Strength Training for Menopause
Exercise interventions are becoming one of the go-to alternative treatments to Hormone Replacement Therapy for treating symptoms and reducing health impacts of menopause. In fact, there is evidence to suggest pairing HRT with resistance training can increase the effectiveness of both interventions.
Resistance training has been growing in popularity due to its efficacy and positive results with several pathologies associated with the initiation of menopause, such as osteopenia, sarcopenia, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As well as being a protective behaviour to guard against future morbidity and illness, strength training also has the capacity to improve symptoms in a short-term time frame.
Hot flushes
15 weeks of resistance exercise, performed twice a week, was shown to halve (44%) hot flushes when compared to matched controls who were sedentary. Interesting to note that low-intensity exercise such as walking, Pilates and yoga have been shown to be less effective at reducing hot flush symptoms than moderate-high intensity exercise.
Muscle Strength and Bone Density
By improving the capacity of the muscles to tolerate more load, movement becomes more efficient and takes less effort. As such, improving strength has great transfer to other important qualities like walking efficiency, social sport performance and reducing risk of injury. Muscle strength naturally declines with age as muscle tissue deteriorates and taking an active approach to retaining it becomes a very important factor in falls prevention for older adults.
Strength training and weight-bearing exercise is gold-standard treatment for conditions such as osteopenia and osteoporosis, as they cause micro-fissures in the bone in order to create the all-important ‘repair’ stimulus for the body to build new bone in its place. Done regularly, this reinforces bone density – making them stronger and healthier than before.
Lean Muscle, Fat Loss & Weight Control
The mechanism behind resistance exercise and fat loss is two-fold. Besides the obvious reason of burning calories from actually doing the exercise, resistance exercise works to increase the calories burnt at while resting – our basal metabolism. This occurs over time as you slowly increase the amount of lean muscle tissue in the body because, like other living organs in the body, muscles have their own energy demand in order to be sustained.
Quality of Life & Psychological Factors
Exercise is a known treatment for depression and anxiety. The explanation for this is quite complex but biochemistry studies have found the release of anti-depressant hormones such as serotonin and dopamine as part of the natural ‘endorphin’ release from exercise can have strong positive effects on mood.
Whether it’s to begin your strength training journey, or optimise what you are currently doing, contact Absolute Health & Performance today to book in a consultation with one of our expert coaches today.
Written by Sean Van Velsen, Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP)
