TTC and Exercise

[Emmalou0607]

Still fairly new to the TTC journey and getting lots of conflicting information about exercise and TTC.

I run around 15-25 miles a week and have done for the past 2 years, fairly regularly do half marathon distance or close. I wasn't the fittest person growing up and even on easy feeling runs now, my heart rate is up around 160-170 so would be considered intense exercise I think. I was to keep active but I'm worried that this might have an impact on implantation etc.

Has anyone had similar experiences or been given any actual advice on it not from Dr Google?

My friend is a midwife and she said in TTC and pregnancy you can do exercises you have always done.

Ie don't start a new exercise in pregnancy but you can carry on with what your body is use to.

Hi @Emmalou0607,

Similar background to you, did not grow up super active but have become a pretty active adult. For context I run 30-35 mpw, and I too worried about the amount while ttc. I lowered it to 25mpw, based solely on an article I read where they advice a cap on 4hrs of moderate exercise per week (I will need to see if I can find this article again to share, but not sure if there's much fact to backup that statement). I fell pregnant the first month we tried, while still doing long runs of 10 miles on the weekend.

(Full disclosure this pregnancy recently ended in a blighted ovum, but from everything I've read/heard there's is no correlation to exercise and miscarriage.)

There is a ton of research out there debunking the HR myth, I just went off perceived effort and kept all my runs at easy pace (here's a great podcast episode on running while pregnant open.spotify.com/episode/2J2zEVC5X02InWfSrZP7id?si=p6oL6-pmTbWlwZuFlP5D8A).

I also made sure I was getting plenty of sleep to recover, eating balanced meals and tracking ovulation to ensure my cycles weren't being impacted by my current workout routine. As I'd been consistently hitting 30 mile weeks the last few years, I didn't feel as if I was pushing myself outside of a comfortable level for me at anytime. About to start trying again once I get my first period post miscarriage and will continue to run ~25mpw but not racing during this time.