Periods are utterly crap. I mean I know that not having them can sometimes also be a negative and sign of various health issues so having a regular period is actually a positive but still.
I have very regular periods, I track and so can predict when I will come on and when they will end. I know what symptoms I’m likely to get and when. This does not make the current agony I am feeling today any better. Some months always feel a bit more severe and this month I was particularly clumsy in the days running up to my period – words mixed up, talking even less sense than normal and tripping up over my own feet. It’s not like I felt sad or even grumpy but the brain fog was severe. As if that was a prophecy of what was to come the stomach cramps over the last two days have been awful. Painkillers haven’t helped, nor has exercise or staying hydrated.
I started writing this blog with no idea of what the actual point of it would be. Maybe that’s the brain fog, maybe that’s just that the pain today is all I can think about so when I sat down to write it was the only thing I could think about writing about (I was initially going to write about calories today, that can wait until later in the week). Concentrating is hard when you have stomach cramps!
The strange thing about periods is that, despite the fact that the side effects can be really quite extreme at times, we are expected to just carry on with life as normal and, apart from the odd moan, we actually never really discuss how hard it can be to work through the side effects some days, which is ridiculous really when we ae probably dealing with this for a quarter of every year.
Can you train when you’re on your period? of course you can (and actually sometimes it does help ease cramps). Exercise instructors will of course teach during them too. We also go into the office as normal, look after children (well some women anyway) and do everything else we would normally do. When you think about it though that’s because society has trained us to carry on as if the stomach cramps are just slight discomfort, when actually right now I can assure you I’m not uncomfortable I’m in pain!
Like I say- literally no message to this blog today. No tips on how to deal with period pain. Just my observations on how bonkers it is that we get on with this every month with minimal disruption. Actually, maybe that’s the message for today. Women are capable of some scary shit when you think about it.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 