C'mon, who REALLY feels like exercising when they have their period?

[Careersytype]

Not really a TAAT but...

After looking at the #thisgirlcan ad with the tampon string hanging out.... how many people feel like exercising when they have their period? Not when its tailing off, but when it's full flow. I don't- I just want to sit around in loose, warm clothes and drink tea.
YABU= I totally feel like exercising during my period
YANBU= Nope, don't feel like exercising

All my fastest running times have come about on days 2 or 3 of my period.

I find that my performance isn't always as good (i.e. I'm not going to run my fastest 5k or I'll not manage as many reps before tiring) but generally I find exercising makes my periods a lot easier than they were before I started regularly exercising.

I am able to lift heavier and run faster on my period. The opposite happens the week before. I get PMT and have absolutely no energy then.

I'm surprised to hear that people change their usual routine so much. I get bad pains for the first 24 hours but I still go to work so I'm blowed if I'm going to stop doing the things I enjoy.

🙄

Exactly ChickLitLover.

My experience of period pain is the biggest easing of it occurred after childbirth and lasted a few years!. I don't expect for a minute others' experience to be the same.

My friend who ended up going private in her 20s for unbearable pain was slim and relatively fit.

I was on end of November - start of February thanks to my implant. Was lifting heavy shit 4 times a week the entire time apart from the week of Christmas 🤷🏼‍♀️

It’s never made a difference to me sports wise - though might avoid swimming when at heaviest but swimming was never really my thing

I don't feel like it at all. I do suffer massively. However the exception to this is if I'm active eg a sport / swimming etc when it starts then that helps.

No absolutely not I’m currently hoovering up toffee fudge cake and hoping my cramps stop soon

Periods have never really affected my life.

I don't feel like it (but echo PPS saying they never feel like it period or not!) but it does have a huge positive effect on cramps and energy. Worth forcing yourself if you can.

Hmm. I don't really do exercise as a thing... though I'm quite active. During my period I would do yoga. But can totally understand wanting to curl up and do nothing. It's what I do when pains are bad some months.

Interested to hear how much better people feel from exercising during a period. Maybe I ought to ignore my curl up urges!

It depends. I'm lucky enough not to have heavy periods, but some things, like running, feel harder and I will use a lighter weight. Gentle exercise like yoga is great though, as is walking.

I don't do anything differently when I have my period, apart from the fact that I wear a new tampon when running or doing Pilates/yoga.

I find it's really too easy to find excuses not to exercise (a hangover, for example) - for the most part I ignore them and feel happy that I did afterwards.

@ChickLitLover a fellow endometriosis sufferer here. I spent 10 years being fobbed off and told things like “exercise will help your cramps”.
Only got diagnosed when I had an appendicitis and my abdomen was full of blood! I can barely walk some days when I have my period and vomit regularly - so some exercise is definitely not going to help.

Sunshinelollipops1

Sorry you got fobbed off for so long. I’ve heard the same story from so many women, years of being dismissed. I suppose I was quite ‘lucky’ in that my periods went from a bit of an inconvenience to completely unbearable very quickly. This made me know that something really wasn’t right. I was also fortunate to have private healthcare which meant I was seen very quickly and diagnosed in quite a short amount of time.

I can identify with hardly being able to walk at times and I am also sick some months. It really is awful. I hope you’re doing ok.

Since having DCs, my periods are much lighter with considerably less pain. On a "bad" month now, I may need ibuprofen, a far cry from my youth when prescription pain relief barely touched it on day 1 (not helped by a totally irregular "cycle" so I couldn't anticipate it and get it into my system ìn advance) and I could end up writhing on the floor, not matter how grim. I was sent home from school/ work on a number of occasions because I could not function. I would take DS2's back to back labour over some particular periods as I had the benefit of G&A, and didn't have to do anything other than kneeling over a big ball, plus it was only 10 hours and I never had to do it again

These days I can still do things like going for a run, depending on how I feel I may modify my pace/ route and now I can actually predict to within a couple of days when I'm due (which is frankly revolutionary compared to the bad old days), I can plan to save more demanding runs for when I'll have more energy.

When women say that they can't function normally through periods, they mean it. The range of experience is very diverse. Equally I'm happy for women to be empowered that activities such as swimming are still viable if they wish.