What's The Best Type of Exercise For Insulin Resistance?

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In this article:

• Insulin Resistance & Exercise
• Is high intensity interval training (HIIT) bad for PCOS?
• What should I do instead of HIIT exercise?
• Zone Two Training, Explained
• How long should I exercise?
• How do you get to Zone Two?
• What does Zone Two training feel like?
• Why is Zone Two training beneficial?
• Creating a Sustainable Exercise Routine

Learn about the best form of exercise for people with PCOS or insulin resistance, and how to establish a movement practice that you can stick to long term.

Insulin Resistance & Exercise

Monica Moore:

Hi everyone, I'm Monica Moore, a nurse practitioner and health coach at Illume Fertility. In this episode of Ask Monica, we're talking about something I'm really excited about, which is, "What kind of exercise is good for insulin resistance?"

If you have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), you are likely insulin-resistant. However, there are a lot of people who are insulin-resistant and don't even realize it.

This insulin resistance can lead to something called impaired glucose tolerance, which can lead to prediabetes, which can eventually lead to diabetes. It can also lead to a host of other not-so-good metabolic effects.

In terms of exercise, I will always say that whatever type of movement you enjoy and have fun doing, that you're going to keep up and sustain, is what you should do. A lot of times we think, "I have to do this super intense workout program," and that never lasts.

Is high intensity interval training (HIIT) bad for PCOS?

I want to talk about a particular kind of exercise called high intensity interval training (HIIT). 

This is where you get close to your maximum heart rate for short periods of time, then stop, then repeat. Many group exercise classes (such as spin classes and Orange Theory circuits) or even working with a trainer, will include HIIT. I think HIIT has gotten a really good reputation for burning calories, and after a certain point you can burn fat - that is true.

But when you're insulin-resistant, it can make you very hungry afterwards. So insulin resistance affects our brain in a way that skews our hormones, where it makes us not feel full as quick as we should. We feel hungry all the time, even though we shouldn't.

When you have insulin resistance, high intensity interval training can actually make you feel really hungry for the rest of the day. This is my personal experience, and is actually starting to be supported by the literature. It can be very frustrating.

The thought is, "I'm exercising not only to feel good, but probably also to lose a little bit of weight." So being hungry rest of the day can make it feel like you're exercising just to eat more, and that's frustrating.

What should I do instead of HIIT exercise?

The kind of training that I recommend for the people that I work with, and that I do myself, is called Zone Two Training. Let's explore what that means and how to incorporate it.

Zone Two Training, Explained

Zone Two Training is basically moderate level training for longer periods of time. So as opposed to high-level, high-intensity training for short periods of time, this is more moderate intensity training for long periods of time.

How long should I exercise?

It really depends on what you're doing already. A lot of the research will say 45 minutes. But if you aren't exercising at all currently, then it might be 15 minutes. If you're already kind of in an exercise routine, it might be 30 minutes.

How do you get to Zone Two?

If you look online, you will find calculators that will ask you to plug in your age and help you figure out what your maximum heart rate is. Take 60-75% of your max heart rate to figure out where your heart rate should be.

Pro tip: If you're wearing a smart watch (like an Apple Watch) it will calculate it for you.

Try this free workout:

Explore how exercise impacts your body and helps combat PCOS symptoms, various movement options, and get a sample PCOS workout (with helpful visual demonstrations).

What does Zone Two training feel like?

I tell people to think about it in terms of their rate of perceived exertion.

How do you feel? When you're doing Zone Two Training, the best way I can describe it is, you're really unable to hold a full conversation without pausing for breath. So it's not like you're pausing for breath between each word - that might be too much.

But if you're able to get part of a sentence out before you need to stop and take a breath, you're probably pretty close to "Zone Two."

Why is Zone Two training beneficial?

Zone Two Training has been known to help improve insulin resistance. It might also help lower blood pressure over time. It has a ton of positive cardiometabolic effects that are worth looking into. It's also, in my opinion, much easier to do.

So yes, it feels like you're working out longer, but you don't feel so breathless that you're uncomfortable, or feel like it's so hard that you dread doing it.

When you dread exercising, or you're worried about exercising, you release stress hormones. Stress hormones can cause your body to hold on to fat, particularly belly fat, which is exactly what we don't want to do. 

Creating a Sustainable Exercise Routine

This brings us back to our earlier discussion - whatever your movement practice is, it should be something that you like, something that feels fun to you, and something that you look forward to doing. You can certainly mix it up, it doesn't have to be the same thing all the time.

The truth? I don't think you need to have a formal exercise practice. You just need to have A movement practice. So when you wake up in the morning, you're going to say to yourself, "How do I want to move today?" not "Am I going to be able to exercise?"

If you want some more ideas or you want to talk to one of Illume's health coaches, please contact your nurse or patient navigator. We can either talk to you or send you information about this.

The bottom line is that it's really, really, really important, both for your mental and physical health, to have a regular movement practice!

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