Cycle-Smart Training: How Women Can Train With Their Hormones, Not Against Them, with Chanae Brookes

About this episode

This episode discusses how women can train in alignment with their hormonal cycles to enhance performance and recovery.

In this episode of The Revital Health Podcast, Jodi Duval is joined by Chanae Brookes, for a cycle-aware conversation on female training, performance and recovery. Together they unpack what can shift across the follicular phase, ovulation and luteal phase, and how these hormonal and physiological changes may influence insulin sensitivity, inflammation, pain tolerance, perceived exertion, recovery demand and injury risk. They also explore what can happen when women overtrain, underfuel and live under chronic stress, including protective endocrine suppression patterns that may show up as cycle disruption, reduced ovulation signalling, impaired recovery, mood changes and downstream performance decline. The conversation covers practical takeaways for women who train, including cycle tracking as a readiness report, the value of biofeedback over rigid programs, and a grounded discussion about the oral contraceptive pill in sport. The episode closes with a timely discussion on creatine: potential benefits, why dosing needs to be individualised, and why lab markers and kidney function context matters when supplementation trends go mainstream. If you’re training hard and want to protect…

People in this episode

Host: Jodi Duval

Guest: Chanae Brookes

Topics covered

• cycle-aware training
• female performance
• hormonal changes
• insulin sensitivity
• overtraining
• oral contraceptive pill
• creatine supplementation

Keywords

• menstrual cycle
• recovery demand
• biofeedback
• overtraining
• creatine
• hormones
• insulin sensitivity

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