#48: Benefits of Weight training in perimenopause and menopause
[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, a certified menopause fitness coach. And today we are really going to talk about my absolute favorite topic, which is the benefits of weight training for women in perimenopause and menopause, because ladies, this is why I do what I do because there are just so many benefits.
to weight training for us women who are going through perimenopause and menopause. And I think the word just has not gotten out enough. So I'm actually recording this on the last day of 2023. The sky is Hello, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful evening. I have met a new guy who is also very much into fitness.
He's actually, I'm 52 and he's older than me. I don't normally date men who are older than me because they are generally in pretty [00:01:00] crap shape, right? But this guy is just as into fitness and health as I am. And Oh my God, this 60 year old beats out. Plenty of guys in their 40s, so I am looking forward to our evening today.
He's meeting my friends for the first time. Anyway, so if I sound a little excited, it is not only the topic, it's also the evening ahead. All right. So I want to start by dispelling two myths.
One is that strength training is for younger people. Yes, there are a lot of guys in the gym. They think that getting muscles will get them the girls. Plus, at least in my gym, there are a lot of these guys who just hit puberty and you know, they've gone through their growth spurt. They're like little twigs and they're trying to get some muscle on their body.
More and more, I'm seeing women and middle aged men in the weight room. [00:02:00] And that is the best news because we need to be taking care of our bodies so that we can be healthy and live independent lives in the future. You know, for a long time, I remember growing up in the States, there were a lot of ads about the importance of brushing your teeth, right?
And they used to talk a lot about if you want to have your own teeth and not dentures when you're older. That you need to take care of your teeth. And now I feel like that revolution has come to your muscles. That if you want to live an independent life, be able to do the things that you want to do in retirement, you know, if you don't want to end your life in an old age home and be dependent on other people, taking care of your muscles is just a basic necessity.
So everybody needs to be doing it. And the second myth that is out there is that weight training is somehow dangerous. And that is. [00:03:00] Absolutely not true. If you are, I'm not even going to say healthy because it, for people who are pre diabetic weight training can be a really, really good tool for helping them.
But let's say if you don't have any doctors telling you that this is unsafe for you to do, then. Weight training is a great thing to do and not dangerous. Follow a program that trains your body fully and also make sure that you're doing the exercises correctly.
So that's going to be important. Of course, your technique. And I'll tell you, there is plenty of junk in social media, because if you think about it, the fitness influencers, they need to keep coming up with cool content. So they, they come up with all kinds of BS moves, which actually are not ideal. Weight training and its core is pretty much doing the same thing over and over and over again for years.
You may change equipment a little [00:04:00] bit, you know, just spice it up. But in the end, it's fairly boring, especially if you need to be a social media fitness influencer. But weight training is something everybody should be doing. And there are really two sides to fitness. One is your cardiovascular health.
The other is your muscles. And nowadays they are finally, uh, recognizing that strength training does also help your cardiovascular health. Which makes a lot of sense because what it is doing is it is stressing your heart when you are doing your sets. So that is going to have some cardiovascular benefit.
But now as women in perimenopause and menopause, like This is the moment that we need to really wake up to the benefits of weight training. Yeah, you might've been able to neglect it before, but if you're noticing that, Hey, my body's changing, I used to work out the same way I do now, but [00:05:00] I'm looking flabby.
What happened to my toned arms? What's going on with this? Belly fat around, you know, this minnow belly, this muffin top that's appearing around my waist. Those are all signs that really it's about time that you learn something about weight training and got going with it. Now what's happening to us in midlife as we go through perimenopause is our estrogen levels and progesterone, but estrogen is the one that's a little bit more relevant to the weight training case, um, start to go haywire.
They're not in nice sync and eventually decline and then pretty much flatline as we go through the actual menopause transition. And the thing about estrogen is that it is not only about getting pregnant, having our periods, it performs a lot of other functions in our bodies. And some of the functions [00:06:00] are.
Maintaining our muscles, uh, helping us to build muscle, allowing our muscles to actually contract strongly. Estrogen is also key to keeping our bone density. When that starts to decline, our bone density declines at a faster rate, 10 times faster. So the answer to a lot of these issues is strength training. So, as estrogen
disappears from our bodies, we need to do something to make up for it. And okay, you've probably heard of hormone replacement therapy called hormone replacement therapy, but it is not like a direct substitute for estrogen. It will help with some things, but it's not like, Oh, well I take hormone replacement therapy.
So I'm like, I wasn't before. No, it doesn't work that way. You still need to do other things. If you really want to maintain your body [00:07:00] at the same level. As you're used to.
So you probably heard that as you age, actually starting at about the age of 30, your muscle mass starts to decline. And this is just natural aging happens to men happens to women. And the thing is for women that that rate of decline speeds up around menopause. And what they have shown is that weight training can not only stop the rate of decline of muscle, but also increase the amount of muscle you have, even after menopause.
And I am 52 years old, post menopause. I've been weight training. In post menopause, I actually was doing more group fitness stuff and body pump classes and this kind of thing when I was in perimenopause and only really woke up to this weight training thing when I was post menopause and I have been able to really transform my body.
If you want to see [00:08:00] some pictures of what I was able to achieve and what I have been able to achieve so far and the journey is ongoing, go to my Instagram. Page. And I have like kind of my starting picture where you'll see I was kind of lumpy and undefined. Before I started weight training consistently.
And this was when I was working out really regularly. Okay. So it wasn't like I was a couch potato back then, but menopause had done. things to my body, right? I was getting weaker. I was losing muscle tone. I was losing muscle. And then what I look like now, now that I consistently weight train go check out my Instagram page. If you want to see those, my progress pictures so far.
Okay. The first benefit of weight training is one you probably have heard of, which is that it makes your muscles stronger. So as we age, our muscles get weaker. We actually lose muscle fibers and [00:09:00] more on that in next week's podcast. Where I talk about why it's important to lift heavy and how that is different from lifting lighter as far as your muscles go.
So hit the subscribe button if you're interested in learning a little bit more about that. But in any case, our muscle mass starts to decline already about age 30. And when we hit perimenopause menopause, that rate of decline increases. So less muscle. means we're weaker. You probably have noticed it.
I know so many women mentioned that, Oh my God, I know I should start weight training because I notice I'm not as strong like picking up your suitcase or, or whatever, doing something around the house. I noticed for myself, I, um, yeah, I was always kind of proud that, yeah, I can carry in the groceries from the car.
And then at some point, I remember. Being happy that my boyfriend was with me when I went grocery shopping [00:10:00] because I wouldn't have to carry in all the groceries by myself Because I was actually getting weaker. It was these like small signals in my head that were telling me that You know, this is a little bit hard.
You know, I don't want to do this But weight training has totally reversed that. Nowadays, I'm like, bring it on. Let's see how many bags I can take in at once. So it strengthens your muscles.
The second thing it does is it increases your bone density. And yes, this happens even for women who are in post menopause when they are lifting heavy.
So actually when you're lifting weights, it's not just your muscles that are feeling tension, your muscles get worked, your tendons get worked, your ligaments get worked, and also your bones feel pressure on them. And that signals to your body that, [00:11:00] Hey, wait a second. I need to make sure that these bones are strong enough to be able to withstand.
Me lifting these kinds of weights, the tendons and ligaments that are getting pulled on are also feeling extra strain and that signaling your body that, Hey, we need to keep these in shape so they can handle this. And of course your muscles are getting, you know, the stimulus. So it is really strengthening your whole body and all of these elements of your body.
So your muscles, your bones, your tendons, your ligaments are all ones that used to be taken care of, uh, by estrogen. And when estrogen disappears, they start to decline. And the weight training is now signaling to your body that, Hey, you need to keep these in shape, keep them strong. It is, I mean, it's hard to believe how much younger [00:12:00] your body feels when you've been weight training for a while.
I mean, that sounds so cliche, but, uh, I, I don't feel my age. in my body. My body moves better. Because I have kind of turned back the hands of time. I was in postmenopause when I started. So obviously there had been some amount of decline. And as I continue to weight train, I am telling my body that, Hey, You need to keep these things in shape, get these parts of Helen's body in better shape.
And that is reversing really the aging that had happened to me before. So that's why it is anti aging as like woo, as that sounds, but that's what that means.
And the thing about the bone density, which is the scary part,
you've probably heard that for a woman 65 and older, if she falls, there's a 50 percent chance she'll [00:13:00] never walk again and an extreme risk of death or a need for assisted living. So you really need to address your skeletal muscle loss. And it's not just women, of course, uh, who have this risk if they fall, if you break bones when you're older, they really don't heal that well.
And that's why it's important to be weight training to get those bones stronger. And then the other part of it is that when you are stronger, you're more. able to avoid falling in the first place. So you slip, but Hey, you have muscles on your legs. So your leg can like shoot out and stop you and, and get your balance back.
So it's just, yeah. I know I get a little bit, uh, super excited about this stuff and the [00:14:00] benefits because I just, I, I, we're going to be around for a long time. I mean, 65 and plus may sound like, Oh my God, you know what? I'm already at 52. I don't plan on being dead in 12 years.
So another thing that weight training helps with is insulin resistance. Estrogen has been helping us with that when we've been younger, but then weight training helps to decrease your resistance to insulin.
In other words, if you're pre diabetic or your risk of becoming pre diabetic can decline. When your weight training, so that is a benefit that a lot of people are not aware of. And then the hated visceral fat, right? You're noticing that you're getting smushy around the waist. Your clothes aren't fitting the way they used to.
Your fat has been moving maybe from your booty to your tummy. [00:15:00] That all has to do with the change in your hormones that goes on in midlife. And while there is no way to spot treat that, what does help is weight training, weight training sets off a cascade of reactions in your body, which stimulates the use of that visceral fat.
And this is something that was one of the first things that I saw happen with. Myself, when I started weight training and every three months, I have my body composition measured and at the same time they measure my visceral fat and that was like the first thing to really, really drop.
And man, I was happy about that because I don't have much of a waist to begin with. I mean, I'm in pretty straight, uh, body, but when I noticed the changes of menopause, I really lost my waist completely. I was just like one [00:16:00] rectangle and it's great now to have. My waist back and feel like firm around there.
It's yeah, I know I know these little vanity things, but they matter, you know, it matters how you feel about Yourself and your body
and another thing that building muscle Helps with is changing your body composition so that you can reduce the amount of fat that you have compared to muscle. And in fact, if you're able to start weight training at, uh, like a calorie level where your weight isn't really increasing. So you're not just like overeating, like mad.
If you've got an amount of food that you eat regularly and your weight doesn't change much, you can really achieve body recomposition without having to diet. So as you build muscle. You'll lose some fat. And the thing is that we do not have to resign ourselves to becoming bigger, heavier, fatter, [00:17:00] just because we're hitting midlife.
I, I hate that that is. Something that in social media, they say, Oh, you should just accept, okay, yes, we are not going to look 20 ever again, because we're not 20. We've had kids, you know, there are stretch marks, our skin, you know, elasticity is decreasing, that kind of thing. But we don't have to get fatter.
And by the way, our metabolisms are not slowing down, right? So they've done a study of people all the way from childhood to age 80. So wide range of ages and looked at their metabolism. And what they found is that if you hold lean body mass, consistent. In other words, if you don't allow for that loss of lean muscle mass that happens normally with age, your metabolism doesn't change.[00:18:00] So in layman's terms, what that means is that your metabolism actually isn't slowing down.
What's happening is that you have less muscle on your body and muscle burns more calories than fat just sitting around the house. and you're being less active than you were when you were younger. So those are really the two factors. So if you're not adjusting your food intake, I your calorie intake, then yes, you're going to gain weight, but don't just say, Oh, my metabolism did it to me.
I don't have any control over this because you do, you do. So go ahead and start weight training to get more muscle on your body and get your metabolism back up and I'm putting that in air quotes.
Oh my God, so many reasons to start weight training
but okay, so those may feel very theoretical. So I want to bring this down to what this means in real, real [00:19:00] life, I'm going to start with a question. Raise your hand if your vision for the end of your life is to be in a nursing home with full care, not being able to go to the bathroom by yourself and being completely dependent on other people.
I bet nobody raised their hand. And who of you want to end your life? Living in your own home on your own terms with your own familiar furniture around you, your pictures, you know, space to have your guests, not having to worry about some strangers snoring next to you. You know, I think all of us want that.
And one way that you can help make that a reality for yourself is by taking care of your muscles. And I have to share the story of my. Ex husband's grandmother who lived to be 99 and she lived [00:20:00] in her house and this was like a real like single family home in the middle of a field in a small town almost till the end of her life when she actually got sick and then needed to be hospitalized for that.
But she was so cute because we would go visit her and she was this, you know, very slender woman always had been very, very slender, but she would proudly. You know, make us some tea and, and put out some cookies and talk with us and show us pictures. So she really was in quite good shape. And the thing that she would show every time with such pride was her dumbbells.
She said every day she trains with these dumbbells. Now, at that point in her life, they were like these little tiny dumbbells, but they were helping her maintain her strength and her independence. So that was, yeah, I thought that [00:21:00] was so cool because if you think about it, for a woman at that age to, to really embrace weight training to keep her independence was, was amazing.
But even before then, you will notice things in your daily life that weight training enables. And I think it was said so well by one 65 year old woman who has started weight training from listening to the podcast. She was explaining that it is so great that even after a few weeks of weight training, she notices that it's so much easier to get up off the floor, to walk up the stairs, to carry in her groceries.
I mean, you know, they seem like. Simple everyday things, but they start to get difficult as you lose your strength and she was getting her strength back. And so her everyday life was getting easier. And that is what it is for you too. And I think about, uh, one kind of extreme example was [00:22:00] I went to Cannes, France with my daughter the other summer.
So I had just started weight training about six months prior. And we had these huge suitcases because we didn't know what the heck to take with us. And we were living in the old town. So we arrive at the airport and we're lugging our suitcases. It was hot, hot, hot there, sunny, you know, all that. And we lug the suitcases first onto the trams, then took the tram to the old town.
Then we walked probably like a mile, mile and a half, lugging the suitcases through the streets of old town to get to where we were staying. Then we found the building and guess what? Our room was in the very top floor of the building. It was an Airbnb and no elevator. So there we were with these huge suitcases.
Lugging them up the six flights of stairs. And [00:23:00] that was when I was like, man, I am so happy that I started weight training because this could have been really, really hard
all right, so I know this is getting kind of long, so I want to start wrapping it up.
Weight training is anti aging. So when you lift weights, you are transforming your body into a younger version of yourself because you're getting your muscles stronger like they used to be. You're making your bones more dense. Like they used to be. You're getting your tendons and your ligaments stronger like they used to be. Your body works better. It functions better for you.
And let's face it, most of us are trying to look our best and feel our best.
So if you are putting, serums and lotions on your face, you are trying to maintain your body as well as you can. And weight training is just another way of [00:24:00] doing that, but maybe even more useful than not having wrinkles, right? I mean, honestly, you know, if you could choose when you're 80, that do I want to have less wrinkles or do I want to have a better functioning body?
I don't think there are too many people who are going to choose the less wrinkles.
And then as a 52 year old single divorced person who is on the dating market, even though I have found a very nice guy. So let's hope that continues. But I have to say that some of the other benefits of weight training have been feeling amazingly more confident in my body, feeling good.
Naked, right? That is worth something. Honestly, I am like lights on, please. You know, my clothes fit better. Just four weeks ago, I was wearing a beautiful strapless gown, [00:25:00] which has been sitting in my closet for the past 10 years because I just couldn't fit it on me.
And now I was wearing it again. And I was super proud to show off my arms and my shoulders again in that gown.
And training lower body, especially your glutes. is going to help make your bones really strong so that if you do fall, you won't break your pelvis or at least have a lower chance of breaking your pelvis. But I can't say it isn't nice to hear a compliment about it
but anyway, regardless of whether you're doing it for your health or for aesthetics, it is going to make your life better health wise too. So get going, but you do need to be lifting heavy and don't be afraid of getting bulky. These are two topics I'm going to address in my next two episodes of the show.
[00:26:00] So. Hit that subscribe button to make sure that you don't miss them. And let me know what you thought of this episode. If it was helpful, if there's anything else that you have found, that's great about starting weight training in midlife and, uh, have a wonderful week. I'll talk to you next week. Happy training.