TRAINING WITH YOUR CYCLE: WHAT WE LEARNED FROM NIKE'S DR REBEKAH JADE  

Published: 07/10/2026 | By: Joli Knowles

Before the Sports Direct x Nike After Dark Tour session got underway, the group paused for a conversation that felt long overdue. Dr Rebekah Jade, a medical doctor working in acute medicine, Nike trainer and yoga teacher who specialises in priming and recovery for athletes, took the floor to talk about something that has nothing to do with pace, splits or PBs, but affects so many women’s training: how to train with your cycle instead of against it. 

She opened with a show of hands. How many people in the room had skipped or dreaded a session because of where they were in their cycle? Plenty went up. That, she said, was exactly the point. For a lot of women, training around periods is still treated as something to quietly manage in the background. Something you push through, work around or avoid talking about altogether. But Rebekah’s message was clear: knowledge is power. Not because your cycle should define what you can do, but because understanding it can help you make better, kinder and more informed choices about your training. 

She explained how much of what gets passed down about periods and performance is not based on strong evidence. It comes from school, from old coaching habits, from healthcare systems that haven't caught up. Only around 6% of sports science research focuses on women, and of that, roughly 8% is considered high quality enough to shape guidelines. So, in many cases, the advice women have been given about training and their cycle has been built on assumption rather than proper understanding.  

She ran through a quickfire true-or-false to prove it. You're more likely to get injured on your period: false. Cycle tracking is only worth bothering with if you're elite: false. Premenstrual symptoms are just something you push through: false. Periods stopping when you train hard for a long time is normal: also false, and worth speaking to a doctor about rather than ignoring. Each one touched on a belief many women have either heard, absorbed or been expected to accept. And that is exactly why conversations like this matter. 

From there, Rebekah talked through what is actually happening across the cycle. Day one is the first day of bleeding, when oestrogen and progesterone are both at their lowest, which is often when cramping can begin. As the follicular phase continues, oestrogen starts to rise, and because it interacts with serotonin, some may notice more energy, motivation or a lift in mood. Ovulation marks the halfway point, and the luteal phase begins, progesterone rises as the body prepares for a possible pregnancy. If that doesn't happen, both hormones drop sharply, which is usually when premenstrual symptoms can appear. Fatigue, cravings, disrupted sleep, low mood and feeling less like yourself can all be part of that picture. 

Here's the bit that cuts through the noise around "cycle syncing", the idea that you should train hard when oestrogen is high and go gentle when progesterone takes over. On paper, it sounds simple. In real life, bodies are rarely that predictable. Rebekah explained that it is not quite as straight-forward as following a set weekly rule, because the idea is built on the theory that oestrogen is anabolic and progesterone is catabolic, however your hormone profile on its own doesn't dictate how you perform. What actually affects performance is how your symptoms feel on any given day, and that's different for every woman and different again from one cycle to the next.  

So what should you do instead? Rebekah's advice comes down to three things. Track first, because you need at least three months of consistent data before real patterns start to show. It doesn't need to be complicated: bleed length, flow, symptoms and how training actually felt on the day is enough, though apps like Flo or tools like Whoop and Google Health can take it further if you want to know more. 

Second, adjust based on what the tracking tells you, whether that's dropping the weight on a heavy day, swapping an uncomfortable exercise, or trading a high-intensity session for something gentler while still hitting your training goals. Third, build in the support that actually helps: that might mean finding period products you trust for running or training, using yoga or gentle movement to ease the restricted blood flow and prostaglandins behind cramping, taking magnesium, zinc or iron where useful, and adjusting your sleep especially in the luteal phase when body temperature can run higher.

Rebekkah closed on the point that matters most. If period pain or bleeding is disrupting your daily life, it should be listened to properly. It's worth speaking to a doctor, and if the first person you speak to doesn't take it seriously, it's worth speaking to someone else. Nobody needs to train, or simply get through their day, in pain that could be better understood, supported or managed. 

That was the biggest takeaway from the session. Training with your cycle is not about being less ambitious. It is not about wrapping women in cotton wool or assuming they need to slow down. It is about recognising that women deserve training advice built around their bodies, not adapted from systems that were never really designed with them in mind. 

Track what is happening. Notice the patterns. Adjust when you need to. Support yourself properly. And, above all, stop treating your cycle like something you have to hide from your training plan.