Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a complicated endocrine disorder affecting many different areas of a sufferer's body and life. Reliable information can be hard to come by and symptoms such as infertility, excess facial and body hair, acne, fatigue and excess weight can leave women with PCOS feeling inadequate, demoralized and depressed with life.
There are many simple steps that women with PCOS can incorporate into their lives to gain control over PCOS and put them on the path to better health. In this series of articles, we will explore 20 simple and easy steps that can make a difference to PCOS.
Balance your exercise routine and exercise smart using HIIT
A balanced exercise routine should include many different types of exercise. Gentle aerobic exercise such as a half hour walk each day is great for stress reduction and strength training is excellent for healthy bones and strong muscles.
High intensity interval training or HIIT has become popular in recent years as an alternative to long hard slogs at the gym or on the field. HIIT provides the same or better aerobic and fat burning benefits as traditional forms of exercise but with a much reduced time commitment involved.
HIIT is exercising smart. It has been found to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce fasting blood glucose levels and provide the fastest and greatest increases in strength and fitness. Put simply, it gives you more 'bang for your buck' in terms of benefits for the time spent.
Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland have discovered that as little as 2-3 minutes, 3 times per week of High Intensity Interval Training significantly improved insulin sensitivity by 23% in just 2 weeks! Participants exercised strenuously for 30 second bursts over 2 weeks, completing just 4-6 of these short bursts on 6 out of 14 days.
The study found that:
Simple examples of HIIT that could easily fit into your everyday life might include
“The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”
You get the idea – almost anything strenuous for only 30 seconds at a time will help you increase your insulin sensitivity tremendously.
Everyone can do this … sometimes it is hard for us to fit a half hour exercise session into our day, but everyone can fit at least one 30 second session into their day, every single day. It takes hardly any time, no preparation and probably won’t even make you sweat!
Babraj JA, Vollaard NBJ, Keast C, Guppy FM, Cottrell G, Timmons JA. Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males. BMC Endocrine Disorders 2009, 9:3 doi:10.1186/1472-6823-9-3
There are many simple steps that women with PCOS can incorporate into their lives to gain control over PCOS and put them on the path to better health. In this series of articles, we will explore 20 simple and easy steps that can make a difference to PCOS.
Balance your exercise routine and exercise smart using HIIT
A balanced exercise routine should include many different types of exercise. Gentle aerobic exercise such as a half hour walk each day is great for stress reduction and strength training is excellent for healthy bones and strong muscles.
High intensity interval training or HIIT has become popular in recent years as an alternative to long hard slogs at the gym or on the field. HIIT provides the same or better aerobic and fat burning benefits as traditional forms of exercise but with a much reduced time commitment involved.
HIIT is exercising smart. It has been found to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce fasting blood glucose levels and provide the fastest and greatest increases in strength and fitness. Put simply, it gives you more 'bang for your buck' in terms of benefits for the time spent.
Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland have discovered that as little as 2-3 minutes, 3 times per week of High Intensity Interval Training significantly improved insulin sensitivity by 23% in just 2 weeks! Participants exercised strenuously for 30 second bursts over 2 weeks, completing just 4-6 of these short bursts on 6 out of 14 days.
The study found that:
Simple examples of HIIT that could easily fit into your everyday life might include
“The efficacy of a high intensity exercise protocol, involving only ~250 kcal of work each week, to substantially improve insulin action in young sedentary subjects is remarkable. This novel time-efficient training paradigm can be used as a strategy to reduce metabolic risk factors in young and middle aged sedentary populations who otherwise would not adhere to time consuming traditional aerobic exercise regimes.”
You get the idea – almost anything strenuous for only 30 seconds at a time will help you increase your insulin sensitivity tremendously.
Everyone can do this … sometimes it is hard for us to fit a half hour exercise session into our day, but everyone can fit at least one 30 second session into their day, every single day. It takes hardly any time, no preparation and probably won’t even make you sweat!
Babraj JA, Vollaard NBJ, Keast C, Guppy FM, Cottrell G, Timmons JA. Extremely short duration high intensity interval training substantially improves insulin action in young healthy males. BMC Endocrine Disorders 2009, 9:3 doi:10.1186/1472-6823-9-3