3 Tips for Climbing Your Best in the Late Luteal Phase
The luteal phase is the portion of the cycle from ovulation until menstruation begins. On average, it’s between days 14-30. But this can vary lots person-to-person. In the late luteal phase, just before our period, you may experience symptoms, such as low energy, cramps, muscles aches, irritability and/or reduced motivation. This may affect your climbing performance.
Tracking is a great way to understand how you feel during your late luteal phase (and the rest of the cycle). Not every cycle is the same ! Here are 3 tips for Climbing Your Best in the Late Luteal Phase. If you need to perform – perhaps for a competition or a trip – during a period which coincides with your late luteal phase, experiment in advance to see if there are any minor adjustments you can make to help you work with your physiology.
Take more time
Maybe you feel a little sluggish and distracted or anxious during my late luteal phase. It’s important that you take a little longer to warm up and ease yourself into the session. At the crag, this means a few more gentle hangs and more assistance on power pull ups on your portable fingerboard when warming up. You can also take more time when going up bolt-to-bolt on the project to warm up on the moves and brush the holds.
Zero expectation mindset
Adopting a zero expectation mindset for redpoint attempts (even more so than normal) seems to really help. You can use the phrases: “one move at a time” and “let’s see what happens”. Be flexible ! You might choose to do slightly easier climbing, use more mental strategies, or spend more time getting your body warm and your mind in the right mindset. Keeping a curious mindset during this time really helps.
Deload during late luteal phase
Syncing your deload week with your period can improve the consistency and success of your training. As well as your mindset. You can drop the volume but maintain some high intensity sessions. You can schedule your week so that you don’t do any long sessions that feel harder to recover from.
