The Perimenopause Rules Nobody Told You About Resistance Training

What if it's not the diet or the workout routine? What if it's something else entirely? Look, spoiler alert, I am an exercise and sports psychology guru. And that, between the ears, has been so much more important to me ever since the late '80s when I realized I was gonna have no hope of helping people with things below the shoulders if we don't get between the ears. So I'm hosting a masterclass this month called What If It's Not the Diet and the Exercise? The Missing Link to All Fitness Programs That You've Ever Done. If you are listening to this and you've tried it all, you're doing it all, this may be the missing link for you. And in this, I will give you the spoiler alert. Yeah, the diet matters. What your dietary habits are matter. And? Your exercise matters, and both most often need a change when you hit menopause. Midlife and beyond, the gut changes and the metabolism does change, but they are generally the easy part. We can learn. You're intelligent. But what's harder is mindset. I'm going to tap into that in this masterclass. You can go to flipping50.com/missinglink. No Spaces Between Missing Link and watch for free. And hopefully you'll have some sort of a breakthrough while you're on. Resistance training during perimenopause is a game changer. It's going to be a game changer for you now, potentially reducing symptoms, but it's also going to be a game changer for your longevity. If you have the opportunity to look around in 30 years, At those who did resistance training and those who didn't, and be there for the moment. You are thanking your perimenopausal self for getting after it. We're going to talk all about perimenopausal resistance training in this episode. It is part 3 of a 4-part series. More details inside. You're in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause, and you're not slowing down. You're just getting started. But the old rules don't apply anymore. The workouts that worked before, they're working against you now. The advice you've been given, incomplete at best. I'm Debra Atkinson, and I'm the founder of Flipping 50, the pioneer in fitness for women in midlife. For more than 40 years, I've been in the trenches with women just like you, and for the last 12, Right here on this podcast and, and the founder of Flipping 50: The Stronger Way app and membership. Welcome to Flipping 50: The Stronger Way, where science meets strength, where you'll find the tools, research, and real talk to build the body and the life you want in your second half. Each week you'll get evidence-based exercise and nutrition strategies, conversations with leading experts, and honest answers to the questions your doctor didn't get. answers to in medical school and doesn't have time to answer in an appointment. This is your show. Let's get stronger. Welcome or welcome back, depending on where you are joining us in your journey with Flipping 50 the Stronger Way podcast. Thanks for being here. We've been here since 2014 in this space before anybody was really talking about menopause fitness and the changes. And before we go too deeply into that, I wanna be absolutely sure there's, there's a whole crowd of people, academics and researchers, and just maybe horn blowers that are putting you on alert potentially for distrust. Like, don't trust anybody who says it's a menopause supplement or menopause fitness is different. And I'm gonna leave that to you because over 42 years, having worked primarily with women in midlife, because that's who actually reaches out and who has the time and the budget or the urgency and wants support from a personal trainer or a coach to fix this and fix it now. What I've learned is that guidelines and position statements didn't work for everybody. That if we simply said, this is how many times a week you need to be doing this, Mm-hmm. This is how long it has to be, and if you don't do at least 20 minutes, it doesn't count. If we would've said that to everybody, and we, I would've kept saying it, I would've been, I think, remiss and owing every woman I was working with an apology because we could clearly see she was not getting results. And I wasn't gonna be one of those trainers who said, are you going through drive-through? Are you really logging all the food you're eating? Because that's kind of the scrutiny that a lot of women in midlife have had to tolerate. Somebody asking, are they are they doing that? Are they cheating? Are they really doing all the exercise? And what we were doing is throwing a lot of women under the bus, and they were getting more exhausted. Some of them actually gaining weight and gaining more belly fat, doing the very thing we were suggesting they should do. And that is still true today, even though we've changed what the thing to do is. It's still true. And so if you are listening, or if you are listening not for yourself, but you're listening as a trainer or a coach, I hope you do realize there is truth to the fact that not all guidelines, position statements, not even sweeping under the rug things that have a little bit of proof but maybe not enough proof, because sometimes the whistleblowers are also the people who would have been first to say it takes an average of almost 2 decades, 20 years before something makes mainstream that was discovered. And we knew about this in peer-reviewed journals. It just takes that long before it gets there. It's criticized and ridiculed before then. It's like, hmm, maybe should we— should pay attention to that? And then the 4th stage is generally those very people who were critical and ridiculing are like, oh yes, You know, I adopt that wholeheartedly. And so I want you to know part of that is human nature. And I think part of that is good. We should all be a little— I hate to say we should be skeptical, but that's almost where we get to, that we should look at things through a filter. And I think also though, be willing to say more than one person can be right. And it depends because only you and I can only look through The angle and the lens of our perspective based on our education and based on our personal experience. And if you have the experience of only yourself, and maybe you've not talked about some of the conditions or, or experiences that you're dealing with, you may not realize, wait a minute, there's a whole world out there of people who've had very similar and/or very different from you. So before I launch into this one, I want to give you that as a background. So what I'm about to say is very true. Resistance training during perimenopause, in my experience with 42 years as a strength and conditioning coach, as a university lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology at a major D1 university, and in the private sector working one-on-one, in small groups, in large groups, and then training trainers, which is what we call a master trainer. I have found it to be very true that there is a population of women who are extremely compliant. They will be like, I will do anything, help me. And that thing that we're asking them to do doesn't always work when we're following the rules. We have to really look deeper at what's going on, what's the underlying cause of the fatigue or the aches and the pains, and what is happening that we're actually imposing and potentially making worse. And I know the fitness industry is a little bit sensitive to that. I know that academic experts are a little sensitive to that, but there is no denying the truth. And what I've witnessed is where I speak from. So I speak from— I value academics, where I came from. I was this close to, I want to go the PhD route, I want to teach at a university, and I want to be in labs. And, I said, you know what, I want to have a quicker, faster impact. And, academics has so many hoops to jump through, I'm not going that route. And, I don't think I want to be in a lab doing one small thing very deeply and get lost from the, how do I help someone take this and make it practical application to the workout they're going to do today? Far more important to me. That you get it. So I have the, I think, the unique ability because of my experiences to do both. I understand how to interpret the research and then understand because of working with so many people how to break it down into. I know what the questions that you're going to ask almost before you ask them because I've got that much experience. Now obviously I can't head everyone off at the pass, but I can. And because I am 62 and I have been in the boat you're in, or I'm, I'm still somewhat in it with you. Now if you're 78, I haven't been in that boat. I can't, can't claim that one. And I don't wanna rush it cuz every moment is precious. But I have worked with women, um, and men late into their 90s. So I do have a breadth. And width of experience that I call on for this. So let's, with all that background, no apology about what I'm going to share with you, but I will tell you it's based on, this is what I've seen, this is what I watch, and this is the framework that we've come up with to help. And the framework means you get to decide, you get to say, this is where I'm at. And it's not working, so I'm going to pivot. And hopefully by the end of this episode, you have an idea of where do I pivot to. And you also have this, okay, don't change it if it's not broken. You don't need to change it because perhaps, like me, perimenopause didn't happen in the approximate 40 to 50 year old range where there's more symptoms or up and down. I didn't notice any symptoms, not until almost right before it happened when I hit menopause at 56. So your experience will be very different. You may also be listening and say, oh, happened to me at 38. Okay, so take this with a look, even if you're looking back and you're no longer in perimenopause, for yourself, look back and say, what could I have done? Maybe I didn't, but what can I start today? And I want you to look at Younger women that you influence, because almost every single one of us alive with a heartbeat influences a daughter, a daughter-in-law. Maybe you don't have your own kids, but many, many women who don't often have nieces they're fairly close to, or, or neighbors, or, or a colleague who's come into their life. So if you are connected to women at all, This is important because we are finally talking about it out loud and probably have room to expand on those things we're talking about. Resistance training during perimenopause can be a positive game changer for symptoms and the longevity hack that you will thank yourself for if you have the opportunity to look around you in a few decades and realize the ones who did are outshining. And outaging the ones who didn't. The same workout though that worked at 38 may not work for you at 48. In fact, may backfire. However, based on what I just said, for you, that might be the workout that works when you're 45, may backfire at 55, or may not backfire until, for me, 56. The same thing didn't work. And so realize that this timeline and these numbers I throw out are not absolute. And that if you are in fact doing quote unquote the right things to target the right outcomes, then and you're getting good outcomes, then continue to do it by all means. And we'll talk a little bit about what that looks like. But if I could talk in generalizations, never a good idea because you are one single woman who's more important than anyone else right now to me because you're listening. But also to you, and so I want you to filter this with you in mind. So essentially, you and I are co-collaborating on the production of this episode. If you're flipping 50 and beyond, you already know that aging well is something you get to be active about. Primidine is a whole food spermidine, and spermidine is a compound that supports autophagy, our body's natural. cellular renewal and cleanup process. Our levels of it tend to decline as we age, and Primadene is a clean, food-derived way to support it. What I appreciate about Oxford Healthspan is the rigor. It was founded by Leslie Kenney, a Harvard-educated researcher who rebuilt her health and then went looking for the science. It's developed with an Oxford scientific advisory board and third-party tested. And they are refreshingly honest about the research. It is promising, but still emerging. No overhyping. It comes in 2 forms, including a gluten-free option. Go to OxfordHealthspan.com and use code FLIPPING50 for 20% off. Age well and keep flipping the script. So let's talk about the 5 priorities for perimenopause based if we were talking Explicitly about the physiological and kinesthetic changes, meaning musculoskeletal system and the hormonal physiology changing during perimenopause. What's going on that makes these things a priority? The very first one is protect recovery. So just be sure you just have your antenna up a little bit more for yourself. Have your own back. And have your butt and your legs and your everything else too, but have your own back and pay attention to the fact that if you begin to feel like, uh, I'm not ready to work out, like I just feel like I'm dragging into the workout, I'm dragging through the workout, and I don't feel refreshed or energized after the workout, and that's atypical for you. Normally you had— you look forward to it, you liked it, you felt like— A total pardon my French, total badass coming out of it, and that's not true anymore. That's not you. It's not you slacking, but it is potentially midlife catching up with you as hormones decline, particularly estrogen. But also we're experiencing progesterones declining a little bit less testosterone. That one we tend to if we're active women produce. A reasonable amount of that, but stress gets to you and it begins to matter more after estrogen declines. Cortisol levels do go up. So if we were saying relative to you premenopause, and and again age-wise, if I say a number, it potentially is not going to fit any single woman listening. So I hesitate to do that. But think of yourself in your we can. It's probably safely say in your early 30s. You're probably not in perimenopause yet, but comparing that to a time later, either in your 40s, maybe for you too, it won't really happen until your 50s, and you're starting to feel I don't have that energy. You know, I was, and maybe like you, feeling like I don't know what they're talking about. Like I really feel as strong as I ever did, and maybe with a little bit more tood. A little bit more attitude. Like, I really don't care what you think anymore. I am so overthinking that. And, uh, so can you relate? Turning 60 was a game changer for me with that, but it even started, I think, in my 50s. It just became like, I have fewer summers on this planet. Why do I care what you think about my sandals or my pedicure or, or any other thing? Thing as long as I'm comfortable, as long as I feel good, as long as I like it. And so I want you to realize not everything we say here is going to fit you physiologically because your puzzle is— you're a Rubik's Cube. Every woman is like one of those squares, and we're not each going to align with each other. So protect your recovery though and be sensitive to yourself. Don't just pass it off as I got to push through that. Because you've done that, you've been able to do that, and women tend to be really good at it. Even though they would give somebody else a break, they won't themselves. So know who you are. Exercise is stress, and we are going to feel the amplification of all stressors, all sources— emotional, physical from lack of sleep, physical from maybe lack of diet, or Insufficient, so maybe you're eating adequate calories, but not so much of the quality kind. And stress from exercise is also a part of that. So then there's the mental and emotional stressors. There's the I'm at midlife, and so older family members, younger family members that are all kind of coming at you, all those opportunities, the desire to probably change a little bit, I think hits us in midlife. And I don't mean a midlife crisis, although I kind of had one myself. I would highly recommend it. Making a major change at midlife was probably one of the best things that ever happened. At the time, biggest stressor in my life, but I would not have grown and I would have, in fact, shrunk, I think, staying right where I was, being very comfortable with where I was and what I was. And no reason to change. So know that you are going to go through a lot of stress. It's not all bad, but you've got to be willing to play with the exercise equation because that one's controllable while some others won't be. Don't stack stress on top of stress. Be a little bit more sensitive to recovery. And if we were unpacking recovery, that is multiple layers. So it is the rest between hard exercise and the next time you do hard, mainly of same kind. So resistance training, hard, reaching muscle fatigue, whether you go lighter or heavier, but reaching the high effort level. We want to wait a little bit longer. Maybe it's no longer Monday, Wednesday. 48 hours was always the minimum. A lot of us needed longer even when we were in our 20s. It's true of elite athletes. You probably, though, as you age, may need another day. So it's 72 hours, and you're still going to gain the fitness and may gain better fitness easier because you're more recharged, you're ready, you can work at capacity. The harder you work and the more you recover, the combination of those two is really necessary. So that time between Getting adequate sleep, because that is the ultimate of when we're doing all the repair work. Your body is hard at work while you are resting and snoozing. And making sure you have adequate calories, adequate protein, but also as we age, adequate micronutrient density is really important. Get all the vegetables in. If you're afraid of vegetables, you're afraid of fiber because your gut is not cooperating, Deal with that because that's probably making a compromise on your recovery because you're not absorbing the nutrients of foods you're eating. And if you found you're self-selecting because, oh, I don't— that doesn't agree with me anymore, that doesn't agree with me anymore— we want a wide variety of things in that gut. And the gut will change when hormones change. The two almost go hand in hand. And And it's not just women, men too. So with age we have that, but women probably get hit harder because of major hormonal changes. So deal with that. And there are a lot of things that you can do, but it's not probably going to get better by itself. So there you have it. Time between, really sleep, your exercise, and then mentally just dealing with stress. Get some laughter in your life. Get some friends, get some venting, get some sunshine, because all those things help you offset stressors that probably we can't control. The number 2 out of 5 priorities to focus on in perimenopause related to resistance training is lift hard. It is still true we need to lift hard to make it count, but it doesn't mean heavy. I didn't say heavy. Now, you may like heavy You lift heavy, and let's define that. So heavy is not, Deborah, what weight is heavy? Nope. It is what do you fatigue at in 10 or fewer repetitions for sure. And for those of you who can tolerate it, meaning your joints would be okay with you tomorrow if I said I want you to pick up a weight heavy enough that you can't do more than 7, somewhere between 5 and 7, that's really pretty heavy. The range as a strength and conditioning coach we give is between 5 and 30 reps or 6 and 30 reps. And more than 30, we're probably giving wear and tear on joints unnecessarily. We don't want to do that. And if you have osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, I would say we're not even going to get close to 30 with you. I would choose a more moderate range, like getting around 20, plus or minus a few, is probably better for you. Not too heavy, not too light, right here. So not enough stress or not so much stress on your joints, but also not just that back and forth and back and forth, which is wear and tear on the joints that we don't want or need. But do lift hard. It's not weight-wise, it is effort-wise. And that means if you reach muscular fatigue or close to it— so there is a term we've— we're all referring to. I think it's— you have. It. It. Now, nailed. Reps in reserve. And that means that you're going to come close to— if you have experience, you're going to come close to maybe 1 or 2 reps in reserve, but at least that close. You don't have to reach failure where you're in the middle of it and it's like, I'm going to drop it. You don't have to get there, but you have to be thinking, uh, yeah, I can feel I'm cheating a little bit. I This is my last probably good rep, and I could power it up, but it wouldn't be any good. Then you're there. If you're just a beginner, you're starting or restarting, and you're in perimenopause, you have to layer these two pieces. It's not just every woman in perimenopause should do this. It's we first have to say, are you a beginner, or are you more advanced, more experienced, and are you In perimenopause, postmenopause, where are you? Because all of those things need to come in and say, "Let's filter out now what's left." Okay. This happens to be a part of the Halo Method, which is a proprietary framework that I use myself with clients. I use it for training our Flipping Fifty menopause fitness specialists, and we also use it to give physicians an easy way to say. Here's what's important during this time frame, and what will happen if we don't do it based on musculoskeletal changes in menopause. And here's how we have to factor in what's their activity age. Are they new, newer coming back, or experienced? What can they tolerate? And then we have to look at limitations as well. So if you get lucky, we'll continue this series and add something about limitations. But the challenge there is that. Many limitations are very unique on their own, so we would need to break this down into: You've got osteoporosis. You have cancer. You're recovering from cancer. You are fibromyalgia is something you're dealing with, or you've got chronic fatigue or long-haul COVID. You have plantar fasciitis, or you've got hip bursitis. You've got a knee replacement. Coming, haven't had it yet, or you're just post-rehab. So many different things are going to be true of a special condition that are unique to that condition. So if you write in, tell me yours, I may be able to help. We'll see what kind of responses we get. But the answer to this number 2 in priorities is lift hard, put in the effort. You need to reach muscular fatigue or come close to it depending on who you are. It is quality. It's not quantity. Quality really matters. Mineral replenishment is one of the most overlooked aspects of wellness, and Beam Minerals makes it super easy to incorporate into your daily routine. I confess, until recently, I've been overlooking the big role small minerals play in my total health. I've spent years working on my own and clients' diets, paying attention to the macros— protein, fats, carbs, But giving far less thought to the minerals that make the macros work. I take half capful of Beam Minerals Electrolyze and their Micro Boost daily. That's it. So easy. It tastes like water and you can drink them alone, but do like I do. I add them to that glass of water waiting for me on the counter every morning. No extra time, no extra effort. Beam Minerals has become one of those daily habits that I genuinely miss when I skip it. I feel it. It's like a subtle upgrade to physical energy and mental focus. Head to beamminerals.com/flipping50 and use code FLIPPING50 for 20% off your first order. That's beamminerals.com/flipping50, code Flipping 50. Give Beam Minerals a try and discover why mineral replenishment could be the missing piece of your wellness routine. The 3rd priority that you've got is heavy lifting still matters. Now, it sounds very incongruent, maybe inconsistent with what I've just said. If you can— this is relative to you, this is lift as heavy as you safely can. And I would rather see you lift heavy, do fewer repetitions, get in there and out of there. Did you know if you're doing 5 repetitions, you're doing a few sets of that, your workout's going to be a whole lot shorter than if you're trying to get 25 repetitions with a lighter weight? So if you are physically able to safely lift heavier, please do. And less time, but then leaving more time for recovery, is really a smart move. So don't confuse heavy with excessive. You don't want to spend hours there. The heavier it is, the harder it is, the more benefit you're getting, the shorter time you can actually put in doing it, and then put the rest of that time and energy into living your life. The fourth priority is protein becomes non-negotiable. So here's why, and there are so many reasons, but of course it lends itself to supporting muscle and bone, both. Every cell in your body actually needs protein to function. So it's not just a bodybuilder muscle-building kind of thing. We are, as females, more anabolically resistant as we age. Number one, we're smaller than men, and so we need that muscle more. We have less muscle to begin with relative to them. And because estrogen drops off about a decade before, say, testosterone does for them, and we kind of come crashing down. They kind of come in for a softer landing. We don't have much warning, and we need to really focus on protein to offset the loss of muscle and/or bone that could happen if we don't. Protein becomes non-negotiable. There is a leucine threshold. We'd eat protein for the essential amino acids. There are 9 essential, meaning Out of all the essential or all the amino acids, nine of them we have to eat every day. We don't just get them unless we eat them in our diet. Our body can't manufacture them. One of them, leucine, has been for a long time tied to older adults' ability to gain lean muscle mass. So you get it easily if you eat animal protein. If you are vegan or even vegetarian minimizing. The animal protein that you get if you are pescatarian, only eating fish, you may get a lower level. So if we were comparing proteins, animal protein like beef or bison or venison, elk, those kinds of more red meats traditionally called, have the greatest amount of leucine in them. As we go down the chain and we say, okay, poultry, chicken, turkey, they have, they have leucine But less of it, a little less. Then if we get to fish and seafood, even less. If we get to plant food, significantly less. So you probably need to supplement if you're trying to do all plant-based. Just saying, essential amino acids could make a huge difference for you in the way you age and your ability to modify positively your body composition. So distribute your protein across the day. We don't want to take it all in one meal, but not even two. So I know so many of us have fallen under that belief that, you know, 2 meals a day, I'm gonna try to intermittent fast and shut that window that I'm eating, that longer fasting makes such a difference. And we don't really find that we do. And yet I have to default to you if it works for you, but I wanna Say, what does that mean if it works for you? For some women, and the only person you need to be honest with right now is you. Nobody's talking back to you. Some women will tell me that they like intermittent fasting because they feel better doing it, and part of the reason is it helps them avoid eating, and eating makes them feel uncomfortable, either gassy or bloated, or they feel like they're not digesting their food. And it feels like it's just kind of sitting there like a rock. And I think that's just avoiding the real problem. It's not solving it. And so wouldn't it be better if we looked at why is that true? I mean, you were born able to digest. I mean, you might have pooped in utero for crying out loud, right? So we've been able to do this since the very beginning, but stress kicks in. We have less stomach acid. We have fewer digestive enzymes. We can help ourselves get some of that back, and our gut microbiome changes with hormonal changes as well. We can rebalance that, bringing in more foods like polyphenols and then fiber-rich foods of 2 different types to help feed the good gut bacteria and, if needed, Taking a stool test to find out if bad bacteria are overgrown and we need to get rid of them or do something different. So it becomes a you know something we cannot ignore and spread throughout the day in at least three meals, sometimes four depending on the level of protein that you need to take in. But here's the other reason: it's not just there for muscle and making sure that you don't lose muscle and or lose bone because they. Needed as well, but it's there for satiety. So that's the other side of the coin. In a conversation, you might hear, you know, 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight, and that's the equate of about 0.75 grams per pound of body weight. If we just convert it for you easier, we have you aim for 1 gram per pound of body weight because guess what? No math. And a lot of us are like, okay, good, good on me, I can handle that one. And if we aim for that, chances are some of us will fall short. But the other thing is, if we aim for that and get it in, our body may not be able to break all of that down as well because we aren't as good at it. We lose muscle protein synthesis, the ability to take the protein we eat, break it down for the use of our muscle and body. So we probably need a little more in order to at least land in the stars, right? Shoot for the moon. However, there may be more reason to look at a higher level. And I just heard a podcast today with someone who's been on the Flipping 50 podcast as well, Brad Schoenfeld, who's in academics. He does a ton of research and his grad students really do the research and bring to him what they want to do. And so he facilitates that, teaching them how to, supervising their research. But he's done a lot of work in this area. And, you know, he too will say this, and Bill Campbell, PhD, who will have an upcoming podcast, if not right as this one drops or just before it, has found that holding Or optimizing body composition is one. So optimizing body composition, meaning the ability to lose fat or have more ideal body fat and increase lean muscle tissue. For most of us, that's the balance in the way we need to go, but those are optimal. And, you know, that really says, I like the way I feel when you look in the mirror, and I like the way I look when I look in the mirror. Optimal body composition. So yes, it's your smart scales and whatever she says back to you. But most of all, I think most of us, when we have body composition that we're good with, we look good and feel good about the way we look. But the important other piece is if we are in a weight loss need, we truly do. And I am not talking about the skinny, skanky actress thing going on right now. I apologize if you love it. I think we're all compulsively attracted to it. But, you know, they look emaciated right now, and I don't think it does anything positive for any of us in terms of our psyche or our younger daughters and what they see. We're just kind of back to the 1970s and Twiggy and cocaine thin. It's not, not good. But what we need to look at is if we need to lose weight, we want to lose fat weight. We don't want to lose muscle. And there's almost always a little bit or small percentage of muscle loss with weight loss because some of it is if we're losing visceral belly fat, we're losing a little muscle within that. And most importantly, what we want to be sure we're looking at is Holding on to skeletal muscle mass. If we eat a little more protein than is simply there to help us gain strength, we will probably have better results maintaining muscle. So even up to 2.4 grams per kilogram of body weight, which is significant— it is more than 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, but at least that, if not more. Can help keep that muscle mass, and you may find in a caloric deficit with high amount of protein like that, you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Okay, number five is flexibility beats perfection, and I don't mean ability to touch your toes in flexibility. I mean, if you slept poorly, you respond to that because as a woman who's going through menopause. You are more likely to be someone who has some disruption in sleep because progesterone levels go down, and at least until you do something to support yourself, you may have to manage a little more restless night or sleep deprivation or truly insomnia. Be careful, modify what you're doing. Do get movement in, but don't push yourself. If your recovery is poor, it's not feeling good, adjust. You just are giving yourself the same amount of time that worked, but now it doesn't. Just adjust and listen, adapt. And if you don't push through, you'll be less likely to be sick, depleted, or injured. So be smart. Your hormones will fluctuate more during perimenopause than any other time in your life. So your training should too. Just be willing to do it. And again, if you're a woman who's I'm in my 40s and I don't experience anything, perfect. Don't fix it. Just be willing to keep your ear on what is it? How am I responding? And be willing to let yourself off the hook where maybe before you would have pushed through and not listened. The biggest mistakes that women probably in perimenopause and or their trainers make. Is trying to do HIIT every day, particularly true for those women who are trying to lose weight because they suddenly have gained weight that they can't explain and they can't get it off. So going to the known fat burner in HIIT seems like the solution that probably will lead to exhaustion or injury, and something that is. Very valuable done in small doses becomes a lot less valuable and maybe a threat done in high doses. If you are always sore and trying to be, that's not necessarily a good sign. Too much fasting— again, a stressor is a stressor. Not eating after lifting— and I don't mean that there is a time frame and you should feel like if you don't eat in 30 minutes it's wasted. Not at all, but eat regularly around the clock. If you're eating 3 meals, inevitably you're going to eat before and/or after your workout, but I would make sure you get something post-workout no matter what, whether it's 2 hours later or, um, it's sooner than that. Make sure that you pull something in protein-rich and a little bit of carbohydrate can also help with muscle. And trying to outwork your hormones, trying to Ignore them. Pretend they're not there. That hopefully is gone, gone, gone because we've learned so much more about hormones. We talk about it. We know they're coming. There's no avoiding it, so no denying it. All right, there you have it—the five top things. Quick summary: protect your recovery. Do lift hard, but that is about effort and heavy lifting matters. So. Heavy for you is the thing. What can you safely heavily do? Protein, really important. Take a good look at what you're doing. If you think you're eating enough, be great to track it if you don't know for sure. Flexibility in your programming, in your routine, is really important. Avoid those big mistakes. And here's what's coming next. We're going to talk about the difference between peri- and post-menopause, and we will do the 4th in this series, all about postmenopause exercise and how that differs from premenopause or perimenopause. And I welcome your questions. So if you're listening to this series, you've heard them all. If you're a beginner doing resistance training, you have more experience, and maybe suddenly it's not working. This one about exercising in perimenopause and the following one that's coming on postmenopause. So shoot me your questions now. We'll be recording that one soon, but it will be the one up next in solo episodes. Thanks in advance for listening. The information shared on Flipping 50 the Stronger Way is for educational and informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified health care provider before beginning any exercise program, making changes to your diet, or adjusting any medications or supplements. Individual results may vary. Debra Atkinson and Flipping 50 are not responsible for any injury or adverse outcomes resulting from information presented on this podcast.