Is CrossFit Good for Anxiety During Perimenopause?
Find out whether CrossFit helps ease anxiety during perimenopause, the considerations around intensity, and how to adapt your training to your nervous system.
Anxiety During Perimenopause
Anxiety is one of the most common and destabilising symptoms of perimenopause. It can arrive as persistent background tension, sudden surges of panic, social withdrawal, irritability, or racing thoughts that resist sleep. The hormonal basis is real: progesterone metabolites act on GABA receptors in the brain to produce a calming effect, and when progesterone drops, that calming influence weakens. Physical exercise is one of the most effective ways to fill some of that gap.
CrossFit and the Anxiety Response
Exercise reduces anxiety through several mechanisms: it lowers baseline cortisol, burns off physical tension, raises serotonin and endorphins, and over time teaches the nervous system to tolerate and recover from physiological arousal. CrossFit, because of its intensity, produces a strong arousal response during the workout, followed by a clear parasympathetic recovery phase. For some women, this pattern, stress followed by calm, acts as a kind of nervous system reset. Others find that very high intensity training temporarily spikes their anxiety, especially in the early weeks.
Finding the Right Intensity
The intensity of CrossFit is both its strength and its potential complication for anxiety. Training too hard too often can keep cortisol elevated and make anxiety worse, particularly if you are not sleeping well. The solution is not to avoid intensity altogether, but to manage it thoughtfully. Two to three CrossFit sessions per week with genuine rest days between them tends to produce anxiety reduction rather than anxiety amplification. Scaling the WOD (workout of the day) to a level where you work hard but finish feeling strong rather than depleted is the right target.
The Role of Community
CrossFit boxes have a distinctive social culture that many women find genuinely helpful for anxiety. Having a regular schedule, familiar faces, and a coach who knows your name creates a sense of belonging and accountability. Social isolation is both a cause and consequence of anxiety, and CrossFit's group format provides a structured context for connection that does not require any social effort beyond showing up. For women who have pulled back from social activities due to perimenopause symptoms, this can be an important re-entry point.
Precautions for Anxious Women Starting CrossFit
If your anxiety is currently high, start with a fundamentals programme rather than jumping straight into group WODs. This gives you time to learn the movements without the added pressure of keeping pace with others. Avoid sessions late at night, which can interfere with sleep. Tell your coach what you are managing so they can offer appropriate scaling and support. Most experienced CrossFit coaches have worked with perimenopausal women and will appreciate the context.
When to Pair CrossFit with Other Interventions
CrossFit is a useful component of anxiety management, not a complete solution. If your anxiety is significantly affecting daily life, therapy, particularly CBT, tends to produce the most durable results. HRT can address the hormonal drivers that exercise cannot fully compensate for. Breathwork, journaling, and reduced caffeine all work in the same direction as regular training. Used together, these tools create a more resilient nervous system than any single approach alone.
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