Survey study, 2021
Does regular exercise help or hurt PMS symptoms?
Regular exercise appears to help PMS. Studies since 1971 show women who exercise regularly have milder or no PMS, though overtraining might make it worse.
What they did
Analysis of published research studies from 1971 onward examining the relationship between fitness and PMS. The authors reviewed findings about how exercise affects PMS and discussed possible explanations.
What they found
Studies consistently show fitness is protective against PMS: women who exercise regularly have reduced or eliminated PMS problems. The review describes possible ways exercise helps. Other factors found together with fitness, like healthy weight and good diet, also help PMS. Interestingly, fitness might improve strength training performance during the menstrual cycle. However, some studies found overtraining can harm PMS.
What it means for you
Regular moderate exercise appears helpful for PMS. This is a review of previous research, not new original research, so strength depends on quality of original studies. The benefit may come partly from diet and weight rather than exercise alone. Extreme exercise could be harmful.
Since 1971
studies analyzed
Protective
effect of fitness on PMS
Negative
effect possible with overtraining
About the study
- Original title
- Relation of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and fitness activities
- Authors
- Alena Kajanová, Stanislav Ondrášek
- Journal
- Journal of Nursing Social Studies Public Health and Rehabilitation
- Year
- 2021
- Study design
- Survey study
- What was tested
- Fitness and exercise activities (reviewed from existing research)
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.32725/jnss.2021.004
Original abstract
The survey study focuses on the relation between the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and fitness activities. The results of the analyzed studies (since the year 1971) point out the protective factor of fitness activities in relation to PMS - individual problems are mitigated or eliminated by regular exercise. The article describes the mechanisms of this effect and the intervening variables like ideal BMI or healthy diet, which also have impact on PMS, and which can be found more frequently in fitness women. PMS can also have positive effect on fitness performance in power training. On the contrary, there are studies pointing out the negative impact of exercise on PMS in case of overtraining.
Reproduced under CC-BY.
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