The Hormone Factor Why Women Can’t Just Train Like Men
- Brainz Magazine
- Nov 27
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 1
Written by Amritta Kaur Dhillon, Online Fitness Coach
Reets is a leading voice in women’s fitness, mindset, and hormone health, and the host of the Get Buff with Reets podcast. As founder of Get Buff With Reets and creator of the Buff Rewire System, she helps ambitious women lose fat, build muscle, and reclaim confidence without sacrificing their careers or personal lives.
Many women push through exhaustion, mood shifts, and stress without realising their hormones are often the unseen force driving it all. This article reveals why women can’t simply “push through,” how hormonal imbalances affect energy, emotions, and wellbeing, and what it truly takes to restore balance from within.
Train like men
For decades, the fitness industry has operated on the assumption that women can simply follow the same training principles as men, perhaps with lighter weights or fewer calories. The message has been clear, work harder, eat less, and if you cannot sustain it, the failure is yours and yours alone.
What this narrative ignores is the biological reality that women are not smaller versions of men. Our physiology is different. Our hormonal landscape shifts throughout the month. Even the equipment we train on is designed primarily for male frames, the default measurements and mechanics often fail to accommodate women’s smaller structures and varied biomechanics.
These gaps in design and understanding have left women following systems that were never created with them in mind.
The cost of a male-centred model
Exercise science has historically excluded women. Until the 1990s, female participants were routinely left out of research studies, dismissed as “too complicated” because of hormonal fluctuations. As a result, most training protocols, nutritional guidelines, and recovery models have been built on data collected almost exclusively from men.
The consequences of this go far beyond gym programmes. Women have been overlooked in healthcare, sports medicine, and even product design. A striking example, until as recently as 2023, menstrual products were not tested using real blood. Manufacturers relied on water or saline substances that do not remotely mimic the viscosity or behaviour of menstrual blood. The result?
Decades of sanitary products that were never properly evaluated for how women actually bleed. When something as fundamental as menstrual care has not been studied with real-world accuracy, it becomes easier to understand why fitness systems built on male norms consistently fall short for women.
This same issue exists in the gym environment. Most equipment is engineered around the average male body. Though seat heights and lever arms can be adjusted, these modifications cannot compensate for a foundational design that does not account for women’s proportions. Even common metrics, such as step count targets, calorie burn estimates, and strength standards, originate from male-dominated datasets.
Naturally, when women follow these systems and struggle to keep up, they assume the problem lies within them. I’m inconsistent. I lack discipline. My body never responds the way it should.
Real women, real struggles
Women's experiences vary widely depending on hormonal conditions, many of which have been historically dismissed or misunderstood. PCOS, endometriosis, PMDD, PMS, and even the outdated label of hysteria have all shaped how society views women’s bodies. These conditions impact energy, inflammation, metabolism, pain levels, and the ability to train consistently. Yet for years, women were told to just push through, reinforcing the belief that their struggles were imagined rather than physiological.
I experienced this firsthand recently. This is not a criticism of the doctor, he was excellent. It is a criticism of the system that has failed to educate even brilliant clinicians on women’s health. During A&E intake for an unrelated issue, I listed Crohn’s and PMDD as conditions. The doctor had never heard of PMDD. I found myself explaining a clinically recognised disorder to a medical professional. This is the reality for countless women.
I also had a client arrive eating just 1,000 calories a day, prescribed by a former male coach who equated restriction with results. She was exhausted, hormonally disrupted, and barely able to train. Her cycle was irregular, her cravings uncontrollable, and her confidence almost gone. She had developed an unhealthy fixation on weight loss and believed eating more was a failure. What she needed was nourishment and a plan built for female physiology. Sadly, this is not unusual. Many women come to me after being taught methods that work against their biology.
Another woman messaged me saying her period wiped her out every month, leaving her unable to function or train. She wasn’t uncommitted, she was experiencing a hormonal shift strong enough to derail anyone. Yet she blamed herself.
A different client told me she never made it past week three of any programme. Each month, she hit exhaustion, cravings, irritability, and a sudden drop in motivation. She assumed she lacked discipline. Once she tracked her cycle, the pattern became obvious, she was entering her luteal phase. When we aligned her training and nutrition with her hormones, her consistency improved immediately.
Hormones in action
Women’s hormonal cycles influence every aspect of training and wellbeing:
Follicular phase (post-period): rising oestrogen, higher energy, improved strength and motivation. Great for heavier lifting, progressive overload, and high-output sessions. Not ideal for low-calorie dieting or excessive cardio because your body is primed to build, not deplete.
Ovulation: peak performance, faster recovery, heightened drive. Excellent for PBs, strength testing, intense workouts, and confidence-building lifts. It can be risky for injury if the form slips, ligaments are slightly more lax here.
Luteal phase: progesterone dominant, reduced energy, increased cravings, mood fluctuations, higher inflammation. Best for moderate training intensity, more recovery work, mobility, and functional movement. Worst phase for extreme dieting, HIIT overload, or expecting peak motivation.
Menstruation: lower energy availability, body benefits from rest, lighter movement, reduced intensity. Great for walking, restorative training, gentle strength, or complete rest. Not the time for high-pressure performance expectations or rigid routines.
None of these fluctuations indicates inconsistency or weakness. They are predictable physiological patterns, and when acknowledged, they profoundly enhance a woman’s training experience.
The importance of data
The solution is not more discipline, it is more data. Most women have never been encouraged to track anything beyond the timing of their period. Yet monitoring factors such as sleep, energy, cravings, mood, strength, and recovery provides powerful insight.
Patterns begin to emerge. A woman might learn that week two of her cycle is consistently her strongest, while the final week reliably brings dips in motivation and increased fatigue. Far from being unpredictable, her body is following a clear rhythm.
This process mirrors how many high-achieving women already operate professionally. They track KPIs, analyse trends, and adapt strategies accordingly. When that same structured mindset is applied to their health, everything changes, guesswork disappears, confidence grows, and progress becomes measurable.
A strategic approach
When training aligns with hormonal patterns, the results are transformative. Women push heavier during high-energy phases and scale back when fatigue sets in without guilt. They adjust nutrition to respect increased hunger cues instead of resisting them. Recovery improves, consistency stabilises, and their relationship with their body shifts from frustration to partnership.
This is not about excuses. It is about intelligence, alignment, and longevity.
Towards a new standard
If the fitness world continues to ignore hormones, women will continue blaming themselves for challenges that are not their fault. The emotional toll of shame, frustration, and exhaustion is significant.
By shifting the standard and acknowledging that women require more than repackaged male programmes, we build the foundation for sustainable success. This is not a niche conversation, it is the future of women’s health.
The women I coach, leaders, mothers, entrepreneurs, and professionals, thrive on clarity and structure. They deserve the same level of sophistication in their approach to fitness. No leader would ignore critical data before making a strategic decision. No woman should be expected to ignore her body’s signals.
A call to redefine women’s fitness
We are only at the beginning of a new era. For too long, women have been forced into systems never designed for them. The future requires education, innovation, and approaches that finally honour women’s real lives, real responsibilities, and real physiology.
When women train with their hormones instead of against them, they stop failing. They thrive. Strength increases, energy stabilises, and confidence rises not from pushing harder, but from understanding themselves more deeply.
It is time to move beyond one-size-fits-all and create a model of fitness built for women, by women, and centred on the intelligence of the female body.
Start your journey today
Understanding your hormones is the first step. Acting on them is the next step. Feeling out of sync with your body is not a personal flaw, it’s a sign that your fitness approach has never been customised to your biology. Whether you’re navigating fatigue, cravings, inconsistent motivation, or the frustration of “falling off track,” you have the power to reclaim control, reconnect with your body, and build a system that finally works for you, not against you.
If you’re ready to build a body that works with your hormonal rhythm, I invite you to take the next step. Book a coaching call today here, and let’s create a personalised strategy that supports your energy, your confidence, and your long-term success.
Read more from Amritta Kaur Dhillon
Amritta Kaur Dhillon, Online Fitness Coach
Reets is a women’s fitness and mindset coach who began her journey trying to lose weight and feel confident again. After years of chasing every fad diet and extreme approach, she discovered that most fitness advice was male-led and didn’t account for hormones, mindset, or the realities of a busy life and the weight of holding it all together. That realisation led her to create the Buff Rewire System, a method that helps ambitious women get strong, lean, and confident without burning out.
Blending strength training, hormone-informed coaching, and sustainable habit design, Reets now helps women around the world ditch all-or-nothing thinking and finally achieve results that last.
