I was in the middle of a set when the cramping started.
Not the subtle kind. The kind that makes you stop mid-rep and just breathe for a second. The kind that reminds you very clearly what your body is doing today, whether you asked it to or not.
From the living room I could hear my husband losing his mind over the Olympics. Dutch speed skaters. Those legs. That power. He was having the time of his life.
And I was standing there with a barbell, trying to decide if I was going to finish the session or lie on the floor.
I finished the session. But it got me thinking.
What if she had her period?
I was watching those Dutch speed skaters and thinking about what it takes to get there. Years. Decades. Everything optimised. Every variable controlled.
And then I thought: what if she had her period today?
Not as a joke. As a genuine question.
Because nobody talks about that. You watch these women at the peak of their athletic lives, performing at a level most of us cannot even imagine, and the conversation is always about training schedules and mental strength and sacrifice.
But half of them, statistically, are managing a menstrual cycle on top of all of it. And that part stays off camera. Off the commentary. Out of the conversation entirely.
That is not a footnote. That is the whole story.
The fitness world has a selective memory
Gym culture loves to talk about showing up when it is hard. No excuses. Train through discomfort. Mental strength.
But there is a very specific kind of discomfort it goes quiet about.
Periods.
The ads show women mid-jump, perfectly lit, full energy. They never show the woman who took three ibuprofen before her warm-up. The one who is bloated and exhausted and training anyway, not because she is extraordinary, but because this is just Tuesday and she has a routine and she is not going to let her cycle run her life.
That woman exists. She is probably you. She is definitely me.
And the fact that we barely talk about it, that it is still somehow awkward to mention in fitness spaces, is genuinely strange when you think about it.
We talk about macros. We talk about sleep cycles and recovery windows and the optimal protein intake per kilo of bodyweight. But the thing that affects half the population for roughly a week every month? Still a bit uncomfortable to bring up.
It is not weakness. It is biology with bad timing.
Here is what is actually happening when you train during your period and it feels harder than usual.
It is harder than usual. That is not in your head.
Pain thresholds shift. Energy levels drop. Your nervous system is dealing with hormonal changes that affect everything from muscle function to mood to how your body regulates temperature. Some days during your cycle you will feel strong. Some days you will feel like you are moving through water.
Neither of those days makes you weak. They make you a person with a body that cycles.
The women who figure this out, who stop fighting their biology and start working with it, do not train less. They train smarter. They know when to push and when to adjust. And they stop apologising for the difference.
Back to the living room
My husband was still shouting at the television when I finished my session.
I stood in the doorway, sweaty and cramping, watching those Dutch skaters cross the finish line. And I thought about all the women on that screen who had been exactly where I was that morning. Not in my living room. But in that specific combination of physical discomfort and just getting on with it anyway.
Nobody commentates on that part.
Showing up when your body is not cooperating is not exceptional. For women, it is just part of the deal. It has always been part of the deal.
Maybe it is time we talked about it like it is.
No conclusion with a bow on it
I am not going to tell you to track your cycle phases and optimise your training splits around your luteal phase. There are apps for that and people who do it well.
I am just saying this.
If you trained this week and it was harder than it should have been, and you know why, that is enough. You do not need to push through it dramatically. You do not need to pretend it is not happening.
You just need to know that every woman who trains seriously has been exactly where you are.
And most of them finished the session anyway.
GIMALIS is built for real women with real bodies. All of it.
