Denise Yeats is a triathlete and Ironman certified coach. She has written an article about how to stay fit and strong through the peri-menopause and menopause.
Embracing the changes
As we move into our forties, I think there is a lot to celebrate. We have seen quite a bit of life and, as a result, we are wiser, more centred and hopefully ready to conquer the next half of our lifetime.
But in the midst of all of this empowerment, our bodies are changing. As our hormones start to fluctuate we can experience disrupted sleep, night sweats, bloating, fatigue and recurring muscle aches and injuries, among many other symptoms.
Often we feel that despite no change to our exercise and eating patterns, our shape does alter and particularly around the midriff.
What is happening – and what can we do?
For many women, their regular menstrual cycle can start to change in their forties, mainly due to hormones being in a state of flux. A depletion of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone all have an effect.
Although these hormones are generally in a state of depletion, oestrogen can be the dominant hormone. We start to have more anovulatory cycles, meaning that as an egg isn’t released, there isn’t the stimulus to produce progesterone, so causing a hormonal discrepancy.
This is where we start to feel those confusing changes in our bodies, and the closer we get to the actual cessation of our periods, the worse these become.
Menopause effects on fitness and training
Many women report a host of physical issues in the menopause years, including joint and tendon pain, plus sore muscles or muscle cramps.
Inflammation can be a problem, too, but in itself it can be a healthy, natural response to injury or disease. However, inflammation needs to be tempered so that it doesn’t go uncontrolled and do more harm than good. Oestrogen and progesterone work together to do this.
Depending on the form of oestrogen, oestrone (E1) or oestradiol (E2), and the situation, oestrogen can be anti-inflammatory or it can promote inflammation. Progesterone is anti-inflammatory.
In a perfect world, your hormones work together to keep unhealthy inflammation in check. This falls out of balance during your menopausal years when you have more unchecked oestrone, which promotes inflammation circulating through your body.
This can lead to an increase in total body inflammation – and a poor ability to adapt and respond, with a predisposition to things like iron deficiency, sore joints, puffiness, picking up respiratory tract infections and so on. We also have a decreased sensitivity to insulin, and how they moderate blood sugar control. This is what can cause that storage of belly fat.
What can we do to be stronger and fitter?
We should approach this as the new, positive chapter in our lives that it is. Women do have the capacity to continue to be strong and powerful through their forties and beyond. However, if inactive, around 3% of lean muscle mass can decrease each decade from the age of 30.
But the good news is, it is never too late to start. We just need to look at ways to train and maintain that neuromuscular stimulation and muscle integrity.
I have identified five top tips for staying fit and strong and maximising your training.
5 tips for a fit and strong menopause
- Lift heavy
We really need to build in some quality resistance training, low-rep heavy weights. Not only does this help with neuromuscular action, it also increases the stress on the bone and helps with bone turnover, increasing or preserving bone density.
You should aim to do exercises like squats and deadlifts, to a maximum of 5 or 6 reps.
Safety is a key factor here, of course, and you should work with a professional when you are learning to do this to ensure you are lifting correctly.
- High intensity interval training (HIIT)
One of the best ways to stimulate muscle production is short, sharp interval workouts that prompt your body to build lean muscle and shrink visceral fat. HIIT is more effective than a slow burn endurance workout.
This also helps your body to process insulin efficiently, making you less prone to insulin resistance, or becoming overweight.
These intervals can be built into most types of exercise, from running to cycling, rowing etc and work with very short (20 to 90 seconds maximum) of high intensity exercise, followed by longer recoveries.
The good news is that if these are done correctly, the total workout shouldn’t last more than about 30 minutes.
- Plyometrics
These exercises include exercises like jumping, hopping or bounding, or otherwise giving your bones and muscles the extra stimulus that comes when you push off against gravity and land back down.
The key is the multi-directional aspect rather than running, with exercises such as jumping jacks, side hops, skipping and so on which improve muscular strength, bone health, body composition, posture and physical performance.
- Do less volume and more intensity
This is the area where a lot of people struggle. The tendency at this time is to push harder and longer to get rid of this newly acquired body fat, but ultimately that backfires, putting you into a state of low-energy, high-stress cortisol cycling.
Encouragingly, women have that inherent ability to go long because of the sex differences within the muscle enzyme activity, as well as the body being predisposed to endurance.
So if you want to keep in those long, social workouts, make them just that, keeping in your lower heart rate zones where you can still hold a conversation.
- Prioritise protein post exercise
We need exercise stress and a protein dosage to actually stimulate muscle protein synthesis. These combined, both serve to take over that anabolic stimulus oestrogen used to have.
So if you’re doing hard, high-intensity exercise and you’re adequately dosing with protein afterward, it drops cortisol, brings the body out of a breakdown catabolic state and enhances the window for lean mass development.
The timing of this post-exercise protein is even more important for women than it is for men as our bodies return to baseline a lot quicker, whereas men have a longer window to refuel. Ideally, you should be getting your protein in within 30 minutes of your workout.
The other key things to know about protein are:
- Protein takes more work to digest than other foods, so it burns calories when we simply process it.
- It increases satiety.
- it is also a major player in immunity, hormones, enzymes, sleep and digestion.
As a rule of thumb, your daily nutrient intake should consist of about 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats. It is important to have enough carbs and protein in your diet and not be so strict about restricting fats.
At the end of the day it is all about the appropriate timing of your nutrients for the maximum effect.
In summary
All of these specific interventions work to not only to decrease visceral abdominal fat, increase our insulin sensitivity, increase our lean-mass development and the way our muscles fire, they also build stability around the joints.
When we do this, we increase the ability of the muscles around the joint to withstand heavy weight and withstand the pressures of lifting and moving through resistance, not only with exercise, but everyday life.
Working with a coach
If you are keen to work towards a goal, or simply be the best version of yourself in your forties and beyond, then it is worth considering working with a coach. Denise Yeats works in a very holistic way, advising on diet and nutrition in tandem with exercise. She constantly listens to her clients and the way they are adapting, not only physically, but also mentally to the training she advises.