How to Exercise during IVF
Trying to conceive can be a very stressful and emotional roller coaster. Add in the additional components that IVF brings it can be challenging to focus on other aspects of your health and well being.
However, this is an ideal time to support your body through the process with other healthy measures, such as exercise.
Exercise has many benefits for your health that can improve your IVF success:
Stress relief
Inflammation reduction
Support of your detox organs
Improves sleep
Supports gut health & digestion
Improves egg quality
Improves circulation
Helps manage weight
Can calm the mind
These are only a few of the benefits of exercise and that’s not touching upon the benefits for laying the foundation once pregnant such as:
strength (which includes flexibility) of your core and pelvic floor
posture and joint support
pain relief, management, avoidance
shorter labor
reduced chances of birth injury
and all the benefits for baby!
So exercise is really an important piece to the trying to conceive puzzle, regardless of if you trying with or without assistance.
Unfortunately, it can be confusing to know what to do for exercise so you can reap the benefits without causing any harm or loosing interest.
To help you with this here are six tips for how to exercise for IVF success.
Identify your beliefs
This is an important first step and here’s why.
To see the long term benefits of exercise you have to be committed and you have to do what your body is going to respond to in that certain phase of your life.
Here are some common beliefs around exercise that can be limiting:
When I exercise I have to go all out, if I’m not sweaty at the end it wasn’t worth it
I don’t have time to carve out for exercise
If I don’t exercise I get bored and eat
I find exercise boring, it’s just not interesting
When it comes to your beliefs around exercise, you need to dig in and see what really comes up. Take 5 minutes and do a brain dump about how you feel about exercise. There are no wrong answers. Then go back and see if anything you wrote resonates with you for why you aren’t exercising or why it’s hard for you to change the style of exercise, etc.
Find what interests you
There are so many forms of exercise and some are more beneficial than others while undergoing IVF. But if you aren’t interested in the type of exercise recommended it’s going to be really hard to stick with it.
The forms of exercise that are most recommended during IVF are:
Walking or light jogging
Yoga
Pilates
Light weights
Cycling
Swimming
Dancing
Part of the confusion is within some of these forms that are multiple options. Such as yoga. You may be interested in Bikram (hot) yoga which is not ideal while TTC or during IVF but not interested in Vinyasa yoga or Yin Yoga which would be more benefitial. Unfortunately, not all forms of yoga are created equal and may be harmful during IVF (or even while TTC in general).
So start with what interests you and make sure it is a safe during IVF.
Do no harm
Even though I don’t like making a blanket statement about exercise because everyone is different, there is a time and a place to start certain forms of exercise. When you are undergoing IVF treatment, it’s not the time to be starting a new rigorous routine. You’re body will be working hard to assimilate the hormones and grow follicles for retrieval. The last thing you want to do is overtax it with intense, vigorous exercise.
Even though studies have shown that exercise can be beneficial for fertility, there are other studies that show exercise can interfere with the menstrual cycle and ovulation. So which is it?
Both.
Vigorous, high intensity, athlete type exercise can interfere with ovulation and the menstrual cycle. However, moderate intensity exercise improves your insulin resistance, inflammation, weight, and so much more.
So pay attention to your body. It will give you the signals if you are doing do much. If you’ve never exercised before, be more cautious and start slower. If you are used to exercise, you may need to modify your intensity, frequency and style of exercise.
Not all exercise is created equal
Parts of this go along with your exercise beliefs and what you believe exercise is.
To me exercise is moving or using your body in an intentional way to reach a goal.
If you’re goal is to have a successful IVF round, then moving your body is a way that will benefit that is the type of exercise you are looking for.
If your goal was to run a marathon, the style of movement would look different.
This means that you can turn more movement into an “exercise” by putting intention into it. What I mean by this is thinking about your function & form.
Function is how your muscles are working for you. Are your movements controlled.? Do your joints feel supported and mobile (or vulnerable and stiff)? Are you able to maintain good form through different speeds and positions?
Form is are you in good posture and alignment. Or are you intentionally in a unnatural posture or alignment to work outside your normal range.
So just thinking about these things with regular movement can turn it into an exercise.
For example, while on a walk you focus on lengthening your spine while honoring your natural curves, keeping your ribs over your pelvis, and engage your pelvic floor and core while exhaling all while keeping a light heel strike and propelling your legs by pushing through with the back of your legs (engaging your glutes!) and elongating from your heel to your hip to prevent pelvic drop (or that very common hip sway or swagger that comes with weak hips).
Boom, automatic up level of walking.
Start Now
There is no time like the present. Once you have identified your beliefs around exercise and have figured out what sparks interest for the type of “exercise” you want to do, start now.
Make a game plan to begin this week. Again, if you’ve never exercised before start 1-2 times per week and gradually increase. The more committed you are, the easier it will become to “fit it in”.
Or take the “I can turn anything into an exercise” mentality and make a commitment to being more mindful of your movement through out the day. You may be surprised that you want to start to carve out time to do more traditional style exercise once you see how your body feels!
And lastly…
Choose to support the process
You are working so hard to bring a child into this world, why not support that process with exercise that is targeted to supporting your reproductive health.
Certain exercises, like some yoga poses, breath work, and walking for example improve blood flow to your reproductive organs.
But you can also add in exercise that removes potential barriers to IVF. Such as scar tissue or muscle tension that reduces blood flow to your uterus and diminishes the optimal lining for implantation.
By stretching and performing mobility exercises that lengthen muscles around your trunk in a supported way you are improving your chances.
Because of the delicate nature of IVF and the vigorous hormone change that promotes follicle growth you do need to be careful about unsupported twisting causing ovarian torsion, which is very rare, but something to be mindful of.
When in doubt, if you’re not sure, avoid or modify until you can ask an exercise professional, like a pelvic floor or women’s health Physical Therapist or Physio who works with women during the time.
Exercise should be fun, interesting and helping you reach your goal. It has proven to be beneficial for reproductive health in many ways with no exception during IVF.
If you want more individual guidance on a specific exercise routine that targets your needs during IVF, schedule a free consult call with me, Dr. Ryan Bailey, and we can come up with your next step.