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41. The Most Common Injuries Women Face After 40 · Midlife Glow Up: Simplifying Fitness, Nutrition and Healthy Habits for Women over 40

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Has this ever happened to you?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: You are just reaching to grab something off the top shelf, or you're crossing your body, uh fastening your seatbelt as you're driving, or you're clipping your own bra behind your back, and out of nowhere, your shoulder just freezes up.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's stiff and it and it aches, and you have no memory of injuring it.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't fall or do anything crazy.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just one day it started hurting, and now it's like all you can think about.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe at the same time, your hip is sore when you sleep on your side and your heel screams at you the first few steps out of bed.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you start to wonder like, is my body just falling apart?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is happening right now?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there is actually real documented reasons why so many of us start collecting these different aches and pains and injuries in our 40s and our 50s?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand what's actually driving all of this, you can do something about it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what today's episode is about.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about the most common injuries and aches and pains for women over 40 and why they start to happen during perimenopause and exactly how to protect yourself from this or at least make your experience a little bit easier if you do get some of these injuries.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Midlife Glow Up Podcast, where we simplify fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits for women over 40.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joan Dandano, your Midlife Health and Wellness Coach.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are ready to feel strong, consistent, and confident in this season of life, well then you're in the right place, my friend.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hear this sentence all the time from my clients.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to end up like my mom.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when I ask them what they mean by that, it's different for each one.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Some, it's like, I just don't want to be overweight like her.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And some, it's like, oh, she's constantly injured or she's unable to do the things that she wants to do.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's sidelined from the activities that she loves.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And for some, it's just that their mom was never really proactive about her health.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like she waited until something broke and then reacted to that and complained about that, but never really did anything to prevent it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I hear all of these fears.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what happened was that we watched this type of thing happen to the women who raised us.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, that does not have to mean that that is going to be our destiny.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of what that generation just chalked up to getting old was actually the shift in hormones that happens in the menopause transition.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Our moms did not have everybody on Instagram and TikTok in their ears telling them to lift weights and prioritize protein in order to protect their bones, right?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: But we get the benefit of knowing better so that we can do better.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what's going to change everything about how our stories unfold in the next 40, 50 years, because we are privileged with this knowledge and also with this feeling of empowerment that we are able to make a difference based on how we choose to live our life today that'll impact the next half of our lives.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: When our moms would go to the doctor with a sore shoulder or achy joints or a nagging hip, they were told that it was just aging or stress or it was just all up in their head.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But in July of 2024, a group of researchers led by orthopedic surgeon Dr.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bonda Wright did something really important.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: They gave this whole category of injuries a name.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: They call it musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they found that about 80% of women in the menopause transition were experiencing musculoskeletal symptoms, either joint pain or muscle loss or tendon and ligament injuries, frozen shoulder, their bones were getting weaker, and there was more wear and tear on the cartilage in their joints.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: 80% of women are going to experience this.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been feeling like your body changed overnight, you are in the overwhelming majority, and it's happening due to no fault of your own.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen is the engine behind almost all of this.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to think of estrogen as a reproductive hormone, and it is, but it does so much more behind the scenes.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen helps to keep your collagen healthy, and collagen is the building material of your tendons, your ligaments, the capsules around your joints, and even your bones and your skin.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Estrogen also has an anti-inflammatory calming effect on your tissues, and it helps keep and preserve your muscle and it keeps your bones strong too.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: When estrogen starts dipping in perimenopause, your connective tissue gets a little less resilient.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is you start to become more inflamed.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when you have more inflammation, then your tendons don't bounce back from stress like they used to, and muscle and bones start declining faster.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that you suddenly became fragile or breakable, but it's that the hormone that was protecting your whole musculoskeletal system has dropped back.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And once you see that, every ache and pain on this list that I'm about to share will start to make a lot more sense.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to go through, and I'm first I'm going to list the most common injuries and ailments that women in the menopause transition experience.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, I'll tell you what we can do now to either prevent this from happening altogether or at least ease some of the symptoms.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the first one that I hear about constantly is frozen shoulder.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: The medical name for this is adhesive capsulitis.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, there's a capsule of tissue around your shoulder joint, and that gets inflamed.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it thickens and it basically starts to shrink wrap your joint.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it gets painful and stiff, and your range of motion just disappears.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And often it comes on without any injury at all.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why it catches so many of us off guard.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Frozen shoulder strikes women about four times more than men, and it shows up most commonly between the ages of 40 and 60.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a coincidence.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is when estrogen is declining, and that is right inside that prime menopause window.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is tendinopathy.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is when a tendon gets irritated, weakened, and sore, usually from just everyday loads that it used to handle just fine.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: But during that menopause transition, there are a few hot spots that show up over and over again.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's the gluteal tendinopathy, which is the big one for the hip.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: It causes pain on the outer side of your hip.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the classic telltale is that it hurts to lie on one side at night.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some research suggests roughly a quarter of menopause-aged women deal with this.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's also rotator cuff trouble in the shoulder, there's Achilles tendon pain at the back of the ankle, and there's plantar fascitis, which is that stabbing pain in the bottom of your foot, especially when you take those first few steps out of bed in the morning.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's also tennis elbow and golfer's elbow on the outside and the inside of the elbow.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: These are all different spots, but it's the same underlying story.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The tendon just lost a little of its resilience and its ability to bounce back.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: The third one is your joints themselves.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of women in midlife noticed achy, stiff joints, especially in the morning.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Your hands might feel sore or creaky.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is the loss of estrogen's anti-inflammatory effect.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is the cartilage that's cushioning your joints becomes more fragile over time.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when those things happen, it can speed up the wear and tear on your joints called osteoarthritis.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So those achy hands and your knees in the morning aren't random and they're not a sign that you're suddenly old, but they are part of this same story.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: After about the age of 40, our bone density starts to decline.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when estrogen drops in menopause, bone loss can speed up significantly.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: There are 34 million American women past menopause who already have low bone mass.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason it matters so much is because thinning bone doesn't hurt.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you usually have no symptoms at all, right up until the moment something breaks.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: The standard recommendation for a baseline DEXA scan is age 65 for women.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the crazy part about that is by the time you are 65, you're well past menopause.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's too late.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you are in perimenopause and you have any risk factors, to include you have a parent who broke their hip, you are a smoker, you have low body weight or early menopause, if you have rheumatoid arthritis, there's lots of things that could uh could also contribute to getting osteoporosis at a younger age than 65.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's really important to be a squeaky wheel and ask for a DEXA scan or just go get yourself one, pay out of pocket if you have to.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have been listening to all of this and saying, like, okay, great, those all sound horrible, like what do we do about this?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Almost everything on that list that I shared responds to the same handful of habits.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't need a different fix for your shoulder and a different fix for your hips and one for your bones.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: The same foundation is going to cover all of it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what actually works.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, and you know I'm gonna say it is strength training.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a non-negotiable in our stage of life.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: When you lift, you're not only building muscle, you are doing that, but you're also protecting your joints and keeping you steady on your feet.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're also loading up your bones.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when you load your bones, that signal tells your bones to stay dense and stay strong.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: The research on this is really clear.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Consistent resistance training improves bone density in post-menopausal women.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are able to build muscle, improve balance, which means that you'll have fewer falls.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do fall, you'll have fewer fractures.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So strength training is fighting the muscle loss and the bone loss and the joint instability all at the same time.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do one thing from this episode, let it be picking up something heavy a few times per week.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're already doing that, just don't stop.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is going to be to keep your joints moving through their full range of motion, especially your shoulders.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the protective things that you can do to stave off stiffness and frozen shoulders specifically is to not let your shoulders live in the same small range of motion all day long.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: So gentle daily movement, reaching overhead, rolling the shoulders out, taking the joint through its full range of motion, helping to keep that capsule supple.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Motion is lotion, as the physical therapists like to say.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So a few minutes of easy mobility for your shoulders and your hips on most days is genuinely protective.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like it doesn't just feel like a nice stretch.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually genuinely protecting your joints.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So grab your dowel and take a few big shoulder rolls every day if you can.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is to really pay attention to your recovery.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: So our tendons often get strained by doing something too much too soon.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are starting a brand new program, say, or you are adding jumping into your routine, or you've gone from not walking at all to now walking several miles a day, your tendons can absolutely get stronger.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the research shows that they will respond well to gradual loading, but they need to build up slowly and give them time to recover.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're gonna start something new, start smaller than you think and add a little bit at a time.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency always beats intensity, and that's not just my slogan, but it is literally how tendon tissue is able to rebuild and to stay healthy.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is to feed the system.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's two pieces here: protein, because you cannot build or hold on to muscle without it, and most women in midlife are not eating enough protein.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's calcium and vitamin D for your bones.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: The general guidance lands around a thousand milligrams of calcium and at least 600 international units of vitamin D a day, ideally from food first.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: So think of protein as the raw material for your muscle and calcium and vitamin D as the raw material for your bone.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can do all the right exercise, but if your building blocks aren't there in your body, then your body has nothing to build with or from.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then number five, we often forget number five.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is balance.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So falls are what turn thin bone into a broken bone.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: So training your balance is fracture prevention.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so simple, it almost feels silly.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But if you stand on one foot while you brush your teeth, or practice standing up from a chair without using your hands, or as you're standing in line at the grocery store, just pick up a foot, balance on one foot, then switch to the other side.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're doing your strength training, that actually helps balance you as well.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you can do single-leg deadlifts, you could do bicep curls, but standing on one leg, like a few seconds every day of deliberate balance practice will really add in that protection for your body and your bones.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, to recap what we covered today, the most common injuries and aches that happen for us after 40 are mostly driven by the drop in estrogen.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one was frozen shoulder, that stiff shrink-wrapped shoulder that shows up four times more often in women, and right in that 40 to 60 window.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Second is tendons, so gluteal tendons of the outer hip, the rotator cuff, the Achilles tendon, the plantar fascitis and the heel, tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, all of those again stem as well from estrogen drop.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: The third one is achy, stiff joints and just general wear and tear of osteoarthritis.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the fourth one, this is the silent one that we don't really think about or know about or feel is bone loss.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that often you don't know until you break a bone, and then you find out, oh, by the way, you have osteoporosis.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the beautiful part.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: The same handful of habits protect against all of it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, strength training is the non-negotiable that builds muscle, loads your bone, and steadies your balance.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, moving your joints through their full range of motion every day, especially those shoulders.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, progressing gradually so that your tendons can keep up because consistency beats intensity every single time.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And number four, we have to nourish our system.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So get plenty of protein for your muscle and calcium plus vitamin D for your bone.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, practice balance because that's what keeps a stumble from becoming a fall and then a fracture.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Strength, mobility, gradual loading, protein and balance, those are five simple things that you can incorporate into your lifestyle.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Starting today, start small and then build from there.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to protect not only your shoulder, your hip, but your joints and your bones and your entire body and your independence.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want help actually doing this, instead of trying to piece it together on your own and hoping that you don't make things worse, that's exactly what we do together inside of FitZone.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is my virtual live and on-demand workout membership that focuses on strength training for women in midlife.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we're loading the body in the right way, we're progressing at a pace that your tendons and joints can handle, and you're not having to do it alone or guess.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So come join us inside of FitZone.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put the link right there in the show notes where you're listening.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your future self, the strong one who reaches overhead without a second thought and gets up off the floor with ease at 80, she is counting on you to start now.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, my friends.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, progress over perfection and consistency over intensity.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep growing, keep glowing, and bye for now.