Flan, flan, I look like a flan! If there is an image of my mother that haunts me when she was my age, it is her flaccidity and her osteoarticular problems. I have to exercise, but where do I start? The other day I saw an 80-year-old lady who, following a breakup, went to the gym and managed to go from being plump to being totally fit! If she did it, how can I not do it with several decades less! Everything is to start, objective of the month: to play sports. Long live my new lifestyle!
-‘I have more and more fat and less muscle, are there miracles?’
There are many changes that we have during the climacteric (transition stage before and following the menopause), lower the hormonal levels of estrogen or progesterone among many others. But there is a characteristic and it is that your muscles take longer to recover and your metabolism slows down. So what can I do?
Causes of muscle loss in menopause and how it affects your health
From the age of thirty you begin to lose muscle mass in buttocks regarding 2 to 3 percent each year and upon entering the menopause this gets much worse. In sedentary women this worsens, their muscle loss being even greater, which affects strength, balance and aerobic capacity.
It is very important to understand how losing body mass affects your health so that you have more reasons to exercise now than ever before. He physical exercise keep being him best therapeutic agent to mitigate metabolic dysfunction and the deterioration of health that goes beyond the loss of menstruation. This process -climacteric- is associated with an increase in weight, especially fat and its redistribution, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, osteoarticular problems and a loss of body mass among many others, although each woman manifests itself in a different way.
Skeletal muscle is an endocrine organ that not only has to do with the force and traction that we make when we move, it is also secreted when exercising myoquinas which are proteins that go throughout the body and have an impact on all tissues. This molecule is anti-inflammatory and it helps regulate the immune system but it only happens when you build muscle, that is, you do certain exercises. Muscle is not just a matter of fitnesses the organ of longevity and is responsible for the way we age.
When exercising, in our muscles a multiplication of mitochondria -cellular motors- occurs and this gives rise to more energy. One of the amino acids that help us to do this is L-carnitineimproving the transformation of fats into ATP (Adenosine triphosphate), which is the currency of cellular energy units.
-Exercises you can do in menopause to strengthen your bones
On the other hand, the muscles are considered an important organ when it comes to releasing female hormones, although as long as they are exercised. It also releases hormones that help reduce arterial oxidation, improve hot flashes, rest, and help us with well-being and emotional balance.
The best exercise to practice during menopause
It seems a general mistake to think that when the years go by, women cannot develop muscle, especially following menopause. But this only makes it a little more difficult as the ability to build muscle diminishes and this is going to require you to focus on the type of exercise you need and the way you eat to support your body, look good and be better. with yourself. In fact, there are plenty of women who manage to look their best at 40.
Many of us (including myself for quite some time) have thought that doing strength exercise you are going to become very voluminous and this is not real; This requires a lot of specific work, training and many years. Society’s narrative feeds the idea that women have to be as small as possible and we have grown up with patterns that, more than anything else, have done us a lot of emotional and self-esteem damage.
Why walking is not enough exercise during menopause
We need to do resistance exercise that supports not only muscle strength, but also atmospheric pressure, that way you develop a much stronger skeletal system and prevent problems following menopause such as osteoporosis. Walking alone is a cardiovascular exercise, although it’s a good start to begin with and better than nothing of course. But we must limit walking only to the initial phase or as a complement. Only by generating musculoskeletal stress can we prevent the loss of bone mass, improve basal metabolism and the accumulation of fat in the abdomen.
Strength training improves calcium metabolism, stimulates muscle growth and bone density, and helps prevent falls. On the one hand, low-intensity aerobic exercise and resistance activate the oxidation of glucose stores and the burning of fats, but only accompanying strength exercises.
Strength work is not just working with weights, you can also work with your own weight and it is essential that you have advice to have a routine with which you not only feel comfortable and motivated but also that you can prevent injuries from not doing it correctly.
Can combine strength exercises with yoga, jumping, dancing or whatever you like, but prioritize strength exercises and leave the rest as complements. As for starting, do it little by little, at your own pace, it is regarding doing it in the long term to gradually change and try to break your own records. Put days of training and others of rest so that there is recovery.
Tips to get the best version of yourself
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Improve your willpower: Put days and hours when you are going to take care of yourself, yes or yes. And yes, exercise is one of the ways you have to take care of your body. Concentrate on congratulating yourself each time you’ve done it.
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Identify distractions: it is very easy to make excuses, start training even if you don’t feel like it and experience your limits, go further.
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If you start at home make a training plan And if you can ask for advice from a professional, even better. Put schedules and goals that you can achieve, start with small periods of time.
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If your option is the gym, ask for advice where to start and if you already go regularly you can also ask them to schedule your training to reach your goals.
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Have fun and enjoy your achievements.
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stay constant, have alternatives in case you are away or unforeseen events arise and if your schedule is full, never use your exercise hours for another activity. If Brad Pitt or George Clooney asked you for lunch, surely you clear your schedule in two minutes, do the same for yourself!
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Combine your training with protein consumption suitable, this can help slow down age-related muscle loss -sarcopenia- and in some cases reverse it. Always within a lifestyle that includes healthy eating.
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Includes foods with phytoestrogens to improve your muscle performance. Like red clover or ground flax seeds.
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Practice strength training with dumbbells, elastic bands or with the weight of your body (option two, you can lift your dog if it is medium), they can not only be practiced with weights. With 2 days a week for 20 or 30 minutes is more than enough to start. But both not practicing it and doing it excessively is bad, not only for our physical health but also because of the stress caused by too much training.
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If you already have osteopenia or osteoporosis it is better that you start exercising with the advice of a professional.
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Do not focus on the weight of your scale, fat occupies more volume and muscle mass less but weighs more. You will look in better shape and improve your posture and overall health.
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When you strength train, your body produces two antidepressant biochemicals: serotonin and endorphins, which have been shown to have a positive effect on emotional problems, including depression.
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Find friends to help you continue with your workouts. Doing them in company is always more fun and is usually a way to motivate yourself to keep it up.
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Include foods rich in arginine and lysine. These amino acids are converted into nitric oxide when digested, improving the elasticity of blood vessels and you can have more resistance. Includes: walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, eggs, chicken, tuna, salmon, oats, watermelon seeds, raw pumpkin seeds.
REFERENCES
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Gómez-Álvarez, N., Jofré-Hermosilla, N., Matus-Castillo, C., & Pavez-Adasme, G. (2019). Effects of muscle strength training in postmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome. Systematic review. Culture_Science_Sport, 14(42), 213-224
NAVARRO DESPAIGNE, Daysi Antonia; PRADO MARTINEZ, Consuelo and MANZANO OVIES, Blanca Rosa. OSteosarcopenia: from the aging of the bone-muscular unit to the disease. Rev Cuba Rheumatol [online]. 2020, vol.22, suppl.1 [citado 2023-03-01], e861. Epub 15-May-2021. ISSN 1817-5996.
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Abildgaard, J., Pedersen, AT, Green, CJ, Harder-Lauridsen, NM, Solomon, TP, Thomsen, C.… & Lindegaard, B. (2013). Menopause is associated with decreased whole-body fat oxidation during exercise. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, 304 (11), E1227-E1236.
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