You’ve spent so much of your life struggling with rapid weight gain, hormonal acne, irregular and painful menstrual cycles with no hope of a solution, only to finally receive a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovary syndrome. After hours of researching, and hopefully speaking with a dietitian, you’ve learned and implemented a bunch of dietary changes with hopes of making it all go away.
While your symptoms do get better, the changes you made don’t result in the dramatic results you were hoping for. This is because there’s still a small, but important, part of the puzzle that’s missing in your PCOS management. Studies show us that we have greater control over our PCOS symptoms when we manage them through a combination of dietary changes as well as physical activity.
Benefits of exercise for PCOS
- Reverses Insulin Resistance
If you read the blog post linked above, you know that insulin resistance is a huge driver behind many PCOS symptoms, such as rapid weight gain and fatigue. This is because our cells aren’t able to respond to insulin effectively and take in blood sugar for energy. However, when we exercise our bodies increase skeletal muscle GLUT 4 production. This allows our bodies to respond more favorably to insulin, use blood sugar as energy and store muscle glycogen following exercise training.
- Improve hormonal acne
Exercise has been shown to improve and lower stress levels in people over time. When we first begin working out after a long hiatus, we may find that exercising causes us to break out more as we produce more cortisol during the actual workout. With time we adapt to this change, and what remains is long term reduced stress and greater hormonal balance. Be sure to cleanse your skin after a workout to avoid buildup of oil and dirt in your pores.
- Regular Menstrual Cycles
Some women with PCOS have irregular or infrequent menstrual cycles. Unfortunately, for many this leads to difficulty conceiving and prolonged conception time. A structured exercise routine can increase menstrual frequency in lean women with PCOS.
- Weight Loss
It’s no secret that physical activity burns calories and can help us lose weight. What most people don’t realize is that you don\’t need to lose a bunch of weight to improve your health. Even just a 5-10% body weight loss improves overall health, PCOS symptoms, insulin sensitivity and significantly reduces one’s chance of developing other chronic diseases such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes.
- Improve Mental Health and Prevent Development of Chronic Diseases
Women with PCOS have a higher chance of developing other chronic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. PCOS is also associated with a higher prevalence of mental health disorders. Exercise improves both physiological health in women with PCOS and improves many risk factors associated with chronic diseases.
What type of exercise is best for PCOS?
With exercise, consistency is key, which is why the most important factor of an exercise regimen is that it’s feasible to incorporate into your routine and that you enjoy it. Any form of exercise or movement is better than nothing and will bring with it a plethora of health benefits
Strength Training
As the name suggests, strength training includes exercises that are focused on increasing ones’ strength, such as lifting weights, using resistance bands, body weight resistance exercises (push-ups, squats) and weight machines. I’ve found that women are often wary of any kind of strength training because they fear it will make them “bulky”. I’m here to tell you that it is extremely difficult to build enough muscle to the point of becoming bulky. Plus, we can always transition from building muscle to maintaining muscle when we’ve reached our goals. Below are a list of benefits that come with strength training and improve PCOS symptoms.
Improved Insulin Resistance
When we exercise our muscles are no longer dependent on insulin for glucose uptake. The more our muscle cells take up glucose during exercise, the more sensitive they become to insulin overall.
Lower testosterone
In a study looking at the effects of strength training on testosterone levels in women with PCOS, they found that over a 16-wk period there was a significant reduction in testosterone levels.
Increased metabolism
Muscle is more metabolically active than fat and therefore burns more energy, even at rest. For this reason, increasing muscle mass in women with PCOS has been linked to weight loss maintenance, where women were not only able to lose weight more easily, but avoid gaining it back long term.
Strengthened Bones
Osteoporosis is common amongst aging women and is a result of reduced mineral bone density. There is an increased production of bone cells due to the stress that strength training places on the skeleton, thus strengthening our bones
Cardio
Cardio includes aerobic exercises that get our heart pumping faster, such as running, bicycling, and swimming. Cardio is also beneficial in that it burns more calories during, and immediately after the exercise than does strength training. This is helpful if you are trying to actively lose weight quickly. Studies have shown that HIIT (high intensity interval training) significantly improves insulin resistance. In a 10 week study, they found that women partaking in HIIT once a week for 10 min, or twice a week for 4 min each time, saw significant drops in their insulin resistance and improved body weight composition, even without seeing weight loss.
What should I do?
The most important thing to do is simply to start, any form of exercise is preferable to none. Choose something that you can find joy in as this will help keep you motivated and consistent with your workouts, and that is the most important factor. That being said, I recommend including strength training because it helps reduce so many PCOS symptoms and is protective long term.
How often?
It’s recommended to exercise 120 min per week, that comes out to about 30 min 4x/wk. With strength training it\’s important to give your body time to rest between workouts so that the muscle can build. Therefore, 2-3 days a week of full body strength training is more than enough. If you’re new to strength training, be sure to take it easy, you’ll definitely feel sore the first week or two, but not so much after that. If you prefer to do muscle-group focused exercises (legs, arms, back) then you may want to aim for 3-5 days.