PMS, if you’re a woman, you equate these words with the following headaches around period time : anxiety, crabbiness, bloating, cramps and headaches (literally this time). But what about working out around your period, or the time before that which varies for every woman, that period before your period when you feel like you’re temporarily going insane and want to body slam everyone that looks at you the wrong way?
I’ve found, personally (and yes, if you haven’t guessed it yet, I’m a woman), that working out around the time I know I’m getting PMS, which for me is around two weeks to one week before my period, depending on the month I guess, immensely helps me with the pre-period jitters, anxiety and ensuing grouchiness that comes along with this lovely time of the month we’re all blessed with.
Not only that, I tend to retain a lot more water, which accounts for anywhere from a one to three pound water weight gain around my period, and working out, sweating and getting my blood pumping really seems to ease the water weight gain, as well as help work any cramping out that may occur along with my period.
Water weight gain basically happens because of the shift in the hormones during this time, and if you like to eat a lot of salty foods, you may want to be extra cautious about eating too many salty foods around PMS time, because you will just be all that much more prone to putting on a few extra ounces or pounds at least of pure, unadulterated water weight. This is usually enough to make that favorite pair of jeans of yours not fit and just make you more upset when all you really need is pleasing, fitting clothes.
Working out not only may help prevent all that water weight gain, but it also may help to elevate your mood since exercise helps our bodies to release endorphins, and this reverses and even quells the feelings of anxiety and crankiness we inevitably get around this time.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 6:49 am and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.