It never fails, I teach a PCOS class and walk away learning something new that challenges me to learn more about the syndrome.
This past week in Vermont, more than one woman in the class asked me why they experience so much physical pain after exercise.
I'd never heard that complaint before, but it made sense. With regards to a simple concept that can come into play for a couple of reasons.
The concept: When your body and diet's omega-6 content is high compared to its omega-3 content, one of the things that can happen is that your nervous system registers incoming stress at lower real levels of stress. And when it's there the way the nervous system registers that stress is more profound than it would be in a woman without PCOS. And…women with PCOS seem to already be programmed to have hypersensitive nervous systems.
Simply put, there's a double exercise whammy. Imagine you and your BFF, non-PCOS friend, are next to each other at the gym, both on elliptical trainers, set at the same intensity, same exercise duration, same data entered into the machine. You, with your PCOS, are likely to feel more stressed, more winded, and to experience a higher heart rate than your friend. Even if you've been training longer and are logically/theoretically in better shape than your friend.
What that means, is that you likely leave your aerobic/cardio intensity zone at a lower intensity of exercise than your friend, and enter the carb burning range, also meaning:
--you're not burning as much fat
--you're feeling more winded
--over time, you're bulking up more than you're burning fat.
When you burn a lot of carbohydrates with exercise, you create a lot of lactic acid, which can result in muscle soreness.
I proposed to the women in the class that for the rest of the week, they be sure to keep their exercise in the target heart rate zone. They did report that this level of exercise was lower than what they had been pursuing prior to our discussion, and that at this level of exercise they did not experience the soreness.
If we're on to something, there are some really important things to remember about exercise with PCOS.
1. Don't succumb to the"more is better" mentality! It may end up, because of the pain, making exercise so painful, you will develop a negative association with it. Don't let anyone who is not studying PCOS tell you that you need to work out harder. Listen to your body, and your target heart rate.
2. Drink plenty of water after you're finished. It does help to flush out any lactic acid you've accumulated, giving it less of an opportunity to hang around and cause pain.
Another likely consequence of this scenario is that because you're not burning fat, and you've used a lot of your muscle's carbohydrate stores, you are more likely to crave carbohydrates with exercise. So if exercise seems to be intensifying your cravings instead of tempering them…it could be a sign you're pushing yourself too hard. Women with PCOS often do that because they have been conditioned to believe they're not working hard enough at being healthy. Au contraire, they're often times working too hard at it…so hard the body fights back!
To calculate your THR:
1. Subtract your current age in years from 220.
2. Multipy this number by 0.65 and 0.8. The two numbers you get are the range between where your heart rate should be stabilizing during your exercise. If it's higher, dial it back…if it's lower, step it up.
Now go have some fun at the gym, in the yard, on the tennis court, wherever you enjoy moving!