Menopause & Exercising

Menopause was previously regarded as a singular change in a woman's life. However, with advancements in research, we now understand that menopause is an umbrella term for identifying the years, sometimes a decade, in which the female body will gradually stop menstruating, going through physical and mental changes due to the lack of particular hormones circulating in the body.

As mentioned, the severity of this process can vary between women and can last several years to a decade, significantly impacting a woman's daily activities, including work, socialising, and exercise. Here, we will discuss exercising through menopause, what to expect and what you can do NOW to best prepare for it.

Many hormones fluctuate and drop through the process of menopause, but here, we will focus on OESTROGEN. Oestrogen has the most significant effect on a woman's life when going through menopause. Essentially, as we age, our ovaries gradually stop releasing oestrogen, resulting in irregular periods and/or periods shorter in length; eventually, they stop altogether. Oestrogen is particularly essential for several functions within the female body:

  • Oestrogen is a crucial regulation for bone formation – it tells osteoblasts (cells responsible for building new bone formation) to do their job. Without oestrogen, osteoblast activity is secreted, allowing osteoclasts (cells that break down bone tissue) to continue "eating" away at the damaged bone, with nothing to rebuild. Further down the road, this can lead to conditions such as osteoporosis and osteopenia (bone diseases) and further bone breaks, fractures, and incidences of falling in the elderly female population.
  • Oestrogen is a regulator of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), responsible for pumping out our fight-or-flight hormones, such as adrenaline. Without oestrogen to govern this, the ANS goes haywire, causing a sense of panic and hot flushes to arise. This can further affect sleep quality and the ability to exercise in a hot environment as your body heats up faster and struggles to cool itself down.
  • Oestrogen also plays a role in metabolism. Reduced oestrogen levels may lower metabolic rate (the rate at which the body converts stored energy into working energy), thus lowering energy expenditure through mundane tasks. Equally, as we age, we lose muscle mass (sarcopenia), which affects our muscle's ability to contract forcefully (lowered oestrogen levels = lowered muscle mass and strength-building capabilities). The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn (metabolic rate); thus, as women age and experience a reduction in muscle mass and strength, our metabolic rate lowers. This can all lead to an increase in weight and burning fewer calories. 
  • Oestrogen increases your insulin sensitivity (how sensitive your body is to insulin and its ability to pull sugar out of the bloodstream and into cells after eating for energy production). With decent levels of oestrogen, lower levels of insulin are realised by the pancreas to balance blood sugar levels. Still, with less oestrogen, the body appears to become more insulin resistant, meaning more insulin is needed to try and balance blood sugar levels, which further triggers more fat storage.

So, what can you do to best prepare for menopause, so your training and an active lifestyle are not severely affected?

  • Start RESISTANCE TRAINING NOW – bone mass reaches roughly 90% of development by the time we reach 18 years old, so weight/resistance training in adolescence/childhood is crucial. Encouraging teenage girls to lift weights in the gym, under supervised and qualified guidance, will ensure they build good bone density. By the time they are 30yrs plus, it will hopefully encourage them to continue with this lifestyle and prepare them for what is to come with the bone density loss not being as severe as someone who hasn't lifted weights before. Equally, the focus should be on strength AND power training – the speed and strength of muscle contraction diminish with age, so moving heavy weight is important, but also moving heavy-ish weight FAST is arguably more so.
  • Try and stick to food low (<55) to moderate (56 – 69) on the glycemic index (GI) scale (i.e. non-starchy vegetables, nuts, Greek yoghurt, brown rice, and wholemeal bread, to name a few). The GI scale gives food a relative ranking on how they affect blood sugar levels – food with low GI values is more slowly digested, absorbed and metabolised. They cause a lower and slower rise in blood sugar levels; therefore, less insulin is released to return these levels to normal. This will potentially lower the process of excess fat storage in the body as we age.
  • Ensure your hydration is on point – as mentioned, menopausal women will be at a disadvantage when it comes to cooling themselves down from exercise. News flash – plain water doesn't adequately hydrate you, so you can either drink a low-sugar electrolyte drink or make your own electrolyte beverages from recipes found online. 
  • Promote protein intake and stay physical activity as much as possible! Most health organisations advise 1.6-2g/per kg of body weight to promote the maintenance and building of muscle mass. We want to encourage a food-first approach to nutrition; however, a whey protein supplement can also be effective as a top-up.

As true as the old saying is, "you don't stop playing because you get old; you get old because you stop playing" – continue being physically active and do not let this natural ageing process set you back!


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