10 Comprehensive Ways Resistance Training Revolutionizes Menopause Health
15 Mar 2024 · 42 min
Debra Atkinson breaks down ten ways resistance training transforms menopause health: stronger muscles, better body composition, less visceral fat, balanced hormones, reduced depression and anxiety, improved sleep, thicker skin, denser bones, better balance, and community support. Only 20% of adult women lift weights twice weekly, despite these benefits.
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Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25mg of CBD and 25mg CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. In this episode, I am going to bring the heat. I hope you have your walking shoes on, or maybe you're lifting because that would be even better. But this is really, really important. It is exactly as the title says, 10 comprehensive ways that resistance training will revolutionize menopause. And, and here's why this is so important. I've mentioned in a very recent podcast there's only 20% of all women, all adult women, lifting weights 2 or more times a week. Or should we say at least twice a week? Because I'm not even suggesting you need more than 2. If you do them right, you're going to earn your recovery time. You need it. You'll be active but shouldn't be doing more. It's enough. But if we know all adult women, we're talking about 19 and 20-year-olds all the way up till death do us part, 20% of us, 20% of us. It's shameful. But here's the deal. When you look at women, if we could— these numbers don't exist. I mean, we can do a very, uh, very informal poll of our, our subscribers, our YouTube channel women, but unfortunately we won't know with a lot of accuracy if this is really women in that demographic, or, you know, they won't be qualified. But I would not hesitate to say that women who are 50 and above, or 60 and above, or 70 and above, if we've been isolated those each decade, my guess is it's not 20% of those women, it's a smaller portion. So 20% of all women probably is skewed to many of those are under 40, and you know I would, I would hesitate to say that maybe between 40 and 60 women do start lifting weights because they're looking for answers that come nowhere else. They come from nowhere else. Am I right? We do it out of a point of frustration, like nothing else is working, so I'm gonna start this. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your struggles and concerns, and we have for decades, and I have started this podcast. I started it in 2014, so one decade in, and prior to that was already hosting the She Means Fitness Business Podcast for fitness and health pros. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness and menopause and beyond before you know to ask. The goal here is to help you accelerate your results with science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life, not confused views. There is no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman. It's not just you, but it's 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year fitness career includes being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, and an international speaker to the founder of the first and the only exclusively made for menopause and beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week here, I interview experts behind the scenes in the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so that you can have the energy and the vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. So back to our content from today. It's 2024. We still hear both about the use of HRT or reasons, perhaps outdated, not to use HRT. We hear about both animal protein and the plant protein advocates with this simple method of, okay, humor me, hormone enhancement. There is no argument. And I am talking about resistance training. We all know we need to be doing it in 2024. We do. Whether it's subconsciously, you won't admit it, but you know it's there, or you outright know but just can't maybe bring yourself to do it, or you are one of the tribe— thank you— it's up to us. We need to invite a woman to lift a weight. Okay, does that sound a little bit like give a mouse a cookie or a moose muffin. It's intended to. So if we don't laugh about it, I mean, what are we doing? We got to be able to do that. We all understand the benefits of being strong and vibrant, but lest you confuse a need to lose fat with the need to gain lean muscle, this is for you. Are you lifting already? Then you're going to love these reminders. After all, the placebo effect is in full swing at all times.. It's either working for or against us. So those things that you are already doing that you know are good for you, you amplify them with the scientific evidence that you hear, and you think your way then to an even better result. How wonderful is that? This episode captures the broad spectrum of positive changes resistance training can bring to menopausal women, from physical improvements like visceral fat reduction and bone density increases to more general benefits like enhanced mood and sleep quality improvement. Each of these is directly tied to the signs and the symptoms of menopause, and there are many more. But here it is, here's my statement this, this episode: give a woman a weight and change not only menopause but her health the rest of her life. Before we dig in, in the rhythmic play off the children's storybook When You Give a Mouse a Cookie, when you give a woman a weight Or by the way, when you pick one up yourself, you enhance her strength, improve her fat-free mass, reduce her total fat, reduce that deadly visceral fat, support overall hormone balance, alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, enhance her sleep, improve skin health, increase bone density, enhance gait and stability. Women who lift lift the world, theirs and the world at large. So let's dive into this: how resistance training revolutionizes menopause, or could. I mean, what I wish is that you go into an OB-GYN's office, and what do we do that every 1 year, every 2 years, depending on where you are? And what if you were told in order to book, you need to show your evidence of, you know, having, having done your weight training in this last year. You need to share with us your records. You know, sharing records from your gym to your doctor's office, this is not new. It's actually possible to do that today, or you can share apps, but very few people have actually done it and followed through with it. So let's start with this. Number 1, enhance muscle strength, right? So directly tied to longevity. Enhancing muscle strength is tied to longevity. So I will link to a recent episode on testing your own longevity and how you can do it at home. And yes, you could, you could do it in a more formal way, but the question really begs, do you need to? Supporting your daily activities, reducing the risk of falls. And beyond that, however, for bone density benefit, heavy lifting will require muscle strength, and heavy lifting leans a little bit more toward higher benefit to bone density. Now, if you can't lift heavy, you're excused, right? There are just other things that you want to be sure you're spot on with. Number 2 is improve your fat-free mass. So that's gaining lean muscle tissue. So although that's related, it's not the same. So you can gain muscle strength without gaining muscle tissue, though we actually want to increase our fat-free mass if possible. That's that's going to aid in a healthier body composition. Number one, you have more muscle. Even if fat doesn't change, your body composition improved. But during menopausal transition, that can be a real challenge. Body composition generally goes in the wrong direction. The combination of one and two together, enhancing muscle strength and improving fat-free mass, notably known as recomposition— you're not literally turning fat into muscle, but you are indeed able to lose fat and not just avoid loss of muscle but add muscle. And this does require some careful effort for those without much consistent effort in strength training. So meaning you're new to it, you've been doing it for less than 2 years, using a caloric deficit with high protein as you strength train will probably make a potential, you know, high effect, and you will benefit the longer your consistent resistance training experience. However, I know this feels like you're getting punished for doing something good, and the older you are, you may need a surplus of calories and a higher, even higher protein content to overcome what's called anabolic resistance that occurs with aging. So just know I'm doing the right things. I've been doing the right things. I should be rewarded. Anybody ever feel like that? I'm like, listen, like the hand on the hip kind of thing. I get it. We have to work a little harder because we're too close to it. We're that close to our improved results and we don't need that much change, but we are going to require more stimulus. We've become essentially athletic, so we have to eat like an athlete. We're going to need more fuel. Doesn't mean you're going to store it as fast. And I know that's a little bit fearful for a lot of women who've grown up in an era where dieting was the culture. Number 3, support your total fat mass reduction. Now there's a— there's a number 4 coming up is gonna piggyback off of this, but this is just total fat from all over that addresses the weight gain concerns that occur during menopause. And listen, they're not automatic, by the way. Across the world, in an ACOG study published in 2019, a million women were included in this, and I'm sure it was a review of literature, okay? But a million women— there was no direct correlation between weight gain, specifically fat gain, and menopause. So we couldn't just say, boom, now you're in menopause. What was the result? Did all women gain fat? They did not. It really depended on where you lived. And guess what? Western world women, we didn't do so well. So it has a lot to do with lifestyle and what changes, you know. And for a lot of us, if we were really, really honest— my hand is up high, my hand is up really high— I mean, I was a fitness professional who was extremely active. And when I wasn't personally active, teaching a class, teaching even a boot camp where you're demonstrating more I was on my feet as I was training people or training my trainers. I was moving or standing up in front lecturing. You know what I'm doing now more? I'm sitting behind a desktop, behind a computer, and I might, yes, have weeks where I'm really active. We're doing a lot of video shooting, we're creating a product or a new 12-week program But sometimes that's short-lived. And you know what I tell myself every time? It's like, why don't I do this more often? I feel so good. Literally, I remember last summer I went to Breckenridge in June for a week, spontaneously, actually. I did not have a dog at that time. All I realized I needed to do is make sure my schedule was fairly clear. And I got in the car and I left. I booked an Airbnb and that was it. So easy. Now it's not so easy. I complicated life with a dog, but that's That's all well and good. But I spent the first 4 days, you know, shot a lot of videos, a lot of strength training segments, a lot of yoga, and went for some hikes outside. I felt amazing. Right. So give me that kind of stress any time and kind of just get away from it all. But I'm— we're all the same. We are less active, most likely, than we were a decade ago. Or two decades ago. And, and you may think, well, that's not that different. But even if you had kids and you were moving around and you were active more hours of the day because maybe you were, you know, going to games, sitting on bleachers, you were still— that's an active more than lying on the couch, right? Or going to bed early. And so all of those little things add up. So over 5,600 postmenopausal women in 100 studies that were reviewed showed exercise training effectively increased muscle mass and fat-free mass and decreased fat mass, body fat percentage, waist circumference, and visceral fat. These are a lot of good things, right? So more on visceral fat is coming up further in this study published in Frontiers in Endocrinology in 2023. So very recent. It found combining resistance training and aerobic exercise— not in the same session, just say in a week you've got resistance training Monday, Thursday you've got aerobic types of exercise, and we won't go into was that walking or was that HIIT, but know that yes, it probably was right on alternate days, and you're doing that on other days— helped increase muscle and decrease fat. Well, resistance exercise plus combined training and that's where you are doing some aerobic activity and some strength training in the same session, helped boost muscle mass most where that was the emphasis. And the reason it likely didn't impact fat the most when you're combining your aerobic and your strength training or resistance training in the same workout is because your intensity suffers in both cases. So if your intensity is not as high in strength training you're not creating what we call an exercise deficit that you pay back. You pay that back later. You could call it a debt, really. But your, your metabolism is higher, you know, for 24 or 48 hours after strength training, unlike ever in aerobics. Aerobics is like, pardon my French, like, uh, what have you done for me lately, bitch, that kind of thing. I mean, you just have to repeat it it doesn't stay with you. Yes, you, you look at weight training, you look at cardio, and the harder you're going in cardio, you're going to burn more calories, but you're also potentially going to burn yourself out because there is something happening there with your endocrine system, with your cortisol, that is not as positive as when you can go high, recover completely, go high, recover completely, and HIIT, or in strength training— lift, put it down, lift, put it down— and in lower-level activity like walking. Those are probably your 3 biggest anchors in your workout. Those of you who, like me, like endurance exercise, you gotta rope yourself in. I mean, every once in a while you can test that, but when I do, I'm still getting the message that, you know, my body didn't like that. My body will say, yeah, I'm gonna give you the message here, and here it is, right around your waistline. Okay, get it? You know? And I'm like, geez, come on. Because I do want to come back to it. Personally, I enjoy it, and I want to come back to it knowing I will always consciously have to be fighting to keep the muscle the more endurance I add. But I'm someone who will do that not because I want to do it for weight loss, but because I love to do it. So for those of you that are only ever doing that for weight loss, you're off the hook. Don't do it because it doesn't work. So important to realize that. I'm going to say this again just so that you understand that when you have days of resistance training and you're focusing on that, and alternate days when you're doing your— either you're walking, your HIIT you're going to benefit both in weight and fat loss and in gains of lean muscle. I mean, that is the best of both worlds and the fastest way to improve your body composition. If you really need— not necessarily to lose fat, some of you I know don't, you're smaller already, you don't have a high degree of fat, or you're on the small side— we want to focus on gaining lean muscle. So it may be for you that resistance training, and when you do, do aerobic work, you combine it So you're doing more of kind of a boot camp style. Just want you to hold this in mind that we don't move in a frenzy. When you get to the lifting weights, you might move quickly to that exercise, but then you're going to lift under control to fatigue. No swinging, no momentum. Be safe and reach muscle fatigue so you get the benefit to the muscle. And that's how that will work for you. So, um, very important considerations. But let's lead right into number 4, is reducing visceral belly fat. And this is a big concern for women in menopause. Resistance training has been shown to effectively promote decreases in visceral belly fat in the absence of caloric restriction. What did I just say? You don't even have to change your calories. I mean, don't don't increase them for sure, don't change them. If they were absolutely the same and nothing else changed but you added resistance training where it had not been in part of your life before, you can decrease your visceral belly fat. So what if you add the weight training and you focus a little bit more on cleaning up that diet? Potentially, yes, you're going to even do better. In still another study published in 2023, reduction in visceral belly fat was significant compared to non- resistance-trained control groups. Whether participants did 2 or 3 times per week resistance training didn't matter. Both of them did better. The impact was observed to be significant across both obese and non-obese individuals, as well as across different age groups, indicating it's got broad application for fat reduction during menopause. And look, I mean, we can have a really broad age group, right? I mean, you can have a woman in her late 30s, early 40s, going into menopause. But we can also have women, I mean, near 60 who are just going into menopause as well. So it's important to realize there's two different things going on there. There is menopause and the hormonal changes, but also the, the effects of aging, you know. I mean, two more decades if you're 60 compared to your 40 of, you know, potential muscle loss being a bigger pull. It's like there's a magnet pulling, pulling, pulling. You're closer to it. That's happening, or wants to, easier the older you get. Number 5: support hormone balance. Yeah, just that. So I mentioned this, I've called muscle an endocrine system because it acts like one. It's helping you with your cortisol, it's helping with your insulin, it's helping with testosterone, helping with your growth hormone. And if it helps with your cortisol, indirectly it's helping with your leptin and your ghrelin, your hunger and satiety hormones. There is so much going on that you can say, thank you, resistance training, for doing that for me. For pre— that's before, right? I didn't mistake that for peri. For pre- and for postmenopausal women's unique physiological needs, muscle is essentially an endocrine organ. You will support more optimal insulin levels, decreasing the need for it and therefore decreasing fat storage. You will experience less negative impact of cortisol compared to exercising the same amount of time doing cardio. You'll also boost natural testosterone levels, pick up where estrogen levels dropped in menopause, and so much more when you support sleep. There is a lot of goodness that happens in your hormones thanks to resistance training. Okay, how you doing? Hang in there, there's 5 more ways resistance training revolutionizes menopause health, or could. Number 6, and I hope that you are sharing this with you if you are just— you're already beating the Bible on resistance training, you always have. I love it, but but don't hoard it, okay? Seriously, if there is one thing that you can do for friends, for sisters, for colleagues, no matter how old they are, is get your female friends to the gym. Get them lifting. Talk to lifting about them. Not— I know, not ad nauseam about how much you can lift or that you're sore, but about the benefits, about how well you're sleeping since. Blah blah blah about how stable your energy throughout the day is because of it. All of those things, put it proactively to them. Okay, so number 6 is another big one: alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety by releasing endorphins while you're exercising, improving mood, similar to the way that there are reduced negative effects of stress with brief periods of rest between sets they— these sensations that are a part of anxiety are allowed to normalize a bit before increasing again with the next set. So basically, if you think of it this way, anxiety is like always being exposed to, you know, something that just makes you tense and hyper. So small doses of exposure to that, but then pulling back allows you to be more resilient to handle bigger pieces of it. Do you understand what I'm saying? So resistance training is like creating more resilience for you. And here's what I've always suspected as, as the studies came out kind of in the last decade talking a little bit more about positive advantages of strength training on anxiety, you know, anxiety in itself gets the heart rate racing, gets someone sweaty, you know, feeling like they're working out. So for a lot of people with anxiety, creating, you know, workouts that are around HIIT and moving in a crazy frenzy and, and even maybe just working at a higher level intensity, that might be chronic cardio, might induce more anxiety than strength training does. Where you're gonna quietly, calmly go about, you know, sitting down, doing your set for a minute, put it down. You get to recover, you get to rest. There's— yes, your heart rate goes up a little bit, your breathlessness may go up a little bit, but you get to fully recover, you know, after a minute or less. Much, much more comfortable. Number 7 is enhance your sleep quality. Now, everybody should be concerned about that, but women in menopause often are more so because changes in hormones can impact negatively sleep. And, you know, that impacts everything else. We started talking about— all right, let's be honest, put your hand up if you think you're less active than you were a decade ago or two decades ago. And when you really think about it, my guess is potentially that's true. And I don't just mean the exercise piece. So if I said that, you know, I would say that's definitely true because I was teaching so many classes to students at Iowa State. I was teaching physical fitness classes, you know, in gyms as well. But let's take that aside, take it away, and it's just the, the activity level of going places, doing things, starting earlier, going later, you know, your total day way more busy mine was than it is now. Everything is much more automated. If I don't have time to go to the grocery store, I don't even have to get up or walk my little self to my car, walk from the car to the store, go around the store. I don't have to do that. I can just push Instacart, bring it, bring it. And too often I might do that in favor of getting something else done that feels productive. I feel like I'm doing a confession here, but I'm gonna stop now. Okay, So enhancing sleep, aiding in better rest, better recovery from exercise, number one, but also just better sleep so that you feel like exercising and so that you make better choices in the way that you eat throughout the day and hydrate. If you're sleep deprived, a lot of people I find are also dehydrated. A study that was conducted by researchers at— wait for it— Iowa State University. Did I say I went there twice? Did I say taught there 15 years? Oh, okay. And it was presented at the American Heart Association conference in March of 2022. It found that resistance training helped reduce time to fall asleep and also increased sleep time. Much more than aerobic exercise did among exercisers who did 3 times a week resistance training. So good news there. And actually this year— and I don't have this study to quote, it's not in the notes— but very recently the American Heart Association, and this is within the last few months, acknowledged that resistance training is also good for the heart. It is about time, right? Okay, number 8, improved skin health. Right now, this is also directly tied to menopause by improving circulation and potentially boosting collagen production. All exercise always has been and always will be related to skin health. However, resistance training very recently is more positive impact on thickening the skin dermis. So it's basically plumping it up, counteracting the thinning of skin from loss of collagen fibers with age. So good news, right? And you know, what is that about? Is that just about wrinkles and the appearance of fine lines, you know, and maybe the appearance of cellulite? Maybe. But I think it goes, oh, further than skin deep. You know, I had to say that, but it's, it's confidence and You know, I hesitate to say this because I think this is a dual-edged sword when we say, you know, when you look best. And dare I say that we're talking about looking younger. And I hate this ageism thing where I feel trapped one way and trapped in the other. But we all do value youth. And it's— I don't know if I want to look younger necessarily, but I don't want to look haggard. So I won't say old, but I think we want to look fresh, rested, and that's a difference that I think we're getting with exercise, specifically resistance training. So number 9, you got 2 to go, hang in there because these are also worth it. Increase bone density. Now this is a big one, it's a big anchor for resistance training. Of course, both research and anecdotal evidence from our own Flipping 50 community provides evidence that reversal of bone bone loss is possible through resistance exercise. Resistance training places stress on the bones, stimulating bone formation and increasing bone density. And this is particularly beneficial during menopause, a period when women are at increased risk for osteoporosis due to declining estrogen and testosterone levels, which have to do with the quality of the bone. Once thought to be the best exercise, the collective approach now includes high-impact exercise, which even has been proven safe for those with osteoporosis, yoga, and other weight-bearing time daily. So the more you're on your feet and/or in yoga on your hands, potentially the better, as well as resistance training. So it's like this trifecta. And then of course there's gut health and, and getting in the right foods, and it's way beyond calcium. And I'd rather have you not take a self-calcium supplement is eat your calcium, but it doesn't have to come from dairy. Those are for those that are unable, by the way, to lift heavy. Tools like weighted vests and whole body vibration— I'm going to share the link to Power Plate, which is my choice for whole body vibration. Details on saving with my code will be in the show notes. By the way, our community members get to share with that link all the time. Time. There are certain open times when they're doing fantastic specials, but our community members can save with my code all the time. But this is definitely one I would look at for so many reasons. Number 10 is enhancing gait speed and stability. Now, it's probably not the thing you lie awake at night worrying about, but it might be for your parents, or it was I bet. By improving muscle strength and mass, resistance training can contribute to better balance, gait speed, and overall mobility. And gait speed is directly related to longevity, with a minimum speed of 3 miles per hour set for determining a good baseline. Walking speeds of 3.3 miles per hour or greater are associated with greater bone density benefit through the ground force that is higher when you're going faster. Gait Feet speed typically slows with instability or fear of falling, right? I mean, you feel unstable. And so we go slower because basically what we're doing is beginning the shuffle, the senior shuffle, sliding our feet, keeping them closer to the ground, not taking as big of steps. Because there is a moment when we take for granted— potentially you're listening, you're taking for granted, you're on a walk right now, not thinking a bit about Stepping, swinging one leg through. And if you are a brisk walker, like, get on with it, let's go, Moses, come on, hurry up. Yep. And that was me at the beginning. It's now stop pulling, stop pulling. And here's the deal, you don't even think about that, your weight on one leg, the other leg. But the faster you go, the harder that heel strike is, and the more your bones do benefit. It, the slower you go. That's less true. And the slower you get, the less stable we know that you most likely are as well, because that's why it's happening. So gait speed typically slows with instability, fear of falling. Stronger muscles support joints and can prevent falls, which is crucial as bone fragility increases with age. And this was a repetition range in this particular study of 8 to 15, with an average of 60 seconds rest between either 2 or 3 sets. Changes were improved with as little as 6 weeks of twice-weekly resistance training. Okay, among the studies that I've mentioned here, there's a lot of variables, and some Some of the studies were smaller, some were vast reviews of literature, as mentioned, with over 5,000 women and variations on frequency of exercise from 2 or 3 times, 3 or 4 sets, the percent of a 1-rep max to muscle fatigue. It all varied, as it almost always does when you're looking at a whole lot of science and studies gathered over time done by different researchers. But what does come out clearly Just to summarize, is multiple sets for every session you're doing. So if you're doing, say, a chest press, you want to do multiple sets focused on the chest muscles. Now you might do a chest press, you might do a push-up, you might do a chest fly, all three. We just did 3 sets for that muscle group, but you want 3 or 4 sets for each muscle group. You want, during the course of a week, 6 to 8 sets for each muscle So again, it comes back to that's 3 or 4 sets each, each session. Higher intensity, heavier with fewer repetitions is what that's all about. Improved results over low intensity, light with more reps. Postmenopausal women don't respond as well with lower stimulus, and they require more volume, and that should come from multiple sets— so again, 3 or 4 times heavier weight that you can lift safely, right? And potentially greater frequency of high-intensity interval training or high-intensity repeat training. Because of the increased anabolic resistance that women experience post-menopause because they're older, they will require more protein to achieve the same muscle protein synthesis. The weight training alone is one source of increasing muscle protein synthesis, and the protein is the second. So strength training of adequate intensity and high enough levels of protein— even if the goal is to go heavy for optimal bone density, all exercises should start with a higher repetition range, lighter weights with the emphasis on good form. So this is based on simple principle of fitness, progressive overload. And sometimes we forget and we go right to, give me the progression, just give me the hard stuff, I can do it, right? While a low load more frequently might be a logical way to begin and build the foundation of connective tissue health and train the brain, so to speak. So the neural component that's sending the brain signaling the muscle, like starting there, sending it, it gets stronger. You recruit more muscle fibers. That learning how to send a stronger signal is like turning your Wi-Fi on and getting a stronger signal. Can't be rushed. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks. If you go heavy, you don't increase that. You, you go light, you're not going to injure yourself, and you're going to give your connective tissue, ligaments, joints, tendons an opportunity to adapt. So much smarter way to go. So for women crushed by time, fitting it in twice weekly is probably a bigger advantage over trying to do 3 or fit it in or feeling like, uh, didn't get it so it's not going to count. That's really kind of ridiculous. But if you do twice weekly strength training, now you're allowing also time for functional workouts. Workouts like body weight, which can be yoga. So if you love yoga, here's where it comes in. You're doing yoga if you're going and transitioning from your downward to your upward facing dog, going into chaturanga. You're doing, you know, planks and push-ups. You're doing side planks and you're supporting your body weight on one leg. All of this is wonderful because we've got flexion, extension, we've got rotation lateral flexion, and we don't necessarily have that when we're focused on metabolism-boosting big major muscle groups in traditional exercise. They are a wonderful complement to each other, and we leave room for them and energy for them when we don't overdo the frequency of strength training. Okay, we also keep down the risk of adrenal stress and fatigue. So here's my question to you: It's quiz time. Are you lifting? If you or a woman you know needs to begin, please share this with her. For an online solution that's been built for and helped women in menopause for a decade, check out the Stronger Tone and Define program. It's a 12-week program. It's one of our best-selling programs outside of our membership, and it's, it's a way to get started. Keep your focus on the prize, which is twice weekly strength training, making it a habit. If you can do that for 12 weeks. I promise you, you will be hooked. You will feel better, look better, sleep better, more stable blood sugar— all of the things that really get you momentum into aging well, having energy, doing the things you love to do with the people you love to do them with. Okay, I will put this— all details in the show notes, links that we've mentioned to the Power Plate to the Stronger program, to previous podcasts like longevity testing you can do for yourself. I also did a power plate episode you might be interested in. And for you Prove It to Me girls, all of— and there's— it's long— the resources or references list for this one is here. So at the show notes for today, you will find resistance training revolutionizing menopause health. That is flipping50.com/resistance-training-revolutionizes-menopause-health. And what are you waiting for? I'll see you on the flip side.
