On average, people who menstruate will experience 40 years of periods throughout their lives. That’s 40 years of potential symptoms that might interfere with your plans day to day. In recent years, as fitness trackers and wearables have made it easier to track your menstrual cycle, it’s become much easier to avoid high-stress situations or physical exertion on the days you know you’ll be dealing with cramps, fatigue and low energy.
Women are also leading the charge when it comes to biohacking, identifying and treating hormonal symptoms and attempting to heal from autoimmune conditions and illnesses with unique protocols comprising supplements, red light therapy, somatic movement and ice baths.
Cycle syncing – that is, matching your cycle to your daily activity – has skyrocketed in popularity and it’s not surprising, considering 90 per cent of women suffer from premenstrual symptoms and 43 per cent report that periods disrupt their regular eating and sleeping patterns, according to recent studies.
Bella Hadid recently opened up about her experiences with endometriosis, describing how she’d have to show up to work in intense pain and push through her symptoms. She told British Vogue, “you’re shooting Victoria’s Secret on your period, with endo. That should be illegal. I’m going to talk to the White House about it, because we should literally ban women working on the week of their period. And the week before, to be honest.”
But, says integrative strength and conditioning coach and cycle syncing specialist Seema Chopra altering one’s lifestyle to suit hormonal shifts, “isn’t about locking women in a room or isolating them from the world. It’s about recognising the powerful choreography of our hormones and using this awareness to manage stress, optimise recovery, and reduce burnout. It’s not a restriction – it’s an opportunity to work with your body, not against it.”
“Women today are more overworked and stressed than ever, and cycle syncing offers a way to restore balance and self-compassion, rather than pushing through at the same intensity all the time. It’s not a step back – it’s a smart, intuitive approach to performance and wellbeing, physical, mental and financial,” she adds.
Particular stages of your cycle can affect your energy, sleep, appetite and mood and these impacts can be exacerbated by hormonal irregularities and conditions like PCOS, PMDD, endometriosis and adenomyosis. For some, certain days of the month can be challenging and for others, these days can be totally debilitating.
“The experiences women have long discussed in private, or endured in isolation, are finally recognised as legitimate medical concerns. With this comes long-overdue validation and support.” says says women’s health coach Charlotte Crisp.
“Talking about periods is becoming mainstream, even cool. But the historical lack of research has serious consequences: misinformation, pseudoscience, and new forms of control over women’s bodies. As women’s health academic Dr Stacy Sims says, women are not just smaller men – we need proper representation in medical research to ensure we’re guided by evidence-based insights, not fleeting wellness trends,” she adds.
Though research into menstrual health and women’s hormones is still scant, cycle syncing presents a way to respond to the changes your body goes through each month, gain a better understanding of your hormones and balance your lifestyle with your needs.
We turned to experts to find out how to match high stress activities, exercise, rest and recovery to different phases of your cycle, how to track and how to take advantage of fluctuations in hormone levels, instead of suffering through them.
What is cycle syncing?
As you move through the various stages of your cycle each month, your symptoms are likely to change. For some people, this is barely noticeable, but for others, hormonal symptoms can be severe. Knowing where you are in your cycle and what your hormones are doing can give you an indication of whether you should slow down, what kind of lifestyle changes to make and what you might be capable of doing from one day to the next.
“The best way to work with your body is to track and understand your own experiences. Once you recognise how your body fluctuates throughout its hormonal cycle, you can harness that information to align your lifestyle accordingly.” says Crisp. “That said, no two women are the same. Not everyone has a 28-day cycle, and there’s a huge spectrum of experiences within each phase, which is why women need personalised solutions.”
For athletes and those who train hard and compete in their sport, period symptoms can impact performance and recovery dramatically, so cycle syncing can be a crucial tool for training and understanding when to push and when to rest.
“When it comes to training, working with the four phases of your menstrual cycle can see benefits such as increased energy, reduced risk of injury and a decrease in PMS symptoms. Syncing allows you to move with your hormones, rather than against them,” explains Kirby Akindeinde, a 1Rebel trainer and menstrual cycle syncing coach.
Along with exercise, matching your sleep schedule and diet to your cycle stage could also lessen the effects of your symptoms and enable you to ride the wave, making the most of peaks and troughs in your energy levels.
Read more: The best period pants that won’t cramp your style, tried and tested
What are the benefits of cycle syncing?
Choosing to place your workouts, important meetings or rest days at the stages in your cycle where you feel most energised or in need of a break can make an impact on your resilience, enthusiasm for the task in hand and how well you recover.
“Cycle syncing in the workplace can improve energy management, communication, and stress reduction. But this only works if women have the awareness and support they need. If colleagues, including men, understand that hormonal shifts can affect focus, energy, and emotional state, it can foster a more supportive and empathetic work environment,” says Chopra.
She adds: “it’s also about managing expectations. You might not always be able to adjust deadlines, but you can plan less intensive tasks around the times you know you struggle. It’s about making small, strategic adjustments that add up to better overall performance and wellbeing.”
“We already optimise our daily routines – what we eat, how we sleep and when we work – to maximise health, wellness, happiness, and performance. But for women, there’s an additional hormone cycle at play, it disrupts consistency, clarity and control, often making lives feel chaotic.” says Crisp. “By syncing with these shifts, we gain control over what often feels unpredictable, especially at that time of the month. We can make informed choices, advocate for ourselves, and adjust (not cancel) our plans to work with our bodies rather than against them.”
“This isn’t about overhauling our lives or taking a week off work, work pays our bills. Neglect of a woman’s hormonal cycle hurts multiple facets of our lives, careers and relationships whether we recognise it or not. Cycle syncing or ‘periodising’ is the personalised recognition of how you feel and why, and it prevents pain being normalised or considered ‘ just a part of being a woman.’” she adds.
Can you cycle sync if your period is irregular?
Every person’s body is different and if you experience irregular periods you may find it more difficult to track your cycle. Whatever the reason for this, it’s still worth logging your symptoms and energy levels day to day to see if you can identify patterns.
“If you don’t have symptoms, then you might not need to cycle sync. But hormones still impact our energy levels, sleep, and recovery, even if you’re not consciously aware of it,” explains Chopra. “Perhaps you haven’t tracked your cycle before or you don’t feel the need to, but that doesn’t mean the connection isn’t there.”
“Cycle syncing is still possible without a natural cycle. Women on the coil or birth control pills (monophasic, biphasic, triphasic) can still track their energy and mood. These pills affect hormone levels differently, but cyclical awareness can still be beneficial. Even male athletes use periodised training to optimise performance, proving that this approach isn’t limited to those with a menstrual cycle. But this isn’t just about tracking days – it’s about understanding your body’s signals, whether that’s energy levels, mood shifts, or physical changes. You can still tune into your own unique rhythms, even if they don’t follow a textbook cycle.” she explains.
“I know a lot of women say they don’t track their period because it’s not regular. I believe period apps have associated tracking with period arrival, suggesting it is the only part of the menstrual cycle to track, but there is more to it,” agrees Crisp.
“The menstrual cycle goes further than pregnancy; it is a byproduct of our health, and irregularities are a red flag that don’t simply point to the chances of infertility but also short-term and chronic health issues. It’s important to consult a doctor if cycles are irregular, but in the meantime, lifestyle changes can help support menstrual health and alleviate disruptive symptoms.”
Read more: The best collagen supplements to take, recommended by experts and editors
How to sync your workout to your period
There are four phases in the menstrual cycle and each one will affect how you feel when you work out. If you can identify each phase, perhaps by counting the days of your cycle or using a wearable tracker that can make predictions for you, you’ll be able to lean in when you feel stronger and prioritise rest when it’s most needed.
“Syncing can feel a little overwhelming, but once you get into the flow of it you’ll begin to feel more in tune with your body and the type of exercise it needs,” explains Akindeinde. “There’s no need to stress if you have a competition or fitness event during your luteal or menstrual phases. Cycle syncing is a great way to get the most out of training and best prepare your body but you can still perform during these phases.”
Menstrual phase: Days 1-5
During the menstrual phase, your oestrogen and progesterone will be at their lowest levels. This will likely result in a lack of energy and you might feel less motivated to work out and more keen for rest.
Akindeinde explains that “your menstrual phase is where you want to prioritise rest and lower intensity movement. Walking, slow flows and flexibility work are great options for this phase. Don’t be afraid to dial back during menstruation – it’s beneficial to do so.”
However, as she explains, if you still want to train hard during this phase, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so. Just use the knowledge you have about your hormone levels to look out for yourself, perhaps by boosting recovery with magnesium supplements, fuelling up with extra calories and sleeping for an extra hour or two.
Follicular phase: Days 1-13
Parkin explains that during the follicular phase, “your follicle-stimulating hormone stimulates your ovaries to encourage follicles to grow and produce oestrogen in preparation for ovulation. Your oestrogen levels are high in the lead-up to ovulation but start to drop around ovulation. Your body may have greater energy and a boost in creativity so use this to fuel motivation.”
She also notes that the menstrual and follicular stages run in tandem with each other so you may notice a shift in energy at a different time to someone else in the same phase. All bodies are different and how tired or energised you feel will also depend on how hard you’ve been training, how much sleep you’ve had and whether you’ve been prioritising recovery. For some, it’s normal to feel a burst of energy and experience a clearer mind and more focus, especially if you’ve been taking good care of yourself during the menstrual phase and eating well. For others, the shift is slower and less discernible.
During the follicular phase, Akindeinde recommends taking advantage of rising energy levels and boosting your metabolism with cardio workouts. “Think running, dancing or a 1Rebel Ride class. Get that heart rate up and get your sweat on!” she says.
Ovulation Day 14 – (marking the end of the follicular phase and the start of the luteal phase)
During ovulation, your luteinising hormone rises triggering the release of an egg. At this time, your body will be gearing up and providing you with more power so this is a great time to hit the gym if you’ve been putting it off.
“As you move into your ovulatory phase, you want to dig into your heavier strength sessions. Weight training, boxing and HIIT are perfect during ovulation, as it’s a great time to build lean muscle efficiently. It’s also an ideal phase to hit personal bests- perhaps your fastest running time or lifting heavier weights,” says Akindeinde
For this reason, it’s also crucial to make sure you’re eating plenty of protein and staying hydrated during ovulation. You’ll have more energy so make sure you’re fuelling your body properly if you’re going to push harder during this ideal training window.
“Around the time of ovulation, you’re more likely to feel an increase in confidence, communication and libido. Use this time to focus on accomplishing your goals and ensure you eat well and socialise,” says Parkin.
Luteal phase: Days 15-28
Energy is still high for the first few days of your luteal phase, therefore you can continue with your ovulatory workouts. “However,” explains Akindeinde, “as you move further into this phase it’s beneficial to shift your focus to lower intensity exercise such as pilates, yoga and swimming.”
If you’ve been trying to get pregnant, this is also the phase where you’ll be able to make decisions about how you train over the coming months. You might be considering staying fit during pregnancy, or if you’re not trying to conceive, you could be thinking about how you’ll arrange your training sessions and how you plan to support your body through the next phase of your cycle.
Parkin explains that during the luteal phase, “your body will decrease the production of oestrogen with progesterone rising then falling when a pregnancy isn’t detected. Make sure at this phase you’re going easy on yourself and don’t be self-critical. Hunker down and draw on rituals that bring peace and internal stillness. So read, meditate and chill.”
Once you’re able to track which stage of your cycle you’re in, syncing should be easier and you’ll probably find that your intuition matches what your cycle diary or tracker is telling you. At particular stages of the menstrual cycle, we’re more likely to feel pain more acutely, feel stronger and feel more tired or hungrier so once you know how to match those symptoms to your calendar, you’ll be able to work out and recover more effectively in a way that supports your body and doesn’t leave you feeling depleted.
How to track your cycle
Many people choose to use specialist period tracking apps or fitness trackers to log and observe changes throughout their cycle. A specialist app, if you’re comfortable using one, offers symptom trackers, fertility insights and other features tailored to supporting you through each phase. Wearables like the Whoop band or Oura ring also track metrics like fluctuations in body temperature and prompt you to log symptoms like cramps and headaches so the algorithm can then predict which day of your cycle you’re on.
Other people choose to log symptoms in their notes app or with a pen and paper – it really is up to you how you track. It’s the tracking itself that can make a difference to how easy it is to cycle sync and how quickly you can learn to pre-empt symptoms and work with your hormones each month.
“Keeping track of your cycle insights and making adjustments to your day-to-day based on these is what I call periodising your life,” says Crisp, who created a period tracking calendar called the Periodisation Planner.
“Periodising your life starts with symptom tracking across at least three menstrual cycles to understand how your mental and physical insights change across the fluctuations of your cycle. You compare these insights to find trends and make lifestyle alterations that benefit you long-term and improve your short-term consciousness.” she says.
“The key is remembering that making hard decisions now leads to an easier life later. Short-term sacrifices like adjusting your routine pay off long-term. Tracking symptoms helps you manage pain, fatigue, focus, dieting and performance and can ease the transition into perimenopause and menopause.”
Chopra adds that in each phase, supporting your body means adjusting nutrition, movement and recovery. “But it’s not about following a rigid plan – it’s about understanding your unique needs and adapting as necessary. Burnout is real, but it’s avoidable if you learn to work with, not against, your body.”
Read more: Rage and autoimmune disease: is there a link between suppressed anger and the women’s health crisis?
