Cycle syncing is a common topic on many social media pages that focus around women’s health. They often discuss how to make your workouts work with your menstrual cycle. You may see posts that say things like “Rest during your period, Train harder during your follicular phase because your hormones are similar to a mans, push extra hard during ovulation, do light weight and yoga during your luteal phase”. This advice is not necessarily wrong, but it is problematic for multiple reasons.
The first and probably the most important reason is that these recommendations are “one size fits all”. They do not meet you where you are at. They are telling you how you “should” feel during your menstrual cycle. This advice might be true for some, but for many it is not. Some women feel great during ovulation. Some feel pretty rough. There is so much variation.
The better advice is to sync your exercise efforts to how you feel during your cycle. Obviously this advice depends on you cycling, so if you are pregnant, on hormonal birth control, pre-pubescent, or post-menopausal – this looks different. But we all should be basing exercise efforts on how we are feeling that day. How did we sleep? Have we been eating enough? How are other external stressors? We need to be all about self-regulation. Sync your exercise habits, but do it based upon your individual needs. Do you need a day off on day one of your cycle? Does ovulation actually make you feel off? Account for that, not for blanket recommendations.
Another problem with these cycle syncing recommendations is that they essentially are saying to go easy on exercise and stick to low intensity for basically two weeks or more during your cycle. This is a huge disservice to women. Taking it “easy” over half of the year is not going to lead to progress, it will not likely improve or maintain our health. If you are pushing yourself so hard that you need to take two weeks off every month, that is another issue and we need to look at your training. Exercise should be a balance of recovery and progression, week over week, with out intense ups or downs.
If you feel crappy most days of your menstrual cycle and can not put effort into exercising consistently – then please, go get support. Your menstrual cycle is truly a vital sign. It should be regular and happening, with minimal discomfort. It does NOT doom you to a life of feeling like crap over half of the month. Help is out there! I have plenty of resources + recommendations to share if you or someone you love is struggling.
With peace and love,
Dr. Ellyn Halley, DC, Doula, Coach