REF-571 · Colenso-Semple, D'Souza, Elliott-Sale & Phillips, 2023 · Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, · Paper · PubMed
No reliable effect of menstrual-cycle phase on acute strength or resistance-training adaptations
Don't periodize lifting by phase
Key Findings
Umbrella review of existing meta-analyses/SRs on cycle phase and resistance exercise: highly variable, inconsistent conclusions for strength/performance/hypertrophy, largely due to poor/inconsistent cycle-verification in primary studies.
Authors' position: it is premature to conclude that short-term reproductive-hormone fluctuations appreciably influence acute performance or longer-term strength/hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training.
Directly rebuts popular "follicular-phase-based" strength-periodization schemes.
Practical Application
Program resistance training on standard principles (progressive overload, recovery, consistency) — do NOT schedule loading blocks around cycle phase absent an individual reason.
If asked about "follicular-phase loading," explain current evidence doesn't support it; consistency and total quality volume matter far more.
On real symptom-driven bad days, autoregulate load/RPE that session rather than restructuring the mesocycle.
Limitations
Inherits weak phase verification / small samples of the reviews it summarizes; "no detectable effect" ≠ proof of no effect; controlled longitudinal verified-phase RET trials still lacking.
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How this entry was checked and changed
Content correction 2026-09-27
Cross-references to duplicate stubs repointed to their canonical entries (REF-526->REF-335); the stubs were emptied on 2026-09-27.