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I recently spoke with local athlete and WGVU personality, Shelley Irwin, about a hot topic (no pun intended) in female performance – menopause. This once-taboo subject is finally being discussed publicly, which will help fund research and lead to more options for women. Unfortunately, there can be a downside to media attention. Menopause has also become a commodity, which leads to misinformation, fear tactics, and predatory marketing. I’m glad to have the opportunity to approach the topic with honesty and compassion with Shelley and two experts in the field.
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I thought I was talking on Shelley’s radio show. I only learned a few minutes before we started that it was a television show. Thankfully the universe had my back and I did my hair! Did you know brain fog can be a symptom of peri-menopause?
My nerves would have been through the roof had I known it was televised. I have done dozens of television segments with my friends from WZZM and rarely felt nervous. But now, even this “radio” show had me doubting myself. Did you know that anxiety is a symptom of peri-menopause?
Of course, newfound anxiety and brain fog can be symptoms of many different conditions, as can weight gain, sleep disturbances, and achy joints. These are some of the lesser-known symptoms of peri-menopause, but it’s important to recognize that the symptoms can include far more than just hot flashes and night sweats.
For athletes, these menopausal symptoms can erode not just our athletic performance, but also the enjoyment we feel from our sport.
Last year, I took Dr. Stacy Sims Menopause 2.0 course and am a founding member of the Navigating Menopause Course and Cohort. Research is finally catching up and I’ve learned many productive science-based strategies to help athletes manage this time of life. Anxiety be damned, I’m privileged to share this information with women!
The show was on Family Health First. The other two guests on the show were Dr. Diana Bitner of true. Women’s Health and Dr. Robyn Hubbard of Grand Rapids Women’s Health. Click HERE to watch the 30 minute segment!
There was a ton of great information on the show, but I wanted to share the notes I jotted down as I prepared. These are unedited copy-and-paste jobs from the lectures I have mentioned above. For what it’s worth, my inner perfectionist is literally dying right now to post my notes unedited (well, maybe very slightly edited… but not nearly to my standards). I am telling myself it is better to get this out there than to get it perfect. So here goes!
Question 1: How Should Women Change their Training in Menopause?
With the changes in estrogen and progesterone, our bodies need to make up for responses the hormones used to deliver.
Musculoskeletal Health is everything in menopause. We can lose up to 10% of our muscle and 20% of our bone density during the menopausal transition. Muscle is our metabolic currency, and we must maintain it! Lifting weights can help with bone density, maintaining muscle, and many other benefits. So if you are an athlete who has been able to get away without lifting, I’d highly encourage you to start now.
Athletes should shift to a polarized training model where the idea is to hit the very top in high-intensity and very low-end aerobic recovery.
Minimize time around tempo and threshold (the gray zone) where it’s too hard to be easy and too easy to be hard.
Look at your week in the same way as one workout. Too much hard work means you can’t actually HIT the top end. And if easy work isn’t easy enough, you are now in the grey zone for that week.
High intensity can be done in the gym, pool with paddles, or the bike and run with hill repeats, sprint intervals, etc. – I wouldn’t recommend more than 3-4 sessions a week.
What about the "Long" Training Sessions?
For younger females and men, the idea behind slow Z2 work is to enhance the ability to use fat as a fuel. As estrogen drops, fuel utilization shifts, and the response is to store more fat. The good news is that women are built with better mitochondrial respiration than men, so we are made for endurance and therefore do not need to do quite as much!
Low estrogen encourages a shift in fat distribution to more fat going to our mid-section. The menopausal body is already very effective at storing more fat, you contribute to that trend with an abundance of long, steady-state cardio.
Long workouts do have a place in building base and recovery but should be balanced with intensity.
What are the Best Type of Training Sessions?
- SIT – Sprint Interval Training. Supramaximal (100%+ FTP) very short 30s or less. Variable rest. Have enough rest to hit the next interval – increases lean mass, decreases fat mass!
- HIIT – High-Intensity Interval Training. Short, hard, intervals, submaximal efforts (80% of Max HR), about 1 minute with variable rest. – better blood glucose control via greater insulin sensitivity, stimulates mitochondria to grow. There is an acute inflammatory response (normal) but it responds with a stronger anti-inflammatory response.
- Lifting Heavy Weights – Deadlifts, Squats, Step-ups, Bench Press, etc. Near maximal 3-5 repetitions, 3-5 sets of 3-5 exercises and 3-5 minutes recovery between. No super-setting. It’s not cardio, it is about central nervous system stimulation.
– minimum of 2x/week. - Plyometrics – fast, explosive power or jump training for protecting neuromuscular activity, insulin sensitivity, and bone health. More reps is not the answer! Multidirectional force fights osteoporosis.
- Mobility and functional training – Compound movements using the core and moving as you would in daily life. Functional training is about creating efficiency in the range of motion, joint mobility, and postural muscles.
Nutritional Advice for Menopausal Women
Athletes should avoid following anyone else’s blueprint before they truly study themselves. Hormone fluctuations affect each of us differently. So, keep in mind that there is no right answer, but some broad brush recommendations that may be helpful are the following:
FIRST
- Track hormone status against training and recovery to understand your patterns and needs
- Be consistent. Eat at the same time every single day
- 3 square meals (complex carb, lean protein, quality fat, vegetable)
- 2-3 snacks
- Now you know what you are experiencing and can make educated changes
SECOND
Look at protein intake – 1.4-2.2 g/kg a day
Look at food quality – whole foods when possible
Look at supporting in and around all of our workouts – carbs for energy, protein for recovery
For supplements look at
- Creatine 3-5g per day
- BCAAs
- Iron
- Whey protein
- Any areas that your diet lacks
- Adaptogens can offer support for symptoms but should be closely monitored.