Exercise for Menopause

If you are a woman 40+, you may be experiencing baffling and frustrating symptoms of menopause. If you have noticed an increase in body fat around your middle and are thinking, “I need to exercise more and eat less,” you may want to rethink your strategy. What you are doing actually promotes the accumulation of body fat. 

Do away with long endurance runs, rides, elliptical, etc. (unless you are training for a specific event). Working in a training heart rate zone of 70 – 80% no longer works to ‘burn fat’. Focus on the low heart rates (55 – 65%) or the super high (80+%) for the best results. 

Working out at a moderate intensity in the menopause transition, we end up working out at an intensity that is too hard to be easy and too easy to be hard. We end up increasing our cortisol and moving into sympathetic drive – we have difficulty coming down – we are ‘tired but wired.’ Staying in that sympathetic state of moderate work does not stimulate increases in strength, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and improvements in body composition. When we do long, slow work, we get fatter and slower. 

Here's why: 

As our hormones flatline: 

• There is an increase in total body inflammation (losing lean mass and increased metabolic disorders) 

• We become more insulin resistant. 

• Decrease in lipid removal. 

• Decreased stress resilience. 

• We receive signals in this stage of life to lose muscle mass and bone density mass at an accelerated rate. 

The effects of flatlined hormones on strength & conditioning: 

• Reduced response to build muscle 

• Increased muscle cell death 

• Loss of strength & power 

• Impaired insulin signaling – can’t bring circulating glucose into the muscle cell for energy. Instead converted to stored fat. 

• Increased lipid accumulation (Blood cholesterol land triglycerides levels increase) 

To counteract the withdrawal of estrogen and progesterone from the body, we need external stressors that will cause positive adaptations like those hormones used to support. 

Plyometrics (Box jumps, squat jumps, skipping, jump rope. Can’t jump? Find exercises that require explosive power: battle ropes, medicine ball slams) Once or twice a week. 

• Improves muscle power & composition  

• Improved mitochondrial function 

• Increased bone mineral density 

• Improved transportation of glucose into the cells. 

S.I.T. (Sprint Interval Training): Alternating short periods of intense anaerobic work (20 – 30 seconds) with long recovery periods (1 – 2 minutes).  

• Increases lean body mass 

• Improves aerobic fitness 

• Decreases fat mass 

• Allows muscle cells to pull in glucose without insulin. 

HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)  

• Greater blood glucose control 

• Improved cognition and working memory 

• Improved cardiovascular health 

• Stronger stimulus to decrease visceral and subcutaneous fat and body weight. 

Heavy resistance training. Focus on strength (1 – 6 reps), not hypertrophy (12 – 20 reps). 

• Improved neuromuscular response 

• Improved joint stability and balance 

• Increased muscular strength and endurance  

• Improved bone mineral density 

• Decreases visceral and total body fat 

• Helps with hot flashes. 

Consult a strength and conditioning specialist for a movement assessment (moving right decreases injury) and a workout plan to help you get ready to lift heavy and tolerate high-intensity work. Plan to work out hard only 3 days a week. The other 4 days are focused on rest, recovery, and low-intensity exercises such as yoga, Thai chi, hiking, and dog walking. 

Your goal is to manage cortisol levels, which helps to manage visceral and subcutaneous fat.