SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello and welcome to another episode of Empower Your Menopause, the podcast where we bust myths, challenge outdated health advice and empower women to survive in midlife and beyond. It's coaches James and Julie here, bringing you some real talk on what actually works for Women Over 14. Today's topic is quite close to both of our hearts and to our muscles. We're talking to movement for mood. So we often talk about movement as being to improve the way we look, etc. But today we're going to talk more about the way it makes you feel. So why is movement more than just physical? Okay, so we know that many women grow up believing that exercise is just about burning calories. Yeah, that chase of translating some kind of balance between calories in and calories out, and using it as a way to you know achieve the bikini body before they go on holiday, all that kind of thing. But the truth is there's a growing evidence base for the benefits of physical activity during the menopause life stage overall, and there's what is called review level evidence available. What does review level mean? Well, if you take all the studies that have been done in a certain area, a review level piece of evidence is where they've looked at all those studies in that particular field and drawn conclusions from every single one. So it's like taking the best of the best, if you like. So there's that high level of evidence there that exercise can benefit women in the menopause transition when it comes to all kinds of things. So, first of all, general health and well-being, obvious, right? Then being protected for longer-term conditions, things like heart disease and osteoporosis. We've visited those a little bit in past episodes that you can go back and listen to. But really, exercise is beneficial as well for managing menopause symptoms, really, including depression and anxiety. So we know that movement is a really powerful tool that we've got, not just for our bodies but for our minds as well. So in this episode, we're going to cover a number of things. First of all, how movement actually impacts your brain chemistry, what's going on when it comes to your mood and mental health. We'll talk about why traditional exercise advice fails women at this time of life. The best type of movement for stress relief, hormones and longevity, and how to move from punishment-based exercise to movement that actually feels good for you. So if you ever struggle with motivation, this is the episode for you. And I'm just going to dive straight in by introducing my partner in crime, Julie. Julie, tell us a little bit, in your opinion, so where is this mind-body connection coming from? Where why does movement impact mood then at this time of life?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Sure. Well, it it's it's a huge, huge factor. And um it's amazing how few people actually utilize this option. And we've we do alter our our brain chemistry when we move our bodies because that's actually how we were designed. There's studies to back this up. There was a UK survey that showed almost half of menopausal women experience some kind of depression. 37% or so suffer from anxiety. And this is really critically important because a lot of times women go to their practitioners and they're not even reviewed for having menopause symptoms or perimenopausal symptoms, and they're put straight into or onto antidepressants or even ADHD medications for all of these things that are happening. But exercise is important for releasing, stimulating and releasing different neurotransmitters, which are different kinds of chemicals and hormones in our body that we probably are becoming more and more familiar with, like dopamine, serotonin, and different kinds of endorphins. And these are these are things that affect our moods. They're really important for this, well, for all phases of life, but especially for this phase of life, because we don't want to walk around feeling depressed and angry and sad and anxious and all of the things that can go along with menopause symptoms. So, you want to dive into some of those neurotransmitters?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

I think it's important to actually explain a little bit about what each one is in turn, partly because you know, people tend to lump these all in together as feel-god good hormones, right? You you you're going to benefit because your feel-good hormones are going to be buzzing, but it's a little bit more subtle than that, and there are some differences. So, dopamine, first up, is kind of like your reward center, it's it's the one that you link with feeling good about doing because you've done something, but it's also responsible for other bodily functions as well, like memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention. So it not only boosts pleasure, sort of like that feedback mechanism, but also helps drive motivation. That's really key because we know that losing mojo, losing motivation can be something that happens at this time of life. Serotonin, on the other hand, is your nickname is the happiness chemicals. So this really is a mood-boosting one, boosting your overall sense of happiness, but also sleep, appetite, and it's really interesting serotonin because although it's technically a brain chemical, something like only around 10% of it actually hangs around in your brain. More than 90% of serotonin is in your gut, which is a real sort of like indicator of that link between the gut-brain connection that is becoming more and more important and more studies as we go on. And then finally, endorphins are like your natural painkillers, but they also produce things of well-being and reducing stress and pain as well. So, all three are critically important as part of this, and the key thing is that all three of them can be increased with exercise, but they also play a role in our feelings of well-being, how happy we are, and everything else. So it's not just about how we look, how toned we are, and how healthy our hearts and blood circulation systems are, but really truly how exercise makes us feel from a mind-body perspective. And Julie, I know you've got it's a couple of years old, this paper now, but there is a paper that I know you wanted to bring up here, and by paper I mean a scientific paper that backs up some of the things we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, it's um it's a paper, the study of women's health across the nation. So it's a bit older, it's from back in 2012, but the the conclusions that they came to still are valid today, and it's it's about physical activity and health during the menopause transition. So it looked at results of of this study. And you know, we can, I mean, we go around and say frequently that physical activity is the most powerful and most underutilized antidepressant that there is. And this paper really really proves that. It's it's it says physical activity is a potent tool for health promotion and disease prevention in paramedanopausal women as well as in the population as a whole. But the truth is that less than half of the population regularly exercises or participates in some kind of physical activity, and that's even the minimal level required for health benefits. So we're talking about 30 minutes of movement during the day. And this isn't, you know, we'll talk about what kind of movement a bit later, but we're not talking about going and pumping iron like Arnie. We're talking about just general physical activity during the day. And um when we're looking at women from ages 40 to 60, the the rates of of exercise, we'll say adherence or physical activity is even lower. And there are a lot of reasons for that. I mean, we have we have so many more commitments at this time of life. We feel stressed out, we're we're maybe working full-time, managing a family, managing community activities, you know, with our being with our friends. Um, trying to trying to have all of these demands pulling at us and finding time for exercise becomes that thing, you know, one of those things of our self-care that gets set aside because we it's looked at as something that requires so much effort because we're tired, we're overwhelmed, and that's the it's really not what we want to do. We'd rather just flop down and binge watch something when we have the time, um, when in fact m some kind of movement would actually be the most perfect remedy in most cases.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah. So we're building up a strong, a strong picture here then of why movement is essential during perimenopause and menopause, and it and in the postmenopause transition as well, and not just for health, but also for how it affects things like mood, sleep, energy, etc. So I've got a couple of studies that I wanted to just check in here. So there was another, this is a meta-analysis. So again, it's looking at 21 different studies, more than 2,000 women in total. Um, and this is a recent study, it was only published this year, but that showed that exercise has a significant antidepressant and anxiolytic effect. Now, what does anxiolytic mean? It's one of those words that I can hardly even say. Never mind finding out what it means. But it actually means something that reduces your anxiety, right? So this paper has looked at 21 different controlled trials from over the years, looked at the relationship of the results between the 2,000 women that took place and found that exercise helps reduce um depression and reduces anxiety. And pretty much like you'd expect, you know, substantially lower depression anxiety in women who actually exercise, but even better, you didn't have to be all out foot to the floor, doing everything to the max to see the benefits. The benefits were shown to be from low and moderate intensity exercise as well. So, even things like walking and similar sort of like what we might consider to be low-level activities, and once again, we've got a whole podcast on the benefits of walking if you want to go back and listen to that one too. Even those sort of like what we consider to be perhaps lower level, less stressful uh exercises are really, really good for both reducing your depression and reducing your anxiety. And then when it comes to things like you know, I've got I've got a favourite t-shirt that I see uh hanging up in the store of my local kombucha store whenever I go there. And it's a woman looking quite serene on it, and underneath it says, Yes, I have tried effing yoga, and so yeah, it's the one thing that everybody advises, isn't it? If you're feeling stressed out, go and try some yoga. But this second study actually looked at those mind-body exercises, so yoga, tai chi, pilatas, etc. And again, significant improvements in the psychological well-being of participants. And this is another study from 2024, so it's it's really not old information, it's top-level information looking at some of the longest and biggest control trials and bringing that information together. So, yoga Pilates Tai Chi, marked reductions in anxiety, depression, and fatigue relative to the people who weren't taking part in any exercise at all. So, in practice, menopausal women who engage in regular activity often experience fewer mood swings, less irritability, improved sleep. So it's a really valuable tool for emotional balance during this transition. That is not my words, they are the words from the conclusion at the end of the study. Now, it's interesting, I think, Julie, and I'm going to ask you to expand on this a little bit, about here we're talking about relatively moderate levels of exercise when it comes to the intensity. You know, walking, tai chi, pilates, yoga, it's not stuff that we see a lot when it comes to exercise recommendations. Yeah, most of us are still in this mindset of we've got to throw everything at an exercise session. And I think, and I'm sure you agree with me, that this is somewhat rooted, once again, coming back to that kind of almost like an inverted commerce toxic diet culture. I just wonder if you had any thoughts on that you wanted to share with us.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Oh, I have lots of thoughts on this because uh, you know, I I mean I lived this example myself, and it's been a hard lesson for me as well. But really, because in the diet culture, just like we are with food diets, it's it's an all or nothing kind of mindset, right? We have to drop to the floor in a pool of sweat by the end of our workout, or we haven't done anything worthwhile. And I certainly spent a lot of my life thinking that, and I have the physical uh injuries and stresses to show for it. But especially when we get to midlife, this all or nothing mindset really needs to go away. Um when we do that, it we either end up getting burnt out or injured, or we get to where we just feel so sore and fatigued all of the time that we can't we can't move. And and it it pushes, you know, we talk about CrossFit and HIIT workouts, the high intensity interval training. Um, and and we talk about strength training all the time, but again, there's a way to do it that works more in harmony with our bodies through this phase of life than this whole, you know, push, push, push, um, use your body up kind of thing. Intensity and suffering are not necessary to get results. I not even in the least. And sometimes when we don't feel like we're working very much, we're actually getting the best benefit because number one, it's movement we can sustain for a longer period of time. And it's also movement that makes us feel good when we're finished. We don't feel like we have to go lie down for a couple of hours or you know, use up a half a tube of uh hot muscle rub to to get through the next day. And and so instead of draining ourselves, doing a kind of movement that really helps us feel energized afterwards is is the best thing. And and as I mentioned, I mean, I'm walking proof that this whole go hard or go home thing, we're really increasing at this phase of life our risk of energy of injury. Um, high-intensity workouts are not meant for our bodies at this phase of life. And that's really hard for someone who's used to doing that most of their life. So we're not talking about suddenly, you know, walking 30-minute miles and you know, lifting two-pound dumbbells. That isn't that isn't what we're talking about. But we have to really be be careful about that. Plus, the overtraining, especially when we're adding in all of that extra cardio, we're stressing our body more, we're increasing our stress hormones. We actually can end up with um muscle wasting if we're not strength training and we're doing all of that excessive um cardio. And that, of course, increases our cortisol levels, which increases our belly fat, which is not what we want to be doing at this phase of life, because that abdominal fat becomes metabolically like like an endocrine organ, right? So we're we're using it to produce more hormones, but we don't really want to hang on to too much of that. And cortisol is a isn't a bad thing in itself, but too much cortisol is definitely not good for us, and all of that together really affects our our menopausal symptoms. And again, we we may think of just like mood swings and hot flushes and night sweats and sleep disturbances and brain fog as the main symptoms of menopause, but there are many, many other menopause symptoms that that aren't talked about in the mainstream that we might not even realize we're affecting by doing all of this excessive, um excessive cardio excessive intensity. Goodness, I can't spit that out today. Excessive intensity in in our workout. So we really need to learn how to move. We talk all the time about working smarter, not harder. Now we need to think about moving smarter and not harder. So, so James, you want to talk about the best kinds of movement then?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Sure. Um and I think just to come back to some of the things you've mentioned there. When we're talking of I know people who do CrossFit are very, very passionate. And the last thing I want right now is to have a hundred letters popping into our inbox, calling us out for calling out CrossFit. Look, if you've done this all your life and you're happy with it and you think you're finding balance elsewhere, that is absolutely fine. Nobody's stopping you from doing it or advising that. You need to find out what works for you. I think what Julie and I's advice would be is that if you are gonna do that whole sort of like foot to the floor, all out there, throw everything at it, then you then some kind of balance needs to come from somewhere. Because all you're gonna do is keep increasing your cordial levels. And one thing that we certainly wouldn't advise is if you've never done that exercise kind of exercise before, just suddenly throwing yourself into it at this time of life, particularly if you're already sort of like absolutely maxed out from a stress level, because exercise is a stressor, dear listener. You know, it uh and if you lump really, really extreme exercise on top of an already extremely stressful life, then you are probably asking for trouble in some way, but you're just layering stress upon stress upon stress, and as we've said many times before, I think I'm gonna I've probably got it tattooed on the inside of my eyelids. Stress is the number one enemy for women in the menopause transition because it it does affect so many different things. So please, if you do want to indulge in the more hardcore exercising, that's that's fine if it's for you and you're getting some balance there. So, but some things then to think about that might be more viable, more health giving at this time of life. So I'm gonna start off with our old friend strength training. Yeah, it builds muscle, improves your mental resilience, it can make you feel more confident, it can improve your body shape, which will then also improve your confidence, it supports your metabolism, so it can help with weight loss, and it can protect against osteoporosis, which is a challenge for further down the line. So, strength training is really really important, and you do need to go in to a gym or at home, have something that you can lift, it doesn't have to be weights, you don't need dumbbells or kettlebells or anything else. You know, throw some books into a bag and start using that as a lifting tool, but you need to be lifting something that is relatively heavy. At times, your body weight can be a heavy enough weight to actually have a benefit, there's no doubt about that. So you can do lots of strength training without actually lifting a weight itself other than your own body weight. But strength training, absolutely number one imperative, I would say. I think it just does so much. And anybody who's listening who is thinking to themselves, I don't want to be muscle bound. I promise you, you won't be muscle bound by doing some lifting exercises. You know, women don't at this stage of life don't have the right amount of testosterone, or most of them don't have the right amount of testosterone to be able to facilitate that extreme kind of muscle gain. And then it requires a lot of hard work to get to sort of like competitive bikini bodybuilding type competition levels of muscle is almost a full-time job. So just going and lifting some weights in the gym two, three times a week isn't going to get you anywhere near those levels. So please be assured of that. Um, but also interested to hear your thoughts. You know, write into us and tell us what you think, and we'll discuss it further in further episodes. The second one is our our old friend walking. As I said previously, we talked about walking in a whole podcast before about the benefits of it. People think oh it's just a walk. Well, it's not just a walk, just a walk is going out for a saunter saunter with your you know, your mate over a cup of coffee and sort of like going a few hundred yards and then sitting down on a park bench. If you set out to walk with an intention, you set out to actually try and move quicker than you would normally when you're walking, you throw a couple of hills in, I can guarantee you that your heart rate will get as high as it would if you were actually running. And aside from that, you know, it's less impact on your joints. And if you're one of the many women that we speak to who have joint issues at this time of life, then that is something that you really want to be aware of, right? So don't poo poo walking, just walk with some intensity. Go back and listen to that podcast we talked about. Some ways to implement walking. I'm going to throw back to you then, Julie, for a couple of those more mind, body, soul kind of ideas. Because I know this is really your wheelhouse, things like mobility, stretching, dancing, yoga, all that kind of stuff. Why don't you talk us through those?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yeah, and I this is one of the reasons why I love mobility and stretching. Like stretching is my favorite part of the workout. I love my strength training now. I didn't used to, but because it makes me feel so good and because of the changes that it's made for my body and the way I can function in daily life, I love my strength training. But my favorite part of that workout when I'm finished, after I celebrate my sense of accomplishment, is the stretching because we need to be able to be limber, we need to get circulation into our joints. And so when we do things that bring greater mobility to our bodies, it helps us function in daily life. You ever notice when you stay in one position for too long, you find yourself grunting and groaning as you get up to move and things are sore and stiff, right? That's what mobility and stretching does for your whole body. So when you even on days if you can't do a full workout or you can't do much of a a walk or something like that, even if you do a little bit of stretching and mobility work, that can bring you some really great benefits. Again, you won't be quite so stiff, your circulation will be better. And it's just a nice stress reducer. I mean, what do you do when you're feeling like super tense at a meeting? Sometimes you just put your arms out and you're just like, oh yeah, let this be done, right? Um, so it's it's great. And then things like dancing or yoga, any kind of gar working in the garden, playing tennis, anything that gets you outside. The we the Japanese actually prescribe, medically prescribe what they call forest bathing, which is going out into nature and walking because it's so beneficial. Um, I've even heard of it being used in cancer treatment. So I mean, it's there's a lot of powerful things that happen when we move our bodies, and especially if we have access to natural environments. So, you know, maybe getting up and having a little dance party during the day if if nobody's around, or playing in the garden, going out and running around and playing with your pets, you know, anything you can do to get in tune with your body, because the other thing that does for us is it it brings us, um, it helps us with our balance, especially things like yoga. And by the way, they call it a practice for a reason. You're not gonna start uh two yoga clo go through two yoga classes and suddenly be, well, in the States we call it Gumbi, which used to be this little green bendable figure that we could pose in any number of positions. Um, but that you know, it's a practice that you develop over time, and it's nice to watch yourself as you grow through that. So being more in tune with your body is really helpful, and balance again is especially essential as we age because falls really are a serious problem for women as they get older.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah. So just as a as an aside to all this, some of you may be aware that Julie and I have a membership for women over 40. It's called Club Fabulous Beyond 40, and we do give strength workouts in there on a monthly basis, and there is an incredible flexibility flow routine that Julie's done, which is only five minutes long. So, you know, if you can do five minutes and get all these benefits that we're talking about, that is a really, really great way to add exercise to your routine, particularly if you're time compressed. Now, I suppose that's a good time, then, Julie, to bring in a little bit about how to make this a habit. Because we've talked about why it's important, we've talked about what not to do, we've talked about different types of exercise and how they can come in. But what tips do you have to get women who maybe aren't moving right now or maybe not moving what they feel is an appropriate way for it to be a more habitual, as you just said, practice for them to do?

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Sure, sure. And I I think it helps to start with an intention rather than setting yourself, okay, from now on I must m do this particular thing every day at this time, which is great, but whenever something comes up that gets in the way, because of the way we tend to have that all or nothing thinking, it just ends up getting set aside if it's if if it's not something you build slowly over time. So set an intention maybe to move more days than you don't. And that way you've got some flexibility if a day gets particularly hectic. And then think about you know, what's the lowest barrier to to you beginning to move? Can you do five minutes? If not, can you do two minutes? Can you get up from your desk and walk in place for one minute, maybe twice a day? That's a good starting point. And don't don't poo-poo the idea of how small that is, because if it's something that you do regularly, it will compound over time. And and making things easy for yourself, like laying out some putting your shoes by the door or by your desk so that you can put on your walking shoes and go for a quick walk. Um, find something you love to do. Really, that's I think that's the biggest one. You don't have to force yourself into some kind of exercise or movement that you hate just because somebody told you you should. Find something you enjoy, whether that's dancing, gardening, tennis, yoga pilates, tai chi, um, cycling, swimming. I mean, the the possibilities are just about endless, especially with all the new sports people are coming up with these days. Um and then, you know, again, you don't have to do it all at once. One of the things I I like to to talk about is exercise snacks, right? Five or ten minutes multiple times a day can add up over the course of the day instead of taking 30 minutes all at once. And when you do that, as you start to feel better and as the movement becomes easier for you, you'll find that you want to do it. You'll find that you miss doing it. Um, and and again, we're talking about you can call it movement instead of exercise, because a lot of times exercise feels like a dirty word. It means we have to change our clothes, it means we have to get sweaty, it means we have to no, we don't. We just need to move our body in some way. So I those are things that have worked for me, certainly, in the past. Do you have any other thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Well, uh I I think doing something that you really enjoy is imperative, right? Because if you don't like it, the truth is you ain't gonna stick with it, right? And and it always makes me laugh because people who come to us for help and advice, they know that I that my passion is running ultramarathons long distances further than marathon. And the first question they ask me is, are you gonna turn me into an ultramarathon runner? Well, no, not unless you want to. Because why would I inflict that kind of pain on you? It's bloody hard work, and so you don't need to go to those kind of levels at all. So I think that's really important. My wife and some friends of hers have started a Sunday morning routine where they go to it's a new format, a new take on on the on the spin format, so exercise bikes, a stationery in a gym with an instructor. They love the instructor, they have great fun doing it, they go and have a coffee afterwards, and they religiously show up, despite the fact that it's like a really early start on a Sunday morning, they're all up on the day when technically they could be having a line and they go and go and do it because they've found something that they enjoy, and I think that kind of thing is really, really important. So ultimately, we gave you some thoughts there uh you know five, ten minutes ago, where we were talking about the different types of exercise you can try. The one exercise you should really try is one you think you're gonna enjoy. And if you enjoy it and you like it, you're more likely to stick with it. So I would say that that is key. And the this idea as well of trying to get out of our heads that it has to be an hour-long session, four or five times a week, where you're gonna walk into a gym and you're gonna do ten minutes on the bike, and then you're gonna do 20 minutes of lifting, then you can do five minutes of core work, then you're gonna stretch and you're gonna cool down, then you've got to go and have a shower, then you've got to come back. It doesn't need all that. So if you want to do that, absolutely fabulous, go ahead and do it and do it all. But equally, if you're particularly if you're starting from nothing or you've not exercised for a while and you're just getting back into it, you know, we know that women at this stage of life can be compromised by things like aching joints, energy levels, etc. Just going out and doing a couple of minutes as a starting point is really, really important. I was talking to one of our clients the other week, and she was having challenges trying to get back into it, and she got herself one of those little foot pedal machines and said, just do five minutes of foot pedaling a day while you're at your desk. She's desk based for work. Really, really simple. It doesn't have to be anything more than that to get you going. And the truth is, is that it's better to set that intention of I'm gonna do a small little bit and achieve it rather than setting yourself this goal to climb the everest of exercises and not even getting past base camp. Yeah, so really, really important. But I think we've probably hammered that one home enough now as a thought. So that's it for this week, then. Hopefully that's giving you some ideas about how exercise is really, really vital for your mood and trying to take it beyond this idea of it just being something physical, either a mechanism to weight loss or whatever it may be. The the benefits, the ph the mental benefits to stress-reducing, depression-reducing benefits of exercise are untold, and especially for women at this stage of life. So if you've liked what we've talked about, please like, subscribe, share the episode with your friends. Julie?

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Oh yes. I'm I'm really excited because at the end of April we've got our latest free training coming out, and it is called Four Common Menopause Mistakes That Most Women Make and How to Avoid Them. So if you're not seeing the results you want to see, you're probably missing one of these things. And we're going to reveal that in this free training that we would love to see you. So last time we did this workshop, it was really in demand. So we're running a priority list right now. You can register your interest early, and then you'll be reminded when it's op actually opens for registration. So go ahead and get on the wait list, and that is at four mistakes, the number four mistakes.fabulousbeyond40.com, and we will save you a spot in the workshop.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, we'll pop that in the show notes as well. So if you didn't catch it, for mistakes.fabulousbeyond40.com, it'll be in the show notes as well. So that's it then. In the meantime, until we see you next week again. We've been James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, reminding you to stay strong and stay fabulous, and we will see you next time. Take care.