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ESTHER GOLDSMITH – Improving performance and recovery by tracking your menstrual cycle

EP 20. ESTHER GOLDSMITH

ESTHER GOLDSMITH

ESTHER GOLDSMITH – Improving performance and recovery by tracking your menstrual cycle

To say I’m excited about this research is an understatement. Esther Goldsmith is a researcher and Exercise physiologist at Fitrwoman and Orreco. Their research around the menstrual cycle is helping female athletes understand their own physiology, their symptoms and how to use that knowledge to plan and optimising their training and recovery.

In this episode Esther talks about the 4 phases in our cycle, physiologically what is happening, the symptoms we may experience, and debunks the most common misconception around the menstrual cycle.

Jackie 00:11
Hey, hey, this is Jackie Tann and welcome to the body’s built better podcast. On the show we chat with experts, athletes, coaches and authors to educate and inspire you. We explore the body’s incredible ability to heal, adapt, and evolve so you could crush limitations, reconnect your body and mind and discover your extraordinary potential.

Jackie 00:44
Today on the show, I am super excited to be chatting with sports and exercise physiologist, Esther Goldsmith. Esther is part of the science team at Fitrwoman and Orreco when they are performing incredible research in female physiology, and how to optimize athletic performance by tracking and understanding your menstrual cycle. This is groundbreaking research, I am so excited for the future of women’s sports. But not only that, on a personal note, I have a much better understanding what’s happening in my body. Did you know ladies, we have four phases of our cycle. And in each cycle, we have different physiological symptoms. Or we could be doing different things in our training in our recovery and on nutrition. Whether you’re an athlete coach, or a woman just trying to understand your symptoms, and how you can manage your well being This is for you. Enjoy this episode with Esther Goldsmith, Esther, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I’m super excited to be talking about the incredible work that you’re doing around the menstrual cycle. But before we get into it, I’d love for you to tell us more about you.

Esther 02:03
Yeah, sure. Well, firstly, thank you for having me. And it’s an absolute honor. And so I am a researcher, exercise, Sport and Exercise Physiologist. And I work for a company called Orreco. And we have a female athlete program and that centered around our app Fitrwoman…[listen to more on the podcast]

Jackie 03:32
That’s so amazing. And you said it perfectly. I think we’re all in that same sort of boat, like, you know, where we don’t know so much about our own bodies. And if we did, how much more we could get out of ourselves and out of our training or whatever it is. And so it’s super exciting the work that you’re doing. And let’s let’s go back to basics, what are some? Firstly, some common misconceptions and myths around the menstrual cycle?

Esther 04:03
Sure, I was always thinking about this. And I think the first one and probably I hope things are changing about it. But I guess a really common one is that I can’t exercise when I’m on my period like it’s, it’s everywhere. People just like Oh, don’t Don’t worry, like it’s fine or, and fair enough. Like some people are in debilitating pain like that. I mean, that shouldn’t be happening. But if you can’t get out of bed, then probably exercising is probably the last thing you want to be doing. But we know that and like we should research has actually shown that aerobic exercise and yoga are really beneficial and to manage symptoms. So actually exercise whilst you’re on your period is probably one of the best things you can do. And again, like it’s not, I do remember someone telling me about it. seismics perhaps you’re better. But once you’re in pain, I get that that’s not gonna work….[listen to more on the podcast]

Jackie 06:06
Yeah, absolutely. Why do you think it’s only now that we’re starting to see this research in female athletes? And how do you go about the research? Because, obviously, there are so many variables for

Esther 06:24
Yeah it’s not easy. I did my dissertation research on the menstrual cycle and running in front of me. And like, even that was difficult. And I, I would, I would change how I did it now. Like, no, I know so much more. So I think well, so there’s been a historical lack of reset. And that was partly because pre World War Two women were deemed as protected subjects, that women weren’t allowed to participate in medical research. And that was partly to protect unborn fetuses. And then as kind of research was established, then, unfortunately, those were the kinds of things that fit into my scandal. So that almost made me more worried about testing women…[listen to more on the podcast]

Jackie 09:24
I’m really interested. You said so you did a dissertation around the running economy. Yeah. And then you said, If you knew what you knew, now, you do it a bit differently. Yeah, what?

Esther 09:41
I don’t know if I should say it because we published, our publication. And so my methodology was, and I tested the women every week, and that was pretty much on a fixed day. It was the same day for four weeks. And it was what I had with no budget is what I had to do with no budget and no access, like no immediate access to a lab, I had to book labs all the time. There is now kind of rigorous methodology would be to kind of observe the participants menstrual cycles, kind of one cycle two cycles before you start testing, see like their, like, what their typical cycle is like, give them some Lh kits, make sure that over regulating, and then get Lh kits for the testing process as well, which is what I couldn’t afford, unfortunately, as a student, and, and then so then you can kind of detect when just before ovulation is going to happen, because that’s when estrogen is at its peak. So you want to, you want to measure like lofi. So you want to make sure like low fees, and we’ll probably get into this in a second. And when hormones are low, then you want an estrogen peak. And then after that you want progesterone being high and then you want the premaster to clock in. So there aren’t particular hormone phases that you can get if you’ve got someone who is that amazing 28 day cycle, absolutely textbook, then you can do it by counting. But who actually is that? So?

Listen to the complete interview on our Podcast!

Where to find Fitrwoman:

Website: www.fitrwoman.com

Instagram: @fitrwoman

Orreco Instagram: @orreco1

App: https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/fitrwoman-exercise-nutrition-menstrual-cycle/id1189050449

Orreco Website: https://www.orreco.com/

Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/alyson_mcgregor_why_medicine_often_has_dangerous_side_effects_for_women/footnotes

Get in touch: jackie@jackietann.com  |  @jackietann_rmt

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