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Is exercise good?
It turns out that exercise can actually provide relief from menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes. One study showed that women who lived sedentary lives had more severe menopausal symptoms than their active counterparts. Another study found that regular exercise could prevent postmenopausal symptoms significantly.
Why is it important?
Exercise during and after menopause offers many benefits, including:
Preventing weight gain– Women tend to lose muscle mass and gain abdominal fat around menopause. Regular physical activity can help prevent weight gain.
Reducing the risk of cancer – Exercise during and after menopause can help you lose excess weight or maintain a healthy weight, which might offer protection from various types of cancer, including breast, colon, and endometrial cancer.
Strengthening your bones – Exercise can slow bone loss after menopause, which lowers the risk of fractures and osteoporosis.
Boosting your mood – Physically active adults have a lower risk of depression and cognitive decline.
Reducing the risk of other diseases – Menopause weight gain can have serious implications for your health. Excess weight increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Regular exercise can counter these risks.
What exercise to do?
The good thing about exercise is that it doesn’t need to be specific, no one exercise is better than the next. Regular exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight, relieve stress, and improve your quality of life. Here are some examples of things you can do:
Try walking, jogging, biking, and swimming. It doesn’t need to be for hours on end if you’re just getting started try 10 minutes a day and build it up!
Yoga and Pilates are great ways to exercise socially and promote body awareness
Weight training can improve muscle tone and help strengthen joints and bones
Finally, just move! Active hobbies are a great way to stay fit whilst exercising. ltimately be realistic and set goals along the way to help track your progression and stay motivated, don’t be afraid to get creative and try new activities or hobbies! The bottom line is that there is no reason that you can’t exercise during the menopause, in fact, there are benefits to exercising, just hold back on the intensity and keep things simple so you can build them up in a gradual manner.
The menopause can be an incredibly difficult time and can have a significant impact on not just your physical symptoms but also psychologically. This is why it is important to recognise these symptoms and feel able to seek support if it is affecting your mental health.
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