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PCOS, or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, is a condition that affects a woman’s menstruation system where they experience few, unusual, or very long periods. As such, this also affects the internal system associated with menstruation, such as hormonal changes, acne, weight gain, and others. Unfortunately, the exact cause of PCOS is still unknown.
Still, a lot of the signs and symptoms, and even the complications associated with PCOS, can be improved with a few changes in lifestyle, particularly with exercise.
Strength Training
As they say, the bigger your muscles, the more health benefits you’ll reap. Strength training exercises include squats, pushups, and weight lifting, which you can perform even at home.
If you feel like you lack the power, you can consult your healthcare provider and ask about What Makes a Perfect Lifter’s Pre-Workout Stack. A stack includes vitamins, proteins, and the like that can help you with strength training. However, you should consult with your doctor so that you can find a pre-workout stack that’s also safe for women with PCOS to consume.
Once you figure out what stack is appropriate for your body, lifting weights can be one of the easiest ways to improve your strength training. Moreover, you don’t have to do this as frequently as other workouters. With just less than an hour per week can significantly improve your overall health.
For people with PCOS, strength training will help them gain new muscles, which significantly helps in maintaining healthy levels of blood sugar. This is because muscle cells become more sensitive to insulin after exercise. This change allows the pancreas to generate less insulin to maintain a healthy metabolism that’s appropriate for a healthy body.
At-Home HIIT Exercise
High-Intensity Interval Training, HIIT is an interval training exercise. It involves short bursts of intense exercises alternated with low-intensity recovery periods. Furthermore, it helps decrease body fat, burn calories, and improve heart health and blood pressure.
HIIT workouts generally do not require much space, making them ideal for a home workout, such as burpees, bicycle crunches, Russian twists, and planks.
Due to insulin resistance and body composition in women with PCOS, HIIT improved insulin resistance, reduced excess testosterone in women with PCOS, and reduced the severity of PCOS symptoms.
Moderate Cardio Workouts
Cardio workouts, also known as cardiovascular workouts, get the blood pumping and the body sweating.
A cardio workout requires various activities that will efficiently increase the heart rate and respiration and raise blood flow throughout the body while using large muscle groups repetitively and rhythmically.
As simple as walking, jogging, or even cycling are all excellent daily activities that can help women with PCOS increase their body’s sensitivity to insulin, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
There are two types of cardio training:
- Aerobic Training. This type of cardio training comes from the word “Aerobic, ” which means “the presence of oxygen”. It allows your body to receive more oxygen, delivering more clean oxygen to the muscle. Thus, allows the body to burn more fat—exercises such as Zumba and jogging are perfect for at-home exercises
- Anaerobic Training. On the other hand, “anaerobic” is training without oxygen, such as plyometrics, pushups, etc. This doesn’t allow the body to breathe in as much oxygen. As a result, it limits the amount of oxygen to the muscles, which causes the body to gain energy from carbohydrates. Thus, burning more carbohydrates.
Formulate Your Interval Training Session
Personal interval training is a strategy that details the physical exercises one should perform to reach their desired goals and the amount of time one should spend on each exercise. No one’s interval training program is going to fit everyone. Each program is tailored specifically to the person’s needs, goals, and factors like age, fitness level, goals, and any physical restrictions you may have.
Getting at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily is recommended, and then increasing the time and effort when possible. However, professional help is strongly recommended when formulating a personal interval training program. Personal training focuses on the workout itself and the food that should be eaten to increase the stamina to sustain the session.
With this, when the personal interval training session has been formulated and created with your goals and strategy, it will dramatically increase the chances of achieving the desired goals since these goals are your drive to do the session.
Things to Consider
For workouts at home that require less to no help from a professional, there are a few things you need to consider.
- Understanding of Your Condition. Knowing your condition means you know what you need to change in your lifestyle, which means you know what part of your body is imbalanced. Instances such as extreme and constant weight lifting can be dangerous to your body, which can generate stress. As a result, it causes hormones that are already imbalanced to react aggressively, aggravating PCOS.
- Limitations. Assessing oneself will help you avoid future injuries brought on by the overexertion use of the muscle. For instance, if you attempt a workout that is not ideal for you, this might only worsen the symptoms of PCOS and cause more complications. You can initially ask for a professional’s guidance for this or find helpful videos for beginners.
- Weight Management. Managing your weight can both improve regulating the menstrual cycle, as well as helping with ovulation. It can also improve insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of PCOS complications. You should also keep this in mind when doing your exercises for PCOS. It would help if you find a routine that targets this.
Final Thoughts
PCOS may be a difficult illness, but everything is possible with determination and enough self-care. Get to know your condition and how to fight back. Fortunately, exercise can be a significant part of PCOS management and is helpful for people. It’s more effective if you find a routine you can keep up with. So when formulating your routine, choose something you also actually enjoy doing. Always remember that you’re not alone in this battle.