Exercising during a period - I need advice

So when I get my periods, my stomach gets really queasy and crampy. I'm also prone to headaches.

I've been doing about 20 minutes of cardio/weightlifting every morning. I really want to keep this up over my period, as you can imagine. But its really difficult to keep up particularly the stomach/hip exercises during that time because my tummy is so sensitive.

 Does anyone have any advice about how to overcome this?

(btw, I'm 22, 5'1" and 206 lbs [206 and shrinking!])

 

Did you know that working out/physical activity actually helps decrease the severity of PMS symptoms! If you continue working out while your PMS strikes & take a calcium supplement you will probably feel a bit better than you with out those two things! 

So don't stop - Keep it up! 

Exactly what giasbash6260 said!

My mom told me to do sit ups/crunches when I got my period through high school.  I never tried it until college...and lo and behold...it's the only thing I swear by to get rid of my cramps.

I'm still a little bloated and I do get a little cranky here and there, but I find my periods are lighter and less painful if I continue to work out through ttom. 

Exercise can totally help--sometimes.  I've had to be on prescribed drugs over my period symptoms for years they are so bad--and this is after I've tried everything else I could.  I know I just can't do anything heavy the first day or two without some serious side effects (vomiting/heavy dizzy spells), so instead I'll either just give myself a day off or try and walk easy a bit!  Walking always helps for me.

Depending on your symptoms, though, the exercise can help.  It's more about what feels good and right for YOUR body, so don't hurt yourself! 

I'm going to agree with the other ladies here. Keep up your exercising, but be good to yourself.

If your hip exercises hurt while you're on your period, skip them for the first couple of days and pay extra attention to another part of your body instead. You won't have made yourself overly uncomfortable, and you won't have skipped your exercises, either. Good all around.

Also, I'd suggest an iron supplement, if you're going down that road. You're going to be a bit low on iron because of the time of month. I find that if I don't get extra iron a few days before my time, I get a lot more tired and complainy, and it's hard to care about doing my exercises. Some extra spinach & beans or a little pill can give me just the boost I need to stick with it.

I have horrible cramps during my period (I'm on prescription medicine) but exercising before hand usually helps it out. Also, if you take a pain killer a few days before your period comes, that should help out the cramps

I should also mention that I've heard (although never had a chance to try it myself) that having sex while you're feeling crampy can make the cramps go away. I don't know how that would work, really, and I don't know if feeling crampy is the best way to feel like having sex, but I've heard some ladies swear by it. So, there's that. Sex burns lots of calories. :)

I have the same problem, heavy very painful periods. I have to take 800 mg ibuprofen for my pain. I will say that since I've been excercising regularly my periods are less painful, but sometimes I cannot excercise. I'm weak and irritable and in pain. This week was one of those weeks that I just could not go to the gym due to my period. I am going to try to go today but sometimes when I workout while on my period, it brings on some strong pain afterwards. That happened to me last month.

thanks for all the advice :)

u guys are great!  

I'm so mad. I haven't been able to exercise all week due to this stupid period of mine!! Plus with VDay yesterday I didn't want to go to the gym because I wanted to spend the time with my honey and I'm glad I did. Now I probably won't be able to go to the gym until Monday. I'm not going to get a trophy on my polar F11 watch for this week now. :( This sucks!!