"Getting fit makes you more fertile – simple as that," says Dr. Jeremy Groll, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio. "Exercise improves your insulin sensitivity."
But not just any exercise; the idea is combo fitness. An aerobic workout (such as running or biking) will increase your heart rate and lower body fat, but adding resistance training will build lean muscle and improve insulin response by 40 per cent. "It appears there is a synergistic benefit, and the two types of exercise combined are better than each one alone," says Groll. "Your skeletal muscle is the most insulin sensitive, so by improving lean muscle mass, you have more tissues to have that metabolic effect."
Aerobics: Walking, swimming, water aerobics, cycling or gardening
• Goal: Five 30-minute sessions a week
• Getting started: Aerobics work best if you raise your heart rate by 50 or 60 per cent, then maintain it throughout the exercise. To calculate your target rate, count your resting heartbeats per minute and add half of that number to your resting heart rate (resting heart rate of 80 plus 40 equals 120). Begin and end every session with a five-minute warm-up and warm down, to avoid injury and muscle strain.
Resistance: Weight training (pushups, bench presses, bicep curls), Pilates or yoga
• Goal: Two or three 20-minute sessions weekly
• Getting started: If you like weight training but aren't sure which weight is right for you, do one repetition of an exercise with the maximum weight you can manage. Forty per cent of that weight is how much you should begin working out with. (If you can do one
20-pound bicep curl, use eight-pound weights.)
Pilates and yoga: These are good options if you're not the sweaty-socks-and-barbells type. Originally developed in the 1920s and lauded for building muscles without bulk, Pilates focuses on core body strength and works several muscle groups simultaneously. Yoga, too, is a total body workout – the postures reduce tension, resting heart rate and blood pressure while increasing flexibility, tone and core strength. "Whether you believe it can help you tap into the universal consciousness and live in harmony with nature or not," remarks Groll, "the physical act of practising yoga postures will help you meet your exercise goals to increase your fertility."
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