We still keep hearing “Women shouldn’t join the gym, it’s bad for your health”. People still believe that women shouldn’t train heavy or be strong. However, this mentality is slowly changing.

More women are joining gyms and doing workouts. More women are becoming strong and fearless. Women usually don’t grow as big as men even if they workout just as heavy. Many women fear joining gyms or doing workouts because they don’t know about this. Now this is a topic to discuss in detail in the future.

One of the things that women can’t avoid is periods. And most women worry that they cannot, or shouldn’t workout when it’s period o’ clock (excuse my humour).  This is a commonly asked question by women that if they can workout while on their periods or not.

The simple answer is Yes, you can workout while having periods but that differs from women to women. Let me explain.

Some women suffer from severe pain when they are on their period and they need more rest while others might not feel the same pain. If the pain is bearable, you can workout with low intensity and higher reps.

In most cases, women gain some weight when they’re on periods as well and it takes psychological effect and they assume that this is because of not doing workouts, but it’s normal for women to gain some weight in their periods even if they’re doing workouts. Once their period is over, their weight drops back to normal. So you should know that you’re not getting fat because of not working out but it’s a temporary weight gain due to your hormones during periods.

In terms of workout, for a lot of women they might feel difficult to train on the second day of their periods. So, the best way is to rest completely if you cannot do your workouts. It is not necessary to push yourself harder in the gym while having periods. But definitely on those days, I recommend not to train heavy because you’re already going through hard times and you need proper rest and recovery and it wouldn’t be wise to give yourself further stress. Take it as a mini vacation to supercharge your body and mind before you bring out that warrior spirit. You can do squats with just the rod/bar. As we get more towards fitness we forget that doing workouts with only rod/bar without putting weight on it, is also a part of an exercise. 

Another thing is you should not be very strict on your diet. Most women get more cravings while they’re on their periods. Craving is your body’s way of asking you for something which your body needs the most at that moment. So maybe you can have fruits, a piece of cake or chocolate or whatever your body is asking for. You should be giving your body nutritious food, but not over indulge in it. Like seriously ladies, don’t go overboard making it an excuse to binge.

So don’t judge yourself or feel guilty if you cannot workout during your periods. Just make sure you recover well and get back when it’s the most feasible for you.

Happy Periods!