Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / How Women Should Train Through Menopause | Part 2

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How Women Should Train Through Menopause | Part 2 · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
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Speaker 1: my dad, coach Alex van Houghten, will help you honor
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Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
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Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
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Speaker 1: tools from science, being guidance for everyday life. So listen closing,
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Speaker 1: Get ready, let's get one percent better today.
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Speaker 2: Hey there, coach Alex van Houghten. Here, grace in peace
0:29
Speaker 2: to you, and welcome back to part two of our
0:31
Speaker 2: series Menopause in the Light. Once again, this is a
0:35
Speaker 2: little different from what we normally do here on Faithful Fitness.
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Speaker 2: Usually I'm sitting across from somebody. Usually we're having a conversation,
0:44
Speaker 2: but for this series, I'm talking directly to you because
0:47
Speaker 2: this is something I've watched women wrestle with for more
0:50
Speaker 2: than twenty years as a coach and a trainer, and
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Speaker 2: I think it's time we stop treating menopause like some strange,
0:56
Speaker 2: private thing that women are just supposed to figure out
0:59
Speaker 2: on their own. So if you missed it, go back
1:03
Speaker 2: to part one and listen to it. That's where we
1:06
Speaker 2: laid the foundation for what we're going to talk about today.
1:09
Speaker 2: We talked about what paramenopause actually is, and we talked
1:13
Speaker 2: about what menopause is and some of the real changes
1:16
Speaker 2: that can happen physically, emotionally, metabolically, sexually, and relationally. Most importantly,
1:25
Speaker 2: we establish something that I want sitting underneath this entire
1:28
Speaker 2: series in your mind. If you're a woman and you're
1:32
Speaker 2: going through paramenopause or menopause, your body is changing, but
1:37
Speaker 2: you're not broken. And once we understand what's happening, the
1:42
Speaker 2: next question is what are we going to do about it?
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Speaker 2: Today we're going to talk about one of the most
1:48
Speaker 2: powerful tools that you have available to you exercise, or honestly,
1:54
Speaker 2: I prefer the word training, because we're not just trying
1:57
Speaker 2: to burn some calories here. We're preparing your body for
2:01
Speaker 2: the life that you get to live. And if you're
2:03
Speaker 2: a man listening to this podcast, I really want you
2:06
Speaker 2: to stick around, even though this doesn't apply specifically to
2:10
Speaker 2: you and your body, and know there are women in
2:12
Speaker 2: your life who you love. Just like I talked about
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Speaker 2: in part one, they need your support, your encouragement, and
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Speaker 2: your understanding. Now, let me start by correcting something that
2:24
Speaker 2: the fitness industry is getting wrong. There's no magical menopause workout.
2:29
Speaker 2: There isn't some secret combination of exercises that suddenly becomes
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Speaker 2: necessary the day your estrogen starts changing. You don't turn
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Speaker 2: forty seven and suddenly squat stop working for you. Muscle
2:41
Speaker 2: doesn't decide ooh, she's in pairimenopause. Now I better ignore
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Speaker 2: progressive overload, and your cardiovascular system doesn't stop responding to
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Speaker 2: aerobic training. The laws of physiology are still there, and
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Speaker 2: that matters because nowadays menopause has become a very profitable
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Speaker 2: marketing categor In that marketing you'll see things like never
3:02
Speaker 2: do this exercise after forty or cardio is ruining your hormones,
3:07
Speaker 2: or women in menopause should never train like men, or
3:10
Speaker 2: stop lifting heavy, or stop doing hit training, or only
3:13
Speaker 2: do low intensity exercise because you know cortisol And a
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Speaker 2: lot of that is nonsense. Now, does your physiology change, Absolutely,
3:23
Speaker 2: it does. Can your sleep and recovery change?
3:27
Speaker 3: Yep?
3:28
Speaker 2: Does bone health become more important? Definitely? Does maintaining muscle
3:33
Speaker 2: become increasingly important, Yes, without question. But does that mean
3:39
Speaker 2: every woman needs to train exactly the same way at
3:41
Speaker 2: fifty two that she did at twenty two? No? And
3:45
Speaker 2: here's the phrase I want you to remember, with regard
3:48
Speaker 2: to your training, the fundamentals remain, but your priorities change.
3:55
Speaker 2: For most women moving through this season, I want the
3:58
Speaker 2: training priorities to become very clear. You need to get strong,
4:03
Speaker 2: you need to protect your muscles, you need to load
4:07
Speaker 2: your bones, you need to maintain cardiovascular capacity, you need
4:13
Speaker 2: to preserve power and balance, and then you need to
4:18
Speaker 2: recover well enough to do it again. That's the game
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Speaker 2: we're playing. Let's talk about how to win it. First.
4:26
Speaker 2: We're going to start with resistance training. If I could
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Speaker 2: convince women in midlife to make one major training change,
4:34
Speaker 2: this would be it. Strength training must become a priority.
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Speaker 2: It's not because I want you to look like a bodybuilder,
4:42
Speaker 2: and it's not because we're chasing bigger biceps. And it's
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Speaker 2: definitely not because muscle looks good on you, although it
4:49
Speaker 2: probably does. It's because muscle is useful tissue. It helps
4:55
Speaker 2: you interact with your environment, It helps you dispose of
4:59
Speaker 2: excess glucose in your bloodstream, It helps you maintain function,
5:04
Speaker 2: and helps you stabilize joints, and it even protects your independence.
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Speaker 2: Muscle is also a chemical factory that creates messages that
5:13
Speaker 2: help your mind and body feel good. It gives you
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Speaker 2: the physical capacity to serve other people, carrying groceries, moving furniture,
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Speaker 2: picking up grandchildren, working in the yard, traveling, getting yourself
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Speaker 2: off the floor, catching yourself when you trip, and yeah,
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Speaker 2: looking good, feeling strong. One of the things I've told
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Speaker 2: clients for years is this, You don't suddenly become weak
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Speaker 2: when you turn seventy five. There's usually a long runway
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Speaker 2: that leads up to that. A little less muscle this year,
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Speaker 2: a little less activity next year. You stop lifting because
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Speaker 2: things feel heavy, and then they get heavier. You stop
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Speaker 2: getting on the floor because getting up is uncomfortable, so
5:57
Speaker 2: getting up becomes harder. Over time, the world slowly gets
6:01
Speaker 2: smaller and smaller and smaller, and then one day everybody
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Speaker 2: calls it aging. Yeah, sure, some of it's aging, but
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Speaker 2: most of it's d training. Those are not the same thing.
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Speaker 2: Exercise studies and postmenopausal women consistently show that resistance training
6:18
Speaker 2: can meaningfully improve strength and physical function. So my advice
6:23
Speaker 2: is very simple. Don't surrender muscle quietly. You have to
6:29
Speaker 2: fight to keep it around. Now I have to say
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Speaker 2: something out loud because you need to hear it from me.
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Speaker 2: If you haven't heard it from other people, you're allowed
6:37
Speaker 2: to lift heavy things. And here's where I want to
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Speaker 2: address another fear. A lot of women have become conditioned
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Speaker 2: to believe that getting older means that everything in the
6:47
Speaker 2: gym needs to become lighter. Five pound dumbbells, lots of repetitions,
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Speaker 2: maybe some machines, nothing too strenuous, nothing explosive, nothing that
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Speaker 2: looks dangerous or intimidating. Now, some women do have past injuries,
7:02
Speaker 2: and some are severely deconditioned dealing with significant osteoporosis or
7:07
Speaker 2: navigating other medical conditions. Sure, you may absolutely need to
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Speaker 2: modify your training for those things. But healthy aging does
7:16
Speaker 2: not require you to become increasingly afraid of resistance. In fact,
7:23
Speaker 2: the opposite is actually true. Your body needs a reason
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Speaker 2: to keep this expensive muscle tissue around. Muscle costs energy
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Speaker 2: and bone costs resources. If your environment keeps communicating to
7:38
Speaker 2: your body, ah, you don't really need this, then your
7:42
Speaker 2: body will adapt accordingly, and that's not good. But if
7:46
Speaker 2: your environment says, hey, no, I still lift heavy things,
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Speaker 2: I still climb, I still carry, I still produce force.
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Speaker 2: I still need this body to be strong and capable.
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Speaker 2: That's a very different signal, and for women who can
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Speaker 2: safely do it progressively, challenging resistance is valuable in the gym.
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Speaker 2: That might mean squatting, leg pressing, deadlifting, or hinging, pressing,
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Speaker 2: overhead pulling, lunging, stepping, carrying, pushing, and dragging, gradually increasing
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Speaker 2: the amount of challenge over time. Now, I don't want
8:24
Speaker 2: you to feel overwhelmed. We're not doing this recklessly and
8:28
Speaker 2: we're not trying to prove anything. We're doing it intelligently progressively.
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Speaker 2: There's a difference. In fact, I just finished training woman
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Speaker 2: that I've been working with for a little over nine weeks.
8:40
Speaker 2: She's postmenopausal, and when we first started working together, she
8:43
Speaker 2: had a lot of pain. Because of that pain, she
8:46
Speaker 2: had developed several dysfunctional movement patterns, and she was frankly
8:51
Speaker 2: afraid of weight training. We spent quite a bit of
8:54
Speaker 2: time and energy addressing those maladaptive movement patterns and teaching
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Speaker 2: her how to lift in a way that are body
9:00
Speaker 2: needed her to. When we first started, bending over to
9:04
Speaker 2: tie her shoes was really painful. But this morning she
9:08
Speaker 2: was able to deadlift forty pounds from the floor all
9:11
Speaker 2: the way to our hips with no pain, and in
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Speaker 2: the time we've worked together, she seen decreasing levels of
9:18
Speaker 2: pain every week while improving her function and her strength.
9:23
Speaker 2: She would tell you, at this point, it feels like
9:25
Speaker 2: quite a miracle. She knew that she needed to exercise,
9:29
Speaker 2: but exercise had always resulted in injury for her, and
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Speaker 2: she couldn't figure out why. She couldn't figure out how
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Speaker 2: to start it all over again. We're going to talk
9:38
Speaker 2: about some of the principles we use to get her
9:40
Speaker 2: there so that you can begin applying them for yourself today.
9:43
Speaker 2: But if you're listening to this and you need some
9:46
Speaker 2: personal guidance, let me help you shorten the learning curve.
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Speaker 2: Tell me your story by emailing me personally at coach
9:54
Speaker 2: Alex at faithfulfitness dot co. We'll figure out where you
9:59
Speaker 2: need to start and how to progress intelligently over time. Again,
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Speaker 2: my email is coach Alex at Faithfulfitness dot Co. Now
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Speaker 2: I think I needed to find what heavy actually means
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Speaker 2: when we're talking about weight training. Someone's going to hear
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Speaker 2: this and think I'm telling every woman over fifty five
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Speaker 2: that she needs to attempt a one repmax deadlift tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: It's not what I'm saying heavy is relative, heavy means
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Speaker 2: the resistance is legitimately challenging for you. If you can
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Speaker 2: pick up something thirty times while having a casual conversation,
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Speaker 2: that's definitely not strength. You might be moving or maybe
10:35
Speaker 2: even exercising a little bit, that's great, But if we're
10:38
Speaker 2: specifically trying to increase your strength, we're specifically trying to
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Speaker 2: grow a muscle tissue and make bone more dens and
10:46
Speaker 2: at some point you're gonna needs sufficient resistance. A useful
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Speaker 2: general strength training range for any exercise is somewhere between
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Speaker 2: five and twelve repetitions. Sometimes you can go a little heavier,
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Speaker 2: sometimes you can go a little lighter. There really isn't
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Speaker 2: any magic in doing much heavier than that, and might
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Speaker 2: not be a lot of benefit with a lot more
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Speaker 2: injury risk. So I don't generally recommend that women impairmentopause
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Speaker 2: or menopause work toward increasing their one rep maxes. But
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Speaker 2: when you finish a working set, there really should be
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Speaker 2: a general sense of yeah, I had to work hard
11:21
Speaker 2: to do that. That's a good indication that you've challenged
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Speaker 2: the muscle enough to signal to your body that muscle
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Speaker 2: is important needs to be kept a rep. The newest
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Speaker 2: resistance training recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine
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Speaker 2: still reinforce the basic idea that heavier loads are particularly
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Speaker 2: useful when strength is the goal. You don't have to
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Speaker 2: train to failure in every set, and I don't want
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Speaker 2: you crawling out of the gym. I definitely don't want
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Speaker 2: you destroying yourself, but you do need enough challenge to
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Speaker 2: create adaptation. Remember, exercise is the stimulus, but recovery is
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Speaker 2: where adaptation happens. Both matter. So what's my prescription for
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Speaker 2: paramtoposal or metapausal training for a generally healthy woman. Two
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Speaker 2: strength training sessions per week is a very good start,
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Speaker 2: but three is even better. And if you're someone who
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Speaker 2: loves training and programs intelligently, there's nothing inherently wrong with
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Speaker 2: doing up to four strength training sessions in a week.
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Speaker 2: But that really can be a lot to recover from
12:28
Speaker 2: if you're lifting heavy enough to create an adaptive stimulus.
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Speaker 2: But the truth is, I'd rather you train hard and
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Speaker 2: consistently three times a week for the next ten years
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Speaker 2: than to train really hard for the next six days,
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Speaker 2: become exhausted and quit. Your program doesn't have to be
12:46
Speaker 2: fancy you can train the major movement patterns. You can
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Speaker 2: train the squat with something like a TRX assisted squat
12:53
Speaker 2: or even a leg press, sit to stand or dumbbell
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Speaker 2: squit squad. You can train the hinge moove with dead
13:00
Speaker 2: lift variations Romanian dead lifts, hip hinges, glut bridges, or
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Speaker 2: hip thrusts. You can train the push with push ups,
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Speaker 2: chest presses, or even overhead presses. You can train the
13:13
Speaker 2: pull with rows, lap pole downs or assisted pull ups.
13:17
Speaker 2: And you can train carries with farmer carries or suit
13:20
Speaker 2: case carries. Then you can include some single legg leg
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Speaker 2: work like step ups, lunges or split squads. Now, I
13:29
Speaker 2: know that's a big list, and if that feels overwhelming
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Speaker 2: to you, I get it. That's why inside of the
13:34
Speaker 2: Faithful Fitness Corps, we have a program builder that you
13:37
Speaker 2: can use. It puts these movement patterns together for you
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Speaker 2: and links them to exercise videos top by yours truly.
13:45
Speaker 2: That way you know how to complete these exercises safely
13:48
Speaker 2: and effectively. If you're not a member of the Faithful
13:51
Speaker 2: Fitness Corps yet, we'd love to have you and the
13:54
Speaker 2: links in the show notes. Once you join, look for
13:57
Speaker 2: the program builder in the navigation window will get you
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Speaker 2: squared away. Now, once you do have your exercise selected
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Speaker 2: for each workout, you work to make them progressively more
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Speaker 2: challenging as you become more and more capable. That's enough
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Speaker 2: to build an excellent program around. You don't need forty
14:14
Speaker 2: two exercises every workout. You need consistency and appropriate intensity,
14:20
Speaker 2: and as you train, you need progression. Now I've said
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Speaker 2: that several times now, but in practical terms, progression may
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Speaker 2: simply mean doing a few more repetitions next week, or
14:32
Speaker 2: using a little more weight for this exercise than you
14:34
Speaker 2: did last week. That's the training stimulus that will keep
14:38
Speaker 2: your muscle around so you remain healthy, fit, strong, and
14:43
Speaker 2: independent even past menopause. In my career as a personal
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Speaker 2: trainer and health coach, I've trained many women who are
14:50
Speaker 2: stronger in their fifties and sixties than they were in
14:53
Speaker 2: their twenties, and they would tell you that there's never
14:56
Speaker 2: been a more important time in their lives to be
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Speaker 2: That's wrong. Okay, we need to switch gears for muscle.
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Speaker 2: Talk about something that becomes increasingly important through and after menopause.
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Speaker 2: Let's talk bone tissue. Bone is living tissue, and one
15:13
Speaker 2: of the things it responds to is mechanical loading. And
15:17
Speaker 2: I need you to hear this. Walking is wonderful. I
15:20
Speaker 2: love walking. I recommend walking consistently. Walk after dinner, walk
15:25
Speaker 2: with your husband, walk with your dog, walk with your friends,
15:27
Speaker 2: walk while you're praying. Walk because human beings were built
15:30
Speaker 2: to move. But walking is not a complete bone strengthening strategy.
15:38
Speaker 2: It provides weight bearing activity, which is definitely useful. But
15:42
Speaker 2: if protecting bone is one of your primary goals, we
15:45
Speaker 2: also need stronger mechanical signals through resistance training and when appropriate,
15:52
Speaker 2: some form of impact. Research examining postmenopausal women suggests that
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Speaker 2: resistance training, particularly with progressive overload and programs combining resistance
16:05
Speaker 2: training with impact, can help maintain or even improve bone
16:10
Speaker 2: mineral density in a time where many women naturally decline
16:14
Speaker 2: in that area. In Layman's terms, I want to challenge
16:18
Speaker 2: the idea that you're too old for a little shock
16:21
Speaker 2: and awe. And this is where training intelligently really matters.
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Speaker 2: Some women here impact is good for bone and immediately
16:30
Speaker 2: think great, I'm sixty two, I haven't exercised in nine years,
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Speaker 2: and you want me to start doing box jumps. No,
16:38
Speaker 2: that is not what I'm saying, please don't do that.
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Speaker 2: Impact is a spectrum. Maybe your starting point is a
16:46
Speaker 2: brisk walk. Maybe you eventually progress to stairs, walking up
16:52
Speaker 2: and then carefully walking back down. Maybe eventually you can
16:57
Speaker 2: do some small controlled hops or even some Pilate's jump
17:01
Speaker 2: board training. Or then perhaps you might be able to
17:05
Speaker 2: begin skipping rope or even jumping rope. It's also possible
17:08
Speaker 2: that you have the capacity to progress to more substantial
17:12
Speaker 2: jumping or even some grunning intervals. The appropriate dose depends
17:18
Speaker 2: on your history, on your joints, on your strength, on
17:21
Speaker 2: your balance and bone health, and your current capacity. I
17:26
Speaker 2: know that's a lot of variables and it can feel overwhelming.
17:29
Speaker 2: So the simple rule of thumb is this, how much
17:32
Speaker 2: impact can I currently handle without injury, and what's the
17:38
Speaker 2: next step that I can train toward. I'll give you
17:41
Speaker 2: an example. Remember the woman that I just told you
17:44
Speaker 2: about who's progressed to deadlifting forty pounds. When we started
17:47
Speaker 2: lifting together, she also began a walking practice three days
17:51
Speaker 2: a week. By week three, she was walking without pain.
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Speaker 2: Getting her on the block was no longer a struggle.
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Speaker 2: So we went to a hill. Walking already has a
18:02
Speaker 2: little impact. That's why you can hear your footsteps when
18:05
Speaker 2: you walk, but walking up a hill and then back
18:09
Speaker 2: down introduces a new level of loading. Impact is really
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Speaker 2: about stopping and starting your movement against gravity. I want
18:17
Speaker 2: you to picture how we can do that softly like walking,
18:20
Speaker 2: or more violently like a box jump. There's an entire
18:24
Speaker 2: spectrum between walking and box jumping. The way you progress
18:29
Speaker 2: and care for your bones through menopause is by cultivating
18:33
Speaker 2: and training your ability to handle impact. Now, if you
18:38
Speaker 2: have known osteoporosis, a history of fracture, significant pelvic floor symptoms,
18:45
Speaker 2: substantial joint disease, or you've been told you're at an
18:48
Speaker 2: elevated fracture risk, that's where individualize medical or professional guidance
18:54
Speaker 2: becomes important. We want to load the body. We don't
18:58
Speaker 2: want to be stupid about it. If any of that
19:01
Speaker 2: applies to you, ask for help before taking this on
19:04
Speaker 2: or by yourself. I'd truly be honored to be in
19:06
Speaker 2: your corner. But if it's not me, connect with another
19:09
Speaker 2: qualified professional who can help you determine where to start
19:13
Speaker 2: with impact and how to progress from there. Now, I've
19:17
Speaker 2: talked a lot about resistance training, but I want you
19:19
Speaker 2: to understand that strength isn't enough. You also need some speed.
19:25
Speaker 2: You need to train some speed in this season. That
19:27
Speaker 2: brings us to another quality that people tend to lose
19:30
Speaker 2: as they get older. Power. I don't mean some woo
19:32
Speaker 2: woo magical kind of bower, talking about the actual physics
19:36
Speaker 2: term strength is your ability to produce force. Stronger you are,
19:41
Speaker 2: the heavier the object you can move. Power includes how
19:46
Speaker 2: quickly you can produce that force. Think about catching yourself
19:50
Speaker 2: when you stumble. How quickly can you get up when
19:54
Speaker 2: you take the stairs? Is there pep in your step?
19:58
Speaker 2: Can you react quickly? Can you move an object quickly?
20:03
Speaker 2: Can you grab a toddler who suddenly starts running in
20:05
Speaker 2: the wrong direction? Life doesn't always give you five seconds
20:09
Speaker 2: to produce force. Sometimes you need force right now. And
20:14
Speaker 2: yet what do we tend to do with people when
20:16
Speaker 2: they age? Everything gets slower, Training gets slower, movement gets
20:22
Speaker 2: more cautious. Some cautions appropriate, but I don't want capable
20:27
Speaker 2: women gradually training themselves into moving more slowly. For a
20:32
Speaker 2: woman who's built an appropriate strength training base, power training
20:35
Speaker 2: could mean standing up quickly from a squat position like
20:37
Speaker 2: a chair, or even moving the lifting portion of resistance
20:41
Speaker 2: exercise with a bit more intent. It could mean medicine
20:45
Speaker 2: ball throws, force full basketball bounce passes, or some controlled
20:50
Speaker 2: kettlebell movements. I have a client right now who's seventy
20:54
Speaker 2: years old and she can jump onto a twenty four
20:56
Speaker 2: inch box with no problem. I want to be just
21:00
Speaker 2: like her when I grow up again. This sort of
21:02
Speaker 2: training should be scaled to the individual. We're not training
21:06
Speaker 2: for the Olympics, but we are training your body to
21:09
Speaker 2: interact confidently with the world. During perimenopause and menopause, the
21:15
Speaker 2: body has a tendency to lose type two muscle fibers.
21:19
Speaker 2: Those are our fast twitched fibers, just as we said
21:23
Speaker 2: about muscle in general and about bone. If we don't
21:26
Speaker 2: give it the correct signal, the body won't keep that
21:30
Speaker 2: expensive tissue around. So here's a quick recap. If you're
21:34
Speaker 2: not going to do anything else with regard to exercise
21:37
Speaker 2: and menopause, I need you to begin resistance training. Two
21:41
Speaker 2: days a week is a great place to start. Three
21:44
Speaker 2: would be even better, and apply the principles of progressive
21:48
Speaker 2: overload to improve your strength and power. Signal to your
21:52
Speaker 2: body that it needs to keep this expensive tissue around.
21:56
Speaker 2: That will support your independence, your strength, your mood and
22:01
Speaker 2: functionality for many years to come. All right, we need
22:06
Speaker 2: to switch gears again and talk about cardiovascular exercise. There's
22:11
Speaker 2: another Strain's message floating around on the internet right now,
22:15
Speaker 2: women in menopause should stop doing cardio. Nope, that's an overcorrection.
22:22
Speaker 2: Could someone do too much cardiovascular training relative to her
22:26
Speaker 2: nutrition and ability to recover? Yeah, of course. I've seen
22:31
Speaker 2: women running themselves into the ground, eating almost nothing, not
22:34
Speaker 2: strength training, sleeping poorly, wondering why their body composition isn't
22:38
Speaker 2: moving in the direction they want. That's not good. Doing
22:43
Speaker 2: more cardio isn't always the answer. But your heart does
22:48
Speaker 2: not stop mattering because now you're in menopause. In fact,
22:53
Speaker 2: some of the estrogen that was present in your body
22:56
Speaker 2: was cardioprotective, and as estrogen becomes scarce, are even nearly
23:00
Speaker 2: non existent. Cardiovascular health matters more, not less. Your lungs
23:06
Speaker 2: still matter, your blood vessels still matter, your aerobic capacity
23:11
Speaker 2: still matters. Cardio respiratory fitness is one of the fundamental
23:15
Speaker 2: capabilities of human health. So yes, I want you to
23:19
Speaker 2: lift weights, and yes I want you doing cardiovascular work.
23:24
Speaker 2: For general health, the standard recommendation is one hundred and
23:29
Speaker 2: fifty minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week. Combining that
23:35
Speaker 2: with resistance training would be awesome. I don't necessarily want
23:41
Speaker 2: you to sit down with a stopwatch and panic about
23:44
Speaker 2: hitting exactly one hundred and fifty minutes this week, but
23:47
Speaker 2: I do want you to build a life in which
23:49
Speaker 2: cardiovascular movement is normal for you. Definitely walk regularly. Then
23:56
Speaker 2: find a form of cardiovascular exercise with which you can
24:00
Speaker 2: challenge yourself. It could be biking, could be swimming, could
24:05
Speaker 2: be hiking or jogging, could be using a rowing machine,
24:10
Speaker 2: or like the client I talk to you about, you
24:12
Speaker 2: can use hills to do the job. Find something you
24:15
Speaker 2: can do that challenges you cardiovascularly. Depending on your fitness level,
24:22
Speaker 2: include periods during your week when you're not merely walking comfortably,
24:27
Speaker 2: but actually putting your heart and lungs through their paces.
24:30
Speaker 2: I'd also like to note this synergy between resistance training
24:35
Speaker 2: and cardiovascular work. Cardiovascular exercise is repetitive by nature. It
24:40
Speaker 2: can be pretty hard on the joints, the neck, the shoulders,
24:44
Speaker 2: the knees, the hips, especially if you're experiencing inflammation or
24:48
Speaker 2: discomfort related to perimenopause. Weight training can help orduce some
24:54
Speaker 2: of those problems while making sure your body is prepared
24:58
Speaker 2: to tolerate that repetitive mind movement. Over time, many women
25:02
Speaker 2: have tried to pick up cardiovascular practice like jogging, and
25:05
Speaker 2: after a few attempts in an injury, they'll say jogging
25:08
Speaker 2: isn't for me, I am too old for that, when
25:12
Speaker 2: in reality their body may simply not be prepared to
25:16
Speaker 2: jog appropriately. Yet resistance training can help close those gaps. Personally,
25:22
Speaker 2: one of the most fulfilling parts of my work is
25:25
Speaker 2: taking something in individual believes is not for her, and
25:28
Speaker 2: then training her body until she can do it, and
25:32
Speaker 2: that she can do it in a way that she loves.
25:35
Speaker 2: Taking somebody who is walking with pain and helping her
25:39
Speaker 2: become someone who enjoys jogging, swimming, biking, or even rowing
25:44
Speaker 2: gives me the tiniest glimpse of what Jesus must have
25:47
Speaker 2: felt when he saw that paralytic man dancing. Now, on
25:51
Speaker 2: the subject of cardiovascular training, there's an important question that
25:55
Speaker 2: needs to be asked and answered. Should women in menopause
25:59
Speaker 2: do HIT that is high intensity interval training. Let's take
26:03
Speaker 2: this one on directly. For most healthy women who are
26:07
Speaker 2: appropriately condition yeah, you can totally do hit training. There
26:11
Speaker 2: isn't a menopause police officer waiting outside the gym to
26:14
Speaker 2: arrest you because your heart rate went above zone two.
26:18
Speaker 2: But again, dose matters, and recovery matters. Your training history
26:23
Speaker 2: also matters, as well as your medical history. High intensity
26:27
Speaker 2: exercise isn't inherently bad because you're forty eight or fifty eight,
26:32
Speaker 2: And this whole idea that a hard workout will create
26:34
Speaker 2: some catastrophic cortisol problem and mess up your hormones for
26:38
Speaker 2: life definitely needs to be put into perspective. Cortisol isn't poison,
26:42
Speaker 2: it's a hormone that you need. An exercise is stressful,
26:47
Speaker 2: that's kind of the point. Training creates a controlled stress
26:51
Speaker 2: that your body is able to adapt to. The question
26:54
Speaker 2: isn't does exercise increase my stress hormone? A better question
26:59
Speaker 2: is is the dose of stress appropriate for my body's
27:04
Speaker 2: ability to recover from it? For some women, one or
27:08
Speaker 2: two interval sessions per week could be fantastic. Viking intervals,
27:13
Speaker 2: uphill walking, rowing, running, hard efforts on the elliptical. You
27:18
Speaker 2: don't have to destroy yourself. Short periods of hard work,
27:21
Speaker 2: even just ten seconds of hard work can maintain capacities
27:26
Speaker 2: that become increasingly valuable in the parimid aposal and menopausal body.
27:32
Speaker 2: But high intensity intervals are not a great place to start. Well,
27:36
Speaker 2: they can be powerful and beneficial, don't incorporate them in
27:39
Speaker 2: your training program until you've established a consistent foundation, ideally
27:44
Speaker 2: at least twelve weeks that is three months of consistent
27:48
Speaker 2: regular training. Where people get in trouble is that they
27:52
Speaker 2: hear hit has some magical fat burning effect and they
27:55
Speaker 2: jump right into it, hoping to see fast results. Now
27:59
Speaker 2: you've been around the block, right. If it sounds too
28:01
Speaker 2: good to be true, it probably is. And I'd be
28:06
Speaker 2: remiss if I didn't spend a little time talking about
28:09
Speaker 2: the most underrated exercise, that is walking. After saying that
28:14
Speaker 2: all about intensity, this is extremely simple. I need you
28:18
Speaker 2: to walk, seriously, walk a lot. Training and movement are
28:23
Speaker 2: not the same thing. Your workout might last forty five
28:26
Speaker 2: minutes today, but you still have another fifteen waking hours.
28:30
Speaker 2: One of the easiest traps to fall into is exercising
28:33
Speaker 2: hard and then sitting for the rest of the day.
28:37
Speaker 2: Walking gives us movement without producing a huge recovery demand.
28:43
Speaker 2: It helps maintain daily energy expenditure, it supports cardiovascular health.
28:48
Speaker 2: It's accessible, it gets you outside, it can be social.
28:53
Speaker 2: It's great for your digestive system, and you can pray
28:56
Speaker 2: while you're doing it, lifting your mood and your spirits.
29:00
Speaker 2: For a lot of women dealing with stress, there's something
29:03
Speaker 2: psychologically restorative about simply going outside and moving. So I
29:08
Speaker 2: don't want you choosing between lifting weights, doing cardio, or walking.
29:13
Speaker 2: I want you to do all of these things. They
29:17
Speaker 2: are different tools for different jobs. The women I know
29:21
Speaker 2: who are doing this aging thing best often accumulate around
29:25
Speaker 2: an hour of walking a day. It might not happen
29:29
Speaker 2: all at once, but you'll rarely find them sitting down
29:32
Speaker 2: for long periods of time. And if walking an hour
29:35
Speaker 2: a day sounds like a lot to you, don't freak out.
29:39
Speaker 2: Start small and work your way up. It brings me
29:43
Speaker 2: so much joy when there's someone who had difficulty even
29:48
Speaker 2: imagining herself doing something like walking an hour and then
29:53
Speaker 2: puts in the work until she actually enjoys doing the
29:57
Speaker 2: thing that once upon a time you couldn't even picture
30:00
Speaker 2: yourself doing. Maybe walking could become that for you. Now,
30:06
Speaker 2: all this talk about exercise requires that we discuss the
30:09
Speaker 2: part that can get really tricky or impairmentopause recovery because
30:16
Speaker 2: during this time, maybe your sleep is unpredictable, maybe you're
30:19
Speaker 2: waking up a lot. Maybe stress in your life is
30:23
Speaker 2: higher right now. Maybe you have an aging parent that
30:26
Speaker 2: you're taking care of her children still at home. Maybe
30:30
Speaker 2: you're also working full time. And then somebody on Instagram
30:33
Speaker 2: tells you that the only way to make progress is
30:35
Speaker 2: to wake up at four point thirty every morning and
30:37
Speaker 2: attack the day. I need you to hear me right now.
30:42
Speaker 2: Sometimes the most discipline and helpful thing you can do
30:46
Speaker 2: get to bed on time. There's a difference between being
30:49
Speaker 2: lazy and being under recovered. Learning that difference is one
30:53
Speaker 2: of the skills of mature training. Here's how I think
30:57
Speaker 2: about it. Let's say you had one terrible night of sleep.
31:01
Speaker 2: You probably don't need to cancel your entire life warm up.
31:04
Speaker 2: See how you feel. Maybe don't train quite as hard
31:07
Speaker 2: as you would otherwise, do a few fewer repetitions or
31:10
Speaker 2: use a slightly lighter weight, but continue moving forward, keep
31:15
Speaker 2: your training habit alive. But let's say you slept badly
31:19
Speaker 2: for the last six straight nights. You're exhausted, you're emotionally tired,
31:24
Speaker 2: your performance is dropping and everything hurts. That's your body
31:29
Speaker 2: giving you good information. I want you to listen to it.
31:34
Speaker 2: Choosing not to do your planned workout today isn't quitting,
31:37
Speaker 2: it's auto regulation. Maybe instead of a workout, you need
31:42
Speaker 2: a hot bubble bat. Even experienced athletes learn to do this.
31:46
Speaker 2: We're not trying to prove how much punishment we can
31:48
Speaker 2: survive here. We're trying to create healthy adaptation. So listen
31:54
Speaker 2: to your body. In part four of this series, we're
31:57
Speaker 2: gonna talk much more about recovery and sleep. But I
32:00
Speaker 2: want recovery to remain at the forefront of your mind
32:03
Speaker 2: while you train with weights, perform cardiovascular exercise, and build
32:07
Speaker 2: your walking practice. Having said that, I want to be
32:11
Speaker 2: careful because there are two equal and opposite mistakes. One
32:15
Speaker 2: woman might say, all right, coach, my body hasn't changed
32:18
Speaker 2: at all. I should be able to do exactly what
32:21
Speaker 2: I did at twenty years and if I can't, I'm failing.
32:25
Speaker 2: That's not wisdom. But another woman can hear that recovery
32:29
Speaker 2: matters and say, well, I'm in menopause now, so I
32:32
Speaker 2: probably shouldn't push myself. That's not wisdom either. Menopause isn't
32:38
Speaker 2: an excuse to stop asking your body to adapt. You're
32:42
Speaker 2: still adaptable, you can still learn, you can still become stronger,
32:47
Speaker 2: you can still improve your fitness. You are still capable
32:52
Speaker 2: doing hard things. Wisdom isn't the absence of standards. Wisdom
32:57
Speaker 2: allows us to deal honestly with reality and then move
33:01
Speaker 2: forward from there. So what would a good week of
33:05
Speaker 2: training actually look like in perimenopause and menopause? Let's make
33:09
Speaker 2: this extremely practical. Imagine a generally healthy woman in her
33:14
Speaker 2: forties or fifties, maybe even early sixties, who has been
33:17
Speaker 2: cleared for exercise. What's a strong week actually look like.
33:22
Speaker 2: This isn't the only way to do it, it's just
33:24
Speaker 2: a decent template. Monday could be a full body strength
33:29
Speaker 2: training day with some walking. Tuesday could include some moderate
33:33
Speaker 2: to vigorous cardiovascular work, or if you aren't ready for
33:37
Speaker 2: that yet, walking still excellent a start. Wednesday could be
33:42
Speaker 2: another strength training day focused on mostly upper body, and
33:46
Speaker 2: if you built the appropriate foundation, you might finish with
33:49
Speaker 2: a few short intervals. Thursday could be a recovery day
33:53
Speaker 2: with some easy walking, stretching, and even some foam rolling.
33:57
Speaker 2: Friday could be another strength training day with a lower
34:00
Speaker 2: body focus, and on Saturday, you can do something fun
34:03
Speaker 2: and athletic. Go for a hike or run, or a
34:07
Speaker 2: bike ride, play pickleball, do some intervals, play with your grandkids,
34:11
Speaker 2: do that heavy gardening work that's been building up all week.
34:15
Speaker 2: Move your body in a way that reminds you that
34:17
Speaker 2: it's useful and that movement's enjoyable. On Sunday, rest, walk, worship,
34:24
Speaker 2: spend time with your family, and regardless of which day
34:27
Speaker 2: it is, make sure you stay moving throughout the week.
34:30
Speaker 2: Take the stairs, carry your own things, get down on
34:33
Speaker 2: the floor, park a little farther away, use your body.
34:37
Speaker 2: Your schedule may look different from what I just described,
34:40
Speaker 2: and that's fine. The principle of the thing is more
34:43
Speaker 2: important than the calendar. What I want are these six things.
34:47
Speaker 2: One you need two to three good strength training exposures,
34:52
Speaker 2: two regular cardiovascular work, three daily movement, some appropriately challenging intensity,
35:04
Speaker 2: five some loading for your bones, and six enough recovery
35:10
Speaker 2: to keep repeating the process. Put those things together, and
35:15
Speaker 2: even in the throes of perimenopause, your body can become
35:19
Speaker 2: a little better every single week. And if you can
35:22
Speaker 2: continue doing that for years, I'll take it over. Any
35:25
Speaker 2: perfect twelve week menopause program every time. Consistency is the
35:30
Speaker 2: name of the game. Now I know there's someone listening
35:35
Speaker 2: who just heard all that and thought, Coach, that's great,
35:39
Speaker 2: But I haven't worked out in ten years. Everything hurts,
35:44
Speaker 2: That's all right. I don't want you to start where
35:46
Speaker 2: somebody else is. I want you to start where you are.
35:51
Speaker 2: Maybe this week you try a couple of strength training
35:54
Speaker 2: movements on two different days. Maybe you just walk around
35:58
Speaker 2: the block, and that's your start. You can build from there.
36:03
Speaker 2: Zachariah tells us that the Lord does not despise small beginnings.
36:08
Speaker 2: I don't want you to try to prove anything on
36:10
Speaker 2: day one. The goal is become the kind of woman
36:13
Speaker 2: who's still training ten years from now, one percent better
36:17
Speaker 2: every single day till God calls you home. And one
36:20
Speaker 2: more thing. If you are feeling overwhelmed and you don't
36:23
Speaker 2: know where to get started, you're my favorite kind of
36:25
Speaker 2: woman to work with. I'll invite you one more time
36:29
Speaker 2: reach out at coach aalx at Faithfulfitness dot co. Now,
36:34
Speaker 2: I do want to talk to the woman on the
36:36
Speaker 2: other end of the spectrum, the lady who's already kicking
36:39
Speaker 2: button taken names. I know you've been training hard. I
36:43
Speaker 2: know you're strong, you run, you lift, sometimes you even compete,
36:48
Speaker 2: but suddenly you're not recovering the way you used to.
36:51
Speaker 2: Don't panic, don't immediately assume that you've turned into some
36:55
Speaker 2: completely different person. Let's audit the basics first. How much
37:00
Speaker 2: are you sleeping? How much are you eating? Get a
37:04
Speaker 2: handle on your sleep and your food intake. Well, talk
37:08
Speaker 2: much more about nutrition in part three, but your nutrient
37:11
Speaker 2: intake can absolutely affect the way that your body recovers
37:15
Speaker 2: from exercise. Paramount pause and menopause can definitely change how
37:20
Speaker 2: your body processes nutrients, so you may need to make
37:23
Speaker 2: some adjustments in your eating. Once you've looked at your
37:27
Speaker 2: nutrition and sleep, then examine your training volume. Are you
37:31
Speaker 2: stacking a hard day after a hard day after a
37:34
Speaker 2: hard day on top of stressful life changes. Are you
37:39
Speaker 2: intentionally building recovery into your program. It's possible that you
37:42
Speaker 2: aren't getting weaker, You're just wrestling with more stress than
37:46
Speaker 2: you've omitted yet, and maybe your training needs to reflect
37:49
Speaker 2: that now, Just like in part one, if you've made
37:51
Speaker 2: it this far, I need to take a minute to
37:54
Speaker 2: talk to the people who love the women who are
37:57
Speaker 2: walking through this season. Husbands, Listen, man, I need you
38:04
Speaker 2: to support her training, and I mean that practically. If
38:08
Speaker 2: your wife says I really need to start strength training
38:11
Speaker 2: and you have children at home, make the space, offer
38:15
Speaker 2: to take care of the kids, cook dinner, join her
38:18
Speaker 2: in it, build a little home gym together, and then
38:22
Speaker 2: go walking after dinner. Encourage her when the scale doesn't cooperate,
38:28
Speaker 2: and notice when she's getting stronger and say so out loud.
38:32
Speaker 2: Don't make this another thing that she has to squeeze
38:34
Speaker 2: into the cracks between everybody else's needs. That's something I've
38:38
Speaker 2: seen women do over and over again. They spend decades
38:43
Speaker 2: putting their own bodies last, kids, first, husband, first job, first, church,
38:49
Speaker 2: first parent first. Everyone needs something from me, she thinks,
38:55
Speaker 2: and she keeps giving anyway. That's beautiful, but it becomes
39:00
Speaker 2: unsustainable when the stewardship of her body disappears completely. Men,
39:06
Speaker 2: I need you to help her protect her time so
39:10
Speaker 2: that she does take care of herself and encourage her
39:13
Speaker 2: in the process. Not because you want her body to
39:16
Speaker 2: look a certain way, but because you want the woman
39:19
Speaker 2: you love to be strong enough to live the life
39:23
Speaker 2: that God's called her to live. You can tell her
39:26
Speaker 2: that too, and then help make it happen. I mentioned
39:31
Speaker 2: Proverbs thirty one and part one, but I wanted to
39:34
Speaker 2: add to it and part one I quoted strength and
39:37
Speaker 2: dignity are her clothing. That's Proverbs thirty one seventeen. That's
39:44
Speaker 2: part of the verse. But it goes on to say
39:47
Speaker 2: she dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.
39:53
Speaker 2: I love how physical that language is. This woman isn't
39:56
Speaker 2: merely emotionally strong, and she is an old spiritually strong.
40:01
Speaker 2: This is a picture of a woman who's prepared for
40:04
Speaker 2: her work. She's capable, she's strong, she is ready. That's
40:13
Speaker 2: how I want us to think about training through this season.
40:16
Speaker 2: We're not worshiping the body, we're preparing it. We're not
40:21
Speaker 2: desperately fighting aging because we're afraid of getting older. We're
40:25
Speaker 2: stewarding strength because there's still good work to be done
40:30
Speaker 2: in your life. Your children may still need you, your
40:33
Speaker 2: grandchildren may still need you. Your church community needs you,
40:40
Speaker 2: your husband needs you. God may call you into things
40:44
Speaker 2: at sixty that you couldn't even imagine at forty. And
40:47
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but if God gave me
40:50
Speaker 2: twenty more years to serve him, I don't want the
40:53
Speaker 2: condition of my body to become an obstacle to saying yes.
40:57
Speaker 2: That's what training's for. So here's what I want you
41:01
Speaker 2: to walk away with today. The goal isn't to get skinny,
41:05
Speaker 2: it's not to get young. It's not forcing your fifty
41:08
Speaker 2: two year old body to look like your twenty seven
41:10
Speaker 2: year old body. Your goal is capacity. Capacity to work,
41:17
Speaker 2: capacity to serve, capacity to play, capacity to travel and endure,
41:25
Speaker 2: capacity to love and be loved, capacity to carry someone
41:30
Speaker 2: else when that person needs carrying, capacity to say yes
41:36
Speaker 2: when God puts something in front of you. It might
41:39
Speaker 2: sound a little funny to you, but my favorite client
41:42
Speaker 2: of all time would still tell you today that her
41:46
Speaker 2: fitness goal is to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants.
41:52
Speaker 2: And if you knew her like I do, you'd understand
41:55
Speaker 2: that this isn't an entitled statement. She's saying that she
41:58
Speaker 2: wants to maintain the ability and capacity to do the
42:02
Speaker 2: things she loves, the things she enjoys, and the things
42:07
Speaker 2: that she's called to do. And Yeah, if you want
42:10
Speaker 2: to lose some body fat, that's okay. If you want
42:13
Speaker 2: clothes to fit a little better, that's okay too. And
42:15
Speaker 2: if you want to look in the mirror and like
42:18
Speaker 2: what you see. There's nothing wrong with that either. But
42:22
Speaker 2: I want to give you a deeper reason for training
42:25
Speaker 2: and simply taking up less space in the world. I
42:28
Speaker 2: want you to become strong enough to live out your calling.
42:32
Speaker 2: And that brings me to Part three. Exercise is only
42:36
Speaker 2: part of this equation. Nutrition during menopause is another area
42:41
Speaker 2: where women are receiving a lot of terrible advice. What
42:46
Speaker 2: is the natural response when your body starts changing is
42:49
Speaker 2: to eat less and then perhaps eat even less than that.
42:53
Speaker 2: Skip breakfast, do more cardio, cut your carbs, try other cleanses,
42:57
Speaker 2: fast harder. Eventually you end up with a woman who's
43:01
Speaker 2: eating very little food, consuming very little protein, and trying
43:06
Speaker 2: to train hard while sleeping terribly. Then she wonders why
43:11
Speaker 2: she feels awful all the time. So in Part three,
43:16
Speaker 2: we're going to talk nutrition. We're going to talk about
43:19
Speaker 2: protein and calories, carbohydrates and fasting, bone health, body composition,
43:25
Speaker 2: alcohol and even supplements. And we're going to talk about
43:28
Speaker 2: what it really means to eat well during perimenopause and
43:31
Speaker 2: menopause for the body and the life that you're building
43:35
Speaker 2: in the season. So if you're done doing this thing alone.
43:40
Speaker 2: Tell me your story at Coach Alex at Faithfulfitness dot Co.
43:46
Speaker 2: I'd be honored to hear what you're dealing with and
43:48
Speaker 2: help you determine how to move forward. And my second
43:51
Speaker 2: invitation is to come do this without a community. The
43:57
Speaker 2: Faithful Fitness Core is an intentional community of people who
44:01
Speaker 2: are working to faithfully steward what God's given them. For
44:05
Speaker 2: the women in our community, it's becoming a place where
44:08
Speaker 2: you don't have to hide during this season. Younger women
44:11
Speaker 2: are learning from older women. Women in the middle can
44:14
Speaker 2: be supported by those who've already walked through it. And
44:17
Speaker 2: here we can train together, learn together, and pray together,
44:21
Speaker 2: asking questions, becoming stronger together because every season of womanhood
44:28
Speaker 2: deserves intentional stewardship, not just the easy seasons and not
44:33
Speaker 2: just the young seasons either. You can find the link
44:36
Speaker 2: to join the Faithful Fitness Core in the show notes below.
44:40
Speaker 2: In closing, get strong, keep moving, challenge your heart, load
44:47
Speaker 2: your bones, recover intelligently, and remember the body adapts to
44:55
Speaker 2: what you ask of it, so make sure you're asking.
45:00
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see you in Part three. Until then,
45:04
Speaker 2: this has been Coach Alex Van Houton on the Faithful
45:06
Speaker 2: Fitness podcast. Train Hard, Pray even harder.
45:13
Speaker 3: What's up, Faithful? This episode helped you share it with
45:17
Speaker 3: someone who needs to hear it, and don't forget to
45:19
Speaker 3: subscribe and need a review to some of our people
45:23
Speaker 3: can find faithful Fitness. My dad's devotional Faithful Fitness is
45:29
Speaker 3: available now and you can join our Faithful Fitness community
45:33
Speaker 3: by clicking the links and the show notes. We all
45:36
Speaker 3: have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when we
45:39
Speaker 3: do it together. See how later Alligator, But until then,
45:44
Speaker 3: train hard and pray even harder.