Looking after your musculoskeletal health across your cycle
Nicola Tik
Your menstrual cycle does more than affect your mood or energy. Across the month, shifting hormone levels can influence how your joints feel, how your muscles perform, and how your body responds to movement. Understanding those patterns can help you work with your cycle rather than against it.
Your cycle moves through four phases: menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation, and the luteal phase. Each brings a different hormonal environment, and your joints and muscles can feel noticeably different across them. None of these phases is a reason to stop moving. They are simply useful information.
Prostaglandins, the chemicals that trigger uterine contractions, can also increase sensitivity to pain more broadly. This means joints and muscles may feel more reactive than usual during the first day or two of your period. Lower back discomfort and hip heaviness are particularly common.
Gentle movement tends to help more than rest during this phase. Short walks, light stretching, and easy mobility work can ease discomfort and keep things moving without adding load your body is not ready for. If energy is low, that is a useful signal to keep sessions shorter rather than skipping them altogether.
As your period ends and oestrogen begins to rise, most people notice a shift. Energy tends to return, muscles feel more responsive, and joints feel less reactive. This is often the phase where movement feels most enjoyable and effort feels most rewarding.
It is a good time to build on your usual activity, try something slightly more demanding, or return to exercise you may have eased back on during your period. Your body is well primed to respond.
Oestrogen peaks around ovulation, which brings strong energy and good muscle function. It is worth knowing, however, that research suggests ligament laxity, the looseness of the tissue that stabilises joints, can increase slightly around this time. This does not mean avoiding activity. It is simply worth warming up well and being a little mindful of sudden changes in direction or load if you are doing higher intensity movement.
After ovulation, progesterone rises and oestrogen begins to decline again. Many people find this phase brings a return of joint stiffness or a sense that muscles feel heavier. Fatigue tends to increase in the days before a period, and recovery after activity may take a little longer.
This is not a phase to push hard. Maintaining your usual movement at a comfortable level, prioritising recovery, and keeping sleep consistent tends to serve the body better than either stopping altogether or trying to work through fatigue.
You do not need to overhaul your routine around your cycle. Small adjustments, easing back when your body is less primed and making the most of phases when it is, tend to make a bigger difference than rigid planning. Noticing your own patterns is the most useful starting point.
Your VIDA pain check-in is a good way to track how your joints and muscles feel across the month, which can help you start to recognise what is consistent for you.