How Regular Exercise Can Help You Through Menopause and Even Improve Your Health

By: Red Hot Mamas

Published: March 11, 2020

Written by Morgan Rose Elliott -Guest Contributor

Even though many ladies can’t seem to cope with the numerous changes they have to experience when going through menopause, it’s an inevitable process. However, even if menopause tends to affect both mental and physical state of mind, it can pass diligently and without any negative backlashes. How you may wonder? With exercise. Doing regular exercise especially when your body is succumbing through various unknown and uncomfortable changes can help you ease up that state, and even significantly improve your health, boost your self-esteem, trigger positive wellbeing, and keep you satisfied and stress-free. Here is how.

Improve your bone and muscle health

Once women reach the menopause phase, they start experiencing various symptoms, some of which are uncomfortable and uneasy. Doing mild and moderately paced exercise can ease those symptoms very easily without having to resort to medicaments. Power and resistance training is an ideal way to help fight off osteoporosis symptoms and improve the functionality of the bones and muscles. You can use 5kg kettlebells or resistance bands to do squats, lunges or sit-ups. The combination of those exercises improves and strengthens the hips, spine, and wrist. Plus, resistance training will help you get flexible and more mobile which is crucial to aid aching bones.

Boosting your core muscle strength and heart health

Doing some form of a strength workout is the best way to stay on normal and desirable weight. Excess fat around the waist can accumulate much faster in the menopause. Hence by doing regular exercise that targets lower body muscles like stomach, calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quads, will help you reduce overall body fat, burn excess calories, maintain a healthy weight, and boost your muscle strength. Even if a fat gain can be hormonal in menopause, you should find effective lower body exercise that will help you stay well-toned and fat-free. Consequently, you will feel relieved from tedious menopause symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings, and bone and muscle aches.

Enhance your heart condition

Mood swings that ladies experience when going through menopause can be really daunting, thus improving your heart health will keep you steady and uplifted. Estrogen levels that are known to protect the heart often drop in menopause, so enhancing the heart is vital. The neglected cardiovascular system can trigger many other illnesses, and by implementing regular cardio workouts that will leave you positively breathless will help you become more strenuous, fit, and above all in good health. If you go to the gym, mix up the workout by running on a treadmill with 3 sets of 12 reps of resistance rowing, jump rope or mountain climber exercise. If that’s too demanding, opt for a mild jog, swimming, Zumba, aerobic exercises, dancing, or simple low-paced brisk walking.

Focus on the healthy and mindful mental state

Once you start doing exercise that will keep you healthy, fit and agile, you will immediately trigger positive mental notions. With a healthy mental state of mind, you will lead a healthier and more quality life. But the most important thing is that you will feel less agitated and nervous when going through the menopause once you implement doing some exercise that revives your mental health. Both yoga and meditation are perfect exercises for that. With yoga, you would tighten all of the core muscles, gain agility and stability, and lead a balanced life. Meditation exercise that focuses on relaxation techniques and breathing will help you push out the negative and distorted thoughts, aiding you with menopausal fatigue, irritability, and hot flashes.

Keep your spirit motivated and uplifted

Exercises that require slow tempo like mild jogging, cycling, hiking, and swimming can improve your overall health in the long run if you set achievable goals. You won’t even feel depressed, tense or fatigue due to menopause if you apply moderate-intensity exercise on a weekly basis. To do that, you must stay determined and consistent. Getting your general health in order and in perfect condition takes patience and dedication and with the right motivation, you can go distances. All it takes is doing some form of simple exercise at least 150 minutes per week and not push hard. Set clear and doable goals, delegate your chores and responsibilities and commit to a daily 30-minute workout routine which will keep you fit and ready. To stay motivated invite a friend along, or just play some catchy tune on your headphones.

Going through menopause brings along utterly divergent feelings and conditions. With the right mindset and by keeping up with regular exercise, you can easily go through it without noticing the changes.

BIO:

Morgan Rose Elliott is an aromatherapist, yoga instructor, animal lover, a happily married mother of three. She enjoys reading biographies and writing poems, sunny days on the beach and any shape and form of vanilla. Crazy about the ’80s, her favorite band is Duran Duran (although kids prefer Franz Ferdinand, and the husband Blink182) and she is obsessed with Netflix original Stranger things.
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