Training Around Your Menstrual Cycle in London

Cycle syncing means changing the type or intensity of exercise to match the phase of your menstrual cycle. The NHS gives no guidance on programming training by cycle phase, so a strict phase-by-phase plan is not something a trainer can offer as fact. What a trainer can do is simpler and more useful: keep the same programme all month and adjust each session to how you feel on the day.

Adjusting a session to how you feel

Strength programmes already have a tool for this. Rating each set by how many more repetitions you could have done lets the load come down on a heavy, tired or crampy day and go up on a good one, without abandoning the plan. Keeping a note of your cycle alongside the training log shows whether the harder weeks follow a pattern for you, which is more reliable than a general rule.

Training on your period is fine if you feel up to it. For period pain, the NHS suggests trying some gentle exercise like yoga, swimming, walking or cycling, alongside other self-help such as heat. On a heavy or painful day a session can change without a long explanation:

• drop the heaviest sets and keep the movement
• swap high-impact work for cycling, rowing or walking
• lengthen the rests between sets
• stop early if pain builds

When period pain needs a GP

The NHS advises seeing a GP if period pain is stopping you doing your usual daily activities, or if you are losing weight without trying. A trainer should say the same if pain keeps interrupting training, because severe period pain can have a cause that needs treatment.

The NHS lists regular exercise among the things that can help with premenstrual syndrome, and suggests yoga or meditation to reduce stress. In practice, keeping the usual sessions in the diary during the week before a period, with the option to lighten them, helps more than skipping them.

Polycystic ovary syndrome is diagnosed and treated by a GP. Among the things the NHS says can help, it lists exercising regularly. For training, that means the same kind of programme anyone would follow: regular strength training, daily activity and sessions you can keep up. A trainer coaches the training; treatment and anything about medicines or weight management stay with your GP.

Endometriosis is a condition for a GP or specialist, and the NHS says severe period pain that stops you doing your normal activities is a reason to see a GP. If you have been diagnosed, ask your doctor what is right for you, then tell the trainer what they said. Sessions can be planned around painful days and adjusted on the day.

London Female Personal Trainer introduces you to an independent trainer at one of four UNTIL clubs: Canary Wharf, Soho, Marylebone or Liverpool Street. Say in the enquiry form if you would like to train with a woman. Strength training for women sets out the programme itself. Ask to meet a trainer when you are ready; personal training for women explains how the coaching works.