A feel-great 20-minute workout for cramps (or low-back or hip pain)

Happy Sunday!

As you may know, I’m building a big workout index so you can dig more easily into the Workout of the Week archives and find something that fits your needs on demand. (I’m so excited about this! My current archive is very robust but definitely not easy to navigate.) I asked you all for category requests, and someone mentioned that they’d love to be able to find workouts that feel good when you have cramps or PMS. I do have a few that probably fit that bill, but nothing specifically tailored to those crampy times, so I thought I’d put something together for you. If you DON’T have cramps right now (congrats), but you do feel tight, sore, or stiff around your lower back, hips, and pelvis, this is still going to feel really, really good. (It’ll be great if you’ve been traveling or just sitting around a lot, too.)

If this doesn’t fit the bill for you and you were hoping for something a little higher effort, no problem — try one of the great options below.

A 27-minute full-body strength workout with rotation and anti-rotation

35-minute Pilates with some extra glute spice

A dumbbell workout for legs, chest, core, and balance

For this workout, you’ll want a mat — and, if you have one, the kind of exercise ball you can sit on. If you don’t have one of those, don’t worry! I’ve got ball-free options for you, and it’s just a couple of movements. And while this workout doesn’t have an obvious place to stop or skip if you don’t have time for the full 20ish minutes, you can just feel free to end it whenever you need to: It’s your time.

Before we get into it, just a quick reminder that I’ll be doing a Substack Live with the incredible

Zoë Bisbing

of

Body-Positive Home with Zoë Bisbing

this Wednesday, July 16 at 12:00pm ET. We’ll be talking all about how your exercise habits — and how you talk about them — intersect with parenting, how to respond when your kids ask about fitness, and all kinds of other things. Even if you aren’t a parent, this is going to be a really good one, and we’re very happy to take questions from you! Please leave yours in the comments here, via DM, or in the HTM chat.

Here we go!