I Synced My Cycle To My Workouts For A Month & This Is What Happened

Having a period is a rollercoaster ride, to say the least. Throughout the average 28-day cycle, you go through mood changes, energy highs, energy lows — and then it all culminates with a symphony of cramps, fatigue, and a rousing trip to the corner store for tampons.

Adding exercise into the mix is always touch-and-go. Personally, my desire to move really depends on the day. Sometimes I’m too tired for a 15-minute walk, much less a sweaty hour-long Pilates routine. Other times, I’ll breeze through a three-mile jog with ease.

I know my dips in energy are related to my menstrual cycle, but I’m never quite sure exactly what my body needs on any given day. That’s why I jumped at the chance to try cycle syncing with Alo Moves’ recently launched SYNCD program. For a quick definition, cycle syncing is the practice of aligning your workouts, nutrition, self-care, and lifestyle habits with each phase of your menstrual cycle.

Instead of pushing yourself at the wrong time, the idea is to consider your energy levels throughout the month so you can always do what’s best for you. If you’re in a low-energy, sleepy stage of your cycle, it’s best to slow down, practice self-care, and try grounding workouts like yoga. If you’re in the high-energy phase, that’s when it’ll feel right to do a full-body HIIT routine.

Curious just how effective cycle syncing is when it comes to your exercise routine? Ahead, my honest review of SYNCD after trying it out for a month.

The Lowdown On Alo Moves SYNCD

SYNCD is the latest addition to the Alo Moves fitness app. It’s a batch of wellness videos that were designed to work with your hormones instead of against them — which means exercising at the right intensity level for your body throughout the different phases of your menstrual cycle.

The program is also there to help you feel better throughout the month. By aligning your habits with your hormones and doing customized movement, recovery, mindfulness, and self-care practices, you can — in theory — make it through each of the four phases of your menstrual cycle with more ease.

To get started with SYNCD, it’s recommended that you read the Alo Moves blog about syncing so you can figure out where you are in your cycle. Once you land on your current phase — either menstruation, follicular, ovulation, or luteal — all you have to do is scroll through the app and tap on a curated video.

Menstruation Phase

If you’re on day one through five of your cycle, try one of the menstruation phase routines. During this time, the hormones estrogen and progesterone drop in your body and you get your period. It’s a tired, crampy, bloated time of the month, which is why SYNCD offers soothing meditations and yoga routines that massage your lower abdomen.

Follicular Phase

Next up is the follicular phase from days five to 14. Due to the boost in estrogen, you’ll feel happier, more energized, and ready to move. This is when you’ll want to amp up your fitness routine with HIIT, power yoga, and Pilates. You’ll get the most out of your routine during this phase and you’ll recover faster, so SYNCD recommends that you go hard.

Ovulatory Phase

Days 14 and 15 in the middle of your cycle tend to be the ovulatory phase. It only lasts 12 to 24 hours, but it can leave you feeling peppy, energized, social, and confident. You’ll still feel up to a sweaty HIIT workout, but you’ll also crave downtime and chill meditations to balance things out, and SYNCD offers both.

Luteal Phase

Then you’ll experience the luteal phase, which lasts from day 15 through the end of your cycle. You’ll notice PMS symptoms like mood swings, bloating, and fatigue. SYNCD gets you through it with low-impact yoga and Pilates workouts that match the mood, plus self-care rituals like dry brushing and other tips to stay as comfy as possible.

Should You Cycle Sync Your Workouts?

According to Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, M.D., a board-certified OB-GYN and medical co-founder of supplement brand Perelel, the hormonal shifts that happen throughout your monthly cycle really do impact your mood and motivation, and she agrees that it makes sense to keep them in mind as you choose your workouts.

While she says cycle syncing hasn’t been scientifically studied, hormonal shifts and energy dips are very real. “It is possible that there may be a benefit to becoming more aware of the hormonal fluctuation, not just to track our cycles, but to understand our bodies in a greater way to support all that we do,” Bayati says. “Knowing more about our bodies and the complexity of the cycle and the variations that present will allow us to seek the balance and support we need.”

According to Dr. Tiffany Phan, M.D., an OB-GYN and medical advisor at Flo, exercise in general has been shown to relieve PMS symptoms, whether it's a gentle walk, swim, or yoga sesh. "Focusing on the movements to help you manage your symptoms is important rather than subscribing to one particular exercise or activity," she tells Bustle.

Working Out With SYNCD

Real talk: I dove into SYNCD right at the start of my period when I was laid up in bed with a heating pad. I scrolled through the app and confirmed that yes — it’s totally normal to feel tired, sluggish, and terrible at this point in the month. Alo suggested using the downtime to reflect on future goals and then following up with some self-care (which sounded OK to me).

The menstruation section of the app has a video explaining how to make a ginger compress for cramps, another one for lymphatic drainage, a grounding meditation, a gentle Pilates session, and a yoga routine. I liked the sound of a stretch, so I slid off my couch for a 24-minute restorative yin flow with instructor Annie Moves, crossing my fingers it would ease my wretched cramps.

Usually, my period keeps me stuck in bed, but it actually felt nice to get up and move a little. Annie recommended a round of “dancing lions” where I shimmied around in a tabletop position to massage my core. We then exhaled and flowed into child’s pose, cobra, thread the needle, and other abdominal twists that really did seem to ease my cramps.

When I emerged from my period fog a few days later, I took a look at the options for my follicular phase. It’s recommended that you ramp up your workouts during this time to take advantage of your newfound energy. One day I listened to an inspiring meditation by Kirat Randhawa about boosting my creativity, and the next I tried a 20-minute full-body HIIT sesh with Jade Morning.

If I had attempted HIIT during my period, I probably would have passed out. But because I was in my follicular phase, it was a lot easier to do cross-body kicks, planks, crunches, squat up-downs, and heart-boosting frog steps. Each exercise lasted 30 to 45 seconds and progressively got harder, so it ended up being an extra-sweaty workout. Other options for follicular on the app include power Pilates, a power yoga flow, and energizing breathwork.

Throughout this peppy phase, I was also jogging, walking, and meeting up with friends. It was eye-opening to learn that my extra energy stemmed from that particular phase of my period. It continued into my ovulatory phase where I crushed another 27-minute HIIT with Jade. Afterward, I hit up the grocery store for some turmeric tea, which I learned in a separate video can help with ovulation pain, according to Alo’s naturopath Bianca Melas.

To round out the month, I allowed myself to begin the process of decompressing in my luteal phase. This notorious stage is when PMS kicks in — and it always kicks my butt. This is when I get moody and throw myself around my apartment theatrically, so it felt like a nice change to do a restorative yoga flow instead.

To stave off the PMS-related sobs, I also tried a grounding lower-body Pilates workout with Annie and an extra-soothing meditation with Kirat, which brought me out of a funk. Did I eat snacks and watch Love Island immediately after? Yes. But I also enjoyed that I got some movement in.

The Verdict

I love that SYNCD is more like a gentle suggestion than a regimented workout routine. It hangs out in the Alo Moves app and is there when you need it, but you don’t necessarily have to think about your menstrual phase every single day. And Bayati agrees. “We do not need to be defined by our menstrual cycle,” she says. “The key is to understand our bodies further and have the knowledge to make choices.”

If you do feel the itch to exercise, it’s easy to find a workout that matches your energy level — and it’s a nice touch that the program also offers self-care practices to help you get through the month. The fun assortment of videos, as well as the flexibility on what you can choose to do, are two things I’ve appreciated over the past few weeks. If I wasn’t in the mood to do yoga or make a papaya face mask, it was really NBD.

Cycle syncing is, after all, all about zeroing in on what works best for you. I found that honoring my ups and downs actually made me feel so much more energized and in tune with myself, and the month was breezier as a result.

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Sources:

Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, M.D., board-certified OB-GYN medical co-founder of Perelel

Dr. Tiffany Phan, M.D., OB-GYN and medical advisor at Flo