Coming up to and during my period I simply cannot do any floor facing exercises. Except regular planks. I can do those for 45 seconds, no problem (well, except for the shaking and swearing during the last 5-10 seconds). But I simply can’t do mountain climbers or any other floor facing exercises that demand foot movement in any direction (plank jacks, lifts, whatever). I can do burpees, but I do them like a tired, bored, and sullen teenager would. (You know the type, the ones in gym class who did jumping jacks by sticking a foot out, then weakly flapping their arms while vigorously rolling the eyes.) The rest of the time I don’t have much problem with floor facing moves, but for about a week and a half each month…just, No.

Weirdly, other core work, crunches, Russian twists, back-bows, etc., are all fine and even help make me feel strong and alleviate other symptoms.

So, do others have this problem and if so, do you have standing-up substitutes?