Women need to have an active exercise regime, optimum nutrition and sufficient sleep to maintain good health and wellbeing around the time of the perimenopause and beyond, as this can significantly prevent or reduce many menopausal symptoms.
In this post I will explain the importance of exercise. If we do not use it, we will lose it.
It is key to keep up an exercise regime at every stage of our lives but especially during the menopause and post menopause.
There are several scientific studies that show that regular exercise can reduce hot flushes, mood swings and depression, increase your endorphin levels, help you relax and sleep, keep your heart healthy, help with joint pains and reduce osteoporosis.
Lack of physical exercise is one of the leading risk factors of death worldwide and is on the rise in many countries. If you are not active enough, you have a 20-30% increase risk of death compared to people who are active.
Regular exercise can reduce your risk of numerous diseases including hypertension, coronary heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, various types of cancer (including breast cancer and colon cancer), stress, anxiety and depression. Exercising can boost your energy levels, increase your self esteem and confidence, and if done with friends, can prevent loneliness.
Globally cardiovascular disease accounts for a third of deaths among women and in women over 50 this rises to half of the deaths of women in developing countries. Diabetes affects 70 million women globally. Osteoporosis will affect 1 in 4 women. Globally breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Women report almost double the rates of depression. All of this can be reduced by regular physical activity.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that for all countries, women do less physical activity than men. WHO are running a campaign for all countries to make efforts to improve provision and encouragement of physical activity. The UK have a scheme directly aimed at women called This Girl Can. Check out their web site for some inspiring videos and information.
WHO recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity throughout the week which can be increased to 300 minutes of moderate activity for additional health benefits. I personally would recommend that women try to spread this out during the week and do at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. You do not need to exercise for hours – see my post on rethinking how to get fit.
There are certain key goals we should try to meet when exercising. We need to increase our heart rate which will increase blood flow to our whole body, including our brain. We need to work our lungs, ensuring that we are taking in enough breathes to oxygenate our blood. We need to work each major muscle group to improve their strength and stretch each major muscle group. We need to look after the health of our bones. Weight bearing and resistance exercise should be done regularly to help our muscles and bones but are especially important after the menopause (I love body pump and think this is really good for menopausal women – see image). We need to ensure we keep our balance as this can deteriorate with age and a significant number of deaths in older people are caused by falls. It is also important to stretch as our whole body will stiffen as we get older, so yoga, Pilates, and general stretching should be done regularly, ideally daily. Hot yoga provides a warm environment which is very relaxing and enables you to increase your range of stretching.
Try to do a varied regime and do not concentrate on just one activity. Maybe look for some interesting classes such as tap dancing, adult ballet (there is one just started in my town), football, basketball, Nordic walking, trampoline to name just a few.
But studies have shown that infrequent high impact exercise can actually make symptoms worse so make sure you keep up a consistent program.
We do not need an excuse to exercise, but remember that it can really reduce many menopausal symptoms.
And it is never too late. So if you have not exercised before, please have a go. But start off gently and build up.
Image credit – https://www.24life.com/class-notes-what-to-expect-in-les-mills-bodypump/
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