Women Exercising After 50 -(Menopause)
Another fantastic article by Peta Bee focusing on the importance of exercise to protect our ageing bodies.
This article focuses on the 50 plus female, who tends to be either perimenopausal or menopausal and how exercise can relieve, at worst debilitating and at best annoying symptoms of the menopause. The right kind of exercise will also keep us physically and mentally stronger, leaner and age more healthily.
However, from my experience of working with clients with different medical and health conditions, I would argue that we do need to take the limitations of our bodies into consideration before we ever claim that everyone ‘should’ do a particular type of exercise:
Different strength, flexibility and cardiovascular exercises, suit different bodies. No one should ever exercise or move to a point of pain. Pain is not good; it is our body letting us know that something is not right. We all need to listen to that. Not every Yoga, Pilates or strength exercise is suitable for everyone. It is essential (particularly as we get older and our skeletal system ages) that we perform the best exercises for our individual body with intent and correct technique.
With that in mind – enjoy reading the full article below and be inspired to do the right exercises for your body, to fool proof it to cope with this decade and many more to come.
Be strong, feel strong and make the most of your precious body to embrace all the wonderful challenges of life.
Ophelia x
How to work out after 50: the expert guide for women.
The average age for women to go through the menopause is 52 — exactly the birthday Jennifer Lopez celebrated last week, posting pictures of her toned body and teeny waist as she smooched with her new-old boyfriend, Ben Affleck, on a yacht. Obviously it takes quite some effort to look this lean after the age of 50 and J.Lo makes no secret of the work involved. She employs two of the world’s best-known trainers (Tracy Anderson for LA and David Kirsch for when she’s in New York). She exercises every day, with a regimen that includes dancing in wearable weights and lifting heavy dumbbells. Midlife celebrities such as Halle Berry, 54, and Gwyneth Paltrow, 48 — who are, after all, paid to look good — follow similarly strict regimens. While there are clearly aesthetic benefits to keeping fit for women over 45 — ie at the menopausal or perimenopausal stage of life — the rewards for overall health are greater. Lucinda Meade, a leading fitness trainer who specialises in helping women to get and stay fit in midlife, says that if you work out in the right way you can offset some of the tricky aspects of hormonal changes.
Here’s the bad news: exercise won’t keep you young for ever. The good news, however, is that it will help your body to hold on to factors that keep it looking and feeling youthful. The more you exercise, the slower the rate of degeneration. Studies have found that running and interval training, for example, produce a greater increase in the length and activity of telomeres, protective caps on the ends of the strands of DNA, which shorten with age and are essential for cell regeneration and healthy ageing.
There are particular benefits for those in the menopause and perimenopause stages of life, with symptoms — from headaches and hot flushes to insomnia and brain fog — experienced by as many as 60 per cent of women going through them. It can be a “hellish hormonal rollercoaster”, says Meade, 57, that can leave many of them feeling flattened and floored.
Celebrities such as Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey, 67, Gabby Logan, 48, and Davina McCall, 53, have talked candidly about their menopause experiences, so awareness of what it entails has grown. Nevertheless, getting through the menopause for most women is unlikely to be easy, says Meade, who is based at Dalton Wong’s Twenty Two Training studio in South Kensington, London, and where Olivia Colman, 47, Gwendoline Christie, 42, and the like are put through their paces. Meade believes it’s crucial that women in the menopause exercise regularly, even if they don’t really feel up to it. “Flagging energy levels, weight gain and joint pain mean that many women struggle to keep up exercise at this stage in their life,” she says. “But while exercise won’t get rid of the menopause or all of its symptoms, it is vital in terms of providing physical and emotional strength to see you through.
Menopausal symptoms are associated with a decrease in the body’s production of oestrogen, the female hormone that protects the brain, bones and the heart when found in abundance in the body. As this hormone dwindles, so the level of stress hormones in a woman’s body rises. A woman’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and dementia also rise. Changes in a woman’s body typically start in her early forties with the perimenopause, often well before the menopause itself kicks in (typically between ages 47 and 55, when the menstrual cycle ends)
For women at this stage of life weekly workouts should take on a more holistic approach, Meade says, adding: “It’s no longer about a back-to-back hard workout to achieve or maintain the body you had in your twenties. It is about feeling balanced and healthy, looking good in the process.
Here’s how to exercise your way through the menopause
Do low-intensity cardio exercise four times a week
Low-intensity steady state, or LISS, training should be the foundation of your midlife workouts. “Going hell for leather is not a good idea, particularly if you are stressed out with your symptoms,” the trainer Dalton Wong says. “Thirty minutes of light jogging, cycling, brisk walking and swimming on most days will keep stress hormones at bay, work your heart and muscles and help to form a fitness base from which you can add other elements of training when you feel ready.
A study of 154 formerly sedentary women aged 45 to 63 conducted at Helsinki University found that adding 50 minutes of unsupervised aerobic activity to their routine four times a week for six months helped to decrease menopausal symptoms, especially the night sweats, mood swings and irritability that had affected up to 60 per cent of the women when the study started.
Stay Tone and Beat Osteoporosis: Lift Weights
Weights are not just effective for offsetting the loss of bone mass that occurs as oestrogen levels start to decline but also help to preserve muscle mass, which starts to drop in men and women in their forties.
A simple resistance-training workout using dumbbells or kettlebells can help to reduce these effects and will have other benefits too.
Weight training helps to keep levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, lower than if you are thrashing out endless HIIT [high-intensity interval training] sessions,” Wong says. “It also increases bone-mineral density, something that declines with diminishing levels of oestrogen, and increases lean-muscle mass, helping to prevent the laying down of pockets of fat that many women experience during the menopause.” One study showed that menopausal women who did weightlifting for two months not only built up strength in their upper and lower bodies but felt more confident and happier in themselves.
Skip for 5 minutes a day to strengthen your bones and burn calories:
Declining levels of oestrogen during the menopause not only means bones become more fragile but that joints are prone to aches and pains. All of which results in many women avoiding the kind of high-impact, weight-bearing exercise that is essential for protecting the skeleton against osteoporosis. Skipping offers a double-whammy. Not only does it provide the impact needed to strengthen bones, but, according to Meade, it is “kinder on the joints than something like running as you land lightly on the balls of your feet, rather than your heels.
Workout with others to keep you motivated:
If motivation is flagging, the best approach is to “feed off the positive energy of others” by doing group or PT sessions. In a study published last year by researchers at the University of Alberta, a group of 20 women with moderate to severe menopause symptoms suggested that walking groups, which also had a social media-interactive element, might be a “valuable alternative therapy for menopausal symptoms” and something they would adhere to because they had pledged to show up. “If you are struggling with fatigue or if you just don’t like exercise, something like a regular walk with friends is an ideal activity platform,” Wong says.
Stand on one leg while brushing your teeth:
Dizziness and poor balance are other symptoms of menopause and Meade says that working to maintain proprioception, a sense of body position, and the muscles that support balance is important. “You can challenge your balance in so many simple ways and should do so daily,” she says. “Stand on one leg, eyes closed, while brushing your teeth, adding one-legged squats when you get proficient, is a great move. Swiss and Bosu balls are useful but standing on any uneven surface, even a cushion, is worthwhile as it will challenge the proprioceptor neurons located within muscles.”
Walk or cycle to reduce hot flushes:
Hot flushes, a result of reduced levels of oestrogen causing the body’s thermostat (hypothalamus) to become more sensitive to changes in body temperature, are the bane of many a menopausal women’s life. Some researchers believe exercise can help to keep them under control. In one four-month trial at Liverpool John Moores University, a group of previously unfit women, prone to hot flushes and night sweats, were asked to adopt an exercise programme that started with 30 minutes of gentle walking on a treadmill or cycling three times a week. After a few weeks the duration and intensity of the sessions increased and, by week 16, the women were running, rowing or using a cross-trainer five times a week for 45 minutes. Compared with a control group who did no exercise, the workout group were not only fitter but reported striking improvements in their symptoms, with the frequency of hot flushes dropping by as much as 60 per cent.
According to Helen Jones, a professor in cardiovascular physiology who led the trial, it seems that by gradually improving your fitness level you can effectively alter your body’s thermo-regulatory controls so that body temperature is better controlled. “Start with lower-intensity, steady-state exercise such as walking and light cycling,” Wong says. “Don’t force your menopausal body to do something before it is ready.
Do exercises to improve your posture & flexibility:
(It’s time to try Pilates)
Yoga and Pilates are excellent for improving flexibility and posture, both of which are prone to deteriorate during the menopause due to the effect hormonal changes have on muscle. “If you hold yourself better, you will feel better,” Wong says. “And both yoga and Pilates strengthen a range of postural muscles.” Among the muscles worked are those in the pelvic floor that lose tone through the menopause. Last year a pilot study of women aged 45 to 70 found that twice-weekly floor-based Pilates for 12 weeks significantly decreased “leakage” by improving core and pelvic-floor strength
Dr Louise Newson, a GP specialising in menopause advice and founder of Balance, a free menopause support app, is a fan of yoga for its all-round benefits. “I practise ashtanga yoga regularly as I find it is the optimal exercise to improve my stamina and muscle strength and it is also beneficial for my brain,” she says. “When I was perimenopausal I found that my yoga practice really deteriorated, but it has improved considerably since taking HRT.
The breathing Exercises to beat fatigue:
If you feel wiped out then just focusing on breathing can be beneficial. “If you are exhausted then stress hormones such as adrenaline will be forcing through your body,” Meade says. “When you are too tired to exercise, the best way to release tension and stress is through simple breath work exercises such as breathing in for a count of four and out for a count of six for several minutes.
Meditation can also be helpful. One study tracked 110 perimenopausal and menopausal women who were experiencing an average of five or more hot flush episodes during the day or night. After 20 weeks of mindfulness training, which included meditation, the women reported a 21.6 per cent reduction in the degree of bother and distress caused by the hot flushes. “Meditation and breathing help you to calm your system so that the body’s energy is being used in a less negative way,” Meade says. “Feeling calmer is an outcome that will make some symptoms easier.