I have worked with several women during different parts of their perimenopause journey into post menopause. With my background in human science and healthcare I enjoy learning about the latest research in both health and fitness. Perimenopause hit me hard, I thought I understood what my athletes were going through, there was no way I could have predicted exactly how much it can affect your life.
With new research coming out on how to train our bodies with changing hormones I am excited to learn the tools needed to keep my athletes and myself pushing our limits, enjoying time doing the sports we love and feeling good our entire lives.
In healthcare continuing education allows you to expand your mind and change your beliefs with evidence based studies. I bring that same open mind into my coaching. As a coach I still am struggling to completely wrap my head around how much we need to adjust our training when our hormones start to decline. What I always believed no longer works.
I always try new methods on myself before bringing those changes into my coaching. As an endurance athlete I have a hard time believing that less is more, but, my eyes have been opened. Heavy lifting with longer rest between sets, HIIT sessions, SIT sessions, super easy recovery days and only one long run a week with some intervals in the middle are my new go to. I work with a nutritionist who specializes in perimenopause and have found that adjusting my macros and timing of my snacks/meals around my workouts has made a positive difference in how I feel, how I perform and my body composition.
It takes a few weeks to physically and emotionally adapt to such a drastic change. It takes patience and trusting the process. With strength, always work on form before moving up in weights. With HIIT sessions, aim for an 80% effort, make yourself sweat! With SIT sessions, those 15-30 secondintervals should feel horrible, they are 100% effort with super easy 1 minute 30 second recovery intervals. Aim for 4-10 intervals. Keep your two faster runs at least 3 days apart.
As our hormones decline so do our estrogen receptors which are the key to muscle development. Key workouts that push your limits, super easy active recovery cardio between sessions and good nutrition help to wake up those receptors, build more muscle and increase bone density, all while making you faster and burning fat! We can no longer process insulin the way we once did so nutrition, strength sessions, HIIT/SIT workouts packed between active recovery sessions and one day of pure rest a week will burn that stubborn fat! It will also help you sleep better and reduce anxiety.
Every 4-8 weeks you will need a reset week. Don’t worry, your body will let you know. Everything will feel like a chore. When that happens take a week to remove all hard sessions, decrease mileage, lift lighter and sleep as much as you can.
I offer one on one coaching but also created an app called PHAES which allows you to track your hormones, bloodwork, body composition, HRT/MHT, stress levels, workouts and symptoms to create doctor ready reports and a dynamic training plan that works with your body, not against it. You can get the tracker for free or get a free one week trial of insights or dynamic training!