CrossFit Bodmin · free resource
A sheet to understand your own pattern. Use one sheet per cycle and fill in a row each evening; it takes under a minute. After three cycles, lay the sheets side by side and look for what repeats.
| Date | Cycle day1 = first day of your period | BleedingN none · S spotting · L light · M medium · H heavy | How you feel today, 1 to 5 5 is best, 1 is worst | Sessionwhat you did, and minutes | Main liftweight × reps | Effort0 to 10 | Symptomsnumbers from the list | Note | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep | Energy | Soreness | Stress | Mood | |||||||||
Day 1 is the first day of your period. Count up from there until the next one starts, then begin a new sheet. For bleeding, write one letter: N = none · S = spotting (no pad or tampon needed) · L = light · M = medium · H = heavy.
About half an hour after you finish, score the whole session: 0 is rest, 3 is moderate, 5 is hard, 7 is very hard, 10 is the hardest you could have done.
Pick one lift you do most weeks, such as a squat or a deadlift. Each time you do it, write the weight and the reps of your best set. This is the number that shows your pattern.
Look down the columns. On which cycle days do your energy and mood drop? Does your main lift dip on the same days? Those are your days to adjust, and the days around them are yours to push.
Did symptoms make you miss or change a session this cycle? No Changed one or more Missed one or more
This period, did you have any of these? Large blood clots Needing both a towel and a tampon Changing every two hours or less Flooding through to clothes or bedding
Two or more ticks matches the definition researchers use for heavy periods. It isn’t a diagnosis, but it is worth raising with your GP, along with any tiredness that doesn’t lift.
The symptom list and the heavy-period questions come from studies of women who exercise; the daily feel scores and the effort score are standard measures in sports science, first published in studies of other athletes. Symptom list and the missed-session question: Bruinvels G et al. (2021), Br J Sports Med 55:438–43, a survey of 6,812 exercising women. Daily feel scores: after McLean BD et al. (2010), Int J Sports Physiol Perform 5:367–83. Session effort: after Foster C et al. (2001), J Strength Cond Res 15:109–15. Heavy-period questions: Bruinvels G et al. (2016), PLoS One 11:e0149881. The wording is our own. This is a training diary, not a medical tool. CrossFit Bodmin · crossfitbodmin.com