On average there is a 16 year span in a woman’s life where the fundamental and biological rhythms of her hormones can fluctuate; a transitional time, labelled menopause.

As a trainer I should be aware of the hormonal issues surrounding menopause and how this affects exercise and how this may then affect exercise programming and it is also important that women are aware of these issues themselves.  Otherwise, you may find your training is not geared correctly to reaching your goals.

Exercise is a catabolic activity, meaning that the body will breakdown complex substances into simpler substances to be used as energy to move and take on the stress of exercise.  Exercise as stress will have physical, chemical and emotional components to it, and those outcomes will be affected by the intensity and duration at which it is performed (Borer, 2003).  Therefore the intensity and duration of exercise selection will have dramatic effects on the chemical by-products (hormones) released during and after exercise, which affects how to program for a female in menopause.

Cortisol

For a female going through menopause, the imbalance of hormones during the menstrual cycle causes a dramatic rise in cortisol in the system, which leads to an increase of blood volume for inflammatory response, protein degradation and muscle and connective tissue breakdown (Borer, 2003).  Considering the symptoms related to menopause; bone-mineral density decrease, reduction in strength and increase in fat deposition; there couldn’t be a more pivotal time to find exercise programming that helps combat excess cortisol, build lean tissue and increase energy expenditure.

Cortisol can have detrimental effects on program success.  Exercise is a ‘stress’ and stress releases cortisol, which means exercise will release cortisol, but the intensity and duration will have an effect on the amount of cortisol released.

Commonly, people choose to participate in continuous or ‘steady state’ exercise.  Yet research shows that continuous steady state intensity exercise bouts lasting over 15-30 minutes give a 150% increase in cortisol secretion (Borer, 2009).   For a female in menopause this could halt any form of progress in weight loss, and only make the symptoms they are experiencing feel ten times worse.

So what type of exercise helps combat cortisol release?  Intense exercise.  A 10 minute bout of intermittent exercise at 90% VO2max reduces the cortisol levels (Petrides et al. 1994).

Exercise performed at intensities higher than 70% VO2max also stimulates the release of Growth Hormone (GH).  GH is known to help increase skeletal muscle tissue.

Programming

A workout program consisting of intervals would be ideal to get to the right intensity levels.  The intervals would need to be programmed so that the client reaches heart rate percentages greater than 75% during intense periods of the exercise and then recovers below 65% and repeats this throughout the workout.

For example, most training sessions are 60 minutes in duration, containing a warm up lasting 10-15 mins, a goal-based workout, 30-40 minutes and then a cool down.  During the goal based workout portion there are a number of ways to perform interval training.  One easy way would be to set up 3 circuits of 3 exercises.  Within each circuit each exercise will be assigned a HR percentage or those without monitors a Rate of Perceived Exertion figure (1-20), and organised in an order that allows for recovery.  Exercises could then be performed for one minute, with a one minute recovery after the each 3rd exercise.   This would equal a 36 minute total goal based exercise time.

Exercising at the right intensities can provide the body with the environment to thrive and create balance through the chemical by products produced.  Maximising on intermittent bursts, and interval training, with intensities that hit above the anaerobic thresholds and include recovery time will be key for programming success within menopause.

References

Borer, K. (2003) Exercise Endocrinology Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics

Petrides, et al. (1994) Exercise-induced activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis: marked differences in the sensitivity to glucocorticoid supplementation. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 77, 377-383