Best Exercise and Workouts for Menopause (It's NOT Moderate Exercise)

The best workouts for perimenopause, menopause transition, and post menopause all should first be determined by HOW YOU FEEL and to offset the decreasing influence of sex hormones and corresponding increase in cortisol levels, you want to exercise with these two goals:
Increase lean muscle
Decrease cortisol levels

It’s a dance between achieving muscle and keeping cortisol low. If you’re doing cardio in attempt to lose fat… Everything you’re doing now may in fact be elevating cortisol so that you make burning fat impossible. The body is in fat storage when cortisol is high.
Katie Couric interview:

Are you tired of settling for weight gain and fatigue just because you’re approaching or have already passed age 50? You can still get in the best shape of your life, no matter your age!

Debra Atkinson - a 39-year fitness veteran and international fitness presenter, Master trainer to personal trainers, and a former (15-year) University Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology - created this channel to share weekly videos for women to help with hormonal changes in menopause, pro aging nutrition, and strength training for women over 50.

Debra is the bestselling author of Hot, Not Bothered; You Still Got It, Girl! The After 50 Fitness Formula For Women, and Navigating Fitness After 50: Your GPS For Choosing Programs and Professionals You Can Trust, and host of the Flipping 50 podcast and Flipping 50 TV. She is a frequent blogger for Huffington Post and an expert contributor on ShareCare.

Let’s Connect...

[lilyw]

Just watched the Dr. Sims interview.

3x week do heavy lifting. 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps that exhaust you. The last rep should take all you’ve got.
2-3x week do HIIT. Warm up 10 minutes, do 20 seconds all out (full sprint), followed by 2 minutes recovery. Do 4-5 intervals. Compound movements and asymmetric movements (like single leg) are important when doing resistance training. Yes, even old women should lift. Heavy is relative. Go heavy as you can, whatever that is for you, and build up.
Can do strength and HIIT on same day.
Do jump training for bones.
Protein is crucial. 1.5 grams per pound.
Do all this in addition to your routine low-level exercise that you enjoy.
Think of it as polarized training. Very easy stuff balanced with very hard stuff. Bye bye moderate.

[joanne]

I'm not a fitness professional, but was a health care professional and feel that any kine of exercise that gets you moving is better than NO exercise. All these claims are off-putting to women who need to get up and just move. Alot of women in the various menopause stages of life already have body image issues from fat redistribution and may shun exercise all together and feel defeated. If you keep telling women that a specific formula is needed, and this is not attainable for some, then many will just not bother to do anything. Any exercise a day, whether it's low impact or moderate or even high impact as you're suggesting is better for the heart, muscles, brain, etc, and overall feeling better in general. Women have to stop thinking that the end goal is weight loss. Just get up and move, try to eat healthy, once you feel good and have established any type of fitness routine, reevaluate. Take what these "experts" are saying with a grain of salt and do what makes you feel the best.

[debbiecaylor]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Nobody else or not many (that I can find) are addressing this on this venue. I’m about to turn 60 and trying to do what is “best” and in my best effort have been hurting my shoulders and knees and back and have spent hours on hours trying to figure out the best formula to achieve the best me to live out the rest of my years happy/healthy/strong. Very grateful for you!

[teensymarie]

This was a really great explanation. I think it's important to say that HIIT is not appropriate for everyone. Some people need to stay under the threshold where they can no longer control their respiratory biomechanics to manage the state of their autonomic nervous system. Some people, when they throttle up, don't throttle down for days, which can lead to not just pain, but autonomic crisis symptoms like vomiting and dizziness that persists for days.

[VidyaLake]

I found your channel just under two months ago. I have learned many useful tips but the MOST important is the tip that tells me to use the most weight I can manage (without hurting myself) and to use as quick an action as possible, then a slow, controlled return to start position when doing exercises. 2-3 years of going to the gym, doing many reps with low weight did nothing for my strength and stamina. Your recommendations, however, have propelled me forward. I can lift a lot more weight and each week I am getting stronger. My goal is to maintain muscle as I age and this approach of heavier, faster and fewer is REALLY working. I also wanted to thank you for your hiit tips. I warm up on the elliptical, one min slow, one min "hell bent for leather" and then repeat 3 or 4 times. Then it's off to heavy as I can bear it weight training. My balance has improved. My rest has improved. I was struggling to leg press 30kg for over two years. In just 7 weeks, doing it "your way", I leg press 70kg. I just wanted to thank you for your incredibly helpful videos. Just turned 60 last month and feel better than I have in over a decade.

[denisemc]

Thanks so much - it feels soooo good to feel strong @64! Go gurls you can do it; go slow and keep at it! I have been doing HIT and intermittent fasting for about 2 years and this has helped me fine-tune it to get the most out of my effort. That KC interview is excellent. I am hooked on your content xx

[sonyagirodon]

I discovered your videos about 4 weeks ago. They are excellent!! So much helpful advice, clearly explained. I am regularly doing your 20 minute workout and the arm/shoulder workout. I am 53 years old, in perimenopause, and in the middle of a burnout/depression, so I am taking it easy and slowly building up my strength from the base upwards as not to stress myself too much. But I can already see the difference, especially after having added additional protein (organic rice protein without any added sugar or other additives).
Thank you so much for your generosity, and for sharing your knowledge! Much gratitude from a happy follower!💚

[SusanMacLellan-rx]

Thank you for sharing Stacy’s information! I have read her books and listening to all of her podcasts! Her theory is very exciting! I love the workouts.

[shelleybodypowerfitness]

This explanation is brilliant! You make all the science so easy to comprehend. How many times have I listened to Dr Sims, and just come away think I actually get it now. Would like to "join" what ever it is you have going so that I can be under your guidance in a more personal way. How do I do that?

[pennytennant]

This seems like great information but a workout plan would be helpful. Can we get a 7 day detailed workout plan?

[lululove]

Lots of us have ortho and neurological conditions……discuss that. Used to be a gym rat, runner, cyclist and now im greatly limited. Im 71. Sorry but i can’t do resistance training to fatigue anymore. 😊

[lisabailey]

Based on this info I’ve been adding 3-4, 20 second full out jump ropes intervals to my workouts. It feels good afterwards!

[lilyw]

So, is this the correct summary?

1. Don’t be sedentary—keep active with daily activity always.
2. Do baseline endurance activity at sustainable levels.
3. Do 15 minutes of exhaustive HIIT. But how often?
4. Do weight training. How often?

[shelleybodypowerfitness]

I love to practice Power or Yin Yog daily. How does that fit into all of this?? Yoga makes me feel alive and boy do I smile!!!

[fifeski]

Having only discovered you a few weeks ago, I'm finding all your videos, the recent webinar and previous podcasts SO helpful. I'm still struggling to lose that belly fat, but I know to just keep going with your ideas and recommendations and I'm sure I'll get there in the end. I can certainly say that upping my protein intake has reduced a tendon pain in my upper thigh/hip to almost zero which is incredible! There can be no other reason as I've tried so many things to help it. Thank you so much for all your advice

[jennt]

I just happened across this video and I have to say that I like what I am hearing from you. I feel like I am at a pivotal point after a year of lots of stress and caregiving that led to weight gain and inflammatory pain. My hands are absolutely killing me daily. I feel like I am at that bottom of an unsurmountable mountain, but something about your voice and this video. I am not sure what it is but you made me feel calm and better. I subscribed and I hope that I can find more videos from you that I may get myself on the road to healing. Either way, thanks for this video.

[gotom]

I am 51 years old and i am doing 30 min low impact workout 5 days a week

[carolincalifornia]

It would have been great to have a panel with Dr. Sims and some of the other presenters in the What When & Why series to discuss some of their conflicting recommendations (specifically with the one presenter that recommended moderate-intensity exercise and working out while fasted)

[strengthofabear]

OMG thank you for this, I was actively pulling back on the cardio I'm doing because I was reading and hearing to keep it zone 2! I can push it now, thanks!

[MHonthemove]

I noted during your May 1 - 8 symposium, that Stacy Sims stated outright that women should not do Zone 2 cardio at all. In this short clip you've included, she discusses "moderate" exercise without defining it. You then go on to define "moderate" as Zone 3 / bad and Zone 2 as good, but if you listen to the whole interview Stacy is saying that Zone 2 (and 3) should be avoided. She's definitely going against the mainstream (including you) in saying Zone 2 is bad. Please clarify because its really confusing.
Please don't take this as a "gotcha". I respect both of you so much and would really like to hear the specific evidence from BOTH sides so I can try to make sense of it.