What happens if you exercise during your period? Sports during menstruation: what you can do. Fitness during menstruation: the opinion of gynecologists

The period of critical days passes individually for each girl and woman. A very pressing question is whether it is possible to do fitness during menstruation. For those who find these days especially difficult, the answer is very obvious. Nausea, pain in the lower abdomen and head spasms, general apathy and irritability sweep away any thoughts about another workout. But what to do for those who do not experience such symptoms at all, and everything goes on as usual. As a rule, girls focus specifically on their well-being. However, not all so simple.

Is it possible to go to the gym during menstruation? It is best to find out the answer to this question from a gynecologist. He is the one who knows all the features of your body and will be able to correctly paint the picture. However, there are a few key points to pay attention to when training is coming up and your period is in full swing.

It is forbidden

So, why should you not exercise during your period, according to many experts? The fact is that during this period, serious processes occur in a woman’s body, primarily related to hormonal levels. Also during menstruation it changes due to the loss of some of its quantity, for example, the amount of hemoglobin decreases. This can affect your well-being. During training, malaise may become quite severe, even to the point of loss of consciousness.

Therefore, for girls who do not tolerate such a period well, it is better to refuse active physical activity. Those whose menstruation is accompanied by heavy discharge should also be careful. Intense exercise can increase blood loss, which can lead to negative health consequences. It is necessary first of all to examine the blood for clotting. If its level is low enough, then fitness classes during menstruation will have to be postponed.

You can play only certain sports

For girls who are having a hard time with menstruation, the best way during this period is not to completely abandon physical activity, but only to adjust its intensity. For example, it is better to replace a trip to the gym for strength training with a Pilates or yoga class. If the first day of menstruation is the most difficult, then it should simply be spent more calmly. It is better to replace the workout with a walk in the fresh air.

On critical days, it is very important to observe. Both a lack and an excess of fluid in the body can worsen your health. It is better to avoid strength training and intense cardio training these days. So is it possible to exercise during your period? Yes. The optimal load option for such days is stretching, Pilates, yoga, dancing, and exercises for the upper muscle group.

Not only is it possible, but it is also necessary

Many girls are surprised to hear at an appointment with a gynecologist that they can go to the gym during their period. There is a very simple and logical explanation for this. The fact is that stagnation of blood in the body, including in the pelvis, increases pain and also prevents normal secretions in the required quantity. To avoid deterioration in health, you should not completely refuse to exercise.

It is only advisable to reduce their intensity and replace some of them. For example, if cycling is on the schedule, then it is better to prefer a complex for working out the upper body. It is better to replace them with stretching or any other convenient type of load for a given period. It will also not be very convenient to go swimming on critical days, although many people only save themselves by doing this, getting maximum relaxation.

You can exercise, but after consulting a doctor

Is it possible to exercise during menstruation? This question should concern those girls who have any deviations in their work. You can only find out about this from your attending gynecologist. For everyone else, medium and low intensity exercise is recommended, depending on how you feel.

Endurance is also of great importance for the effectiveness of training. On critical days, its level decreases slightly, so the pace of exercise should be reduced in any case. Physical activity is extremely important during menstruation, since when muscles work, concentration decreases, which has a significant impact on pain, as well as on the psycho-emotional state.

Conclusion

To summarize, we should once again concentrate on the question of whether it is possible to do fitness during menstruation. If there are no medical indications, but there is strength and desire, then it is even necessary. Therefore, you can safely go to the gym and indulge in the struggle for the ideal body. After all, the main thing in this matter is consistency. You shouldn’t interrupt your path to perfection because of any inconvenience.

Menstruation is often a difficult time for a woman. Blood loss, pain, changes in the usual hormonal levels - all this does not have the best effect on your well-being. At this time, you want to lie down, feel sorry for yourself, and pamper yourself with something. But is it possible to go to the gym and work out while on your period?

During menstruation, the most difficult period usually occurs at the very beginning. Therefore, to the question of whether it is possible to exercise on the first day of your period, it is better to answer in the negative. We need to give the body at least a little bit to gather its strength.

It is possible to exercise during menstruation if the woman does not experience severe pain or discomfort. But the intensity of training must be reduced by at least a third. The body at this time is still not quite “in itself”.

At this time, you need to think carefully when choosing suitable exercises. You should exercise very carefully in the gym during your period. Strength training should be avoided without hesitation. Aerobic exercise is also quite heavy these days: the blood is poorly saturated with red blood cells, and the sensations are not the most pleasant. But a little is possible, without discomfort.

But you can’t pump up your abs: this will inevitably provoke more intense bleeding, which in the future can lead to problems in the female part - for example, in the form of endometriosis.

Running at a comfortable pace helps a lot with pain and therefore, on the contrary, can even be recommended in. Stretching exercises can also help relieve pain.

If a woman decides not to give up training, it is necessary to reduce both the load and the intensity of the training, the pace should be moderate, the clothes should be light, and the gym should be saturated with air. During menstruation, sweating is much more intense than on normal days, and the need for fresh air is higher. If the training room is stuffy, the girl may feel unwell.

However, only a doctor can answer the exact question whether this particular girl can train during her period. There are obvious contraindications. For example, puberty. At this time, you should take a break “for menstruation”, otherwise training can unpredictably affect the formation of the girl’s body.

Contraindications include such familiar troubles as thrush and other, even mild, inflammatory phenomena in the genitals, or a recent infection.

If the cycle tends to go wrong, if the periods are abnormally intense or very painful, it is perhaps better to give up training too.

The best workout in this state is walking, jogging at a slow pace, cycling, swimming or water aerobics.

Those who follow the recommendations written above will be able to carry out physical activity correctly and safely when exercising during menstruation. It is very important to follow the rules so as not to harm your body or cause harm to your health. The important thing is that the exercises must be performed smoothly and intensively, without haste, without rushing anywhere.

Menstruation is always accompanied by a bad mood, complete apathy, irritability and pain in the lower abdomen and lower back. On such days, you want to close yourself off from everyone and everything, but you have no desire to exercise at all. However, as you know, sport helps to cope not only with excess fat, but also with bad mood.

Exercising on critical days is beneficial

Exercising during menstruation - is it possible, not prohibited for medical reasons, and what exactly can you do, what physical exercises will help get rid of pain? All these questions can be easily answered.

After conducting a number of physiological studies, it has been scientifically proven that playing sports and training is not only impossible, but also necessary in every possible way, and there can be no harm to health. At different periods of time, world records were celebrated by athletes who managed to do this during menstruation.

You need to know that the lack of physical activity on the body, a sedentary lifestyle, affects the course of menstruation. For fifty years of the last century, there was a misconception that exercise and sports should not be done during menstruation.

What can you do?

The decision whether to exercise or not depends entirely on how you feel. Typically, menstruation is accompanied by pain and discomfort. Some girls can cope with mild attacks and do the exercises, slightly reducing the load. For those who do not know at all what pain during menstruation is, you can not change your training schedule, just slightly change the percentage of the load on these days.

If you feel weak and slightly unwell during your period, you should change the type of workout to a more calming and relaxing one. During these days it is necessary to train with less intensity and duration. For menstruation, there is one unshakable rule - you cannot do heavy strength training with lifting weights and play sports with sudden movements.

There is a list of contraindications for playing sports during menstrual flow:

• Severe pain syndrome;
• Dizziness;
• Heaviness in the lower abdomen;
• Copious discharge;
• Some chronic inflammatory diseases of the reproductive system.

If you have at least one of the listed points, you should contact your gynecologist, who will prohibit you from performing exercises or tell you which ones will help normalize the body’s functioning.

Simple and useful exercises

Sports as an opportunity to get rid of not only pain during menstruation, but also from various female diseases.

For those women who cannot imagine their life without sports, we will highlight a number of exercises for menstruation:

• The Pilates system - an individually selected program will help you achieve tangible results in just a couple of months. Sports activities according to the Pilates system include basic stretching and exercises to strengthen the muscles responsible for the upper abs. Sport increases the amount of discharge, but there is no need to worry about this, as the pain will completely disappear. Exercises with weight-bearing elements should be forgotten during menstruation so as not to harm your overall well-being;
• Simple relaxing sports activities - starting position on the floor, knees raised. Take a deep breath, sucking in your stomach, then exhale sharply. The technique is repeated 4 times;


• The starting position is vertical with your arms raised up. Stretch your arms up, rising onto your toes, then walk ten steps in this position;
• To perform this sport, you will need a wall, position yourself near it, and, resting your feet, lift them above your head. In this position, take deep breaths and exhales;
• Exercises - turns. To do this, you need to take a horizontal position. Stretch your right arm to the side, lift your left leg, and try to touch your right hand. An identical exercise must be performed on other limbs. All angles should be as straight as possible;
• Sports help not only build muscle mass or get rid of excess weight, but also reduce tension in the lower abdomen during menstruation. To do this, you need to get on all fours, lower your head between your hands, touching your forehead. In this position, the uterus sags slightly and spasms decrease, which promotes relaxation;

Such simple sports exercises will help overcome bad mood, pain and discomfort in the lower abdomen. If you regularly exercise before, during and after menstruation, according to gynecologists, you can forget about many female diseases.

Some tips for sports lovers:

• During the week before the onset of desquamation of the uterine endometrium, you should actively engage in sports. Particular attention should be paid to cardio exercises or fitness classes. Such sports - cardio exercise and fitness classes - promote an active flow of arterial blood to the woman’s pelvic organs, so that menstruation will not bring such inconvenience;
• The muscles responsible for beautiful abdominal abs play a significant role during menstruation. Before the discharge begins, avoid playing sports where the abdominal muscles are actively involved, especially if they are poorly pumped. Such excessive zeal will only bring nagging pain in the lower abdomen and lower back. In this case, it is better to replace sports with massage techniques;
• Some ladies, having seen a slight increase in weight in the second half, intensify their fitness exercises or put more stress during strength training, which is absolutely wrong. The increase in body weight can be explained by the physiological release of hormones that retain moisture in a woman’s body. Excess weight will quickly disappear within a short time after menstruation.

Until recently, doctors claimed that sports and any physical exercise on menstrual periods aggravate pain and cause heavy discharge - this is the reason why you cannot engage in active strength sports during menstruation. Menstruation affects the general condition of the body, so there are some conditions that every active woman must adhere to during her period. However, this does not mean that menstruation is a reason to give up physical activity. It is known that some athletes took prizes and set world records during periods when they had critical days.

Therefore, the modern view of doctors on playing sports during menstruation has changed: sports during menstruation is useful!

If a woman is healthy, moderate exercise can and even should be done.

• Physical education and sports work wonders, so the answer to the question of whether it is possible to engage in gentle physical exercise during menstruation is simple - exercising on menstrual days is possible and useful for several reasons:
• sport helps to cope with pain, nagging pain in the lower abdomen and lower back becomes dull or disappears completely;
• doing light sports during menstruation helps improve blood circulation, stimulates metabolism, resulting in regular menstruation, which means physical education normalizes the menstrual cycle;
• If you exercise regularly, sports help reduce chest pain;

Every woman understands that menstruation is individual. Some women feel absolutely healthy during menstruation, others experience signs of malaise - headache, dizziness, mild nausea, weakness, pain or cramps in the lower abdomen and lower back. But almost all women experience more or less discomfort during their menstrual periods.

1. You can engage in fitness if there are no contraindications due to various chronic gynecological diseases.
2. You can perform physical exercises that are not related to strength, aimed at working the abdominal muscles, pumping up the abs.
3. If you have slight weakness, you can carry out gentle training by reducing the load and duration of training, reducing the intensity of training.

You should know: menstruation on the 1st-2nd day is characterized by the most abundant discharge, so it is not recommended to perform strength training on these days - stretching is much more effective. This is because as a result of changes in hormonal levels, the elasticity of the ligaments increases, muscle relaxation occurs, which results in rapid fatigue and decreased endurance. In the first 2 days of menstruation, fluid accumulates due to hormonal changes - an increase in the level of estrogen in the blood and a decrease in the level of progesterone, and on the 3-4th day of the menstrual cycle, the hormonal balance in the woman’s body is restored, so at this stage a gradual return to normal exercise is possible.

Why can't you exercise during menstruation?

• Any sport is contraindicated if there is a chronic disease of the female genital organs (adnexitis, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and others).
• If in the first days of menstruation there is heavy discharge, endometriosis is dangerous: during physical activity, blood circulation increases, as a result of which endometrial cells are thrown out of the uterus into the abdominal cavity, spreading the disease throughout the pelvic organs, this can lead to. Inflammation and various neoplasms can cause bleeding.
• Physical exercise is contraindicated for dizziness.
• You should not exercise if you have acute cramps in the lower abdomen/lower back and severe pain.
• Heavy periods indicate that sports are contraindicated.
• You cannot do exercises with weights (squats with a barbell or performing various strength exercises on machines, including pumping up the abs).

Sports you can do during your period

Many women remember how, as children, they tried to “dodge” physical education lessons, citing menstruation. Often, even mature women do not know the answer to the question, is it possible to do fitness during menstruation?

It should be understood:

If there is heavy discharge and severe pain on menstruation days, you need to give up any physical activity, but if the girl is healthy, there are no obvious signs of malaise, physical education classes and fitness are not only possible, but also necessary.

A wise physical teacher or coach will offer gentle stretching exercises and will not force you to perform tasks with a power load aimed at strengthening the abdominal muscles (the notorious “packs”), abs, and legs. Fitness not only helps relieve pain, but also improves mood and promotes emotional relief.

Swimming, yoga, stretching (stretching), fitness, Pilates, bodyflex, light cardio, race walking - these are sports that you can do when you have your period. But even when engaging in these sports, you need to listen to the recommendations of doctors:

1. Girls who have reached the age of puberty need to be especially careful about their bodies. Menstruation is an individual issue, but if you experience severe pain, heavy discharge and malaise, you should consult a doctor for further advice, including on sports training.
2. Fitness and aerobics are recommended for girls and women with weakened bodies. It is good for such women to engage in race walking, which can replace heavy loads.
3. Many representatives of the fair sex doubt whether it is possible to do useful bodyflexes during menstruation. Bodyflex is a process based on breathing through the diaphragm, as well as holding your breath. Useful bodyflex helps restore the menstrual cycle and even resolve adhesions, so classes can be carried out on critical days after the 3rd day. Failure to comply with the basic rules of the technique (dosage of exercises, consistency, strict adherence to instructions) can turn a useful bodyflex into a dangerous one.
4. Classical yoga is a practice that effectively relieves the signs of premenstrual syndrome. Yoga provides exercises that are performed during menstruation in a slow rhythm: you can practice using the poses of the sage Marichi (Marichyasana 1), the crescent (Ardhu chandrasana), the lying hero or the hero face down (Adhi Mukha Virasana and Supta Virasana), the lotus pose (Padmasana) and bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvasgasana).
5. The Pilates system, like other fitness, helps relieve mild abdominal cramps and increase the overall tone of the body.
6. During swimming, general body tension is relieved; the best type of swimming during menstrual periods is water aerobics (without heavy loads). You can exercise if you have a special mouthguard so that the discharge remains inside the body and does not stain the water.

Sports that you should not do during your period

If you do not follow your doctor's recommendations and continue to engage in intense physical activity during your period, you can cause serious harm to your health. There are sports that are not recommended for exercise during menstruation:

• Bodyflex. It is better not to exercise in the first 1-3 days, because... Do not pull in your stomach ("vacuum" exercise) - bleeding may increase.
• Various types of martial arts. You cannot engage in wrestling, boxing, submission, freestyle wrestling, etc.
• Athletics. Fast running and jumping can provoke increased discharge and pain. It is not recommended to work with dumbbells or exercise on weight machines.
• If a woman is menstruating, lifting weights is strictly contraindicated.
• Yoga. “Anti-gravity poses”, those exercises in which it is necessary to turn the body over (standing on the head, stand on the forearm - “birch tree”, etc.). Do not perform poses that involve strong twisting, squeezing, or straining of the abdominal muscles. Sometimes it is not recommended to bend too much.

Menstruation is a period when a woman should pay special attention to personal hygiene. Traditional methods of protecting against leaks are pads and tampons. Pads must be changed depending on the amount of discharge, every 4-5 hours. It is not recommended to use extra-long pads during the day, which are recommended for sleeping: such pads absorb more moisture and are designed for a longer period, however, when moving, they are an optimal environment for the development of bacteria and can provoke various inflammations of the female genital organs.

Tampons need to be changed more often, every 3-4 hours, since prolonged use of one tampon can cause bacteria to enter the bloodstream and cause toxic shock syndrome.

Even with scanty discharge, pads and tampons need to be changed promptly.

A modern method of preventing leakage is a menstrual cup (mouth guard). Inserted into the vaginal cavity, it collects all blood secretions, so it is good to use when swimming and horse riding.

You need to shower when a woman is on her period as needed, but at least 2 times a day.

Doctors also emphasize that you should not wear tights, jeans or tight underwear during menstruation - such clothing puts pressure on the genitals, disrupts the blood circulation of the pelvic organs, and as a result has a detrimental effect on their condition, causing pain, inflammation, bleeding, and neoplasms.

A woman should be attentive to her body. Painful periods are the first sign that you need to consult a gynecologist for advice. During critical days, there is no need to force yourself by doing physical exercises. Sport should bring joy and relief, then a woman will live a bright and fulfilling life even during critical days.

From a young age, every woman is faced with a dilemma: is it possible to exercise during menstruation? Girls are worried about whether they can attend so-called “physical classes” at school, and adult women are worried about their favorite gym. Some believe that sports are strictly contraindicated during menstruation. Others, on the contrary, encourage women to be as active as on ordinary days.

Every woman needs to understand this issue. Often, critical days are accompanied by pain or bad mood, so many simply do not find the strength to play sports. But this does not mean that playing sports during menstruation is unacceptable. First of all, when deciding whether to engage in physical activity these days or not, a woman should be guided by her state of health and consult with professionals. The presence of certain diseases is a decisive factor why you should not exercise during your period.

At the moment, science says that menstruation is not a contraindication to physical education. Scientists have found that with regular exercise, premenstrual syndrome goes away much easier. Abdominal pain decreases, sudden mood swings stop, and irritability decreases. But, as you know, you need to know moderation in everything. Excessive exercise during menstruation can cause the opposite effect and only worsen the condition.

What exercises should you prefer?

There are a lot of exercises that can have a positive effect on a woman’s condition during menstruation:

When performing certain exercises, you should drink as much water as possible and, if possible, be in the fresh air. For more comfort you should try to avoid heat and ventilate the room in which classes take place as often as possible. This will allow you to feel fresh and avoid an increase in the amount of discharge during menstruation.

Prohibited exercises during menstruation

Although you can exercise during your period, some types of exercises are strictly not recommended during these days.

Such exercises include:

• loads that are of a forceful nature and involve lifting heavy objects;
• twisting;
• exercises that involve stress on the abdomen.

It can harm the body up to the formation of diseases and increase discomfort during the PMS period. If your health during menstruation worsens significantly compared to normal days, then it is also recommended to abstain from sports. You should also avoid drinking drinks that contain caffeine and alcohol.

Each body individually perceives stress during the menstrual period. A woman must listen to the signals that her body gives. If you feel that training is only making you feel worse rather than making it better, you should stop it immediately.

But if there are no serious contraindications to sports, then it is not at all necessary to exclude it during menstruation. You just have to choose the most a suitable type of exercise that will help get rid of cramps and improve your mood. Also, do not forget that if you have any doubts, it is best to seek help from a doctor who will choose the best option for stress during the menstrual period.