Exercise And Your Monthly Cycle

For most of women of reproductive age, exercising during their periods is an annoying added inconvenience. Moreover, many of them believe that exercising during this time of the month can pose health hazards. Therefore, they tend to skip workouts while they are menstruating. But does exercising really affect the menstrual cycle adversely? Let’s see what the scientific studies have to say on this matter.

To understand the effect of exercise on your monthly cycle and the symptoms associated with your period, it is important to first understand the various phases of the menstrual cycle. The average menstrual cycle lasts for twenty-eight days, while variations are extremely common. Most women experience menstrual flow for three to seven days.

The menstrual cycle can be divided into four important phases, namely:

1. The Menstrual phase, which generally lasts for one to seven days. It is the time when the blood vessels in the uterine lining contract. This results in the shedding off of the uterine lining in order to begin a new cycle. The woman experiences bleeding during this period.
2. The Follicular phase, which lasts from the fifth day following the menstruation to the thirteenth day of the cycle. The ovarian follicles ripen in this phase and the lining of the uterus thickens once again to prepare for a possible pregnancy.
3. The Ovulatory phase, during which an egg is released from the dominant ovarian follicle. It usually takes place on the fourteenth day of the menstrual cycle, but variations are very common.
4. The Luteal phase is the phase of the menstrual cycle when one of the ovarian follicles matures and becomes the corpus luteum. The lining of the uterus thickens further. This phase lasts from the fifteenth day to the twenty-eighth day of the menstrual cycle.

These phases are a result of the hormonal fluctuation taking place inside a woman’s body. While estrogen is the dominant hormone in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, progesterone plays a crucial role in the luteal phase of the cycle. Apart from the changes in the uterine lining and ovulation, these hormones are responsible for the mood swings that women experience during different phases of their cycle. Especially the more tangible symptoms like anxiety, depression, lethargy, increased food cravings, bloating and headaches can be directly attributed to a sudden decline in the levels of circulating estrogen and progesterone just before menstruation.

There is a myth that exercising during menstruation can aggravate these symptoms. However, scientists opine that the reverse is true.

Let us see how exercising can help in managing the symptoms associated with menstruation.

Benefits of exercising during menstruation

Exercise also increases the blood flow to the pelvic region which helps in washing away of the chemicals which produce pain. Exercising also loosens the muscles of the lower abdomen and back. The muscles of the pelvic floor are strengthened and the reproductive organs get a better support, which may result in less painful cramps as well as less bloating. The endorphins released during exercise also help in elevating the mood and provide relief from the symptoms of anxiety and depression seen during menstruation. Exercise helps in decreasing the fluid accumulation in the body, so you do not get the feeling of being bloated during menstruation.

Exercise Induced Amenorrhea Is Seen Only In Athletes Who Train Too Vigorously

Another common myth surrounding exercise during menstrual period is that it can lead to amenorrhea (the absence of a menstrual period). Experts say that although exercise reduces blood flow during menstruation to a certain degree, it never causes amenorrhea unless the athlete has been training too vigorously, something that pertains to top level athletes rather than casual gym goers. For mild to moderate exercise, usually done at home, exercise poses no risk. 

In fact, exercise reduces the congestion of the vessels in the pelvic area, providing relief from the menstrual cramps. According to a leading gynecologist, the basic metabolic rate of the body is lowered during menstruation. Increasing the intensity of strength training along with an increased calorie intake helps in increasing the BMR and provides relief from the bouts of lethargy and fatigue seen during menstruation.

The improved blood circulation following exercise can also help in relieving headaches, which are all too common during menstruation. Keeping all the beneficial effects of exercise on the body of a woman during menstruation, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends women to get regular aerobic exercise to help relieve perimenopausal symptoms.

We have seen that exercising does not have any adverse effect on the menstrual cycle. Similarly, menstrual cycle also has no major effect on the exercise performance of an athlete. A research carried out by Turkish researchers studied the effect of menstruation on 241 elite athletes. They found out that while three-fourth of the participants felt worse just before their periods, 63% of them felt that the pain reduced with training and during competition. Moreover, 62.2% athletes believed that there was no effect of menstruation on their performance.

Another study, performed by researchers from West Virginia University found that the performance of female runners remained unaffected by menstruation, irrespective of whether they were running in the first half of their cycle or the second half. The researchers concluded that female athletes, who compete in strength-specific sports and intense anaerobic/aerobic sports, do not have to make any adjustments in relation to their menstrual cycle phase for maximizing their performance. While performing exercise at sub-maximal intensities, the time to exhaustion remains the same throughout the menstrual cycle.

However, according to Jason Karp, an exercise physiologist and 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, the hormonal fluctuations seen in different phases of the menstrual cycle can have an impact on a woman’s response to training in intense conditions. According to him, oxygen consumption, body temperature, and metabolism are all affected by the level of hormones. During the luteal phase, the progesterone concentration is at its peak and it stimulates ventilation. So, women feel more winded when exercising in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase. Moreover, as the oxygen demand of the respiratory muscles is increased during the luteal phase, less oxygen is available for the leg muscles which are involved in running.

The body temperature is also higher in the luteal phase. Therefore, long, intense workouts become more difficult in this phase of the menstrual cycle. Estrogen is believed to improve endurance performance and increase the glucose availability for uptake by slow twitch muscle fibers whereas progesterone plays just the opposite role. Keeping all these factors in mind, he concludes that intense exercise is better performed in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle.