Muscling up to the Menopause

Introduction

I awoke one morning and padded to the bathroom. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and blinked at the body reflected back at me in the mirror, I barely recognized myself.  At aged 53 the menopause fairy was tightening its grip (deliberate avoidance of gender identity here).  I then began to suffer from all the insecurities and anxieties about my body that so many women face while going through the menopause (as if hormonal meltdowns were not bad enough!)  My once tighter, more youthful skin was riddling itself with cellulite and wrinkles, and bits of me were increasing their rapid descent over my knees as if in some insane race to be first to reach my ankles!  Any muscle tone I once possessed, to hold it all in place, appeared to have simply vanished overnight.   

Having only recently remarried (to Scott, my best friend) I began to dread the thought of him seeing me naked, fearing he might look at me differently.  I started undressing in the dark. He noticed of course and when he asked why, and I told him the reason I was hiding myself, he reassured me that he could never look at me differently.  "You don't know how sexy you are", he once said to me lovingly. Well they say "love is blind" and it was clear that he saw a different body to the one greeting me in the mirror.  My angst, however, was only slightly calmed. The insecure voice continued to goad me silently in my mind telling me that I didn't look good enough to be married to this gorgeous individual!

It's utterly ridiculous as well as utterly vain of me, right?  I hear you and can also appreciate your desire to give me a good shake by the shoulders.  I do believe, however, there are many women who can identify with these feelings, which is why I'm prepared to admit my folly.  Perhaps you need to have found love, like me, for the second time around and later in life, to fully understand.  I'll be honest, if my dearly departed first husband were still alive, I really don't think I'd have been so hard on myself.  The reason is simple: he'd known me when I had the beach body, the endlessly long legs, the youthful skin.  Of course, he would have still loved me either way, I know that.  I just felt I was starting from a hugely different position this second time around.  Scott hadn't known me when I was younger and, furthermore, for several years, we'd been no more or no less than best friends, so for him to see me naked just wasn't supposed to happen!  But, I knew these problems were all mine, and not his.  I needed to have a word with myself, and that's what I did. 

I redirected my thoughts and sought to banish my insecurities once and for all. I armed myself emotionally for my battle with the menopause fairy and to prising from me its hideously gnarled fingers that were threatening to pull me apart in body and mind. 

Vanity aside, there's the obvious health considerations of one's passage through menopause.  For me, the primary concern was our family's propensity for early onset osteoporosis.  We know this is a major risk for post-menopausal women and the earlier you reach menopause, the bigger the risk of developing the condition. 

So here I was, facing one of the biggest challenges in my life so far.  I needed a plan.  I needed to act!

So, where next?

If not and you're still searching for an answer, I hope that sharing my journey will inspire you to follow the same path.  I'll tell you how I'm squaring up to the menopause and how the choices I've made are already positively impacting on my health and my outlook.  A year on from when I started, I am feeling more energetic, I'd swear my hormones are more balanced, and my cognitive function has also improved (evidenced by the fact I'm doing far fewer dumb things like opening the fridge door to retrieve the bowl of steaming hot porridge that'd just ‘pinged’ in the microwave!  Yes, I actually did that!)   

Improving my health and wellbeing became my goal. If you're woman in my position (and I do still claim to be one, despite the occasional sprouting chest hair!), you'll have done your research on the symptoms of menopause and how best to deal with them.  If you've seen a specialist in menopause symptoms, you're lucky.  In any event, you'll already know why your health and diet has never been more important.  With any luck, you'll have a good plan in place to deal with the huge biological change going on in your body  and things will be going well for you.  I certainly hope so.  

I'd been conducting extensive research into which fitness program would be right for me.  I was already pretty active but given that osteoporosis prevention was a concern,  I had long since been reading about the benefits of weight and resistance training.  Whatever their age, for a while now, science has been advocating for women to pick up a pair of dumbbells, resistance bands, or to simply use their own bodyweight to challenge their muscles and get stronger.  If you're not already aware, there is plenty of evidence to prove that strength training can improve and even reverse arthritis and osteoporosis and certainly prevent its onset if you strength train early.  There's much information out there if you want to find out more but, in a nutshell, the 8 most notable benefits of strength training are: 

1. It builds and maintains muscle mass
2. It makes your joints stronger
3. It's one of the best forms of low-impact cardio exercise
4. It supports weight loss and weight management 
5. It improves your cardio-vascular health
6. It protects bone health
7. It improves your mood and mental health (definitely GOOD news for women in menopause)
8. It may actually help you live longer.

I concluded, therefore, that strength training was right for me.  

So, I had a plan but how was I going to execute it?  My mission was about to begin.

First understand that you'll struggle to do this alone

I hadn't planned on hiring the services of a personal trainer.  I 'faffed' about on YouTube and one or two Facebook Pages but, try as I might, I just couldn't make anything 'fit'.  I knew I needed help. That help came to me in the perfectly toned form of Farhana Gooding, a Personal Trainer of Body Sculpting - Personal Training (you can find her on Facebook).  I came to know of her via a friend recommendation. We made contact and met for coffee.  I told Farhana what I felt I needed to do and she told me how she could help me achieve it.  I warmed to her lovely personality and clear evidential knowledge right there and then and signed up without hesitating.  Now I completely understand if you cannot afford a personal trainer but I would encourage you to consider committing to one, if only in the short term to give you a solid foundation upon which to build.  

Farhana's advice on approaching weight training correctly: 

"First and foremost, don't be nervous or afraid, be empowered that getting stronger and taking control is the best decision you'll ever make! 

Investing in a trainer will ensure that you learn correctly from the very start and thereby minimize any risk to injury. When it comes to selecting the right trainer, remember though there is a huge disparity. So, do your research and find one who specializes in strength training as they have far superior knowledge in biomechanics and can really help you understand technique.  They will also be able to guide you through correct movement patterns relating to each movement to be worked on, and also what movements you can start loading safely with the appropriate weight you can handle.

Another valuable aspect of having a trainer is that they will work out what your body is able to recover from. This is so important for managing fatigue, injury and indeed your results." 

 

My training began shortly after our first meeting and little did I know just how hooked I would become.  I've been strength training for a year now taking into account the odd break, most notably the three months we were on lockdown.  Despite that, my body shape has changed dramatically and much of the benefits described above are pretty evident.  I'm still in early days and have a long way to go; indeed, I have the rest of my life to enjoy this journey. In the last year, Farhana has taught me so much about correct technique and, more importantly, how correct 'form' is vital to preventing injury. I honestly wouldn't have got so far without her. 

It's important for me to tell you at this point that this is definitely NOT a quick fix program.  Quick fixes simply aren't sustainable anyway so don't believe anyone who might tell you differently.  No, a proper strength training program done correctly takes time but reaps huge benefits in the long term.  This is a lifestyle change and it requires commitment but don't be put off by this, there's some serious enjoyment to be had, honest!

Left: October 2019 and Right: August 2020

Well, this is easy!  (I think the socks really set off the look!)

Coming up: Starting my strength training journey and why having a training goal is important.