Weeding through the BS at Midlife Part 1

“Just Work Out MORE.”

Not long ago my friends and I were obsessed with hour long workouts like Orange Theory, F45, or bootcamp classes (I mean, if you aren’t working out for at least an HOUR, it’s not enough, right?). We would go 5 times a week, burning 750 calories according to our Fitbits and Garmins, were absolutely FAMISHED afterward. What nobody shared with each other was that secretly we were EXHAUSTED…. and the worst part was, we were getting MORE fat accumulating around our middles. “Weren’t we doing EVERYTHING RIGHT?”, we would think to ourselves as we figured out how to drop our calories even further in our MyFitness Pal apps.

So, what was the deal? Why were we working so hard and not seeing any positive changes? I mean, all the social media influencers were telling us to eat less and exercise more! Surely, we just needed to go to more classes or add a run afterward, right? WRONG.

“Moderate Intensity and Long Duration Workouts” – why they stink for us in midlife

Moderate intensity exercise activity (workouts like Orange Theory or those 1-hour boot camps) is not a hard enough of a stress to create the adaptive responses that we are looking for in midlife. But these types of workouts ARE enough to raise our cortisol. When women are in perimenopause we are already in that sympathetic drive and have elevated baseline cortisol. Sympathetic drive is a physiological response to stress or danger. It is mediated by the sympathetic nervous system, which directs the body’s rapid involuntary response to dangerous or stressful situations. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the body’s fight or flight response, which boosts the body’s alertness and heart rate, sending extra blood to the muscles.

“Intensity but not volume”

Dr. Stacy SimS

According to Dr. Stacy Sims, international exercise physiologist who studies female athlete health and performance, if we do things that instigate more cortisol, such as these moderate intensity classes, we are not going to get the body composition changes that we are looking for. What we need as we get older is intensity, NOT volume. This intensity ideally comes from 2 different exercise modalities: Heavy resistance training and sprint interval training. Let’s talk a bit about each.

Heavy resistance training (AKA Lift Heavy Shit)

The talk of “Sculpting” and “Toning Up” is done. Our new mantra is now “Lift Heavy Shit”. At midlife, our hormones that are responsible for how strong our muscles contract are on the downturn (I’m looking at you estrogen), so we need to look externally at a way to stimulate muscle contractions to send the signal that we need more muscle fibers. That is what resistance training does for us. Don’t be nervous thinking that in order to make the changes you want in your body composition you need to immediately go to the local gym and load up a deadlift bar with 150 pounds. Heavy is relative. If you need to, start off with bodyweight exercises, learn to move well and then increase the load with dumbbells, kettlebells or a barbell. And remember that you don’t have to go to a gym! Grab yourself some dumbbells or a kettlebell that feels challenging to you to get started at home. Dr. Stacy recommends compound movements – squats, deadlifts, rows, lunges, etc. Dr. Stacy recommends heavier weights and lower rep counts (think 1-6 reps), with the last rep feeling really tough.

New to weight training altogether? Book a few sessions with trainer at the local gym. Or, if your budget doesn’t allow for that, there are great YouTube videos that can help get you started. I really like Caroline Girvan or Cheryl Coulombe’s videos that include GREAT weight training instruction. Again, just start with bodyweight or light weights and work your way up. Don’t get discouraged – we all start out as beginners! Eventually you will want to progress to heavier weights and lower rep counts like we talked about earlier. Just get started with building a foundation first. You CAN. I promise.

If someone tells you that you cannot build muscle in midlife… they are WRONG… full stop. Just look at one of my fitness role models – Susan Neibergall, who started seriously strength training at 60! I mean, look at those ARMS!

Sprint interval training (SIT)

As we talked about earlier, intensity reigns supreme over duration for midlife fitness. This is also true for cardiovascular training, according to Dr. Stacy. In perimenopause, we need a growth hormone, testosterone, and antioxidant response, and this is exactly what we get when we do high intensity training. But let’s make this really clear… typical high intensity training classes that call themselves HIIT are not really HIIT. Most of these classes are just moderate intensity disguised as high intensity. The differentiator is max effort and overall duration. True HIIT is going HARD at 85-90% of max effort followed by relatively short rest periods. The specific type of HIIT that Dr. Stacy recommends is Sprint Interval Training or SIT (trust me, that acronym is deceiving). SIT sessions include super short (under 30 second) all-out sprint style efforts and then resting/recovering for at least double that time. But don’t overdo it! Too much can backfire. She suggests doing max of 2 sessions a week. Always be sure to warm up before doing a SIT session! And SIT doesn’t necessarily have to be sprinting on a track or a treadmill! You can also do cycling sprints or even kettlebell movement sprints! Just yesterday I did 20 second max effort kettlebell swings with a 1-minute rest for 5 sets. It was a GREAT way to get my heart rate pumping without flooding my bod with cortisol.

Resources

Interested in learning more about Dr. Stacy Sims and learning some evidence-based information about getting better in midlife? I highly recommend her book “Next Level”, or any podcast with her as a guest (search her name on iTunes or YouTube and SO many great resources come up).

As for all the BS that I am seeing on social media these days targeting midlife women, I highly encourage you to ask yourself these 2 questions when you see someone saying things like “this will cure your midlife menopot!”.

1. Are they trying to sell you something? Even if it is just a book that they are selling, they usually have a supplement or methodology that they are trying to sell you as well.
2. Am I feeling desperate right now? Are there evidence-based solutions that I haven’t found yet? If the answer is yes to these questions – be sure to follow people like Dr. Stacy or Dr. Gabrielle Lyon who are actually studying women in midlife and providing REAL solutions.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we debunk FASTING and why it is not the panacea for midlife women that influencers say it is!

Let me know if this is helpful in the comments!