The Benefits of Exercise Based on Your Menstrual Cycle
Do you know what your body is telling you? How connected are you to your mind/gut connection? I feel fortunate that my mom taught me to listen to my body. Whether that was intuition or physical pain, I honed in on my somatic responses. Yet, it wasn’t until I was 29 years old I realized fitness training was dependent on menstrual cycles and 30 years old when I learned about the Cycle Syncing Method from Alisa Vitti.
I was training for the Steamboat Springs Marathon in 2021 when I wondered, why do I run with such ease certain days or weeks and struggle running during others? Why do I lift with ease some days or weeks and not others? Why does my body call me to different movements at various times? When you’re an athlete, you want results and I felt like mine were had variable that I could not put my finger on.
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Therefore, I felt a frustration because I was doing the Peloton: Road to Your 26.2 training program. If you have ever followed a training program, you know that your days are prescheduled and you base your progress on each run or week of runs. So I wondered why I was able to keep a certain pace easily one week and it was totally different the next week! I’d measure this based on pace and heartrate. Something felt off, and I wanted to get to the root of it.
As my mother taught me, my intuition was correct. There is a difference hormonally in menstruators anatomies that allows us to move our bodies more effectively throughout our monthly cycle. Many menstruators are exercising based on a 24 hour cycle, which works for non-menstruators, usually men. Which places us in the context of a patriarchal society. In terms of fitness, have you ever felt like you’re spinning on a hamster wheel, working and working with no outcome? That may partly be because many studies in sport science are conducted on men. Menstruators hormonal needs are different, and therefore our exercise routines should be designed with those needs in mind, or else we could be hurting ourselves physically, hormonally, and/or emotionally.
Researching this and learning from Alisa Vitti was so impactful that parts of her book In the Flo made me cry, and it’s why I want to share it with you. Menstruators do NOT need to live a life of pain, confusion, or doubt.
Some benefits to exercise based on your menstrual cycle are:
General hormonal balance
Less cortisol stress response from the body
Better performances in endurance and strength
Increased metabolism
More energy throughout your cycle
Results!
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Here’s your sneak preview of optimal exercises based on your cycle phases.
