Exercise and Infertility: a healthy balance

While overexercising can have detrimental effects on fertility, moderate exercise is recommended for every woman trying to conceive, and should be recommended for every man as well! Not only does regular exercise support a healthy cardiovascular system, and a healthy weight, but it can promote regular ovulation, better glucose control, and lower inflammation - all incredibly important topics when it comes to conception.

Benefits of Exercising

Moderate exercise not only helps both men and women reach, or maintain, their ideal weight, but has a wide range of health benefits for the whole body and mind.

Some of the benefits of exercise include:

• Improves cardiovascular and brain health

• Supports strong bones

• Lowers cortisol (the stress hormone) levels, which is incredibly important for maintaining healthy progesterone levels in women and testosterone levels in men

• Improves blood sugar levels

• Promotes a good night's sleep

• Boosts energy and increases the body's resting metabolic rate

• Reduces inflammation in the body (super important when trying to conceive!)

• Promotes healthy testosterone levels in menwhich is essential for muscle mass, sex drive, and sperm count

• Supports mental health by releasing endorphins, the "feel good" neurotransmitters

• Reduces symptoms of anxiety, depression, and negative mood

• Helps improve self-esteem and cognitive function.

Are you convinced yet??

How Much Should I Exercise When Trying to Conceive?

Like most things, moderation is key when it comes to exercise and fertility. Too much and too little can both have implications in ovulation and the time it takes a woman to conceive. The major issue with overexercising, like with marathon running, is that it can lead to anovulation (or, not ovulating), which can also happen with a very sedentary lifestyle and being overweight. Balance is key!

In general, movement is a good thing, and it's recommended for everyone trying to conceive! Research shows that aiming for 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise on most days of the week is ideal for women trying to conceive, and helps reduce anovulatory infertility. For men, this is also a great guideline, as regular, moderate exercise will help support a healthy weight, improve blood glucose levels and insulin resistance, and increase testosterone levels, which support sperm production.

Moderate intensity exercise is somewhat subjective, but an easy way to identify it is by doing what's called the "talk test." This just means that if you can talk through your workout, it's likely moderate!

What Type of Exercise is Best for Fertility?

Be sure to incorporate both cardiovascular exercise and strength training (a.k.a. resistance training), especially if you have PCOS, as strength training is known to reduce insulin resistance (one of the hallmark symptoms of PCOS) and reduce male hormones, known as androgens (another hallmark of PCOS). Resistance training uses anything that provides a force against your muscles, so you can use free weights, resistance bands, or even your own bodyweight against gravity, with things like pushups, lunges and squats. Example of strength training include plyometrics, weight training and high intensity interval training (HIIT). Resistance training is one of the absolute best ways to boost your metabolism, as it builds lean muscle (muscle is better at burning calories than fat), and improves your metabolic rate for a full 72 hours after your workout, which means, you're burning extra calories for days after your workout!

How to Stick to an Exercise Plan

This is one of my favorite topics! The absolute best way to stick to your exercise regimen is by choosing a type of exercise that you actually enjoy. Because let's be honest, if you hate running, it's not likely you're going to brave the cold (or the heat and humidity) to go run, right? But if you love to swim, or dance, or enjoy the strength and stability of pilates, it's so much more likely that you're going to keep doing it. So, my first tip is to do something you love! Or at least something you like!

Second, put it on your calendar. If you don't create space for it, it will almost always be pushed aside by something else. You'll put it off later and later in the day until you're too tired to even think about starting, so grab your planner, or open the calendar app on your phone, and create a 30 minute pocket 4 or 5 days of the week that you can commit to exercising. Lastly, grab a friend, or your spouse, and do it together! Committing to our goals, and starting a new challenge (and keeping it going) is so much easier, and enjoyable, when we do it together!

Freebie Alert!

If you want more support on your fertility journey, I created an entire course just for that! Right now, you can watch module one, Understanding Your Body and Your Cycle, absolutely FREE where you'll learn how to chart your cycles, and identify ovulation and the fertile window with confidence! Check it out right HERE.