I consider myself lucky in that I have always enjoyed exercising, however since becoming perimenopausal it has become essential for so many aspects of my health. With the rise and fall of my estrogen levels, I found myself being snarly with the children, and having mood swings that made PMT look like a walk in the park! I’m very lucky to have been teaching for 20 minutes every morning 5 days a week for the last 3 years with Kate’s Club. I found when I exercised it gave me some control over my emotional roller coaster because the natural high it gave me helped keep a lid on frustration and lethargy. I also find now if I don’t exercise regularly I start to seize up. This is due to the build-up of inflammation across the body that can be caused by menopause.
Benefits of Exercise
In so many ways, exercise is helpful. Exercise will help you relieve stress, promote more restful sleep, raise your energy levels, and release mood-boosting endorphins.
Some forms of exercise can also help strengthen bones, which is very necessary as we age, and bone loss becomes an issue.
Weight-bearing workouts involve exercising on your feet and bones, supporting your weight for this type of training that will help strengthen your bones. Examples are low impact fitness classes, running, basketball, dancing etc. These exercises are also excellent for your cardiovascular fitness and will make your heart healthier.
For your heart and general wellbeing, cycling and swimming are fine, but they’re not considered weight-bearing. If you’re working through an injury, this makes these exercises perfect choices. Within my online fitness club ‘Kate’s Club’ I help ladies workout around their injuries so they don’t lose the momentum and the results they have worked so hard to achieve.
Strength/Resistance Training
Training in strength or resistance helps to strengthen bones and improve posture as well. It improves your muscle mass as well. When we get older, we have to reflect on them.
After 30, strength and muscle mass decrease, but unless you do anything about it, you will get fatter steadily every year as soon as 30 comes and goes. It looks like it’s not fair, does it?
We also recognise that it seems to be more challenging to lose weight as we get older. Age does not have to be a consideration that determines, though. When you step into your 30s, 40s and beyond, as long as you take steps, you’re not doomed to be overweight.
“Strength training – the best anti-ageing exercise you can do.”
If you are not already doing it, the first step you can take towards building lean muscle tissue is to add a strength training aspect to your exercise routine 2 to 3 days a week.
If you do not want to, you do not have to work out in the gym. At home or outdoors, there are plenty of ways to workout. On my You Tube Chanel you will find plenty of FREE home workouts and walking for weight loss videos.
Why is muscle important?
In your body, the most metabolically active tissue is lean muscle mass. But the more muscle you have, the quicker your metabolism, and every single second of every day, the more calories you’ll burn. It seems to be a significant factor why men have a much easier time losing body fat than women. Because of their more substantial lean muscle mass level, men can quickly burn up excess calories, so they easily establish the calorie deficit needed for fat loss, and it can feel so irritating! My diet is so much healthier than my husband’s, and I exercise more often while he enjoys exercise. Of course, his body fat percentage is so much smaller than mine!
Building lean muscle mass would not only improve the effects of your fat loss. It’ll also be your best way to stop weight gain in the future. The higher your metabolic rate, the less rigorous you will be for the long term to stay leaner on your regular diet.
Why our muscle helps us store carbohydrates
The second justification for building lean muscle mass is that lean muscle mass can serve as a carbohydrates storehouse.
Suppose you don’t have a lot of muscle in your body, and the storage of glycogen (glucose) in your cells is not exhausted. In that case, it is automatically retained as body fat when you take in extra glucose in the form of carbohydrates. If, though, you have more muscle tissue and still work out, you will have your muscle glycogen reserves partly exhausted. It could mean that the excess carbohydrates you consume would first go to your muscle tissues for storage, and you will begin to convert the extra carbs to fat only once your muscles are completely saturated.
You will consume more calories regularly by getting more muscle and working out more frequently. And for those of us who enjoy cooking, that is good news.
Why muscle enhances insulin sensitivity
Another nice thing about having more muscles is that insulin sensitivity will also improve.
It can ensure that the body will be better able to control its blood glucose levels, and you won’t feel a blood sugar spike followed by a drop when you eat carbohydrates.
It can help reduce the risk of diabetes and reduce the probability of gaining weight over time. If you do not immediately store the carbohydrates you consume as body fat, like you will if you have low insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance’ — it makes it easier for you to sustain the leaner body you want.
Muscle makes you stronger.
Adding more muscle makes you stronger overall. If you want to enhance your life quality and make day-to-day functional movement simpler, the way to go is to create more forces!
Women with more muscle mass will be able to keep up with the things they love, which means that they will possibly become more successful in general. Your daily calorie burn improves again, making weight loss more straightforward.
“The best way to increase your metabolism is to build lean muscle through strength training.”
So where do I start?
Find an exercise you enjoy so that gaining momentum will not be an effort. Get an accountability buddy, having a friend or relative do this with you helps you both stay on track until it is part of your habit. Take one week at a time don’t get overwhelmed by thinking of the next 6 months goal.
Use string not scales
Scales are not your friend right now and by this stage of life, you might have become a slave to them. Instead change to using a piece of string – first thing in the morning put the string around your waist and cut it. Only track your string first thing on a Friday morning and see how much better the results are. You will be astonished!
Take my 7 Day Belly Blasting Challenge.
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Thanks Kate
I will check out the workouts on YouTube x