Want to Try Syncing Your Workouts to Your Menstrual Cycle? Here's Where to Start

If you’ve been tracking your period for years, you can likely predict how you’ll feel each week of the month. Everything about your body chemistry, mood, and energy levels fluctuates depending on what phase of your monthly cycle, from menstruation to ovulation. So it makes sense to try to sync our daily habits and workouts to our ever-rotating hormonal cycles as best we can.

Like your period cycle, your exercise routine should shift, too, based on how you feel physically and mentally throughout the month. This may seem obvious, but for fitness fiends who rarely miss a workout, it can be tricky to allow yourself rest when rest is best, or to skip a HIIT class in favor of a low-impact yoga flow. However, if you pay attention to what your body needs at various points in the month, you can meet your fitness goals while feeling better during each activity—and every cycle phase.

This mindful workout and lifestyle method, called the Cycle Syncing Method, could change how you workout forever. Here’s how it works.

What Is Cycle Syncing? 

After discovering the infradian rhythm and its impact on women's systems, Alisa Vitti, HHC, developed the Cycle Syncing Method.

“Much like the circadian rhythm needs specific support, our infradian rhythm needs to be supported for it to perform optimally,” Vitti says. She found that much of the ritual advice women are advised to follow—e.g. consume the same amount of calories, get up at the same time each morning, and exercise daily—isn’t based on research conducted on females.

“This advice is actually based on research done on men that actively excluded women and fundamentally disrupts this infradian rhythm, causing all sorts of hormone issues that affect a woman's cycle, immune response, stress response, and brain and metabolic health,” she explains.

To provide a healthier solution tailored toward people with periods, Vitti created The Cycle Syncing Method that syncs food type and caloric intake, workout type and intensity, to each of the four phases of your cycle (menstruation, follicular, ovulation, luteal). “Not only does this support hormonal health in each phase and reduce cycle symptoms, but this method can also reduce stress, boost energy, and live with your unique, feminine, dynamic energy at the center of your life.”

How Does Cycle Syncing Work? 

The fundamental ideology behind Cycle Syncing is changing your routine and fitness choices depending on what phase of your cycle you’re currently experiencing. As Vitti explains, this is because exercise dramatically affects hormone levels.

“Depending on the intensity, fitness can reduce circulating cortisol levels during or after; decrease circulating estrogen levels; and boost endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine, testosterone and human growth hormone,” she explains. “Exercise also profoundly affects thyroid hormone and helps manage insulin resistance."

The Benefits of Cycle Syncing

If the concept of Cycle Syncing sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. Over the past few years, the idea of tailoring lifestyle habits and activities to align with the natural rhythms of your body has become a large and growing part of the health and wellness conversation. Many women have grown interested in this approach to daily living, fitness, and nutrition.

“I think that it’s resonating with women on a profound level because it's the first and only method that puts their biology at the center of the plan and validates how they’ve been feeling inside their bodies throughout their cycle,” Vittis says. “I think it's a relief to finally be given the information on how your cycle phases work and what to do to care for yourself as you change throughout the month properly. This starkly contrasts with every other plan that has been researched on men and has left women out, but told them to do those plans/programs anyway and hope for the best.”

When you learn to tap into what’s happening in your body and adapt your lifestyle accordingly, Vitti says there are multiple potential benefits many people experience, including:

• Maintaining more stable blood sugar levels
• Reducing stress levels
• Boosting estrogen elimination
• Improving bowel movements and gut health
• Maintaining clearer skin
• Lowering the intensity of PMS symptoms
• Promoting cycle regularity
• Experiencing better moods
• Improving sleep
• Increasing sex drive
• Improving metabolic health
• Boosting productivity and mental clarity 

It’s important to note that women will only see these improvements if they are not using hormonal birth control, which by design alters your natural cycle.

“Unfortunately, you don't have any cycle phases when you are on that medication,” Vitti says. “You’re in a sort of menopausal state with low levels of all hormones, no ovulation, occasional breakthrough bleeding that is not a real period, and no phase changes.”

Workouts That Sync With Your Menstrual Cycle

If you want to try syncing your exercise to your cycle phases, you can start any time (and in any phase). Here’s how to see if this method makes a difference in your exercise routine, mood, and other parts of your life. 

To follow the Cycle Syncing method, here are the general type of workouts you should aim for in each stage (day ranges are based on an average 28- to 31-day cycle, though cycle lengths do vary by individual):

Menstruation Phase (Days 0 to 7)

Try walking and flexibility training for this week. A few workouts to try:

• 10 Stretches for a Daily Flexibility Workout
• Walking Treadmill Workout
• Stairs Workout
• Quick Full-Body Stretching Routine
  

Follicular Phase (Around Days 8 to 13)

During the follicular phase, cardio and strength training should be front and center in your workout routine. A few workouts to try:

• Resistance Band Workout
• EMOM Workouts
• 15-Minute Jump Rope Exercise Routine
  

Ovulation Phase (Around Days 14 to 17)

You can kick things up a notch during the ovulation phase, with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts.

• 5-Minute Tabata Workout

Luteal Phase (Day 17 to 28-31)

For this part of the menstrual cycle, it's back to basics with strength training and walking workouts on tap to help you build muscle.

• Exercises to Strengthen Your Ab Muscles
• Mat Pilates for Core Strength
• 3 Glute-Strengthening Exercises
• Basic Weight Lifting Exercises
  

Cycle Syncing Workout Tips

Switch up your workout and your eating patterns based on which phase you’re in.

During the follicular and ovulatory phases, metabolism tends to be slower and resting cortisol is lower, therefore you may need fewer calories, Vitti explains. This makes super-sweaty, high-intensity cardio sessions more beneficial since they help burn stored fat as fuel. 

However, Vitti says that studies show that because metabolism speeds up and resting cortisol is higher during the luteal phase, you should consume more calories per day (roughly 250) and prioritize strength training to use fat as fuel. Higher-intensity cardio during the luteal phase will turn on fat storage and turn on muscle wasting. “You can build lean muscle and keep blood sugar stable, which will help you eliminate PMS during this phase and optimize your workout.” 

Listen to your body.

In addition to scheduling workouts based on your cycle, another important way to get your activity levels in tune with your hormonal shifts is to track how you feel each day. One easy ritual to adopt is doing a body check when you wake up in the morning and before bed at night, suggests Navya Mysore, MD.

“Take stock first thing in the morning to see how you feel to decide if you want to work out as planned. I often suggest a light stretch or a short meditation in the morning to help understand what your body needs for the day,” she says. “Similarly, take stock of how you feel at the end of the night and, if need be, power down an hour before you usually do to get the much-needed rest your body needs to recharge."

On the heaviest flow days, hydrate. 

When your period arrives, you may feel exhausted and bloated. This regular occurrence for many women could be related to the decline in progesterone levels, explains Rachel B. Danis, MD, MS, board-certified OB/GYN. While she says from a medical perspective your period shouldn’t limit your physical activity, it could be healthier (or at least helpful and more pleasant) to take it easy when your flow is at its absolute heaviest. “I’d recommend hydrating extra during this time to enhance circulation in your body and decrease the risk of feeling lightheaded with the heavier menstrual bleeding,” she says. 

Apply the 10-minute rule.

There will be days when you simply don’t feel up for exercise. Sometimes it has to do with how you’re feeling physically, and sometimes this is more of a motivational issue (we’ve all been there). One helpful way to tell if you truly should or shouldn’t push through whatever workout you’ve planned for that day? Apply the 10-minute rule: Show up, but check in with yourself after 10 minutes. Dr. Mysore says if you’re really not feeling good after ten minutes of working out, that’s usually a sign that you need to lower the intensity, stop and take a rest day, or switch to something more low impact.