Fitness for Mid-Life Women

Do you feel like your workouts just aren’t working anymore? Are you struggling to find the motivation to exercise, even though you used to look forward to it before peri-menopause and menopause? Our bodies, moods, and mindsets change, making what used to be easy feel challenging. But finding a way to exercise that meets your needs and goals is crucial for your overall health and well-being during this transition, so let’s dive into how you can navigate fitness and exercise during menopause with confidence.

Regular exercise during menopause can:

• Prevent Osteoporosis: Preserve muscle mass and strength and support joint health with strength training.

• Manage Weight: Combat menopausal weight gain and boost metabolism through regular physical activity.

• Reduce Cardiovascular Risks: Improve blood circulation and lower blood pressure

• Boost Mood: Combat mood swings and stress, enhancing overall well-being.

• Reduce Hot Flashes: Decrease the frequency and severity of hot flashes.

• Improve Sleep: Help you sleep better.

• Counteract Metabolic Changes: Combat muscle loss and increased body fat.

• Support Hormonal Balance. 

1. Estrogen and Exercise:

Estrogen levels fluctuate  during peri-menopause and eventually decline during post-menopause. This impacts your fitness in several ways: 

• Higher Estrogen Levels promote better glucose processing, insulin sensitivity, and cortisol control, aiding muscle building and repair, and boosting confidence and motivation. If you are still in peri-menopause when estrogen is higher than in post-menopause, it is important to take advantage of this time to build muscle.
• Lower Estrogen Levels make it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it, increase cortisol and stress, and decrease muscle tone and motivation. Despite the increased importance of exercise during menopause, your motivation might wane

2. Thyroid and Exercise:

Thyroid hormone levels decrease during this time, acting as energy regulators in your body. This can lead to weight gain and lower energy levels, making it hard to maintain a consistent exercise routine.

3. Testosterone and Exercise:

Testosterone also declines, reducing its benefits for muscle building and repair, metabolism boosting, and supporting bone density and strength. This contributes to weight gain and loss of bone strength.

4. Cortisol and Exercise:

Cortisol can either increase or decrease depending on the type of exercise. Understanding cortisol’s impact on exercise is key to creating a plan that supports your goals. Prolonged cardio can raise cortisol levels, while strength training and HIIT can help lower cortisol. Strength training is particularly beneficial in peri-menopause and post-menopause, as it helps build muscle mass.

1. Mind-Body Connection:
Incorporate mind-body practices such as yoga, tai chi, or meditation to reduce stress, improve overall well-being and improve menopause fitness.

2. Social Support:
Engage in fitness activities with friends or join group classes for motivation, accountability, and enjoyment.

3. Variety:
Mix up workouts to prevent boredom and plateauing. Try different forms of exercise, such as swimming, dancing, hiking, or cycling, to challenge different muscle groups.

4. Rest and Recovery:
Prioritize rest and recovery to allow the body to repair and rebuild muscles, reduce the risk of injury, and prevent burnout.

5. Listen to Your Body:
Tune in to your body’s signals and adjust exercise intensity or type as needed to prevent overexertion and injury

Adding resistance training to your exercise during menopause helps maintain muscle and bone mass, improves insulin sensitivity, boosts metabolism, and improves quality of life.
 

Fitness Goals:

• Lift heavier weights 2 to 3 times a week.
• 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps (if you can do more reps the weight is not heavy enough).
• Those more advanced can work out 4 to 5 days a week with heavier weights and lower reps.
• Challenge yourself by increasing weight progressively.
• One full day of recovery between resistance training sessions. On rest days however, it is still important incorporate other movement exercises, such as walking, stretching, or yin yoga. 
• Menopausal women do need longer for muscles to repair, so be patient. 

Adding interval training to your menopause fitness plan, stimulates human growth hormone, improves insulin sensitivity, reduces blood sugar, increases mitochondrial energy, and improves fat burning.  
 

Fitness Goals:

• Intervals should be short and intense (between 30 to 60 seconds) to avoid building excess cortisol. 
• Each short interval should be exercised at 80 to 90% of maximum capacity. When at this capacity you cannot carry on a conversation, so if you are able to still talk, you have not reached a high enough capacity.
• Between each high capacity short interval there is a rest interval of low to moderate capacity.
• Example 1: High intensity short interval for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest with low to moderate capacity, for a total of 8 times - or 4 minutes.
• Example 2: High intensity 30 seconds sprint, followed by a 30 second rest, for a total of 6 times - or 6 minutes.
• 2 to 3 times a week.
• Examples include squats, jump squats, hill training, sprinting, or cycle sprints.

• Incorporating daily walking as part of your menopause fitness goals, can boost your mood, lower blood sugar, reduce body fat, and improve cognition. Aim for a consistent and regular walking routine, walking multiple times a day, between 15 and 45 minutes a session for a total of 7,500 to 9,000 steps a day. 
• Yoga, Pilates, or tai chi 1 to 2 times a week.
• Balance and stretching exercises 2 to 3 times a week.

The decrease in estrogen during menopause can weaken the pelvic floor which can lead to urinary leakage, prolapse, lower back pain and an increased risk of injury. There may also be an imbalance within the pelvic floor where some areas become tight and others weak.
 

Menopause Fitness Goals:

• Kegel exercises are not appropriate for all women as the pelvic floor may be either  too weak or too tight. Doing kegels with a tight pelvic floor will just make the situation worse.
• Eliminate exercises that put too much pressure on the pelvic floor. You may need to avoid jumping, aerobics, and heavy weights.
• Proper Assessment by a pelvic floor physiotherapist is recommended to determine which exercises are appropriate and which are not.

The decrease in estrogen during menopause can lead to sarcopenia, which is age-related loss of muscle mass. This can lead to loss of strength and stability, as well as increased risk of injury. After age 30, muscle mass can decrease between 3 to 8% per decade, and declines even faster after age 60.
 

Menopause Fitness Goals:

• Regular and consistent weight bearing exercise, such as walking.
• Regular and consistent resistant training exercises.
• Adequate protein.
• Yoga, meditation, or other stress management techniques.

Osteoporosis, characterized by a loss of bone mass and density, generally progresses without symptoms, until a fracture occurs.  The decrease in hormones during menopause can cause bones to become more porous and less dense, making them fragile and brittle,  and much mor susceptible to fracture and breakage. Bone mass in women peaks at around age 40, and then begins to decrease as hormones decrease during menopause. Physical inactivity can lead to even greater bone loss.
 

Menopause Fitness Goals:

• Consistent and regular weight bearing exercise, such as walking, to put stress on bones and strengthen them.
• Resistant training also puts the necessary stress on bones to help make them stronger -  start with lighter weights and add more repetitions. Also use machines or resistance bands for a safer, more controlled range of motion.
• Avoid exercises with a high risk of falling. 
• Avoid foam rollers as they can put too much pressure on bones.
• Get clearance from your doctor before starting an exercise program.

Although no specific link has been established between frozen shoulder and menopause, many women in menopause experience it as a painful, inflammatory condition in which fibrous tissue develops around the shoulder joint, causing pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. The pain can be intense and usually occurs suddenly, impacting most daily activities.
 

Menopause Fitness Goals:

• Physiotherapy.
• Stretching and strength training with a focus on posture.
• Anti-inflammatory diet.

With the decrease in hormones during menopause, many women can experience a lack of energy, drive, and motivation, which can severely impact the degree to which they want to begin or maintain a fitness and movement program. Participating in regular exercise will eventually improve your mood and motivation. Just starting is key.  
 

Menopause Fitness Goals:

• Regular walking on a daily basis can begin to improve mood, energy, and motivation.
• Yin-yoga or light stretching will help reduce stress and improve your mood as well.
• Once motivation increases, a resistance training protocol is recommended.