Fitness
Cycle syncing: how tracking your period can help you exercise better
Excuses for avoiding exercise aren’t hard to come by. You’ve had a long day; it looks like rain. “Being on my period” might be on that list — but not for much longer. Research is challenging the narrative that fitness and menstruation aren’t compatible.
Instead, according to a new University College London study, women’s reactions and mental agility can improve during their periods. Scientists concluded that “though participants reported feeling worse during menstruation and perceived that this negatively impacted their performance, their reaction times were faster and they made fewer errors”.
This is why “cycle syncing” — tracking the menstrual cycle to dictate how you exercise — could be key to shaping how women approach sport.
As with much related to women’s health, there hasn’t