Midlife Fitness for Women

Welcome to My 5 Day Crash Course for Women - Fitness in Midlife and Beyond!

Ready to start understanding your body more? Today, we’re tackling the most common question, “Why do I suddenly have more weight in my mid-section when I am not doing anything differently?”

First, a quick hormone review. The chart below shows what a typical cycle looks like for most our of child-bearing years. Notice how the estrogen and progesterone are quite symbiotic. Estrogen increases and when an egg is released, progesterone increases as when it’s released from the corpus luteum. The progesterone counters the estrogen. If that egg isn’t fertilized, menstruation begins and the cycle starts all over again.

When we start to approach perimenopause, the cycle and the estrogen/progesterone relationship can become less predictable. This can begin to happen as early as our mid-30s. We can have really high levels of estrogen and super low levels of progesterone. These erratic hormones can leave us feeling erratic with trouble sleeping, mood changes, urogenital changes, more aches and pains, lower lean mass, and higher abdominal fat. We may be wondering why clothes are fitting differently when nothing has changed.

As we enter menopause and post-menopause, the erratic feeling begins to reduce as the hormones are not having as much fluctuation. But, we also do not have the stress buffering effects of estrogen and progesterone as well as the protection they provide against cardiovascular issues, bones loss and muscle loss.

Also remember how I said that erratic hormones can leave us feeling erratic, this causes internal stress in our bodies. When our bodies are under stress, they secrete cortisol. Our bodies not only use progesterone to counter estrogen but also produce cortisol. In perimenopause, this can leave us with lower levels of progesterone and with higher levels of cortisol and high and low levels of estrogen. In menopause, when cortisol goes high, estrogen goes low.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. while cortisol is necessary for survival and not all bad., the problems begin when it’s chronically elevated. When we’re stressed, tired, working hard, chronically overthinking and even long sessions of cardio can increase our cortisol levels.

Higher cortisol levels and lower lean body mass are major players in weight gain especially around the abdominal region. Cortisol can also lead to increases in blood volume which can leave us feeling bloated. It can cause us to eat more and can increase the breakdown of our muscle and connective tissue.

Now you’re probably thinking, “yikes, that doesn’t sound great, Laurie.” Never fear! Exercise provokes a response from our body that helps to build lean mass, maintain bone mass, and helps our supply of neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine which help reduce hot flashes and other vasomotor symptoms. Exercise also helps our gut microbiome which shifts when hormones shift. And, exercise can help reduce our visceral fat in our abdominal region!

No doubt, you are ready to get moving! So, what type of exercise should you do? Today, we’re focusing on interval training. On Wednesday, we’ll concentrate on the importance of strength training.

Your challenge today is to try Sprint Interval Training(SIT). Research has shown that Sprint Interval Training can increase lean muscle mass and improve cardiovascular fitness while not increasing our overall cortisol levels. SIT and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) have also been shown to fire up our fast twitch muscle fibers which often take a break during endurance or steady state exercise like say walking or running for 45 minutes. SIT and HITT increase the activity of our mitochondria and tells our body to use more fat as fuel. This type of activity has also been shown to reduce anxiety which helps to decrease our cortisol levels. As if I need to convince you any more to try it, this protocol doesn’t take much more than 20 minutes. Yup! You read that correctly.

Ready to give it a shot? You can do this on a bike, running, walking, or any other cardio equipment. You could even do jumping jacks in your living room.:

1. Warm-up for a minimum of 5 minutes.

2. Then, go as hard as possible for 20 seconds - 30 seconds.

3. Then, go easy for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

4. Repeat this 4 to 5 times.

5. Bring your pace way down to easy for 2 to 3 minutes.

6. Cool down for 4 to 5 minutes with super easy activity.

See? That’s not complicated at all! Your challenge is to try this 2 times this week.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I’ll see you tomorrow with your next tip! Have a great day!

Laurie