Impact of Menopause on Fitness (for research nerds like me!)

sunshinelively

http://www.ismni.org/jmni/pdf/38/02MALTAIS.pdf

Found this article. Been researching around on what to do about body changes I've seen come with menopause. There's a chart in the article that graphically outlines the loss of strength cascade - convincing!

Unless youre a medical professional (I am not) a lot of the chemistry might make the eyes glaze over but the conclusions are clear and mostly unambiguous. Figure I post this here for everyone's information.

I was a nutritarian for 3 years but have recently added some animal products back in order to meet my protein goals for weight training. Meat consumption is not without consequence, though.I've kept a lot of the soy based vegan meat substitutes and now I'm glad I did.

Lifting heavy=a great decision! )

Vailara

Thank you for the article. It's rather depressing! It's interesting that it mentions balance: I've been trying to improve my balance over the last couple of years as I'm convinced it's important as I get older. I don't want to end up with falls and fractures in my old age. At the moment, I'm doing yoga and ballet to help with balance.

Do you think it's worth eating more soy products?

sunshinelively

WWelcome - it is rather depressing I agree lol. Better to know than to be in the dark though. Factors under our control are HRT, weight training, animal and soy protein intake. If you have heart disease, sounds like HRT might not be a good option. I just started HRT about a week and a half ago - breast tenderness is back and running hurts! Forgot about that haha.

Balance seems to be really important, so I bet the yoga helps with that. Thanks for bringing attention to that, gonna think about adding a yoga day to my fitness routine!

Sabine_Stroehm

Thank you for the article. It's rather depressing! It's interesting that it mentions balance: I've been trying to improve my balance over the last couple of years as I'm convinced it's important as I get older. I don't want to end up with falls and fractures in my old age. At the moment, I'm doing yoga and ballet to help with balance.

Do you think it's worth eating more soy products?

I've been working on balance as well. With Pilates, and, funnily, riding the bus on one foot.

Sabine_Stroehm

Thanks for posting this.

Nachise

Excellent article. I suffered from primary hyperparathyroidism for nearly 20 years, and I am almost a year into post surgery recovery. The disease had a profound effect throughout the body, but especially in the skeletal and muscular systems. The disease caused an artificial demand for calcium in the body, and one of the ways of satisfying that demand is to reabsorb calcium from the bones, which gets circulated throughout the body, ending up in inappropriate places.

Part of my recovery is working out with an exercise physiologist to regain muscle strength, endurance, and hopefully, get some remineralization in the bones. A large part of this is weight training. I am 62 years old, and have been losing inches, but not pounds. I think that I am going to print out this article to show to my nutritionist. The good news is that I am getting strong, and I am enjoying myself. I am even going to start a Body Pump class.

sunshinelively

Glad The article helped, and that you're on the mend. Courageous story!

Nachise

Thank you. On Tuesday, I was doing 85-pound barbell squats and 65-pound bench presses in addition to the rest of my weight and cardio routine. I plan to improve on that today.