Bodyweight Strength Exercises for Menopausal Women By Olaronke Ashiru-Gbadebo
Menopause is a phase in the life of a woman that brings about many changes. People who experience the menopause usually reach it between the ages of 40 and 60. Menopausal symptoms can be experienced years before it happens due to changes in hormonal levels.
Apart from normal the biological aging of blood vessels, organs, muscles, tendons and ligaments resulting in decline in bone density, muscle mass, and joint health, reduction in the production of oestrogen hormone brings additional weakness to bone strength increasing the risk of osteoporosis. The hormonal changes can also lead to weight gain and the development of excess abdominal fat, which can increase the risk of heart diseases, metabolic disorders, Type 2 diabetes and some type of cancers.
Getting or staying active while going through menopause can help you avoid some of the associated weight gain. Maintaining your weight can, in turn, help you avoid certain conditions often associated with being obese or overweight
Regular exercise is effective at controlling all the changes normal ageing and menopause brings. Exercise stimulates muscle and helps alleviate age-related muscle loss. In addition, the calories expended during exercise help maintain a healthy body weight and minimize the accumulation of abdominal fat, a particularly harmful alteration in body composition.
The need for exercising skeletal muscles becomes much more important for menopausal women as it improves bone density, increase muscle mass and joint health.
One of such ways is by strength or resistance training. Resistance exercises are all effective in increasing the bone mineral density of the spine in postmenopausal women. Keeping active can help keep your bones healthy and can reduce the chance of them breaking or fracturing if you fall over. Bones get stronger as you use them and give them work to do
Muscle-strengthening exercises are movements where you move your muscles against some resistance. This includes lifting weights, using resistance bands, or doing body weight exercises like press-ups, squats, lounges and planks (as demonstrated in this video)
ACSM and the Physical Activity Guidelines recommend exercising each major muscle group 2 to 3 days per week with 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions as most effective, although 1 set of 8 to 12 repetitions can improve strength
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