Feburuary 2, 2026

Girls are Not Small Men...and their Periods Prove It

By Lylah Ruparel

For years, girls have trained in systems that were never designed for them. Same practice schedules. Same recovery expectations, Same performance metrics. If it works for boys, it should work for girls. The assumption is simple but flawed.

Because girls are not small men. And nowhere is that more obvious than in how female athletes experience training, injury, and recovery across their menstrual cycles.

The Menstrual Cycle: The Invisible Variable in Girls’ Sports

The menstrual cycle isn’t a side note to athletic performance. It’s a biological rhythm that affects strength, coordination, reaction time, ligament laxity, energy availability, sleep, mood, and injury risk.

Research shows that hormonal fluctuations across the cycle, particularly changes in estrogen and progesterone, can influence neuromuscular control and joint stability. This is one reason female athletes have higher rates of certain injuries, including ACL tears, especially during specific phases of the cycle (Hewett et al., 2007; Wojtys et al., 2002).

And yet, most girls are trained as if this variable doesn’t exist. Co-founder an artistic director of NYC Kids Project, put it plainly with HERcovery: “We monitor hydration, sleep, nutrition; but we ignore the one biological system that changes every month.”

Training through Silence

Many girls learn early that talking about their cycle is uncomfortable or unwelcome. They feel pressure to perform the same way every day, even when their bodies are sending different signals. Fatigue is framed as weakness. Pain is normalized. Emotional changes are dismissed.

Neuroperformance coach Ms Sugiura, working with elite gymnasts shared that many athletes don’t realize their nervous systems are overwhelmed, not because they aren’t resilient, but because they’ve never been taught to listen. “They’re trained to override signals instead of interpret them,” she explained. This silence has consequences. Girls may push through high-risk phases without adjustments to workload, recovery, or skill selection, increasing injury risk and burnout.

What Changes when We Acknowledge the Cycle

Acknowledging the menstrual cycle doesn’t mean lowering expectations. It means training intelligently. Research suggests that certain phases of the cycle may be better suited for strength development, while others benefit from more recovery, technical focus, or nervous-system regulation (McNulty et al., 2020).

Small shifts matter:

• Adjusting load during high-risk phases

• Emphasizing recovery and sleep when fatigue is higher

• Teaching athletes to track patterns and advocate for themselves

• Normalizing conversations about how the body feels, not just how it performs

Resource Gaps Hit Harder

The lack of cycle-informed training is even more pronounced in under-resourced environments. Elite programs may have access to sports scientists and individualized data. Most girls don’t. They rely on coaches, trainers, and school systems that often haven’t been educated on female-specific physiology.

Dr Dee, cell and tissue engineering researcher and educator, noted during a HERcovery interview,  that many injuries she sees aren’t the result of a single bad moment but of cumulative overload during vulnerable phases. “It’s not that girls are fragile,” she said. “It’s that the system doesn’t adapt.” When systems don’t adapt, girls are expected to.

Teaching Girls to Trust Data and Themselves

One of the most powerful shifts happens when girls are taught that their bodies aren’t unpredictable or problematic — they’re patterned.

Tracking cycles, energy, mood, and performance gives girls language. It turns confusion into information. It replaces shame with strategy.

That matters not just for performance, but for long-term health and confidence.

Why This Isn’t Just About Sports

The way girls are taught to train mirrors the way they’re taught to exist.  Ignore discomfort. Don’t ask for accommodations. Be consistent at all costs. Don’t make it about your body. Sports have the opportunity to do better and to model environments where female biology is understood, respected, and planned for.

When we teach girls that their bodies are worthy of attention and not something to manage around, we give them skills that extend far beyond the gym.

Sources & Further Reading

• Hewett, T. E., et al. (2007). Understanding and preventing ACL injuries: Current biomechanical and epidemiologic considerations. American Journal of Sports Medicine.

• Wojtys, E. M., et al. (2002). Association between the menstrual cycle and anterior cruciate ligament injuries in female athletes. American Journal of Sports Medicine.

• McNulty, K. L., et al. (2020). The effects of menstrual cycle phase on exercise performance in eumenorrheic women. Sports Medicine.

• Women’s Sports Foundation. (2021). The Science of Training Female Athletes.

• HERcovery Project — In Converstation... Series (2026)