Menopause And Running: 5 Tips To Stay Strong + Keep On Running

Certain transitions in life can be challenging. During the adolescent period, there are many significant alterations in anatomy and hormones that can be taxing and tricky to handle.

Periods and menstruation are an unavoidable part of growing up for girls, and menopause marks the end of that stage of life in the same way.

Undergoing the change brought on by menopause is said to be a lengthy process with a lot of different physical, emotional, and psychological effects that can differ depending on person to person. However, those effects commonly involve uncomfortable sensations, like hot flashes, severe exhaustion, shifts in mood, and struggles with sleeping.

It is not unexpected that physical activity might be affected by menopause, due to the numerous indicators that females experience as they approach and go through this change of life. If you are around the time of menopause, it is beneficial to comprehend the connection between menopause and running, and to be aware of the changes that may occur in your work-outs.

You can continue running during menopause. By changing up your workout schedule, you can keep running for longer, with more power, during the time leading up to menopause, and into your time after menopause. Many scientific investigations have demonstrated that jogging can actually assist with alleviating the signs of menopause.

We Do However Need To Talk About Menopause & Running

Experts advise that discussing menopause openly is essential; when women share their experiences and emotions, it helps reduce the anxiety associated with the physical and emotional transformation of menopause and makes them aware that they are not the only ones going through this.

The Different Stages Of Menopause

Menopause can be broken down into 3 distinct phases:

Perimenopause

This is the transitional period before menopause. The time range for perimenopause varies significantly in duration, but generally lasts for between a few months, and up to 8 years, with four being the average. When one does not experience a menstrual cycle for a continuous period of one year, it means that menopause has set in.

During this stage, a woman’s estrogen levels will drop. Before workouts the reduction of estrogen (before it ceases altogether), it and other hormones, such as progesterone, go through shifts in amount.

Their mechanism of action is no longer equivalent to what it used to be, which is why people may experience signs and symptoms such as hot flashes, irregular menses, heavy menses, sleeplessness, and night sweats.

Menopause

Menopause is defined as a single point in time.

The point at which you have gone a full year without having a period. The period before menopause is known as perimenopause, and after that point, menopause has officially begun.

PostMenopause

A female is considered after the end of fertility once she is no longer releasing eggs from the ovary. The levels of Estrogen and other hormones gradually decrease until they reach a level where they are neither increasing nor decreasing.

Many women are concerned that exercising by running could potentially cause them to go through menopause prematurely.

People commonly ask about the safety of running during menopause, the best way to do so, and the impact that menopause has on athletic performance.

Does Running Cause Early Menopause?

It’s understandable to worry, but the fact is that running does not lead to a premature onset of menopause. There appears to be no connection between the amount of exercise, such as running, that women do and their chances of entering early menopause, according to the most comprehensive analysis ever to explore this association.

Premature menopause happens when a woman’s period concludes before she turns 45 years of age, either due to natural causes or as a result of treatments.

Some explanations for not having ovaries are an early ovarian failure, therapy for cancer, and procedures to take out the ovaries. Now that we’ve discussed the topic, let’s investigate the effects that running has on the body during menopause.

What Happens To A Runner’s Body During Menopause?

Our physical makeup is certainly transforming throughout this period of our lives, thus it is self-evident that these developments are going to have a bearing on our running capacity.

Here are some of the things that will affect your running as you go through menopause:

Emotional Changes

Going through menopause can often feel like a rollercoaster. You experience a drastic change in your emotional state from feeling good to feeling bad in a very short period. It is essential to understand that this is an expected occurrence and it will affect your running performance.

Sometimes you’ll be full of enthusiasm to go jogging, while other times you’ll feel reluctant to put on your running shoes for an intense track exercise. Treat yourself with compassion and don’t burden yourself with stress.

Slowing Down

We get slower as we get older. There are a few different reasons for this, but the initial two are of utmost importance. The initial cause is a diminishment in strength, and the second is changes in hormones.

To begin with, we gradually become weaker due to a significant decrease in power, basically, our body starts to age when we reach 30 years old, however, when we get close to 50, we naturally start to lose muscle mass because of growing older. Therefore losing strength.

Eventually, your hormones balance out and no longer fluctuate wildly – this might sound a bit exaggerated. However, based on the female athletes we have collaborated with, we understand that this is how they experience emotions.

When you are in perimenopause, your hormone levels are changing unevenly, and eventually, they become stable. These hormones influence the making of your muscles, and this has an effect on your running performance. So that’s why we start to run slightly slower.

Strength training is something we will look into in more detail later on, which is an essential aspect to take note of. If we do not devote a portion of our time to strength training, the probability of having an accident is elevated, which could also be a factor in having a lesser pace when running.

Weight Gain

Weight gain during menopause is very common. The decrease in estrogen and the development of insulin resistance before and during menopause are why exercise doesn’t always have the same effect on weight loss as it did in the past, and why a lot of people start to accumulate fat around their abdomens.

It is wrongly thought that as women enter menopause age-related decreases in metabolism will result in weight gain. This is no longer true. A recent study released last year disproves this theory. It is shown that both men’s and women’s metabolisms will reduce annually by approximately 0.7 per cent after they turn 60.

Are you eager to modify your life, better your heart health, find self-assurance, have a closer relationship with nature, and augment your life expectancy? It’s not the craziest idea. Running will help you to do just that.

How Does Menopause Affect Running

Though menopause is a typical element of growing old healthily, it is still connected to consequences which can not merely change how you live your life every day but also affect your running and workout routines during menopause.

Here are some ways in which running and menopause interact in challenging ways:

Fatigue

Unexplained fatigue that can’t be avoided is commonly experienced during menopause, making it strenuous to exercise and hard to find the motivation to do so.

Irregular or Heavy Bleeding

Periods may not be consistent in terms of timing and amount of flow, and this can be hard to deal with when trying to stay active.

Urinary Incontinence

Menopause can lead to a dip in estrogen levels which can have an effect on stress incontinence – either intensifying or causing it.

Exercising by running can make it more difficult to control having involuntary loss of urine (stress incontinence) and holding back from urinating. Some women require the use of a sanitary pad and must pause regularly while engaging in physical activity during menopause.

Breast Pain

Jogging while in the throes of menopause can cause discomfort if one is experiencing amplified chest soreness and sensitivity. Although wearing a supportive sports bra can help reduce some discomfort, there is still the issue of intense bouncing which can be painful. Additionally, women have reported higher-than-usual sensitivity in their nipples, which could make it difficult to wear a sports bra at all.

Achiness

Common muscle and joint pains can be worsened by running, and women may experience more discomfort than usual after exercising, even if it was easy to do before menopause.

Can Running Alleviate The Symptoms Of Menopause?

The great thing is that although engaging in physical activity during the menopausal period can be harder and frequently not as desirable, research has demonstrated that exercise helps to ameliorate the signs of menopause.

Exercising and running regularly during and after menopause can be beneficial in avoiding typical age-related deterioration in physical health and wellness connected to menopause, including a decrease in muscle size and strength, as well as reduced bone strength, which could cause osteoporosis and raise the risk of bone fracturing.

Exercising by running during menopause may help avert the weight gain that is common for this time of a woman’s life.

5 Tips For Menopause And Running

Here are some tips for running safely through menopause and beyond:

1. Incorporate Strength Training

Lifting weights 2-3 times each week with overall body exercises can help reduce losses in muscle mass and strength, while likewise keeping your tendons more beneficial as estrogen diminishes amid menopause.

Strength training can be beneficial in helping to sustain running while also decreasing the likelihood of injuries and ensuring joint health.

2. Incorporate More Cross-Training Workouts

Exercising through running before, at the time of, and after menopause has many advantages, one of which is the strengthening of bones due to its high-impact nature.

In the case of bone mineral loss or existing osteoporosis, replacing a few of your running workouts with low-impact cross-training exercises can help reduce the danger of stress fractures.

Think about doing exercises such as elliptical training, going for a ride on a bike, taking a swim, or turning the treadmill up for a walk one or two times a week.

3. Focus On Recovery

When jogging during menopause, you could experience increased soreness, exhaustion, and a slower recovery period following your exercises. Put emphasis on adding restorative practices into your regular running program. Included among the solutions are foam rolling, stretching, icing, and increasing rest.

It may also be useful to measure your rate of healing and your body’s physical ability to run.

4. Get a Running Buddy

If you feel your enthusiasm for running is decreasing, look for someone to join you while you work out or find a running group. This can assist in making people more accountable for their progress and can make the exercise routine more delightful.

5. Stay Positive

Take it easy on yourself throughout menopause and beyond, and recognize your own efforts for making it through well.

Do you want to use our suggestions and incorporate some cross-training into your weekly exercise program? Look at our cross-training guides to pick out some activities that you will enjoy doing.

What pace should you run at when going through menopause?

One of the chief errors we observe in female runners going through menopause is to unnecessarily increase their speed during easy and long runs. It can be incredibly challenging to find time to relax and take care of yourself due to heavy work commitments and bustling family lives with jam-packed timetables.

When we manage to set aside time for ourselves to go for a run, we feel the need to make our exercise time count for as much as possible.

If you don’t put in your best effort and give it your all, you’re not taking full advantage of the exercise you’re doing. Recovery teaches you that the real benefit doesn’t fully manifest until after the session has ended. Thus there is no point in putting so much effort into it during the session.

We need to run within the necessary range to enhance our stamina. This refers to the intensity we run at. That’s where the body becomes more efficient.

This range is very wide though. You can choose to run quickly, which puts more strain on your body or run more slowly to reduce the strain.

Recreational runners, both men and women, constantly aim to improve their running performance in each session.

Strength Training For Menopausal Runners

Once we hit our fifties, we can see an extraordinary decline in muscle power which is why our running speed is decreased.

Bone mineral density does not decrease as a result of a decrease in strength, it declines because estrogen is no longer helping the bones take in calcium. BMD improves with resistance training.

During menopause, your estrogen levels are unsteady and are no longer able to aid in increasing calcium absorption by your bones. For bones to gain calcium and become strengthened, they need to be under pressure.

Yes, running produces strain on your bones, but for your bones to really benefit from increased mineral bone density, they need to be subject to multiple kinds of stress in different directions. This is where resistance training comes into play.

 

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