Danny Davis
In this article: Manage symptoms, prevent post-menopause related chronic conditions and improve your quality of life.
Menopause is a time in a woman’s reproductive life when the menstrual cycle stops and she is no longer fertile. Peri-menopause or the pre-menopause stage brings a slow cessation of periods and a reduction in the body’s production of female hormones, estrogen, and progesterone.
No periods for 12 consecutive months, is considered the post-menopausal stage. The average age when menopause and any symptoms begin is 51 years of age but can also occur between 30 and 60.
Menopause may bring various symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, anxiety, mood swings, and even depression.
Menopause is also a time when women are at a higher risk for osteoporosis as it is estimated that the average woman loses as much as 10% of bone mass within the first five years of menopause. Osteoporosis is a condition where bones thin and become brittle, causing fractures to occur easily.
Heart disease risks also increase with menopause as estrogen plays a key role in protecting the heart.
It is also a time when weight gain may occur. No one knows why this happens but a weight gain of 10 pounds or more is not uncommon in menopause.
Interestingly enough, women who lead a healthy lifestyle including diet and regular exercise can circumvent this weight gain related to menopause.
Exercise And Menopause
1| Weight Gain
A regular program of exercise and healthy eating can decrease your chances of gaining weight during menopause.
According to the National Institutes of Health, women who did ten minutes of aerobic exercise on most days of the week had 6 fewer inches around their mid-section when compared to women who did not exercise.
Exercise should be a part of your daily life, even if you don’t feel you have any weight to lose as it supports overall health and wellness for mind, body, and spirit.
2| Managing Symptoms
It is obvious that exercise can counteract the weight gain associated with menopause but there are other benefits of exercise during this time as well, including the following:
- Decreases the risk of major depression, dysthymia, and anxiety and improves mood
- Decreases the risk of osteoporosis (thinning of the bone tissue) and strengthens bone mass. This is certainly one of the most important benefits of exercise for menopausal women because osteoporosis is a result of a lack of balance between resorption of bone and the making of new bone. A lack of hormones is the most common cause of osteoporosis in women as estrogen plays a key role in the production of bone mass to replace what is lost every day, and since estrogen production drops sharply during menopause, exercise becomes that more important in supporting bone strength.
- Decrease feelings of fatigue
- Alleviate chronic muscle pain
- Improve quality and duration of sleep
- Improve bowel function
- Keep the muscles and joints stronger
- Improve insulin resistance, which helps prevent and lessen the intensity of hot flashes
- Maximizes feelings of well-being and positive mood. Positivity helps you deal with all types of life’s stressors, and menopause is no different. Erratic mood swings due to hormonal fluctuations plague many menopausal women, and exercise can help boost mood naturally by releasing feel good hormones in the brain, including endorphins and serotonin.
- Decreases risks of post-menopause related conditions including: metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease
- Alleviates stress, which in turn helps control many menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes, depression, and mood swings and improves overall quality life
- Reducing body fat and losing weight can help stabilize hormones and in turn alleviate or at least reduce the occurrence of mood swings that for some women can be quite severe.
- Working out reduces stress making it easier to tolerate menopausal symptoms and reduce their occurrence.
- Exercise can improve the quality of your life and can make it easier to prevent weight gain associated with menopause.
- Muscle mass is increased through exercise, which improves your strength and stamina.
3| How Much Exercise You Need
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women should try to get 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week or 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.
Best Exercises To Manage Menopause
There are a variety of exercises you can choose from and each category has its own benefits and uses.
1| Aerobic/Cardiovascular Exercise
Uses and Benefits
- Manage weight
- Hot Flashes
- Lower risk for heart disease
- Lower risk for metabolic syndrome
- Strengthen bones
- Boost mood
- Reduce stress
- Reduce anxiety and depression
These are referred to as aerobic activity. Aerobic activity can be any physical activity that increases your heart rate and respiratory rate and typically uses large muscle groups like the legs.
Good Choices In Aerobic Exercise
- Swimming
- Aerobics
- Fitness Classes
- Cycling
- Jogging
- Brisk Walking
- Dance. Dancing can be a fun way to get into an exercise routine. You can exercise while doing jazz dancing, ballroom dancing, Latin dancing, or even ballet dancing.
- Stairmasters or Elliptical Exercises. You can do these at the gym or invest in one of these devices for use at home. These types of exercises are considered aerobic exercises, which protect the heart from developing cardiovascular disease. Both the Stairmaster and elliptical exercise routines burn a great deal of calories so they are good for women trying to lose weight.
- Vigorous chores around the house. Engaging in yard work, cleaning, or other activity you need to do for your home will burn more calories than you might think. Not only do they burn calories, these types of exercises can keep your house spotless and your yard an award-winning work of art.
- Zumba. This is a dance based fitness class with numerous people. If you enjoy exercising with others, taking a Zumba class may be a good way to meet other women who are going through the same menopausal symptoms that you have. Zumba is a type of dance routine that can both burn calories and be fun.
2| Anaerobic Exercise/Strength Training
Uses and Benefits
- Lower risk for Osteoporosis
- Weight management/fat burning
- Support healthy aging
Anaerobic exercises or muscle strengthening can combat osteoporosis, which is a big problem among women in and after menopause. Strength training can maximize muscle strength, and build up bone mass.
Moreover, it increases your metabolism, and naturally increase the body’s fat burning rate because lean muscle mass burns fat.
Your Choices In Anaerobic Exercises
- Weight machines
- Free weights
- Resistance bands
- Bodyweight exercise
Increase weight and resistance levels as you get stronger.
4| Mind-Body Exercises
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- Reduce hot flashes
- Support hormonal balance
- Improve mood
- Improve libido
- Control cravings
- Combat insomnia and fatigue
- Alleviate muscle and joint pain
Mind body exercises include:
- Yoga
- Tai chi
- Qigong
- Meditation
Yoga
Yoga is an exercise in which you perform various poses and concentrate on relaxation and your breath. One study showed yoga to reduce hot flashes by 31% and other research showed it to be effective in improving libido and mood, as well as controlling cravings. While yoga doesn’t burn many calories, it is a good exercise for those people who cannot engage in the other forms of exercise noted above.
Meditation
Meditation can greatly reduce stress, and has more than 50 different health benefits for mind, body, and spirit. One of its greatest benefits for menopause related problems is its ability to improve perception of stress.
Tai Chi and QiGong
Both Tai Chi and QiGong are very low impact slow moving meditative exercise routines that incorporate movement with mediation, and are appropriate for women of all ages.
4| Stretching
Stretching improves flexibility, which is always useful for healthier aging. Make sure to stretch after every workout.
5| Stability and Balance
Balance exercises improve stability and can help prevent falls in the older years. Balance and stability exercises help to improve functional fitness, which greatly improves performance in everyday tasks, like reaching to pick up something from a shelf, getting up from the couch, or tying your shoelaces. Staying Motivated And Being Realistic
You may not ever run a marathon but you can set realistic goals in order to keep from being frustrated by failure.
Menopausal women are at an increasing risk of stress, osteoporosis, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and weight gain, and exercising regularly can counteract these risks so that you can live a long and healthy life after going through menopause.
Make commitment to workout and set aside a certain time to do so at least 5 days week. Choose workouts that will challenge you without overwhelming you.
