Exercising with the Flow

What if... Your Workout Plan is Built in to Your Biology?

In today’s post I’ll cover:

• What is cycle syncing

• The issue with one-siz-fits-all workout plan

• Wholistic approach

• Phasic approach

• When is the best time to start?

• Exercise for Every Phase

• How to Workout with Your Flow

Photo by Elena Kloppenburg on Unsplash

“Cycle Syncing” is a term coined by author Alisa Vitti. It means planning and living with the flow of your 4 phases in your menstrual month. As I’ve discussed in previous posts, the 4 unique phases are influenced by rising and falling hormones which cause changes biologically on every energy level, physical, mental, social, sexual and emotional.

Cycle syncing is gaining traction around the world. In fact several women’s professional soccer teams use cycle syncing, including Australia and the U.S., to train their athletes.

If you research studies done on effective work-out plans you will quickly come up with many many studies. That’s great if you are a male. Not so great if you are a female. The studies that have been done using men as test subjects have been applied to women to replicate.

The issue with a one size fits all workout plan

…sex-bias in sport and exercise science research, finding that during 2014–2020 in 6 major sports science journals, two-thirds of participants overall across studies were male only 6% of studies exclusively assessing females…

…recognizing the historical and discriminatory exclusion of women in human research (Tri-Council Policy Statement, …

…males are seen as the “standard” research subject and the female body is seen as more complex with considerations regarding the menstrual cycle,…2018).2021)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8990239/#:~:text=examined%20sex%2Dbias%20in%20sport,et%20al.%2C%202021).

This, ladies and gentlemen. This is the issue with a one size fits all workout plan for women. The research has mostly been done on male subjects for decades. So, because we have menstrual cycles, we are out of the equation and not worth scientific study? Dare I say, Lazy Science?!

Scientific studies are just beginning to scratch the surface for women. After a little digging I did find that currently there is a new study trial beginning in Sweden and they are actively looking for research participants to assess “comparing follicular phase-based and luteal phase-based training”¹.

---

There is no doubt exercise helps our bodies. Resilience is crucial for survival and to get resilience we have to put our bodies to the test. But doing the same workout day in a day out is proving for many of us, not the end-all answer. Many women struggle with their weight, painful joints, sports injuries and with not being able to stick to any one program.

Maybe we aren’t designed for one program (designed for men).

• Do you struggle to keep weight off?

• Do you find it hard to get into a workout routine?

• Do you currently workout but feel like you are a square peg in a round hole?

• Do you try to workout exactly the same every week?

Wholistic Approach

Exercise is crucial to overall health beyond muscles and bones.

Some Exercise benefits:

• causes stress in a positive way and reduces the negative types of stress.

• brings mental clarity

• reduces emotional stress

• regulates mood with endorphins and serotonin

• increases Nitric Oxide which has cardiovascular health benefits²

• helps eliminate excess estrogen (estrogen dominance) and reduces breast cancer risk³

Okay, sure. Got it. Exercise is great, but why isn’t it working?

One possible answer is: hormone fluctuations throughout the cycle.

If we are day in and day out of every week doing the same exercises or randomly picking exercises off you tube hoping it will do the trick, it might, but it might not. Is there a better way?

Phasic Approach

First, we need to look at what our phases are doing. This applies to all women who have full menstrual cycles. Hormonal birth control that prevents ovulation will not allow for the hormonal fluctuations, so basically, there are no phases. More info on birth control in a previous post here.

• Spring: Follicular phase: Day 6ish-Day 13ish

  Estrogen is on the rise along with natural physical energy, emotional energy, social energy, sexual energy and mental energy! Yay for Spring!

• Summer: Ovulatory phase: Day 13ish-Day20ish

  Estrogen, Follicular stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone rise and fall together sharply. At the same time progesterone is slowy increasing. This burst of all of these hormones gives a feel good and lets-do-it kinda energy.

• Fall: Luteal phase: Day 21ish-Day 28ish

  Fallen estrogen begins to rise at a lower level. This phase is naturally dominated by progesterone. Mid Fall estrogen begins to diminish followed by progesterone to signal the shedding of the uterine lining if no conception has taken place. The 1st half of this phase can have decent energy and or energy peaks and valleys.

• Winter: Menstrual phase: Day 1-Day6ish

  All hormones drop off followed by the 1st day of bleeding. All energies are at their lowest level. Around Day 3 estrogen wakes back up and begins a slow steady climb towards Spring. Rest is essential.

So now that we know what our phases are doing, how do we support each phase and stay active?

Enter cycle syncing!

When is the best time to start cycle syncing?

Spring phase is by far the best phase to begin anything new. This is because Spring has estrogen and testosterone on the rise bringing energy to set new goals, plan and get started.

Exercises for Every Phase

Spring: Day 6-13

Begin to push yourself. Cardio! Brisk walking is great for clearing the mental energy that is surging. The rest of the week, think cardio like jogging, biking, swimming, elliptical, stairclimber, row machine, dancing and rollerskating (my favorites). Push yourself to breathe hard and sweat. Word of caution: watch out for overworking the knees, like dead lifts and deep squats. One study indicates that late Spring (Follicular) had an increase in incidents of ACL injuries in women soccer athletes⁴. More studies need to be done on injuries in various phases.

Summer: Day 13-Day20

Cardio and weights! Your pain threshold is naturally higher during the ovulation phase. Use this to work for you! Mix it up week. This phase has a collaborative effort feel and we may want to find a workout buddy or sign up for a class. Think: HIIT, tennis, pickleball, dance aerobics, spin class, run with a partner, kettle-balls, squats, pull-ups. This is the week to really enjoy whatever floats your boat.

Fall: Day 20-Day 28ish

Weights and endurance. Continue your weight routine. You may notice mid-fall that your energy levels lessen. This is normal. Progesterone peaks around Day 21-Day 24 and causes more need for rest and sleep. Also cortisol and inflammation is higher in this phase⁵. Doing intense workouts can make cortisol out of balance so stick to low intensity weights and low and slow endurance like long hikes, swimming or long flat bike rides. Keeping the heart rate lower while you workout, reduces cortisol spikes⁶. Stretching, epsom salt baths and sauna can help reduce inflammation. Also sweating helps eliminate excess estrogen. By the end of this phase I tend to stick to walking a couple miles a day.

Winter: Day 1-Day 6ish

Day 1 Rest. Light stretching and walking are enough just to keep the blood moving, but rest is the most important here. Day 3, you might get a small surge of energy. I think of it like a false spring. If I do too much this day, it can cause added fatigue for the rest of the phase. Go low and slow. Walking and stretching and low-impact based exercises are best⁷. By Day 6 you may feel ready to speed walk or jog!

*Another side note: some women feel a surge of energy during their Winter phase and if this is you, go for it. Every woman experiences her Winter differently. If you have PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids or other conditions that are intense during Winter phase remember to rest and really take care of yourself. Pushing when it’s time to rest will only make Spring phase harder.

---

I have adjusted my workout routine to go cyclically with my flow and I have to say that I am sticking to regularly working out. It’s easy to see how thinking we should workout like men and hit the gym with leg day, cardio, upper body, core with the same intensity every week and it will benefit us just like them. Our hormonal rythym dictates something different. We may start out strong, but in the long run it might explain why we can fizzle out or worse, get injuries. If we take a 28ish day infradian rythym approach we might find we actually stick to moving our bodies in tune with our biological make-up and enjoy the ebb and flow of each week.

*If you are unsure of where to start, seek a medical professional for advice and a personal trainer to help you find the workout level that is right for you.

How to Workout with Your Flow

Look at your calendar month based on your cycle. Add in workout days that go with your cycle phase.

Try to track your cycle each day and exercise at your own level. After a month or two look back and find what works and what doesn’t and tailor your own workouts to best fit you!

Let me know it the comments:

• If you are tracking your cycle do you also cycle sync your workouts?

• What are the biggest hurdles for you when it comes to exercise?

• When is your favorite phase to exercise?

• Have you noticed that your body responds better in some weeks than others?

1. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-024-07921-4

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4382985/

3. “We found that in healthy premenopausal women, an exercise regimen of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise per week for 16 weeks resulted in significant changes in estrogen metabolism in a direction consistent with reduction of breast cancer risk.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648856/#:~:text=We%20found%20that%20in%20healthy,reduction%20of%20breast%20cancer%20risk.

4. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2021.616999/full

5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167876017302696#:~:text=Despite%20there%20being%20no%20major,found%20by%20Walder%20et%20al.

6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18787373/

7. https://flo.health/menstrual-cycle/lifestyle/fitness-and-exercise/exercising-during-period