5-Minute Workout: Relief from Cramps

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Do these 5 moves as soon as pain strikes and you'll feel better fast.

From the editors of FITNESS magazine; Photos by Chris Fanning

Ease Period Cramps

While period cramps may send you cowering back under the covers, it's exercise, not bed rest, that will revive you the most. And yoga is particularly effective in easing your pain. "Yoga incorporates deep breathing, which helps relieve the effects of oxygen deprivation to the tissues, one of the main causes of cramps," says Suzanne Trupin, MD, a gynecologist at the Women's Health Practice in Champaign, Illinois. Here, how to find relief in just five minutes with these simple moves from Cyndi Lee, director of OM yoga in New York City.

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purpleflower29347 wrote:

Doubt this would work for me. I get really really bad cramps and I can barely get out of bed....:/

4/20/2012 04:06:38 PM Report Abuse

pgoldenbaum wrote:

Best thing that works girls, Get a hot pad and put it where it hurts. I took a bag I made out of material, filled it with rice (this puts just enough pressure with heat). Sew it up and then stick it in the microwave. I live like that the whole week, One at work the other at home. Now my girlfriend at work is always asking to use it. If your cramps are as bad as mine, this is the only thing that works... works better than the pain meds the Dr.s give me.

4/19/2012 08:27:11 AM Report Abuse

jennifer_bowers wrote:

I can't see this working because when I'm cramping, I don't want to move at all.

8/9/2010 09:16:25 AM Report Abuse

thehealingartist1 wrote:

i agree with elgin above about the inverted poses during menstruation...PLEASE, Fitness Mag, check on this

8/8/2010 12:56:43 PM Report Abuse

dlov_99 wrote:

oh ps, the larger the clots the stronger the pain. so if it is small clotts, not so bad. eat food that thins the blood. hint

8/8/2010 10:57:59 AM Report Abuse