkey. Sorry about that. But the other reason we're doing this is because of another researcher who is an author on this study, and that is Abby Smith Ryan. Dr. Abby Smith Ryan was a recent guest December of 2025 It took me a while to nail her down, in part because of her busy schedule and mine and moving. It was just kind of an obstacle course for us. She will be a favorite. We'll have her return. If I could have booked her and nailed her, I knew that I would not get her on course this shortly, but we will bring her back. I promise you. So I'd love to know what your questions are and what you'd like to know about her. This study in particular was designed specifically to test acute high-intensity interval training performance and fatigue. And we'll talk about what that is. HIIT performance as defined by the researchers. So no matter what you think it is or what I would tell you it is, the important part here is that we are looking at the name of it, the purpose of it, and what the researchers doing the study actually deemed. This is the definition. This is how we find it. This was conducted through the UNC Applied Physiology Lab led by Sam Moore and senior authorship from Dr. Abby Smith Ryan. It was developed over 3 years. And as Dr. Abby Smith Ryan pointed out so clearly in her recent episode, and we will link to that in the show notes, good science takes time. And that is where, you know, there are a lot of, a lot of influencers who are posting like, a new study shows this, you know. And often you go to that study and you click on it, it's actually not new at all. It's, you know, been out for between 5 and 10 years. It's been my experience, it's not actually new, it's just new to them. They just found it, they just discovered what it is, they just had AI probably summarize it for them in a way they could understand it, and so they're posting about it. But I digress. Real quick, I want to answer a question I get asked so often: what supplements do I invest in? What's worth it?

Well, here's something I've been doing for years. I keep these next to my coffee as a part of my morning routine, and let me tell you, nobody messes with my coffee. Two longevity gummies. I think is far easier than another pill. These longevity gummies are powered by Mitopure, the only clinically proven form of urolithin A shown in human studies to help renew mitochondrial function, a key driver in healthy aging. Look, midlife changes are not only hormonal. Cellular energy decline is a big part of how we feel as we age, and it plays a major part in gaining strength in our ability to have muscular function. In fact, Mitopure has been clinically shown to support muscle strength and function. In fact, it targets a key hallmark of aging— again, that mitochondrial decline. It helps you stay active, capable, and vibrant. And Mitopure is the number one doctor-recommended urolithin A supplement.

Are you a prove it to me girl like me?

Well, I love the fact that it's backed by more than 15 years of research in mitochondrial health. It's been studied in multiple human clinical trials, including on older adults, and it delivers a precise standardized dose, the one used in research. Timeline is a science-first longevity company. I like that. Support your cells and how you age with MitoPure gummies from Timeline. Visit timeline.com/Flipping50Show and save up to 39% off your Mitopure gummies. That's timeline.com/Flipping50Show.

What is important that we point out here is you can't just boom, get an answer. A study that, first of all, from inception, like a baby basically, from inception to actually coming up with a study that is accepted, that you can do an outreach to subjects on, it's deemed safe by a board who says, yes, you can do this. There's no harm that'll come. And then a lot of good might because of where we're growing on previous studies and research. Then, then the study actually happens. Then the analysis of the data collected happens. And all through it, you're taking into account, did we really test this? What questions and hypotheses are we trying to test? And are we really able to do this? And I think this, not just the, here's what the study didn't show— I could give you that, but it's not the most important thing from this podcast that I hope you walk away with. What I hope you walk away with is what can science answer and what can't it? So this study does not ask, should women train differently based on their hormonal phases? It asks, when intensity is objectively high, do measurable outcomes change across hormonal phases? It's a better question, right? So we shouldn't say Hey, you're in postmenopause, don't do this, do that. There is a framework. We've established a framework at Flipping 50 since 2013 based on the research existing. This one will tweak it and focus it even more. But I want you to walk away from this with a sense of, okay, now I have an idea of what's true and what's maybe just mythological. So the likely subject pool, so healthy recreationally active women. So this was a mixture of naturally cycling participants. I don't mean bicycling, so stay with me here. If you're distracted and you're hearing parts of this, you could go like, what, they were biking? No, they were cycling. They had regular periods, so they were naturally doing that and possibly hormone contraceptive users, contraceptive users. So they were consistent with Smith-Ryan's lab designs previously. So it's not just, okay, you're naturally cycling, you're not doing any intervention. And it was also women who were, you know, maybe taking oral birth control. And so they had regular cycles, but they weren't their own. They weren't naturally. I don't know about you, but I was one of those women, right? Regularly taking oral birth control. I don't want to know about the negative side effects anymore because the damage has been done. But, you know, I had a regular cycle. But then again, you have to wonder, did I really, you know, or was that just, you know, the pill was doing the work for my body? There wasn't really regular cycling going on. Curious question. But these were not elite athletes, but they were also not sedentary beginners. These weren't people coming off the couch, and they were were, you know, maybe going to a workout at the gym a couple times a week, but they were not like on a rigorous regular schedule. So they controlled for training status to reduce noise. What does that mean? They wanted everybody to be at kind of about the same status, like not too much, not too little, but everybody was kind of in that sweet spot. This is where they were. Now, what is high intensity? I actually have to come back to that. So HIIT protocols, high intensity interval training protocols, typically involve short repeated bouts. And in this study, 30 to 90 seconds of really high intensity. And that means you're, you're getting to really close to breathlessness. At least you are working really, really hard. For you, for me, it may actually be really hard for us to get to breathlessness. You know, if I'm completely honest with myself, myself when I'm on the treadmill. I don't necessarily get to complete breathlessness. I'm like, whoa, hold on, you know, I could still do this. This is not that bad. But, you know, I want you to realize, so this work rate is near or above VO2 max, and VO2 max simply means you're definitely breathless, right? What is your VO2 max? If we test that for longevity, that is the point where we have you working harder and harder, but your heart rate no longer is elevating. That is VO2 max. Your body just says, "Yeah, this is as hard as I can work." And so very soon you're going to be, "I can't go any further." You're not talking. You're only looking at like, "How much longer do I have to go? Tell me." And then pretty soon it's like, "I don't care how long you think I have to go. I am done." And it's a hard place to get to if you've never done a VO2 test. Whether you're, if you're on a treadmill and you're not used to running, number one, they may have you run. There you go, that's already hard. You're running on a treadmill on the incline or changing speed and you're wearing a mask and breathing into hoses. It's a little more comfortable than it was. It's not quite as cumbersome as it used to be. Um, most often it's done on a bike because, um, although that's challenging because then it's localized and often quadricep muscles get tired before the rest of the body, so they burn because they're doing all the work, but there's less movement in the hose that can be a little bit more comfortable for some. So there is no perfect scenario, but you are getting very breathless. VO2 max truly is the place where no longer does your heart rate go up when the intensity of the exercise goes up, either the speed or the incline is increased. So there are fixed recovery intervals between these short bouts of really high work, and then there were fixed recovery— now I want you to pay attention to that. So if I were your coach, you were in our membership, and you were following our programs and recommendations for HIIT or sprint training, I want you to recover for you. Your recovery is based on— are you a beginner? It is probably also based on your sleep last night, your level of hydration, your work or exertion. So maybe it's not even a workout, but it's working in the garden, uh, over the weekend, it could impact your ability to recover. If you didn't eat enough, you're not going to recover very well. So all of those things may interpret or interrupt your ideal recovery patterns. When you're truly rested, you're truly fed and hydrated, you're probably also fresher. If you've had a rest day or two, you're going to recover really well on those So, more recently, sprint interval training is harder to quantify with variable recovery periods. So I do recommend you recover according to what you need, whether it takes a minute or it takes 3, doesn't matter. If you push the accelerator hard during the work intervals, you still get all of the benefits. It might take you a little bit longer, but we're talking a matter probably of, you know, maybe it takes 5 or 10 more minutes to do that intensity workout that has a lot of value. So I want to point out that during the study, they've got to control some variables. And yet, if you're doing a workout, I would want you to do what you need to do to fully be recovered. The outcomes that are commonly measured, and in science like this, the total work performed. For instance, they might be looking at the total minutes that they went, the total levels of intensity they did, or incline level that they reached, the speed that someone went. Now, total work performed, often in exercise in a lab, physiology lab, is measured in power, in watts. Now, we can go right down a huge rabbit hole if we go there, and you don't care, probably, right? So we don't really want to take a big look at that, but we want to look at total work performed. Is that like number of calories burned or the number of watts that were done? And again, that's power output. Time to fatigue is an easier one, right? So we could do time to fatigue if we were at the park. We could do that. Say, I want you to walk, and I want you to walk at this speed. Don't drop down from this speed. And how long does it take you to fatigue? Heart rate response. So we could look at heart rate response post-exercise, like how much recovery it takes. Perceptual fatigue, that's called RPE. You've heard that before. What's your rating of perceived exertion? Now, it might have been a long time since anybody asked you that, but we used to say, oh, on this 6 to 20 scale, and you might have seen it in the big gym or wherever you went to exercise back in the day, you know, the day, right? And we were looking for— we want you to be between 11 and 14 on that 6 to 20 scale. That was kind of ideal, but doesn't mean that if we wanted you to work in HIIT, we might actually find we're getting you to 16, 17, you're getting really high. Post-exercise recovery markers. So again, in post-exercise recovery markers, we could simply be looking at how long does it take your heart rate to get back to your resting heart rate. That's one way to measure. And if you've ever done a step test, 3-minute step test used to be one of the golden rules. This is back in the late '80s, and I can tell you I did them over and over and over. Again. So we would have somebody do a left, right, right, left, up and down, 3 minutes according to the metronome, and then sit down and we're going to measure your heart rate right away. And then 1 minute later, we're going to measure it again. And we would look at the difference. And sometimes we're measuring how long does it take you to come back down to norm and we're recording that. So those are ideas for— these are recovery outcomes. Nowadays, you probably have it on your wrist. It's telling you, oh, you should rest 12 hours before you do anything again, or 36 hours, right? Because you're not recovering well. It'll tell you what your recovery time is. And sometimes it's telling you HRV, that number that indicates the, the amount of time between beats. Of your heartbeat. So heart rate per minute, your resting heart rate, tells us something, absolutely. But also the amount of time between each heart rate, that is heart rate variability. And you might think intuitively that it should be the same and even, and it's actually the opposite. The more different and variable it is, the better. And that heart rate variability score indicates the higher it is, the more ready you are for that next workout. So in the olden days, and this is as old as 10 years ago, maybe even 8, heart rate variability wasn't as easy. It wasn't on your wrist in your Oura Ring yet, but you actually had— I had a heart rate variability strap that went around my chest. I had an app on my phone and I could do it. I had to, when I woke up in the morning, then I had to lay down again and measure it. And if it was high enough, I would get, I'm in the green, you know, and then not so good, it's in the yellow, or I'd get red. And for some of us who do not listen to our bodies really well, we don't read them really well, and we're kind of like, "No, no, no, I'm ready to work out again." I can't tell you how I know that. It's really good to see that HRV score, to hear it from outside sources and data. And I don't believe in giving your power entirely away to trackers. How you feel doesn't lie. But I think sometimes if we take that and we think, yeah, well, maybe I could really use a little more recovery. We are willing to look a little bit closer at maybe, maybe I do need some more rest. Real quick, I want to answer a question I get so often. What supplements do I invest in? What's worth it?

Well, here's something I've been doing for years. I keep these next to my coffee as a part of my morning routine. And let me tell you, Nobody messes with my coffee. Two longevity gummies, I think, is far easier than another pill. These longevity gummies are powered by Mitopure, the only clinically proven form of urolithin A shown in human studies to help renew mitochondrial function, a key driver in healthy aging. Look, midlife changes are not only hormonal. Cellular energy decline is a big part of how we feel as we age, and it plays a major part in gaining strength in our ability to have muscular function. In fact, Mitopure has been clinically shown to support muscle strength and function. In fact, it targets a key hallmark of aging, again, that mitochondrial decline. It helps you stay active, capable, and vibrant. And Mitopure is the number one doctor-recommended Urolithin A supplement.

Are you a prove-it-to-me girl like me?

Well, I love the fact that it's backed by more than 15 years of research in mitochondrial health. It's been studied in multiple human clinical trials, including on older adults, and it delivers a precise standardized dose, the one used in research. Timeline is a science-first longevity company I like that. Support yourselves and how you age with MitoPure gummies from Timeline. Visit timeline.com/flipping50show and save up to 39% off your MitoPure gummies. That's timeline.com/flipping50show.

So it matters because intensity is not quantifiable. Right? I mean, or I'm sorry, intensity is quantifiable. What's not is a feeling. So we wanna look at how do we measure objectively, not just how do you feel? And we did say perceived rating of exertion. That's how you feel for sure. But if we put that in with power output, time to fatigue, heart rate response, we put them all together, we are probably gonna see some patterns and we'll know how true true? How trustworthy is RPE? So what this study evaluates is performance consistency across hormonal phases. So it looked at all different phases but had the same imposed exercise intensity, fatigue accumulation during repeated high-intensity bouts. It looked at, is there a difference in how fatigued you get on the fourth high-intensity interval training session, that fourth time that you're hitting 30 or 45 seconds till breathlessness, is there a difference in the way you feel when you are perimenopause versus postmenopause? Does that matter? They also looked at whether phase alters capacity, not motivation. Now I digress, I want to back up one step. So In the next episode, I am going to address pre- and peri- and post-menopause. In this study, this was women who were still cycling, so we were looking for them at the 4 weeks of their cycle. Are you in the bleed session? And we could say there, or premenstrual, or we could say, are you in the luteal, the ovulatory? You know, where are you literally in your cycle? And does it matter? Does it make a difference? So this study is evaluating performance consistency across hormonal stages, the fatigue accumulation during repeated high-intensity bouts in each stage, and whether phase alters capacity, not motivation. So we're not looking at whether you, in say your premenstrual few days where you might feel more tired— I don't know, I did anyway Anyway, I felt like, oh, kill me now, I could go to bed at 7 o'clock, right? And I have so much to do. Um, I always just wanted to sleep more when I was just premenstrual. And, you know, a lot of women I know experience a lot of bloating or cravings. Fortunately for me, that wasn't the case, but you know how that is. We're not looking at that and your motivation to exercise tied to that. We're looking for if you did it anyway, what was your capacity for exercise. So importantly, acute response, not your long-term adaptation. We weren't looking at that, so the study can't answer that question. It was lab-controlled stress, so it's not lifestyle training plans, and that's a good thing, by the way. In lifestyle training plans, however, that is a better thing for you. You've got to pay attention to how you feel. You're exhausted, you should not follow the boot camp program that says you should work out today, or you're, you know, you're lazy. That's that. Hopefully 1980 called, wants that back, and you know it, and you're picking the phone up. Okay, today is the day, especially if you are a woman over 40. You've got to really listen to what your body's telling you, because if we overstress— and already overstressed because of hormonal changes body, we're probably not going to get the results we want. We in fact might be running in the opposite direction for the opposite team. So here's how this fits with previous research. This study that was done by Moore and with authorship by Dr. Abby Smith Ryan builds on patterns already observed. Earlier research generally showed strength, sprint training, and high-intensity interval training performance there were small or very trivial differences across cycle phases. So you're in your bleed phase, luteal phase, ovulation, premenstrual, didn't matter. There was very little difference. High individual variability, however, was also true, meaning your girlfriend is premenstrual and you are. There's, there could be a very big difference in how the two of you respond to your capacity overall. All very trivial differences, but there is a high degree of it's not going to be the same for any woman. Now, we already know this about everybody's menopausal journey. So average age is 51.3. Not one of us probably is average. Some of you might have hit menopause at 51. Okay. I don't know that that was the goal necessarily, but some of you hit it really early, some of you much later, and I've worked with almost all of you in one way, shape, or form. We also— this earlier research generally shows subjective fatigue and effort. That means that's how you feel. Objective is we can measure that. We know your heart rate, we know your blood pressure, we know we know specifics about time to fatigue. Subjective is fatigue and comfort or effort more likely to fluctuate than the objective performance. So examples from prior literature, um, McNulty et al. in 2020 published in Sports Medicine, performance effects across cycle phases are small and inconsistent. So that was already there in Abby Smith Ryan's lab earlier work showed fatigability and recover may feel different. So we may say, oh gosh, I'm much more tired in certain phases, but that's a feeling and yet not necessarily does the performance reflect it. So the output often remains stable. So this makes the MORE study the new HIIT study especially relevant if phase mattered, intensity would expose it. So it's a really good way to say, okay, let's do something hard and say what happens here. One study doesn't tell all. That's kind of overreaching or overgeneralizing, but it gives us a basis for saying, okay, here's how I may make decisions for myself. And not assume. So here's what this study can tell us, and I'm going to follow this with here's what it can't. So it can tell us whether hormonal phase meaningfully alters measurable HIIT performance and whether fatigue manifests as reduced output or simply altered perception. So we definitely know that, but what it cannot tell us is how to design your weekly training split. How should you exercise? Should you avoid certain workouts during certain phases of your cycle or period? How long-term adaptations respond to phase-based programming? We don't really know that. No group of women have been studied— say, let's put you on a training based on you're in ovulation, you're in luteal stage, you're premenstrual, you're in the bleed stage, and this is exactly how we want you to work out— and followed them for long enough to give us an idea. That just hasn't been done. But what we know from this study is that fatigue actually manifested as alterations in perception. It was feeling harder. Fatigue was definitely there, but the output was very imperceivable in the data. They were still performing pretty much within the same reasonable output no matter what phase they were in. So there is no need to say, well, during this premenstrual period, I'm not going to do HIIT. There's no reason to do it. Now I'm going to back out of that for a moment and say periodization. And isn't it funny that that is the word, but is the word for rotating and cycling? And there's that word. For all athletes, males, females, all ages, that helps us avoid injury, helps us avoid burnout. We do it because exercise is a known stressor, and it stresses the bones, the joints, the ligaments, the muscles. And it can be a stressor if you're truly an athlete or you're truly trying to pour something out to get some specific result. It's a, it's a mental stressor as well. You know, I am, as I record this, it's about 4:30 in the afternoon, and I have an appointment coming up at 5, I have to go do something at 6, I really want to get in a workout. I got a very, very short 15-minute workout earlier and I have not done what I want to do today. I don't see it coming and I don't like to do a late-night workout. So that is a mental stressor, but it also will be a physiological stressor if I try to do it too late, probably inhibiting my sleep. Sleep. So you've got to look at what's important for you. But we cycle workouts so that we want to build up over the course of a few weeks. And either week 3 or week 4, some people might do it in week 5, there's a recovery week in there before we do another step in, build up, build up, build up, and then we do another recovery. That is on purpose and we plan that. As strength and conditioning coaches, nothing is taken for granted. Recovery shows up between repetitions, even it can between sets, between workouts, sometimes between workouts and life, and then between weeks, months, or even quarters during the year in order to not have the same stress. Can you imagine You know what happens to football players. If you've raised boys, you know this really well. But whether it's high school, it's junior high, I think they start early, or it's college level, you know, two-a-days are not uncommon during that preseason workout. We want to work them hard, we want to get them fit, we want to get them powerful. Probably the coach wants to beat them down a little bit, but that happens and it— imagine if we did that all season, while now they're also performing, they, they would be trashed. They would never win and they would be always injured. And you can look at a good strength and conditioning program behind a great football team and you'll see the difference in how they allow recovery to happen. You can't have the power and the strength and the speed without the recovery. So we all need to think about that. That, not because we're athletes, but we cannot sustain the same build all constantly. It's not linear. We need to go up and down and up and down, and that is the ideal. So it's not a flaw that science can't tell us everything. That's scientific precision. So science at its best always focuses on something narrow, and broad sweeping statements don't really apply in the in the end, you're a study of one. But I do think this is where it gets really interesting. Your numbers, your blood, your feelings don't lie. And yet the placebo effect is also really strong. So that was a like, oop, she just pivoted. So if you think that you shouldn't do HIIT, you believe it because somebody told you walking is the best, you may suddenly do well with walking if you really believe it. But if there is some doubt in you about this working, it may not work as well for you. So I want you to know that placebo effect is alive and well, maybe not serving you as optimally as it could. So if you love HIIT, you may alternatively find that doing HIIT more frequently is just the right fix for you. Now, you can't outrun physiology and fatigue necessarily. But if you feel good, you're getting good results. I would never let someone say, you know, well, you shouldn't do HIIT during this certain phase of your cycle, or you're more prone to injury. It might be true. We know certain facts about decreasing estrogen levels or an increase in estrogen levels during certain phases make it a really good time. Let's focus on strength. Strength or power, but maybe not on agility because it's gonna give us a lot more laxity in our joints that's gonna make us more prone to injury. So if you have questions about this, I'd love to hear from you. Show notes will be there for you. We will put the study reference in there so that you'll see it fully when it comes out. If this episode was helpful, Share it with somebody who thinks science gives rules instead of ranges. And if you want more conversations that respect data without turning it into dogma, subscribe, review, and keep curiosity alive. And I would also suggest go to the show notes and get the link to previous episodes with Dr. Abby Smith Ryan and Dr. Stuart Phillips, two of our favorite researchers actually in the lab doing the research and frequently, hopefully, frequent flyers here on the Flipping 50 Show. Tune in next week where I will do a solo episode on the bigger phases, not just your cycle, but say you're not cycling anymore, or you still are, but pre-, peri-, and post-menopause. Tune in for that next week.