Why you Need to Exercise During Periods: Know Benefits, Tips & Best Exercises

Periods, a painful episode that makes an appearance every month. During this time, all you want to do is to lie down and cozy up in blankets.

But, will that help your body deal with the discomfort and pain? Not likely.

So, what will? Exercise! 

Now, I know that’s the last thing you’d want to do but it helps the body deal with hormonal imbalance, and other physical symptoms that you experience.

Why Should You Exercise During Periods?

During periods, a woman’s body experiences hormonal imbalance along with other physical symptoms such as cramps, bloating, mood swings, fatigue, depression, headache, backache, nausea, and stomach issues. 

Exercising during periods has shown to alleviate these symptoms. Also, exercising increases the production of happy chemicals like serotonin, endorphins and dopamine. These chemicals help with regulating mood swings caused by hormonal imbalance. 

Benefits of Exercising During Periods

Light exercise during periods provides various benefits that help women feel better physically and mentally. Let’s discuss what are those benefits.

1. Reduced Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

According to statistics, three out of four women experience Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) varying in severity. PMS includes multiple symptoms with the common signs such as: delicate mood swings, depression, specific food cravings, anxiety, tender breasts, irritability, crying spells, muscle pain, and fatigue. 

If you exercise a few times a week, it has a sizable impact on mood regulation leading up to and during periods. A study shows that exercising during periods helps improve mental health during periods.

2. Improved Mood

Other than physical pain, women also deal with emotional highs and lows caused due to hormonal imbalance. Many women experience irritability, anger, depression and crying spells before and during periods.

Exercising releases endorphins, this is a well known fact. Endorphins also act as a pain reliever helping the body deal with the pain of menstruation. This means exercising during your periods provides pain relief and controls mood swings. 

3.Fights Fatigue

Periods come with physical and mental fatigue. It makes you want to rest and not move but that’s bad for your body. Why? Because being inactive causes you to feel even more fatigued and weak. 

Doing a light exercise during periods like walking for half an hour will even make you feel more energized. Any type of cardiovascular exercise helps reduce fatigue. 

4/ Lessens Menstrual Pain 

According to a study, exercising has a significant impact on reducing menstrual pain like cramping in the abdomen, or lower back. Lighter exercises like walking, jogging or yoga seems to be the right choice for exercising during periods.

Best Exercises to Include in your Period Workout

a. Walking 

Walking is the perfect exercise during periods or generally so. This light and low-intensity exercise is perfect for periods. 

As per a research article, aerobic exercises increase haemoglobin, platelet count while reducing progesterone and prolactin levels. This results in reduced fatigue, better concentration, and most of the PMS symptoms. 

b. Yoga 

Most women experience cramps in different areas like the pelvis, lower back, abdomen, and upper legs. Some women experience cramps before their periods, some during. Yoga is the type of exercise that helps women relieve or reduce intensity of the cramps. 

Some poses you can do during periods are cobra pose, cat pose, cow pose and fish pose. Remember to keep an eye out for any sign of discomfort and stop if you feel any pain.

c. Light Strength Training

There has been research on the increase of women’s strength during the menstruation cycle. What this means is that women who do regular strength exercises could continue to do a lighter version of this exercise during periods. They can switch it up or try a new routine since they get a power boost of sorts during periods.

Things to be Careful About While Exercising During Periods

Being physically active is beneficial when you’re on periods but it is important to remember not to over exert yourself. This is why there are things you need to keep in mind while you exercise during periods. 

Do not exercise for more than 60 minutes, it can result in inflammation pain caused by prolonged periods of exercise. Also, don’t do any strenuous high intensity exercises to make sure you’re moving your body but not pushing it too hard.

If you do yoga, avoid inversion poses that bring your uterus closer to the head. There isn’t a lot of scientific research on this, but some women experience increased bleeding when they do. 

Remember to pay attention to exhaustion signs of your body. If you feel fatigued and drained, stop exercising.

Tips for Working Out During your Period

Working out during your period doesn’t sound appealing, but you can try these tips which’ll help you exercise right, and be comfortable.

Drink water, keep your body hydrated. Seems simple but it will help your digestive issues during periods. Make sure to limit caffeine intake like coffee, energy drinks or soda.

Remember to take meds at least 30 minutes before you exercise to avoid menstrual pain and focus only on exercising. 

After you finish exercising, take a shower, change your undergarments, and use a period product (pad, tampon, cup). Maintaining period hygiene is important for health reasons but also because feeling fresh will help you feel better overall.

FAQs

Which workout is best during periods?

During periods you can try some light exercises like walking, jogging, stretching, pilates, and yoga. These exercises will make you feel good but won’t make your body feel worse.

Can a woman workout on her period?

There is no scientific reason why a woman can’t work on her period. Unless she feels physically drained or is experiencing bad menstrual cramps, she can workout. 

Which exercise to avoid during periods?

Any exercise that is high in intensity or adds too much stress to the body is a big no-no. Also, don’t exercise for more than an hour, it might cause you inflammation.

EndNote 

Periods are stressful and painful. But exercising can also help your body deal with the pain of this cycle. It also provides you with a lot of benefits like, 

• Reduced Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

• Improved Mood

• Fights Fatigue

• Lessens Menstrual Pain

If you’re not sure which exercises to do during periods then choose from these light weight exercises like, 

• Walking

• Yoga

• Light Strength Training

Doing exercises during periods is good for both mental and physical health. But make sure to not push yourself too hard, and listen to your body. Also, make sure you maintain proper period hygiene after exercising. 

What other tips do you follow for your period? Let us know in the comments below. Found the blog helpful? Share it with your friends and gym buddies on social media platforms. 

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