Can women practice yoga during menstruation?

Female friends, there are special days every month, which we call the menstrual period. During these days, some of them will feel slight stomach pain, some will feel tired and don't want to do anything, some will jump around, and some will even do exercise. Yoga is almost a passion of women. It is a fashion and a way to relax, but can women who are menstruating practice yoga?

First of all, it may be necessary to understand that traditionally, or at least in ancient India, very few women practiced yoga (at least not publicly). It was not that they were prohibited, but the social, customary and cultural conditions at the time made women engage in quite different activities and roles from men. Unlike today's modern society, women are used by society in their careers and jobs almost like men, bearing the same pressure and responsibility, either voluntarily or under economic pressure or for any other reason. In the past, women did not practice yoga.

Perhaps it is similar to the reason why fewer modern men practice yoga (no one prohibits men from practicing yoga). Yoga belongs to the male category due to its original seriousness, philosophy, academic and ascetic nature (it has nothing to do with female vocabulary such as flexibility, weight loss, staying slim, maintaining figure, helping with prenatal and postpartum problems, etc. If you can read the Yoga Sutras for an hour without feeling tired or bored, perhaps you will understand what I mean by seriousness). But unfortunately, due to commercial hype, yoga has gradually lost its seriousness and philosophy, and has become a cheap fashion. Elegant men think it is too popular, popular men think it is too feminine, orthodox men think it is too alternative, and alternative men think it is too similar to fitness. In short, all these misunderstandings cannot be cleared up even if you jump into the Yellow River.

In India, women call their menstrual period "moonday," a day for introspection, retreat, rest, purification, and meditation. From a physiological point of view, due to the impact of changes in hormone secretion on physical strength and emotions, it is recommended to minimize intense and busy external activities and stimulation, and instead enter a state of introspection and meditation. Working women may not have much choice to "retreat" when they have to go to work, but they can still practice moving, working and interacting with people in a low-key and retreating mentality during these days and change the way they practice yoga. In principle, practicing yoga during menstruation should help us eliminate discomfort and fatigue, restore physical strength, stabilize emotions, and maintain inner peace (although the opposite is often the case). The degree to which each woman is affected physically and mentally during menstruation varies. Therefore, ladies who practice yoga regularly should develop an inner "hearing" to listen to the signals sent by the body and mind, and use your intuition to judge whether you should practice asanas today, what to practice and how to practice, etc. No one can make decisions for you except yourself. You can choose to take a complete break and stop any asana practice, or you can choose very gentle practices to better relax, such as supine and forward-bending poses, either sitting on the ground or supported by a cushion.

The key words here are: rest, relaxation, peace and introspection.

Based on this principle, exercises that should be avoided during menstruation are:

1) Avoid all inversion postures (those in which the uterus is higher than the heart), which interfere with the natural downward detoxification process of the body's energy (apana) during menstruation.

2) Postures that are too intense and can easily cause tension and fatigue.

3) Maintaining a standing or balancing posture for too long.

4) Intense backbending movements such as bow pose, camel pose, wheel pose, etc.

5) All postures that involve intense abdominal contraction and movement such as abdominal rotation (jatharaparivartanasana), supine leg raise (urdhva prasaritapadasana) and boat pose (navasana).

6) Jump.

7) Use your arms to support your whole body balance.

8) Avoid difficult postures or learn new postures.

As women, we should learn to take good care of ourselves, especially during the menstrual period. Female friends should learn to take good care of themselves. Don’t do anything that you can avoid during the menstrual period. Take good care of your health and never let your body develop any disease, otherwise you will be the one who suffers in the future. You can do yoga appropriately, but don’t do difficult movements, and don’t do it for too long. You should rest adequately.