All women dream of being the lucky ones who do not suffer from the famous symptoms of menopause. Hot flashes, bad sleep, and muscle loss aren't exactly a recipe for a good cycling workout. The hormonal change that comes with menopause causes some permanent changes in your metabolism that can affect training and driving, as well as your overall sense of well-being. But that doesn't mean you have to stop riding or lower your goals.
Changes during menopause
Although menopause was long referred to as "the change," this involves only one: the end of your menstrual periods.
Of course, that alone is quite a seismic shift brought about by a series of changes, and leads to a series of successive changes that go beyond the simple freedom of feminine hygiene products.
By age 40, the ovaries produce less estrogen and progesterone. These chemical messengers control your menstrual cycle, so you are likely to start bleeding irregularly, stop ovulating, and can no longer get pregnant.
However, these hormonal changes have effects on more than just your reproductive system. The main metabolic change many women notice is body composition . As the estrogen level drops, there is a tendency to accumulate fat in the midsection and lose lean muscle mass .
That's a problem for a number of reasons: if you can't maintain your muscles, you can't produce the power to push the pedals uphill or on a pace line with such force, and you'll likely slow down, especially if you're also gaining fat. bodily.
How can you control hot flashes?
Hot flashes are one of the hallmarks of menopause, affecting approximately three-quarters of menopausal women. There are mixed studies on how much exercise can help alleviate them, but most have found that active women have fewer extremes than those who are not.
They can affect your performance because postmenopausal women start to sweat later during exercise and vasodilate longer. In other words, your body sends more blood to the skin to eliminate heat, since it cannot depend on perspiration to cool itself. It is also more difficult for you to handle increases in your core temperature. So running or cycling in the heat is more difficult.
Because of this, hydration becomes even more important during menopause. If you're heading out for a long or hard ride in the heat, prehydrate with a high-sodium drink before getting on the bike. Drink at least one bottle an hour while driving and have a protein-rich recovery drink to drink when you're done.
How can you maintain muscle mass?
Your body uses protein less effectively as you approach menopause and in later years, making it difficult to maintain muscle mass. Recovery is more difficult, as is retaining lean muscle tissue. That means you have to be more demanding with the proteins you eat.
It is essential that menopausal and postmenopausal women reduce their post-exercise stress hormones, such as cortisol , as quickly as possible, as this makes you catabolic and you cannot afford to "eat" your muscle tissue at this time. That means bathing damaged muscle fibers in essential amino acids , which help stop cortisol production and promote muscle synthesis and repair. You can help stop cortisol, but you do nothing for muscle synthesis. You need whey and casein for the best results.
You don't want to skimp on resistance training to maintain your muscle mass. Beyond muscles, skeletal health is a huge concern for postmenopausal women. The risk of osteoporosis increases considerably during this stage of life. Make sure to include resistance training in your weekly routine about two to three times a week to keep your structural system so strong.
How to train with menopause?
If you are used to doing long rides in steady state, sometimes you want to do it faster and harder. The speed and strength of muscle contractions usually decrease after menopause. You can counter that by changing your training to focus more on power (think intervals on the bike and strength training at the gym) and a little less on those long, steady, slow endurance runs.
What should you eat
In addition to eating protein, you may also want to cut back on carbohydrates . You become more carbohydrate sensitive, which means that you are more susceptible to blood sugar swings, and you actually need less carbohydrates overall. Eat more foods with a mix of macronutrients during your workouts. Aiming to get about 30 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
