January 26, 2021

10 Fitness Lessons from 2020 | Menopause & Exercise

24 minutes

Tucked into all the life lessons of 2020, the fitness lessons from 2020 were pretty clear.

Exercise done right boosts immunity. The first of fitness lessons from 2020 was the fact that it is moderate amounts of high and low intensity exercise, not moderate exercise that benefits your immune system most.
Exercise supports depression, anxiety, and mood.
Strength training to muscular fatigue prevents the muscle losses associated with aging.
Strength training with heavy weight prevents bone losses associated with aging.
Strength training (more than any form of cardio) improves longevity and the life in your years.
It is not the strength training activity, it is the result of proper strength training that increases lean muscle, decreases fat, and therefore improves body composition.

A question from Cary in our community, “If strength training does more to improve fat loss shouldn’t we do that more often?” That is such a logical thoughtful question. So, it’s important you realize it is not the 10, 20, or 40 minutes you spend strength training per session that improves fat loss, lean muscle loss prevention, and therefor body composition.

Proper strength training is this formula:

Adequate stimulus during the strength training session + adequate recovery after a session = Positive anabolic muscle response

What is adequate stimulus during the strength training session?

Overload to a point of temporary muscular fatigue - Done with a heavy weight and

lower rep range or lighter weight and lower rep range

Includes as many major muscle groups as possible – a full body routine, not a body part (or split routine) is best for women in midlife
Includes compound exercises

What is adequate recovery following a strength training session?

The purpose of all of the following is to improve anabolism, that is repair and rebuilding of the muscle following the act of breakdown during the workout. During exercise of any kind the muscles experience stress and microtears. When the body recovers it doesn’t just repair to original state, it overcompensates to be prepared for the next stress (workout).

If you’ve ever trained for a 5k you’ve experienced this. When you start, you’re not able to complete more than a mile. Then over time you can gradually do more and more, until you’re able to do the entire 3.1 miles. Or you’ve started a weightlifting routine and you’re using a 5 lb weight, and a few weeks later you realize you’re never tired at the end of a set and you need a heavier weight.

Adequate calories

A caloric deficit may be created because of activity, because of reduced calories and activity, or reduced calories – however during times of stress – from menopause, loss of sleep, stressful life situations, careful adherence to abundant micronutrient dense foods over strict calorie deficit is the better goal

Adequate protein – especially in the presence of lower calories

Protein needs increase with age due to muscle protein synthesis decline. On a per meal basis, 30-40 grams of high-quality protein at breakfast and again at dinner (or slightly higher at dinner) along with a modest protein midday meal support muscle protein synthesis.

The 24 hours following strength training muscle protein synthesis is boosted, making it a prime time to increase protein intake slightly over other days of the week. In fact cycling protein intake over the weeks of the month if you’re still experiencing a cycle or you’re in menopause can improve your body composition significantly. The type of training you do and the protein you consume both together have dramatically improved results for many women, even in their 60s.

Adequate rest between muscle re-stimulus

Without adequate rest anabolism will not be allowed to happen. Without enough time between coming back to the muscles again with a hard workout the repair can’t happen.

Imagine having the flu. You’re a busy person and when you start feeling better you get back into your regular routine to find yourself having to sit down after you take a shower and get ready, or maybe you make it until noon on your first day back and realize you’ve overdone it and wind up back in bed again. Your muscle, without the full recovery will experience more muscle wasting than repair and you may be losing muscle even while you’re exercising regularly.

To sum it up, recovery included not only the time between sessions, but the time between sets of exercise in a workout, and requires consideration of your nutrition, your life stressors, and quality of sleep – the ultimate rest.

The right exercise is only small but important a part of the movement every woman needs in her day in order to impact her optimal health.
Time was for many the biggest obstacle to exercise and when commuting, and distractions like social gatherings, entertaining and travel were removed exercise activity increased by 88% in those who had a lower level of activity before Covid (BC).
Online options for fitness increased dramatically as did the across the age space generations taking advantage of them
The wave of dumbbells, weight equipment purchases that left shelves, and even Amazon without weight training options, created a short term need to get creative with resistance equipment – from soup cans, to water bottles filled with rocks, then sand, then water, to backpacks or small pieces of luggage filled with books or sandbags.

We got creative and found solutions.

Fortunately, because in a moment of midlife when you are more rapidly losing muscle and bone (late stages of perimenopause and early post menopause) abandoning a resistance training program now, or not beginning one, could have a devastating effect on disability in a decade or more… that is completely avoidable.

Fitness lessons from 2020 will change your life, one way or another.