Have you ever thought of working out while you are on period? Did you want to work out when you were going through the irritating cramps of your period but someone or something stopped you? Most women are concerned regarding how their periods would affect their fitness routine.
Women and ladies reading this article do not worry. You are not alone. There are plenty of reasons why various women skip their workouts during the time of the month.
Well, in this article, you are going to learn why there is not any need for skipping out on the exercises you can do. Having periods or not, exercising is something that you should do even if you are not health conscious or not.
Am I At Risk of Exercising During My Periods?
During periods, it is common for women to experience symptoms like bloating, stomach upset, headache, and fatigue. Luckily, physical exercising can help in removing or at least reducing these symptoms and even other ones too.
Additionally, exercising will provide other major range of health benefits. Such benefits mean to bring out the importance for people to incorporate into their routines.
Benefits of Exercising
As we all know exercising is a great way to remain fit and have a healthy mind. Athletics and sports personnel cannot go a day without exercising. It builds the required stamina and the power for playing their games. Not only that, but it also makes them mentally fit and active.
Exercising and proper diet build a good concentration, making sure that individuals can achieve their sporting goals. Sports personnel can even recover from injuries due to proper exercising.
Following are some of the major benefits of exercising for women who are on their periods.
Improves Mood
Various studies clearly show that exercising can help one to get rid of the feeling of depression and anxiety. Exercising is a keen instrument to lift one’s mood as and when they go through the stages of irritability, sadness, and anger, especially during periods.
Lowers Fatigue
Sometimes the hormonal changes in one’s body can increase the sensation of fatigue among people who are going through periods. With physical activities, one can boost energy levels rather than reducing them in the premenopausal period.
Lowers Menstrual Pain
Different studies show that women who exercise for three days a week and at least for 30 minutes for about eight weeks (time frame) suffered from fewer menstrual pains compared to those who did not. This clearly showed that exercising during and before the period would reduce its symptoms.
Keep in mind that physical activity does not have to be tough or vigorous and even for an extended time. A two fifteen or twenty-minute walk each day can provide you with great benefits. Plus, in general, exercising is great too. It can easily help one to maintain their weight and keeps their lungs and heart healthy. Of course, exercising is a great choice for individuals that are on their periods and even when they are not.
Gaining More Strength and Power
Multiple studies showed that the first two weeks of your menstrual cycle (here the day one is the first day of your period) will lead to greater gains in terms of power and strength due to the low levels of the female hormones.
5 Things You Would Have to Know About Exercising While Being on Your Periods
Assisting with All Kinds of Annoying Period-Related Symptoms
Now it might seem that the last thing you would want to do when you have your periods is working out. That so-called exercising can assist in relieving the symptoms that make your periods annoying in the first place.
Here the more active you are as a whole and regular with the activities, the better your period will end. Hence, it means that you would be less cramping and have a less heavy flow. For example, when you are sweating, the water leaves the body. This will help in relieving the uncomfortable belly bloat.
Furthermore, exercising would release the mood-boosting endorphins, and multiple anecdotal pieces of evidence suggest that this would take your mind off the pain and discomfort.
Best Time to Do HIIT
Now the best workouts you can do during your period is HIIT. The High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) would help in increasing the estrogenic and progesterone levels. These reduce as soon as the period begins. Due to these women can easily access glycogen or carbohydrate easily compared to the high-estrogenic time periods depends on the slow breakdown of the fat.
Hence, in other words, this shift in the hormone will lead to more production of fuel that can be accessed by your body. Women can push harder and get more out of their fast-paced and short workouts, compared to what they do other times of the month.
It Would Keep Your Cool
Your body temperature would be lower during the time of your period. This is called the low-hormone phase. Hence, what happens is that it would increase the time for fatigue and even allows your body to store more heat without hitting the tipping point of the central nervous system fatigue.
Making It More Comfortable for Yourself
If you are aware of when your period is coming up, then do not allow it to sneak on you. Well, it would fine to take the over-the-counter NSAID pain relievers like ibuprofen or naproxen, especially 24 to 48 hours before your period is due.
This way you can easily sidestep your symptoms just before they make you remain home without being at the gym. Sometimes it can be better if you take them right at the first twinge of the pain.
Provide Yourself A Break
As clearly said, if you are not really feeling well, avoiding beating yourself up for not going all out. A gentle stroll can be a great exercise, and this will help you to feel better. Well, the best bet is to do some light and easy movement kind of exercise, one that can reduce the inflammation through the blood flow. If you are feeling terrible, there is no harm in taking a day or two off.
Sometimes, you would be side-lined by your periods, in that case, discuss with your doctor. Taking prescription remedies like birth control pills would be great. Here this would be a great idea to have most of the aches and super heavy periods investigated as there might be the symptoms of health issues like endometriosis.
Best Exercises You Can Do When You Are on Your Period
Now the first few days of your period would be uncomfortable, and this is the time when you would be bleeding a lot. Hence, here the focus must be on the gentle movements and exercises. It means you must go for those exercises that will not involve hard and tough body movements.
Some of the best exercises that you could be the ones that you feel like doing. Here the stress must be on the necessity of varying the workouts during this week. Plus, the period might be the best time for lowering the exercise intensity.
There are few exercises you can do when you are suffering from period issues.
Light Walking or Light Cardio
It would be better if you could keep your aerobic and cardiovascular exercises right at a low intensity and even back off the amount of exercise you are doing. You can think of walking, light cardio, and shorter bouts of aerobic exercises as the best options.
Numerous research state that your lungs work better especially in the period cycle. It is better if you keep this kind of training right at the end of your period.
Low Volume Strength Training and Power-Based Activities
As there is a chance of an increase in the strength during this time, and these include the power-based and low-volume strength training activities, such exercise would be a great move. Most exercising experts feel that this is the perfect time for doing longer flow sessions and these involve the mix of strict cardio and strength work.
Yoga and Pilates
When two to three days are leading to your periods, it is best if you could engage in activities like yoga. They would help your body in relaxing and would reduce symptoms like breast tenderness, cramping, and muscle soreness or fatigue.
If you are not going through any kind of discomfort from the periods, then you are free to do and follow your regular exercising routine. You must be mindful that there are certain adjustments that you need to make to your body during this time. Sometimes your body will not be performing like how it must. In that case, take a break and try to ease up the intensity.
While Exercising on Your Periods – What You Should Avoid?
Of course, exercising while you are on your period must not put a huge amount of stress on your body. It should not even lead to additional interference and pain during the normal process of your cycle. The exercise that you do during your periods should be a positive tool and there are some things you would need to avoid. Some of them are –
- Strenuous exercise or any exercise done for a prolonged period can harm your body when you are menstruating. This does not mean that you would have to stop what you are doing normally. Try to cut back on some of the exercises.
- Inversion-kind of poses along with yoga is not recommended. Here there are two philosophies regarding these kinds of poses. Certain individuals practicing yoga feel that there would be spiritual reasons like the inversion poses must be avoided in the menstruation. Now they would feel that such positions go against the normal flow of the energy at this time. Plus, this could stop or disturb the flow and even lead to other major reproductive issues.
Another aspect is the physiological one. The physiological one is to simply avoid all kinds of inversion poses as the uterus is pulled to the head in such kind of positions. This would lead to the broad ligaments that support the organ to stretch and lead to a partial collapse of the vein that carries the blood supply from the uterus.
Due to this, it can lead to vascular congestion and increased bleeding. This is because certain arteries end up supplying the uterus with the required blood.
- Finally, if you are feeling quite fatigued, nauseous, and the increase in any kind of pain or discomfort, then stop whatever you are doing and take rest. Such symptoms continue, then stop exercising completely. In such instances, it is better to listen to your body.
Intimate Hygiene to Follow While Exercising On Your Periods.
Always follow proper personalized hygiene when you are on your period. With exercising, there might be huge concern among women, but there are few basic rules that women need to follow.
The first thing is that they need to choose the feminine product that they are comfortable with. Sometimes women would be concerned with leaking while exercising during the period. In that case, the right kind of tampon must be chosen.
Sometimes if you do not use tampons, now is not the time to try them out. Basically, this can be painful and distracting if not inserted properly. As soon as you finish exercising or any kind of workout, you must follow the given cleanliness procedure –
- Change your underwear.
- Bathe using a bar of good soap and another body wash product.
- Use a fresh pad or tampon
- If you are feeling sweaty or leaked, change into other clothing.
Conclusion
Exercising during your periods is not risky. You would need to do those exercises that will not harm your body. Plus, a bit of precaution can be great in the period issue. Doing a whole lot of exercising that moves your body and bends, could be avoided.
You need to make sure that you are not uncomfortable or if there is any kind of leakage.
