Let's be honest, copper is not exactly the mineral everyone is talking about. But maybe it should be. While iron, magnesium and zinc tend to hog the spotlight, copper is quietly doing some seriously important work in the background. For active women especially, getting enough of this trace mineral can make a real difference to how you feel, move and recover. Here are the five benefits worth knowing about.

1. It Helps Your Body Actually Use Iron

This one is a game-changer. Copper produces an enzyme called ceruloplasmin, which converts iron into the form your body can transport through the bloodstream and use to make red blood cells.¹ No copper, no iron transport, it really is that simple.

So if you have been diligently supplementing iron but your ferritin is still stubbornly low, copper could be the missing piece. Up to 35% of active women experience some form of iron deficiency,² and copper-iron dysregulation may be quietly contributing to many of those cases. Worth checking!

2. It Powers Your Energy From the Inside Out

Feeling flat even when you are sleeping well and eating right? Copper plays a direct role in ATP production, the energy your mitochondria generate to fuel every workout and every busy day.³ Without enough copper, your cellular energy engine simply does not run as efficiently as it should.

Consider it like a mechanic keeping your engine tuned. You will not necessarily feel copper working, but you will notice when it is missing.

3. It Supports Hormonal Health

Here is the link that often gets overlooked. Copper influences the balance between oestrogen and progesterone, and high oestrogen levels. Elevated copper in the body can occur from the oral contraceptive pill, perimenopause fluctuations or oestrogen dominance.⁴ Conversely, low copper has been associated with thyroid disruption and poor adrenal resilience.

For active women navigating hormonal shifts or managing symptoms like mood changes, irregular cycles or low libido, getting copper tested alongside a full hormone panel is a smart move.

4. It Keeps Your Joints and Connective Tissue Strong

If you run, lift or train regularly, your tendons, ligaments and joints take a beating. Copper activates an enzyme called lysyl oxidase, which supports the structural proteins responsible for building and maintaining strong collagen, elastin and wound healing.³

Low copper means weaker connective tissue, which can show up as niggling injuries, poor joint stability or slower recovery from training loads. Think of copper as your body's internal scaffolding crew.

5. It Speeds Up Recovery and Fights Inflammation

Hard training creates oxidative stress — essentially, free radicals that damage cells and slow recovery. Copper activates superoxide dismutase (SOD), one of the body's most powerful antioxidant enzymes, which neutralises these free radicals before they cause lasting damage.⁵

Research in athletes has shown that trace element status, including copper, is directly associated with oxidative stress markers and recovery capacity.⁵ Less oxidative damage means less soreness, faster repair and better adaptation to training over time.

So How Much Do You Need?

The Australian RDI for copper in adult women is 1.2 mg/day,⁶ which most women can meet through a varied whole-food diet. Top sources include oysters, beef liver, cashews, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate and lentils. Our apricot bliss balls are a great copper rich snack!

If you are taking high-dose zinc (which competes with copper for absorption), supplementing iron without improvement, or on the pill, it is worth asking your practitioner to check your serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels alongside your next blood test.^1,4

Small mineral, big impact. Do not overlook it.

You optimise your training load. You track your recovery. You invest in your nutrition. So when the research points to antioxidants reducing oxidative stress from exercise, supplementing seems like a logical performance lever to pull.

But what if that investment was quietly working against your returns?

This is one of sport nutrition's most counterintuitive findings: in certain situations, high-dose antioxidant supplements can interfere with the very physiological adaptations your training is designed to produce. For athletes focused on long-term gains, understanding this trade-off isn't optional but rather strategic.

The Signal You Don't Want to Silence

Exercise generates reactive oxygen species (ROS). In excessive amounts, ROS cause cellular damage. But at the levels produced during regular training, ROS function as critical signalling molecules. Thes are the biological triggers that tell your body to adapt and grow stronger.

This is hormesis in action: a controlled stressor driving a beneficial response. Specifically, ROS signals initiate mitochondrial biogenesis, boost your body's own antioxidant enzyme production, improve insulin sensitivity, and drive muscle remodelling. These are the fundamental physiological upgrades that separate a trained athlete from an untrained one.

Flood your system with high-dose antioxidant supplements, and you risk silencing those signals and potentially blunting the return on every training session.

Chronic supplementation with approximately 1,000 mg/day of vitamin C and/or 200–400 IU/day of vitamin E has been shown to reduce activation of key pathways involved in mitochondrial development and endogenous antioxidant defences.^[1][2] A 2026 review published in Antioxidants framed this as a redox balance problem: the goal isn't zero oxidative stress, it's the right amount.^[2]

This concern applies specifically to chronic, high-dose supplementation. Context matters: illness, extreme training loads, and specific recovery protocols are different conversations.

The scale of this issue is significant as vitamin C is taken by nearly 60% of athletes^[3] many of whom may be unknowingly compromising their adaptation response.

The Smarter Play: Food First

Dietary antioxidants sidestep this problem. Consumed through whole foods, antioxidants arrive in lower doses alongside other nutrients and phytochemicals that modulate their absorption making interference with training adaptation far less likely.^[2]

Vitamin C from whole foods also plays a critical structural role beyond antioxidant activity — it is essential for collagen synthesis and tendon repair, and enhances iron absorption both critical for athlete health and energy production.

Beyond vitamin C and E, other whole-food antioxidant sources offer targeted recovery benefits: blueberries have demonstrated reductions in exercise-induced muscle soreness and inflammation, while tart cherries support both recovery and sleep quality without the risk of blunting adaptation.

Top 10 Vitamin C–Rich Foods

Per 100g — FSANZ Australian Food Composition Database (AFCD)^[5]

Vitamin E–Rich Foods

Per 100g — FSANZ Australian Food Composition Database (AFCD)^[5]

 The Bottom Line

Stand firm and demand a return on every investment including nutritional ones. Antioxidant-rich whole foods deliver recovery support, structural benefits, and immune resilience without compromising adaptation. Routine high-dose vitamin C or E supplements may do the opposite.

Build your antioxidant strategy around food first. Reserve supplementation for specific, evidence-based applications and let your training deliver the results it was designed to produce.

The last 2 weeks matter!

A well‑planned taper is one of the most important parts of a marathon program. When done properly, it helps you arrive at the start line feeling confident, rested, mentally fresh, physically light, and genuinely excited to race. But a poorly executed taper can leave you feeling flat—fatigued, heavy, bloated, and oddly indifferent to the event despite months of committed training. These five essential taper strategies will ensure you show up in the best possible shape.

1. Reduce training load

Tapering is crucial for optimal performance. Gradually reducing your mileage while maintaining the intensity of your workouts and framework of your training plan is key to a good taper. Maintain consistency and include one controlled marathon‑pace session, but remove anything that creates deep fatigue. As a general rule of thumb, reduce your load by 30% each week over the final weeks. Some athletes prefer a 3 week taper, while others like a more punchy " steep taper" of 10 days. A taper helps the body to adapt to the previous months of effort and ensures you’re in peak condition for race day. Recovery activities such as saunas, yoga and stretching can provide the icing on the cake in the final weeks.

2. Nutrition

Stick to a balanced diet rather than crash dieting to lose weight in the last three weeks. Avoid trying new gels or sports products you haven't already practiced in training. Obtain supplies for your chosen race day nutrition so you have everything on-hand come race morning. If you like to race "light", reduce processed snacks or high calorie drinks and maintain good size main meals with protein and carbohydrate that promote satiety across the day.

3. Sleep

Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night. Establish a relaxing bedtime routine, reduce your caffeine intake and limit screen time before bed to improve sleep quality. Good sleep hygiene can significantly impact your race day performance and "banking" a few extra naps in the weeks leading into the race can make all the difference to how fresh you feel on race morning. A quality magnesium supplement an hour before bedtime may assist with sleep if you have insomnia.

4. Final long run

A final long run is typically completed a few weeks out from race day. A portion of marathon specific pacing within this run can build confidence and also highlight any unrealistic expectations. The run should be just enough to reinforce efficiency at steady aerobic output. After this point, long runs shorten significantly to allow full recovery and glycogen restoration.

5. Race Strategy

Develop a solid race day strategy. Know your pacing, plan what and when to fuel and hydrate, and prepare for any unexpected challenges like needing pit stops and possible weather conditions. Familiarise yourself with the course if possible, and consider doing a trial run over a portion of the course. Elite athletes visual their ideal race day repetitively including their target finishing time, pacing, how they will feel and what they want to focus on at each stage of the race. At the very least look at the course map and elevation. A well-thought-out plan can help alleviate race day anxiety.

What NOT to Do:

• Avoid New Gear: Stick to familiar shoes and gear on race day to prevent any issues. Don’t risk discomfort with untested equipment. Know your chafing areas and plan accordingly with anti-chafing solutions.
• Don’t Overtrain: Resist the urge to cram in extra kilometers at this stage. Trust in your training and allow your body to rest. Experienced athletes understand that the taper is about revealing fitness, not building it. Overreaching here is one of the most common rooky mistakes.
• Avoid Unnecessary Physical and Emotional Stress: Avoid heavy strength training in the final 7–10 days. No last‑minute “prove my fitness” workouts. Avoid overthinking; enjoy the process and have confidence in your preparation.

With these tips, you’ll be well-prepared for your race. Good luck, and enjoy the journey!

Sleep plays an important role not only in recovery, but also in regulating the menstrual cycle. If we rule out pregnancy, active females, can have many factors collectively contributing to lighter or irregular menstraul cycles, all of which are important to understand but also address. Let's recap some of the most common issues that contribute to lighter or delayed periods.

Why Periods May Stop or Become Irregular

High exercise volume or intensity. When training volume or intensity increases, the body may shift priorities and redirect energy away from reproduction and toward survival and performance. In simple terms, the brain tells the ovaries to take a break and periods can become irregular, delayed, or stop altogether. A recent systematic review found that approximately 32.3% of female athletes are impacted in this way.

Nutritional factors. Low energy availability (not eating enough to match output) and restrictive eating are the most common nutritional issues which impact the cycle.  When calorie intake does not match the high energy expenditure of training, the body conserves fuel by slowing reproductive function, and hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone start to decline. While many women boast a quality nutritional profile on the surface, the calorie intake or density can still be insufficient to match the demands of the individual.

Skipping snacks or having lighter meals can easily tip athletes into the red. Prolonged energy depletion can lead to issues such as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. Athletes with or without an eating disorder may choose to restrict food intake during a determined window to make weight or enhance performance for a key event. This can impact body fat, hormone signalling and extend the cycle, lighten cycles or stop them altogether.

Emotional stress and anxiety

Emotional stress, travel, competition anxiety, or personal challenges can elevate cortisol and disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis. The pressure to perform, coupled with life stressors, can compound physical strain, further suppressing hormones that regulate menstruation. Stress of any kind raises cortisol, directly suppresses the HPO axis, and reduces hormones such as progesterone, leading to missed cycles and functional hypothalamic amenorrhea. A condition where the brain suppresses reproductive function due to perceived stress or energy deficiency.

Low Iron

Iron deficiency can indirectly contribute to lighter cycles. Iron deficiency elevates cortisol and inflammatory markers and has effects on the HPO axis as explained above. Estrogen levels may then drop, especially if iron deficiency is paired with low energy availability. The cycle can then start to pitter out. Energy production can also be impacted despite meeting calorie needs.

Poor sleep and recovery habits

Sleep is when the body recalibrates its hormonal systems. During deep sleep, the HPO axis relies on stable circadian rhythms to regulate the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This hormone triggers the production of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which are essential for ovulation and menstrual regularity.

When sleep is fragmented or insufficient, cortisol levels rise, melatonin drops, and GnRH pulsatility becomes irregular, disrupting circadian rhythm and impairing ovulation. This vicious cycle contributes to irregular cycles. Poor recovery from poor sleep also dysrupts the HPO axis and cases light or missed periods.

This feedback loop can persist unless addressed through improved sleep hygiene, balanced nutrition, and structured recovery strategies.

Why It Matters

Menstrual irregularities are not just about missed periods. They can affect bone density, cardiovascular health, mood, and fertility. For sportswomen, understanding this connection is empowering. It allows for proactive choices such as adjusting training, improving nutrition, and seeking guidance when needed.

A delayed period is useful feedback. It is the body’s way of saying, “I need more care.” By listening, adjusting, and supporting our hormones, we create space for both strength and sustainability.

At Athlete Sanctuary, we believe that performance and health are not opposing forces. They are partners. If you would like to improve your report card, we are here to help.

PCOS is Not One-Size-Fits-All

The common misconception is that PCOS is a singular entity, a simple diagnosis. In truth, it presents in various forms, each with its own nuances and potential implications. It certainly isn’t as simple as seeing follicles on an ultrasound. Understanding the distinctions between the subtypes of PCOS is crucial for tailored support and effective management.

Insulin-Resistant PCOS

One prevalent type is Insulin-Resistant PCOS. Here, the body's cells don't respond efficiently to insulin, leading the pancreas to produce more of this hormone. This excess insulin can then trigger the ovaries to produce more androgens, such as testosterone and DHEA.

For an active woman this could manifest as persistent fatigue, difficulty managing weight despite exercise, or poor exercise recovery. These could be signs of insulin resistance at play, and impacting how the body utilises fuel.

Inflammatory PCOS

Systemic inflammation can exacerbate hormonal imbalances, contributing to symptoms like irregular periods, acne, and increased hair growth.

Women experiencing inflammatory PCOS might notice prolonged muscle soreness, slower recovery from injuries, or simply a feeling of overall "heaviness" that impacts agility and endurance.

Adrenal PCOS

Adrenal glands, rather than the ovaries, can be the primary source of excess androgens, often triggered by chronic stress.

This might be particularly insidious for women. Active women may further exacerbate stress through high-intensity and high-volume training loads.  

Symptoms might include persistent fatigue, anxiety, and brain fog that affects focus and decision-making. Others may have uncharacteristic irritability and mood swings. 

Post-Pill PCOS

Finally, Post-Pill PCOS can emerge after discontinuing hormonal birth control. While often temporary, it can mimic other PCOS symptoms as the body re-establishes its natural hormonal rhythm. This highlights the importance of individualised assessment and patience as the body recalibrates.

The Ripple Effect  

Irregular periods, weight fluctuations, and other visible symptoms can erode self-esteem and lead to significant emotional distress. A study revealed that women with PCOS report higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to other women. 

For a sportswoman, this can manifest as a diminished passion for their sport, difficulty staying motivated, or even body image issues that impact on confidence. 

Nurturing Resilience: Practical Support for Women with PCOS

While there's no single "cure" for PCOS, effective management strategies can empower women to reclaim their health.  A holistic approach is paramount, combining evidence-based lifestyle interventions with targeted support. Addressing PCOS requires a comprehensive strategy:

Nutrition:

Adopting a balanced diet rich in whole foods, lean proteins, healthy fats and unprocessed foods, can significantly improve insulin sensitivity and help regulate hormone levels. For instance, reducing refined sugars and processed carbohydrates can mitigate insulin spikes, thereby dampening androgen production.

Magnesium plays an important roll by signalling over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body and is critical to insulin signalling, glucose metabolism and bone health. Many women with PCOS are found to have magnesium deficiencies and clinical trials have shown supplementation may improve insulin and metabolic issues in PCOS and potentially alleviate symptoms like anxiety and muscle cramps.  

Exercise:

Regular, appropriate exercise is another cornerstone. While high-intensity training is often a part of an athlete's routine, incorporating a balance of strength training and moderate-intensity aerobic activities is beneficial. Resistance training, for example, can enhance insulin sensitivity and promote healthy muscle mass, which further aids glucose uptake. The key is finding a sustainable, balanced and enjoyable exercise plan that supports, rather than depletes, the body.

Stress Management:

Practices like mindfulness, yoga, and adequate sleep can reduce cortisol levels, positively influencing hormonal balance.

At the Athlete Sanctuary, we believe in stripping away the shame and leaning into the discomfort of open, honest dialogue. It’s about acknowledging the unique challenges, embracing the journey of discovery, and building a supportive team around you.