What is considered excessive exercise when trying to conceive?

Nov 24

If you are wondering what is considered excessive exercise when trying to conceive, you’re come to the perfect place!

Here’s the deal: I’m going to pretend like we are besties having coffee or lattes at our local spot and I’m going to tell you everything I know about exercise during your trying to conceive era.

Movement is SO beneficial for fertility.

You need enough exercise for your lymphatic system to function well (which helps your body eliminate toxins), to support better sleep, to keep your cardiovascular system healthy, and to help stabilize blood sugar, especially if you have PCOS. Exercise can be a really powerful tool for hormone regularity.

But there is a very fine line between enough exercise and too much exercise, and too much movement can absolutely disrupt your hormone function.

I typically see two types of patients:

The patients who are working out so intensely and so often that they are not ovulating or not having a period at all, so we work together to find a plan that incorporates movement but less intensity.
And the patients who are not moving their bodies in any structured way, so we work together to get them moving in a way that feels good.

My goal is for us to meet in the middle and find a nice balance. By the end of this, I hope you have a clear idea of what a fertility friendly workout plan can look like and how to support your body instead of stressing it out.

How Exercise Impacts Fertility

Healthy movement is such a powerful tool when you are trying to conceive, but I want to break it down by each mode of exercise, because each one can be supportive of your fertility in different ways.

Walking

Walking is one of my favorite forms of movement for fertility. It is incredible for the pelvis because of the natural rotation that happens with every step. That movement helps push lymphatic fluid from your legs up into your abdomen (the direction it needs to be moving in), which is basically how your body removes toxic waste. Your lymphatic system is one of the most underrated players in fertility. When it is functioning well, it pulls congestion and toxins away from your reproductive organs.

Walking is also amazing for stabilizing blood sugar. Even a simple ten minute walk after a meal can help lower your blood sugar because your muscles pull glucose from your bloodstream to use as energy, which helps your blood sugar levels tremendously.

Pilates

Pilates is another great option. It is generally gentle, low impact, and fantastic for core strengthening. Again, you are increasing blood flow through the lumbopelvic region, which means more circulation to the uterus and ovaries and more support for your lymphatic system. It also helps with alignment, mobility, and creating more space in the abdomen and pelvis, which can only be good for fertility.

Strength Training

Strength training is great for blood sugar regulation, too. It helps your muscles become more insulin sensitive, so your body handles glucose more efficiently. This is vital for the girlies with PCOS. It supports hormone balance, boosts metabolism, and improves overall resilience. When done appropriately, with enough rest and enough food to match your needs, strength training can be a huge win for fertility.

HIIT

HIIT can be great for your cardiovascular system, but if you are trying to conceive, I usually recommend avoiding a lot of high intensity and high impact workouts. This is especially true if you are dealing with irregular cycles, no cycles at all, or any signs of hormonal burden. HIIT spikes cortisol, and if your body is already overwhelmed, this can make ovulation and menstruation even harder.

Yoga

Yoga is wonderful for stress management. It is lower impact, promotes mobility and core stability, and supports the nervous system. A calmer nervous system means calmer hormones. Yoga also helps shift you into parasympathetic (rest and digest) mode, which your reproductive system absolutely loves.

If you are someone who is not having a cycle, whether that is from excessive exercise, an eating disorder, or simply not eating enough to match your caloric needs, you will notice that scaling back intensity and frequency while increasing healthy foods, especially healthy fats, can improve your cycle. My avid high intensity exercisers are usually the ones I am gently encouraging to pull back and switch to walking, Pilates, or yoga during this season. This is not forever! There will be a time to go back to higher intensity workouts if you enjoy them. But if your cycle has been impacted by exercise, this is not the ideal approach during the trying to conceive period.

Signs You May Be Exercising Too Much

Before we get into the signs that you might be exercising too much, it helps to understand what is happening physiologically during your menstrual cycle.

Ovulation actually begins in the brain at a structure called the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus releases gonadotropin releasing hormones that communicate with the pituitary gland.

The pituitary gland then releases FSH, or follicle stimulating hormone

FSH gives your ovaries the green light to grow follicles. Those follicles work to produce a dominant follicle, and that dominant follicle releases estrogen.

Rising estrogen tells the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone, and LH is what triggers ovulation.

Now here is where exercise comes into play..

If you are over exercising, under eating, or doing a combination of both, and your body perceives that it is starving or under stress, your brain is going to prioritize survival.

The hypothalamus is not going to initiate this entire process of releasing gonadotropin releasing hormones. When that happens, ovulation does not occur. This is called hypothalamic amenorrhea.

Signs that you might be exercising too much include not ovulating, not having a period, or having irregular cycles. An irregular cycle is one that you cannot predict within a twenty four to forty eight hour window in terms of ovulation timing and overall cycle length. Over-exercising can also show up as incredible fatigue after workouts, trouble recovering between workouts, changes in your sleep after intense exercise, and even trouble conceiving despite eating well and living a healthy lifestyle.

If you are trying to conceive and you are working out intensely and frequently, it may be worth scaling things back just a little. You can support your body without overwhelming it, and that small shift might be what helps your cycle regulate again.

How Excessive Exercise Disrupts Your Hormones

Now let’s talk about the pregnenolone steal, because this is one of the biggest ways that excessive exercise can disrupt your hormones.

Pregnenolone is like the great grandmother of your reproductive hormones. Everything branches out from her. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, all of them come from pregnenolone.

Your body was created to survive. That is always the number one priority. So if your body senses any type of stress, it shifts you into fight, flight, or freeze mode, also known as a sympathetic state. Excessive exercise or under-eating can absolutely push you into this survival mode because your body interprets that as starvation or threat. When your body thinks you are starving, it is not going to prioritize reproduction. It is going to prioritize keeping you alive.

When you are in fight or flight mode, your body believes it needs more cortisol. Cortisol is your main stress hormone, so it pulls resources toward cortisol production. This is where the pregnenolone steal happens. Instead of using pregnenolone to make reproductive hormones, your body diverts it toward making more cortisol.

So if you are over training and not eating enough, your body is sensing stress. If you are not eating enough, your body is sensing starvation. And when your body thinks you are starving, it will always choose survival over ovulation. That is why excessive exercise and under-eating can completely shut down your cycle.

A Sample Weekly Exercise Routine When You Are Trying to Conceive

Now that you know how movement affects your hormones, let’s talk about what a balanced weekly routine can actually look like. This is where most people over complicate things, but it really can be simple and supportive.

If you have no known diagnoses, a really solid weekly routine might look like:

Two days of walking
Two days of strength training
Two days of Pilates or yoga

This mix gives you circulation, core stability, strength, and nervous system support without overwhelming your hormones. It is balanced, intentional, and gentle enough that your body still feels safe to ovulate.

If you have PCOS, I tweak things a bit because blood sugar regulation is such a huge piece of the picture. For PCOS, I usually suggest:

Three days of strength training
Three days of walking

And the goal with strength training is to actually build muscle, not burn yourself out. Muscle makes your body more insulin sensitive and helps regulate blood sugar so your hormones can stabilize. If you can do your strength sessions after eating, even better. You get even more of that blood sugar benefit.

This does not have to be complicated. It does not have to be extreme. It just has to support your physiology, not fight it.

Listening to Your Body During the Trying to Conceive Season

You’ve probably heard me say this or read it from one of my blogs, but it is always worth repeating: learn to listen to your body!

No matter what topic we are talking about, listening to your body wins every time. Pay attention to your food cues, hunger cues, cravings, fatigue, soreness, and energy levels.

TTC is an ideal season to really tune in to what your body is trying to tell you instead of punishing it or pushing through every single signal. Your body is communicating with you all the time. Honor that. Trust that. Support that.

As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out. I do see patients virtually and in person in Sulphur Springs, Texas and Rockwall, Texas, and I am accepting new patients. If you are on your trying to conceive journey, consider our Fertility Foundations email series. It is a thirty day series of emails covering everything we think you should know about fertility before you start trying to conceive. The goal is for you to feel knowledgeable about your own body before you start the process and hopefully decrease the time to conception. I truly believe education on the front end leads to less heartache in this phase of life.

If you’re experiencing an abnormal cycle and want help, I am currently accepting new clients for one-on-one care. I see patients both virtually and in person in Sulphur Springs, Texas and Rockwall, Texas. You can fill out a form [here] and someone from our team will reach out to schedule your appointment.

If you’re preparing to start trying to conceive and want to better understand your ovulation and overall fertility, I highly recommend our 30-day email series, Fertility Foundations, created by me and my husband, who is a pharmacist. This series walks you through everything we believe you should know before trying to conceive—everything you weren’t taught in your high school health class.

You can read more about Fertility Foundations [here].