EXERCISE
AT MENOPAUSE
WHAT WORKS
NOW
We still want results from our workouts, yet even regular exercisers can experience a growing midriff, feeling weaker and having more niggles and regular injuries.
If your goal is to reduce body fat and stay strong, powerful and agile, exercise has a vital role to play. But now, more than ever it’s essential to exercise in a way that works with your hormones, which means doing activities that change how the cells in your body work:
That force muscle cells to grow and contract strongly so you stay strong and powerful
That make muscle cells better at using glycogen (from the carbs you eat) for fuel rather than storing it as fat around your middle
That encourage the body to release stored fat to use it as exercise fuel
IMPROVING
MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS
Exercise has been proven to slow down the ageing process more than any other anti-ageing intervention and moving regularly will benefit every part of your body.
Exercise will help with the following issues commonly associated with menopause:
· Hot flashes
· Poor sleep
· Joint pain (from general inflammation)
· Mood
· Stress resilience
· Maintaining muscular strength and power
· Bone health
· Gut health
· Immune system
· Fat loss
HOW TO
EXERCISE
To begin with, I want to be clear that all exercise is beneficial, and there are many reasons we choose certain exercises; because we enjoy it, for the social element, to suit our fitness level and ability, the convenience of how it fits into our life, and accessibility. Achievement goals include things like running a half marathon, mountain biking, road cycling (my current goal is training for a cycling holiday in the Alps) or maintaining an active lifestyle for adventures like hiking or climbing.
The approach I explain below is for the specific goal of changing body composition, which means reducing body fat while increasing muscle strength and power.
WHAT
DOESN’T WORK
A normal response to weight gain is to up the cardio, following the ‘burn as many calories as possible.’ At this stage of our lives, this doesn’t work for two reasons. One, is that excessive cardio is a cause of low-level, chronic stress. This is bad for us because it exacerbates the problem of declining strength and increasing body fat.
The second reason is that it doesn’t put enough acute stress on our bodies. Acute stress is different because it is short, intense, and targeted and crucially, it triggers the body to adapt. In this case to burn fat and increase muscle – adaptations that we want to happen.
Cardio training doesn’t provide enough stimulus for this which is why regular exercisers notice their body changing, despite keeping up their exercise regimes.
HEAVY
STRENGTH TRAINING
Estrogen is an anabolic hormone, which means it plays a role in building muscles. Without enough estrogen muscle mass decreases. While HRT replaces some of the estrogen, it won’t build muscle, it just slows down the rate we lose it.
Fortunately, there is another way! Even with less estrogen, our body will still respond to external stimuli if it is strong and regular enough. Lifting heavy weights is proven to build muscle mass and bone density in women as old as 90!
To get the best results we need to target the large muscle groups in the body. This means doing squats, deadlifts, lat pulldowns, chest presses, shoulder presses and glute thrusts.
Heavy means lifting a weight you can only manage to lift for 6 reps before failing.
Of course, you need to start lighter and build up slowly, so you learn good form and don’t get injured. We need to play the long game here, and build up gradually to cultivate a routine that we can stick with for life. This is the perfect time to let go of those ‘lose a stone or change your body in 4-week programmes’ we see online and in the media. They don’t work. They are stressful and make us feel bad about ourselves. Let those goals go - for good!
Most of my clients, women in their late 40s and 50s have never lifted weights before, yet all of them have gradually trained to be able to lift as heavy as they can manage - and once they start, they want to keep pushing themselves!
ADDING
HIIT
Adding HIIT (High-intensity interval training) to a strength training programme enhances the overall results. Studies done on post-menopausal women have shown that adding 20 minutes of HIIT to resistance training reduces body fat and increases muscle mass.
HIIT sessions are short bursts of intense activity when you are exercising at around 85% of your heart rate max. At this rate, you can only maintain the activity for less than a minute. After this is completed you rest until your heart rate comes back down again, and then repeat this process for 4-8 rounds. A true HIIT session lasts less than 20 minutes.
These intense activity bursts deliver a strong stimulus to the body to decrease visceral (deep belly fat) and subcutaneous fat. Other benefits include better blood glucose control and improved insulin sensitivity. It increases the number of mitochondria in the muscle and reduces total body inflammation.
It also improves the cardiovascular system and the function of the millions of veins and capillaries in your body, which helps reduce hot flashes.
PLYOMETRIC
TRAINING
As we age we don’t only lose muscle mass, we also lose muscle power which is our muscles’ ability for strong, fast contractions.
Plyometric training comprises short bursts of fast, explosive exercises, like jumping squats and lunges, boxing and battle ropes. Playing tennis and netball are examples of sports which include plyometric moving, jumping and turning quickly in multiple directions.
These exercises create strong forces through the body which improve bone mineral density. Other benefits include reduced inflammation and improved mitochondrial function (more energy produced by the body). It also improves our muscle cells ability to burn glucose instead of storing it as fat.
Like HIIT, we only need short bursts of plyometric training to get the benefits. Tacking 10 minutes onto the end of other exercise sessions is enough to get results.
WHERE TO
START
If you are already doing regular exercise, it may be easy to adapt your training to include these elements.
If not, you may feel daunted by what appears to be an intense and challenging exercise regime, so where do you start?
It’s important to play the long game here. Start with strength training at low weights to get used to working out and learn good form. Then gradually increase the weights you are using.
With HIIT and plyometric exercises, remember you only need to do small bursts of activity to get results. Choose exercises you can do confidently and perform them for 20-30 seconds before resting. Repeat 4-5 times and build up to around 8.
If you have any injuries or conditions which make it hard or painful to move quickly or jump, then get advice from a physio, your gym if you are a member or a personal trainer about exercises which are suitable for you.
THE POWER OF
STARTING SMALL
Don’t underestimate the power of making small changes. It’s tempting to go all in, but usually too difficult to sustain when you have a busy life and lots of responsibilities. Try these beginner-level 15-minute sessions. I’ve had lots of clients start here and still get great results, more energy and the motivation to make other small changes that help them gradually lose weight. All without feeling overwhelmed.