Cycle Syncing Workouts: Exactly What I Do in Each Phase (Mum-Friendly Guide, 2026)

I wrote about cycle syncing for busy mums a few months back and it is the most popular post on the entire site. Apparently I am not the only woman who has spent years feeling baffled by the fact that workouts that felt easy two weeks ago now feel impossible, or vice versa. The post resonated. So this is the follow-up that lots of you asked for, which is what I actually do for exercise in each phase of my cycle.

I am 38, I have two kids, I am perimenopausal, and I do not have time to go to the gym four times a week. I am not a personal trainer or a hormone specialist. I am a woman who got tired of feeling broken every two weeks and started paying attention to what my body was doing. This is what has worked for me. Take what is useful, ignore what is not.

Quick Recap on the Phases

If you missed the first post, here is the very short version. Your cycle has four phases. Menstrual is when you are bleeding. Follicular starts when bleeding stops and runs to ovulation. Ovulatory is the few days around ovulation. Luteal is from ovulation to your next period. Each phase has different hormone levels which affect your energy, your strength, your appetite, your mood, and pretty much everything else about how you function.

Trying to do the same workout intensity through every phase is one of the reasons women burn out on exercise so quickly. We are working with a body designed to operate differently across the month and we are pretending it should perform identically every day. This is not how we are built.

Menstrual Phase (Days 1 to 5 ish)

This is when you are actually bleeding. Hormones are at their lowest point of the cycle. For most women, energy is also low, and trying to do high intensity workouts now will leave you exhausted for days.

What I do: gentle walking, restorative yoga, stretching. That is it. I do not lift heavy weights, I do not do HIIT, I do not run. I let my body do what it needs to do, which is rest and shed the lining of my womb. If I have got real cramping and feel awful, I do nothing at all and I do not feel guilty about it.

The walking thing is important though. A 20-minute gentle walk in daylight does more for cramps and mood than any amount of pretending to feel fine. Even if it is raining, even if you have to take the kids with you, even if you do not feel like it. Get outside.

If you find your periods particularly heavy or rough, this is also when supporting yourself with the right products matters. Bodyform have brought out a proper period pants range in the last year that I have actually been using. Their Adults bikini style is around £15 from Boots, and they recently launched a Teens 3-pack moderate flow at £26.99 which has been a game changer for my eldest. They are dramatically more comfortable than what we had to wear in our teens.

Follicular Phase (Days 6 to 13 ish)

Bleeding is done, oestrogen is rising, and this is when energy starts coming back. This is also when I am physically capable of the most. Strength is good, recovery is fast, mood is up, and I can take on harder workouts without paying for it later.

What I do: strength training, faster walks or runs, more challenging yoga, anything I have been wanting to try. This is the phase where if I want to set a personal best on a weight or push myself with a longer run, I do it now. My body responds well to challenge in this phase.

Practically, this looks like three or four workouts a week. A couple of strength sessions where I am actually pushing myself, a longer walk or run, maybe a yoga class. I am not training for an Olympic event. I am just being more deliberately active because I have the energy to do it.

This is also when I sleep best, work most efficiently, and generally feel most like a functional human being. I try to schedule any difficult conversations or important meetings during follicular phase if I can. It is not always possible but when it is, it helps.

Ovulatory Phase (Days 14 to 16 ish)

This is the peak. Oestrogen is high, testosterone gets a brief surge, and most women feel their best physically around ovulation. Energy is high, confidence is high, sex drive is high, everything is high.

What I do: I take advantage of it. This is when I do my hardest workouts of the month. If I am going to do a HIIT session, it is now. If I am going to attempt a difficult hike or a longer run, it is now. The body is primed to perform.

It is also when social activities feel easier. If you are an introvert, ovulation is when you can briefly understand why extroverts enjoy parties. Use this. Schedule the dinner with friends, the date night, the family event. Your future self in luteal phase will thank you for using your social energy when you have it.

One thing to watch out for in ovulation though, especially if you are perimenopausal. The intensity can feel slightly manic. I have learnt to use the energy without acting on every impulse it generates. Do not start a major life change or write an angry email during ovulation. Channel the energy into your workouts and your work, not into impulsive decisions.

Luteal Phase (Days 17 to 28 ish)

This is the phase that nobody talks about and where most cycle-related issues live. Progesterone rises, then both progesterone and oestrogen crash before your period. This is when PMS happens. This is when you feel bloated, tired, irritable, sometimes anxious, sometimes weepy. Energy drops. Coordination can be worse. Recovery from exercise takes longer.

What I do: I switch to lower intensity exercise. Pilates, yoga, walks, light strength training with weights I can manage easily. I am not trying to set personal bests. I am trying to maintain.

The temptation in luteal phase is to try to push through, to do the workout you would have done in follicular phase, to feel normal. This is how women injure themselves. Your body genuinely cannot perform at the same level as it could two weeks ago. Working with that, not against it, is what will keep you exercising consistently year after year.

I also pay much closer attention to nutrition in luteal phase. Hormone shifts cause genuine physical changes that can include needing more iron, magnesium, and B vitamins. I have been taking Elle Sera Golden Pill for the last six months and it has made a noticeable difference to how I feel in the back half of my cycle. Their formula uses Maca, Ginkgo, Siberian Ginseng, Tribulus and Beetroot, which between them seem to help with the energy crash and mood dip I used to get in the days before my period. I am not getting paid extra to say this, I just genuinely use it.

Earlier nights are non-negotiable in luteal. If I try to function on the same amount of sleep I get away with in follicular, I will be a wreck by day three of my period. Eight hours minimum, ideally nine.

The Real Question: How Do You Track This?

You cannot cycle sync if you do not know where you are in your cycle. The simplest way is to track your period in any free app. I use Flo, but Clue and Stardust both work fine. Mark when you start bleeding and the app will give you a rough estimate of where you are in your cycle.

For more accuracy, you can track your basal body temperature, which gives you a clear marker of when ovulation has happened. This is overkill for most people just trying to manage their workouts, but if you have a longer or irregular cycle it is genuinely useful.

Pay attention to symptoms. Most women have signs that come up consistently in particular phases. For me, I always get a strong food craving for sweet things in the day or two before ovulation. I always get tearful for no reason about a week before my period. Once you start noticing these patterns, you can predict where you are in your cycle without an app.

What If My Cycle Is Irregular?

If your cycle is not regular, the principle still applies but the timing is fuzzier. Pay attention to how you actually feel rather than what day you are on. If you wake up and you feel high energy and motivated, treat it like ovulatory or follicular phase even if the calendar says otherwise. If you wake up and feel exhausted and bloated, treat it like luteal phase regardless of where the app says you are.

Perimenopausal cycles, which is where I am, can be unpredictable. The principle of matching exercise intensity to how I actually feel that day has been more useful than trying to force my body onto any particular schedule.

The Most Important Thing

Exercise should serve your life, not run it. If you are working with your cycle and you find that your follicular phase falls on a week when you are also working flat out and the kids are off school, you do not have to do the maximum intensity workouts that phase technically allows. You can just do what you can do. Cycle syncing is supposed to make exercise easier and more sustainable, not give you another thing to feel guilty about.

I exercise three or four times a week most weeks. Some weeks I exercise once. Some weeks I exercise every day. The point is not to hit a target. The point is to be in motion regularly, to be working with my body rather than against it, and to feel better at 38 than I did at 28. By those metrics, this is working.

If you found this useful, the original post on cycle syncing for busy mums covers more of the why. And for the broader picture of looking after yourself in your 30s and 40s as a mum, the Living section has more on that.