Personal Trainers - Do this to Optimize Menopause Hormone Balance

If you are looking at me and wondering who am I to talk about perimenopause and postmenopause training, I want to first introduce one of my clients right here, Heidi, who just left this in the Facebook group, and I'm gonna read the exciting juicy parts of this testimonial. She said, I'll be 44 years old next week. I'm about one year into perimenopause, into noticeable perimenopause symptoms, is what she said. Within the last few months, I've been experiencing low progesterone symptoms such as spotting. So this is something that we teach inside of the certification is what low progesterone symptoms are. I would spot two weeks after my now irregular period.

Watch the FULL YOUTUBE RIGHT HERE - https://youtu.be/DRE1OZw7_fM 

The spotting color is typically brownish that you would expect. So she's been doing, she goes along to say that she isn't as far as along in the certification that she wants to be. And then she talks about some nutritional changes that she's done, which we teach in the confident menstrual cycle Coach Academy. And then she says, I'm super excited to report that I have not had any spotting on my most recent period. Amazing. As a matter of fact, this is one of the most smooth sailing bleed phases I've had in a while. So if you don't know me yet, my name is Omega Zpa and I am an exercise scientist in menstrual cycle educator. And one of the things that I teach inside my certification for personal trainers to optimize and balance their clients' hormones is about perimenopause and post-menopause and how we as trainers can understand those hormonal changes and adjust nutrition and training to get our clients the results that they are seeking without diets like keto and intermittent fasting and all those things, we have to understand the hormones.

So in this video, you are going to learn how to work with the training of perimenopause and postmenopause. So exercise within that. And if you are excited about that, please like this video. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you're like, I'm a personal trainer, I wanna learn about hormones, subscribe to this channel and you will be sent weekly videos on how to optimize and balance your own hormones and your client's hormones. So without further ado, let's dive in. I have some notes that I'm going to follow. So how is perimenopause different? And first, what is perimenopause? Perimenopause is the time between a normal cycle, so bleeding every 28 to 32 ish days, and then the

Time, time between that and menopause. And so let's define menopause first. Really quick. Menopause is one day and it is the day where you have not bled for one year. So that is menopause and perimenopause is that time in between and it can last up to 10 years. And so I wanna share with you what's happening hormonally and then what symptoms your clients can expect in this perimenopause state. So how can perimenopause be different for different people? So we have the irregular periods, and that's what Heidi was experiencing. The person whose testimonial lies shared, she was experiencing irregular periods. These can be heavy periods or lighter periods or inconsistent periods. Um, and then we have weight gain, muscle loss, sleep issues, hot flashes, the things we expect in the perimenopause state and expect just because our society has told us that it's normal. Um, we also can experience muscle decline too.

And I'll share why that might be in the next video that I make about perimenopause, which is gonna be all about nutrition. So make a note to watch that. And then we have fat increasing around the abdomen. And that is because of the estrogen insufficiency. Well, I guess it's not typically insufficiency, but it is some estrogen insufficient state that we're having, which increases that abdominal fat mass. And then we have increased risk of injuries too because of these changes in estrogen. Estrogen protects our heart and our joints and we also have an increased fall risk because of our, because of our joints, right? And so what is happening hormonally during this state, I kind of hinted at it before. One thing that's very significant that's happening hormonally is changes in follicular stimulating hormone. And if you're well versed with hormone balance, you're like, I don't know what follicular stimulating hormone is.

And if you don't, I will tell you that it is the hormone that helps grow the eggs inside of our ovaries. It's, it stimulates the o the follicles, which are the potential eggs to mature. And so first, there's this rapid increase in follicular stimulating hormone, which causes most people's cycles in the perimenopause state to speed up. So you might notice if you're in perimenopause, you have cycles every 20 days instead of every 28 days. And then the two main hormones that we, that are cycle produces estrogen and progesterone. They just aren't working like they used to. Estrogen is decreasing because there's changes in follicular stimulating hormone. And estrogen follows the increase in follicular stimulating hormone. So if there is changes in that,

There's gonna be changes in estrogen as well. And estrogen tends to go down during perimenopause, which results in a lot of the symptoms that we experience, which is, I mentioned this before, the joint changes, the changes in metabolism, which cause us to store more fat changes in sleep issues and mood because estrogen increases serotonin and dopamine. Those are happy hormones. And without estrogen we have those changes. And it can be very frustrating for people going through perimenopause to one understand those changes. Two, get the proper help from their, from their primary care physician or ob gyn and then to actually find resources for it. So if you're, if you stuck around this far, you are gonna be a great resource for your clients to understand the perimenopause journey. And if you yourself are going through perimenopause like my client Heidi, then this is gonna be a great resource for you.

So we also have changes in progesterone, and that is because ovulation creates progesterone. So if we're having irregular cycles or if our cycles are in non-existent, then progesterone doesn't build, let's say progesterone doesn't happen. And progesterone also stimulates serotonin and dopamine. And it also supports gaba, which is the neurotransmitter that helps us stay asleep too. So the changes, what I'm getting at is the changes in estrogen and progesterone are those things that cause a lot of the perimenopause symptoms that really drive us crazy. Hot flashes are included in there too. So those are the two main changes. Well, I guess we talked about three hormones, follicular stimulating hormone, estrogen and progesterone. Those are the three main changes that are happening. And we have this muscle decline and we have this increased in fat storage around the abdomen for most women going through perimenopause. And so we need to change the way we train our clients.

And if you are excited to get into this part of the conversation I or this monologue, um, go ahead and like this video if you haven't already, and also consider sharing it with a friend or client. So this part of the conversation I want to make very research based and give you tangible ways that you can change your client's training program. So the most obvious thing in the research is changing training intensities. So your client's perimenopause and postmenopause body is actually going to respond better, meaning it's going to utilize more fat and build more muscle when we increase the

Training intensities. There was, there are many, there are so many studies on this, I'm just gonna share a few. One of the studies was a 2021 meta-analysis by Thomas and Collies and it looked at 26 different studies to establish parameters for efficacious strength training protocol for menopausal people. And found that training two sessions. So two sessions per week performing two to three sets of eight exercise zzz, eight exercises at 60% of the one rep max is effective for promoting strength and modifying muscle changes. Cool training two sessions per per week. Your clients probably already do that. And so the 60% training volume, we wanna be in a strength training. Uh, we wanna be in a strength training zone for that. Or you could do, uh, windgate sprints or something like that in order to achieve these sort of strength promoting benefits. And remember, people in the perimenopause and postmenopause state have an increase in muscle breakdown.

So the more strength training we can do for them, the better off they are going to feel in general and it's going to decrease their fall risk, increase their it, increase their quality of life. Let's just say this next study that I wanna bring into the conversation looked at osteoporosis and osteopenia. And before we get into this study, I just wanna say that we have this cultural belief that uh, women of an older age, let's say just people of an older age are weak and fragile and <laugh> need to be prescribed all sorts of things. And the reality is that we can foster strength at any age. And so this study was published in 2013 by most in colleagues and this was on people with osteoporosis and osteopenia doing maximal training. So doing like one rep maxes, okay. And you might be like, oh, my client isn't ready for one rep maxes and we'll talk about how to work up to that. But this study showed that maximal training improves one rep max squat obviously improves rate of force development. So think about like pushing a lawnmower up a hill or um, lifting grandkids up and things like that. We wanna be capable of doing those types of things. Not that everybody in the perimenopause and post-menopause state has grandchildren, but we wanna be able to have a quality of life and have independence in this phase of life and beyond. So rate of force development so we can lift heavier things faster and probably safer too. Improves bone mineral content.

This is a huge one because our, I didn't mention this in the beginning of the bit video, but our bone mineral density decreases, which is part of what leads to osteoporosis and osteopenia. And just a quick note, A one RET max can be anywhere between 85 and 90% in this population. So it doesn't have to be like, they don't have to be shaking to get their like chest press bench press up. Um, so understand that there are ways to work up to this one rep max sort of training zone. Remember in your certification you probably learned we have stability exercises, endurance exercises and strength exercises. I trust you if you're a personal trainer, I trust you to periodize your client's programmed appropriately for them, do the assessments and understand all the corrective exercises you need to do for them and the mobility exercises to help them get to a point where they can safely and effectively work at 85 to 90% of their maximum.

Okay, this last study I wanna share is a 2019 study by Boucher Buscher, something like that. Um, and this one was on HIT training. And HIT training is arguably more effective in this population than your clients who have a menstrual cycle or are just, you know, regular clients. So this 2019 study by bus sharing colleagues showed us that postmenopausal clients can significantly reduce fat mass and increase lean body mass in as little as eight hours of hit training over the course of eight weeks. Okay? So this is really cool because this study showed us, uh, interval training throughout these eight weeks. And like the study that I mentioned before, you don't have to work at it every day. You don't have to do interval sessions every day. I think this study, they did two or three interval training sessions every week and they did about 20 minutes and it was I think eight seconds on 12 seconds off. So it was pretty intense over the course of 20 minutes. And this significantly, like this study said it significantly reduced fat mass and a, you know, the conversation around fat and around thinness is just, it's so layered, it's so complex and it's can be so convoluted, especially, you know, when we want to support our clients' bodies and mental health, right? And the reality is that a lot of your clients

Probably want to get to this point where they have decreased fat mass. And so implementing these strategies is going to be much more direct. So let's go through all of those training details one more time. So we have training at two sessions per week, performing two to three sets of eight exercises, um, for about eight to 12 rep sets, 60% max. So that is a strength training that you can, that is strength training that you can do. And then we have one rep maxes that you can do with your clients. So obviously you might not wanna do a one rep max every session, but you might wanna try some one rep maxes every week or every month. And so this maximal training improves bone men mineral content, improves the rate of force production and improves the one rep max squat. Great. We also have this interval training.

So cardio probably still has its place for your clients and that has been well established in the research, but this interval training has shown too significantly. I want you to take that in. Mm, drink it in significantly. Reduce fat mass and abdominal fat accumulation is probably one of those things that your clients wants to reduce. So take all of this, take notes if you haven't already. You can go back through and take notes. And if you are thinking, wow, I really wanna learn more of this stuff and get more of Omega's support, then consider applying for my Confident Menstrual Cycle Coach Academy. The link is below. And if you like this video, go ahead. Like this video, subscribe to this channel and keep an eye out for the perimenopause and Postmenopause nutrition video that I have coming out. And other than that, I will see you in the next video. Bye.