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| This woman, and this woman, and this woman |
12.01.2015
Day 273
Monday rest day. Well slept and yoga mat morning. Then I sat at my desk and wrote a blog piece about menopause and exercise, here it is.
Running
through change
Sport England’s This Girl Can
campaign, launched this week, is a worthy attempt to encourage more women into
sport. It’s born out of research revealing that two million fewer women than
men aged 14 to 40 play sport regularly.
Many women cite embarrassment
about they way they look – the old ‘sweaty isn’t feminine’ chestnut – as a reason
for avoiding exercise. While Sport England’s campaign concentrates on addressing
this attitude among the youngsters, there’s a pressing need to sell sport to
the over 40s, too.
As we enter our fifth decade
and beyond, getting red-faced and sweaty might not be a question of lifestyle
choice, but hormonal turbulence. Menopause, and its warm up act, perimenopause,
are often characterised by hot flushes, which can be anything from mildly
disconcerting to totally gruelling. These power surges are just one of about 50
non-specific ‘symptoms’ that are generally attributed to menopause. Who knew
that periods petering out, and finally disappearing for good, could cause such
misery?
Practically every study published on the
subject asserts that exercise can help women feel better in menopause. Books on
the subject may have tasteful images of well-preserved women strolling on
beaches or lying serenely on yoga mats.
There’s no doubt that a brisk
30 minute daily walk and regular yoga sessions are hugely beneficial to women’s
health. Yet, as passionate club runner,
I can’t help feeling a bit depressed
that the exercise recommended is so very gentle. It’s inconceivable to me,
having turned 52, to consider that during vigorous and vital years leading up
to the cessation of menstrual periods, women should be any less sporty than
when we were regular Tampax users.
The word menopause, is of
course, freighted with negative connotations. Menopausal women are all too
often the butt of jokes, or seen as pitiful creatures that need medical and
psychiatric help to get the through this cruel disintegration of our sexual
attractiveness and general usefulness.
In reality, we need to cut
through all the chatter about mood swings, inevitable weight gain and ‘brain
fuzz’ and refocus on the fact that our bodies are as strong and capable as they
ever were and that we’ re not going to let ourselves be beaten by feeling a
little hot sometimes while our ovaries re adjust themselves.
Numerous studies, including
one undertaken by the Royal College of Obstetric and Gynaecology, have found
that regular, sustained aerobic exercise can help relieve menopausal symptoms.
Ellie Brown agrees. A running
coach and teacher trainer for Body Control Pilates students, she incorporates
yoga and strength training into her own fitness regime and has designed an
exercise programme for women in the menopause stage of their lives.
‘We need, as
perimenopausal/menopausal women a mix of strength, flexibility and aerobic
exercise. It is not enough to pop to a yoga class once a week; we need to run,
swim, cycle, jump about and move…’
Quite often, though, the
first steps to jumping about and moving seem like giant leaps. Women, bogged
down by domestics and career demands, may regard exercise as a luxury they
cannot afford, involving gym memberships and unforgiving Lycra. Some may have
gained a bit of weight while sitting at desks, eating children’s leftovers, or
being driven to drink for whatever reason.
The weight, we’re told, is a
natural by- product of midlife, but we feel too self conscious to jiggle about
in our PE kit. The spare tyre becomes a fact of life and we feel defeated
before we’ve even started.
So we need help to overcome
the psychological barriers to exercise, by discovering useful information and
positive messages about menopause – most importantly that it’s not an illness,
but a perfectly natural life stage.
Ellie Brown has decided to provide
that help, by organising Thrive Alive, a day-long series of workshops, talks
and exercise classes designed to help women in their 40s and beyond to ‘power
through the menopause’.
She, along with nutritionist
Lorraine Nicolle and mindfulness instructor Kelly Robson, will host the event,
which centres on 20 tried and tested tactics, using diet, exercise and
mindfulness, to improve mid-life hormonal balance, health and happiness.
Part of the package is
Ellie’s exercise programme for menopause, which incorporates the weight
training, cardio-vascular and flexibility sessions we all need to stay well and
remain vigorous.
Keeping your body moving in
myriad ways is not about looks, or size 8 jeans or looking 10 years younger.
It’s about enjoying the age you are, Ellie says, firmly.
‘This event is as much about
the camaraderie and connecting with like-minded women who want to make these
middle years the best of their lives.’
She’s right about the
camaraderie. When I joined a running club at the age of 44 to ward off
incipient midlife low spirits I was delighted to puff around the same running
track as women of my age, who ran at speeds I could only dream of. They were great
role models, and they became loyal friends. The same women, now over 50, are
still winning trophies. I’ll never be as fast as them, but I follow in their
trainer tracks.
Proud to be part of a team of
six to win a major county cross country championship a couple of weeks ago, I
was delighted to see that three of us had celebrated our 50th birthdays.
‘Now that’s a headline I’d
like to see’, chuckled Ellie when I told her this
‘ “Three perimenopausal women
win Kent County Championship.” ‘
Thrive Alive
takes place Saturday 24 January at
