The Method Behind Managing Menopause

Send us a text

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness.
My name is Rob Maxwell and I'man exercise physiologist and
personal trainer.
I am the owner of Maxwell'sFitness Programs and I've been
in business since 1994.
The purpose of this podcast isto get to the real deal of what
really works and, mostimportantly, why things work.
Hence the name there is aMethod to the Madness.

(00:23):
Before I get started today, letme thank Jonathan and Lynn
Gilden of the Gilden GroupRealty Pros.
They are committed to providingthe highest level of customer
service in home sales.
Why don't you give them a shoutand figure out what your home
is worth?
386-451-2412.

(00:44):
Good morning, good afternoon,good evening, rob here.
How are all of you MaxFittersdoing today?

(01:10):
I am going to talk to you alittle bit about menopause and
other hormonal concerns.
I asked somebody if they hadsomething pressing they wanted
me to cover and they saidmenopause, because it blanking
sucks.
I said okay, that sounds prettybad, and I am well aware of
that.
Knowing a lot of females in mylife, I understand the concerns

(01:34):
that come along with it and I'vebeen in this business for 31
years, so I have heard all ofthe concerns.
So I have heard all of theconcerns and you know the
endocrine system in generalneeds a lot more concern and
understanding than we give it.
You know, not just menopause,although that seems to be the

(01:57):
most you know glaring problem orproblematic situation, but you
know men have hormonal changesthroughout life as well.
They lose we lose testosterone.

(02:26):
You know women lose both pro toshow some decline.
So I'm going to talk about itfrom my perspective as an
exercise physiologist.
And what are the things you cando regarding your health and
fitness and wellness?
Because those are the things inmy scope of practice and a lot
of it is completely outside ofmy scope of practice and I

(02:48):
learned long ago not to ventureoutside of my scope of practice.
It won't do me any good, itwon't do you any good.
So we need a comprehensive teamto cover these types of things.
Types of things and it's funnywhen this person asked me to

(03:09):
cover it this is probably atleast the third time that it has
come up and I mean each timeit's been somebody's asked me to
do it.
So I could say well, you know,go back to Spotify edition,
blankety blank.
I'd go find it and send it.
But you know, or I could redoit because the bottom line is
there's nothing wrong withtaking the same topic and
talking about the informationagain, because it is such a

(03:34):
problematic situation.
So what can we do about it?
So, first off, we need tounderstand that the body does go
through its natural decline.
There are things because ofMother Nature, that happens in
the body, that changes over timeand the endocrine system goes

(03:57):
through those changes, with adecrease in hormones in hormones
because, you know, we're not,after a certain point,
necessarily biologicallysupposed to be, you know,
parenting children as far asbiologically.
So you know, the body goesthrough its natural changes.

(04:17):
So we first have to understandthat it is natural.
But we also have to understandthat we don't necessarily have
to accept all of the negativesymptoms that go along with it,
whether it be, again, male orfemale.
There are things that we can doand again, I'm only going to

(04:40):
speak to the wellness side ofthings, the health and fitness
side of things.
I am a licensed nutritionist,so I can speak to the wellness
side of things, the health andfitness side of things.
I am a licensed nutritionist,so I can speak about the food
side of things.
But the rest and it is a verymedical situation I would state
to you you know, females ormales that if you're noticing

(05:03):
some of the symptoms you know,then first you need to start
with talking to your physician.
Whichever physician you feelcomfortable with, whether it be
your general practitioner, yourfamily medicine doctor, your
OBGYN or whomever you feel themost comfortable with.
I would speak to a boardcertified, licensed medical

(05:27):
doctor.
All right, I think that's veryimportant to get out of the way.
So some of the symptoms for menare decreased sex drive,
decreased sexual performance,you know.
Lack of motivation, potentiallyweight gain, because

(05:48):
testosterone is a muscleproducer.
So when we start losing sometestosterone we can lose some
muscle mass which could decreaseour fat mass.
Mood swings, irritability, lackof sleep.
So that's kind of on the maleside.
On the women's side, same thingdecreased sexual activity,

(06:10):
sexual desire, basically drynesseverywhere, if you know what I
mean, and you know literallydehydration that's a very common
symptom of menopause.
Decreased energy, lack of sleep, mood swings, weight gain for

(06:33):
sure, more so there than withmen when they lose testosterone.
So those are the commonsymptoms.
I think I mentioned fatigue.
Yes, those are the commonsymptoms.
I think I mentioned fatigue.
Yes, so you know, the first stepis always consult your doctor
and see if there is somethingyou can do to try to supplement

(06:54):
your hormones.
You know, either through a notnecessarily legitimate physician

(07:15):
or online.
I mean, I always warn peopleagainst stuff like that.
If you're going to do anythinghormonally, please speak with
your physician and do it theright way.
And if you do it the right way,I mean there's pretty good
research behind it and they candiscuss all that with you.
All right, so that's themedical side.
Now, as far as the health andfitness side, for both sexes

(07:37):
with change in hormones, yes,there are things that we can do.
Strength training is criticalfor both sexes.
Now it may not feel as goodwhen you're going through
hormonal changes.
You may not feel as energeticto get to the gym.
You may not have as good of aperformance when you're at the

(08:05):
gym.
You may notice you're not asstronger as you used to be.
But that is focusing too muchon the outcome and not enough on
the process, because in commonself-help and recovery circles
the saying is feelings aren'tfacts.

(08:26):
So we have to remember that,even though we may not be
feeling it, meaning that we seea decrease in our gym
performance, whether we are maleor female, we notice that we're
not pressing the same weight weused to, or squatting the same
weight or whatever, or justmaybe you don't feel as strong

(08:48):
in the gym.
That is okay.
Doing strength training isstill going to help.
Now we know, when you trainanaerobically, whether you be a
male or a female, your acutelevel of testosterone increases.
What that means is we don'tproduce testosterone, resting or

(09:14):
higher levels of restingtestosterone when we strength
train.
That's a myth, like even whenyou're in your 20s.
That does not happen.
When we see changes intestosterone and human growth
hormone, which are the twobasically anabolic hormones that

(09:34):
increase muscle mass and driveand things like that, it happens
acutely, which means at thetime.
So when we strength train, whenwe are in our anaerobic system,
we are, at least for a briefperiod, flooding our system with
a little more testosterone thanwhen we are at rest.

(09:57):
Now, there are ways to trainfor that, though, so there are
specific ways to train.
So if you are, you know, say, areal old school strength
athlete mostly male will do this, and they go to the gym and
they work on pure strength likea bench press and try to do two

(10:20):
or three repetitions, and thenthey take a long break
afterwards.
Well, that's not going to havea very big impact on your
hormonal system.
Research has found that thebetter way to strength train
when we are trying to manipulateour endocrine system, our

(10:41):
hormones, is to do moderatelyhigh reps.
So moderate rep range, say like8 to 15, at an intensity that
matches that level, meaning asclose as you can get to fatigue,
in that the set should lastroughly a minute and you should
have lower rest times.

(11:03):
That seems to produce more goodhormones than basic, pure
strength training and that'sreally the way most people train
.
So don't get too wrapped upinto that if you kind of miss
some of the particulars on that,because that is how most adults
do train at the gym.

(11:23):
They do moderately high reps,again 8 to 15.
The rep intensity should matchthat.
I've talked about that before.
We shouldn't just do a load.
That's too easy for that reprange and people typically move
from one exercise to the next ortake a very brief break in
between those sets.

(11:45):
That's how we train toinfluence our endocrine system
and it's kind of very similar tohow a bodybuilder would train
to increase their muscle mass.
Bodybuilder would train toincrease their muscle mass, and
the reason for that is becausethey also want high levels of
testosterone, human growthhormone and insulin, growth
factor F, which are positivegrowth hormones.

(12:07):
Are going to happen from thatmore bodybuilding higher rep,
moderate load, low rest training.
Also, we want to try to use thelarger muscle groups in what we
call multi-joint exercises,because we do want to produce
higher levels of intensity.

(12:28):
All right, so that is rulenumber one Strength train like a
bodybuilder, would I suggestthree times a week of strength
training for about 30 minutes,because one thing we have to be
very careful with and this is abig part of what I can speak to

(12:48):
you about as far as exercise andmenopause is you don't want to
overtrain.
So doing exercise after exerciseor too long in the gym, too
many sets, is going to becounterproductive.
So I would try to not exceed 20sets or so in the gym when you

(13:09):
strength train, which will besomewhere around 30 minutes.
We don't want to overtrain, wewant to stimulate and not
annihilate.
That is a very, very importantpart of this.
All right, so that is part oneStrength train three times a
week, moderate loads, low rest,moderate reps.

(13:31):
Keep it to 30 minutes or 20sets or so.
Get out, all right, don't overtrain male or female.
You will just see your hormonesdrop even lower if you do.
All right Now, cardiorespiratory wise, we want to
make sure we also train theaerobic system, which is where

(13:53):
cardio respiratory exercisecomes in.
Which is where cardiorespiratory exercise comes in.
Again, though, the biggest partof this is, yes, we need to do
it, but no, we don't need toovertrain.
Somebody going throughmenopause really should not be
doing real long, slow distancecardio.

(14:16):
In other words, look, going fora nice long walk is one thing.
I wouldn't really call that LSDcardio, but doing a 90 minute
jog where you're in thatmoderate range of your heart
rates up pretty high, but nottoo high where you can't sustain
it, is really going toovertrain most people.

(14:37):
So, you know, everybody has toworry about the balance between
stimulate, not annihilate, butpeople that are suffering some
hormonal decline need to worryabout it even more.
I mean, when you seecompetitive endurance athletes
going through menopause, youknow, or males that go through

(14:57):
it, I mean they just beat theirbodies to shreds because they
know that exercise makes themfeel better.
So they get out and they'll gofor a long run like they used to
, but then they're just going tofeel zapped and it's almost
going to cause some likedepressive type symptoms if
they're not careful.

(15:17):
So two things you can doModerate aerobic exercise,
meaning you know, let's say, ifyou're a runner, somewhere in
the two to four mile range isgoing to be more beneficial for
you than maybe a 10 mile run andif you're going.
Well, I do endurance and Itrain for marathons.
Okay, I'm not going to tell youwhat to do, I'm just telling

(15:39):
you what is best for menopauseand exercise.
I mean, you can do that, butyou're just going to have to
understand that there's no freelunches.
So you're doing that and youmight suffer some more decline
due to it, all right.
So it's a very, very slipperyslope.
You're on when you are goingthrough hormonal changes and

(16:01):
you're pushing.
You're burning the candle atboth ends or you're pushing too
hard, all right.
So you can do that moderatecardio, the two to four miles at
a moderate pace, and if thatsounds like a lot because you're
not doing it, well, then thatis a lot if you're not doing it.
But I'm just saying thatmoderate for you, 30 to 40
minutes at a moderate intensityis one thing you can do.

(16:24):
Or studies have shown thatpeople that do more HIIT
training or more intervaltraining when they're going
through hormonal decline can bebeneficial because you don't
have to spend as much time doingit.
So you can do 20 minutesessions of, say, higher
intensity exercise with breaks.

(16:45):
That's what interval trainingis.
So it would be like maybe ifI'm just using the walking
running example it could be likea warm-up and then a 30 minute
pretty high tempo-tempo pace runand then a 90-second walk and
do that for 20 minutes.
That has shown to be beneficialbecause you're maintaining your

(17:06):
cardiovascular system and yourfitness and you're probably
getting some endorphins.
So some runners high, butyou're not beating the snot out
of your body and your body'sgoing to recover from it very
well.
Snot out of your body and yourbody's going to recover from it
very well.
So studies have shown thathormonally, as long as you don't
overdo intervals, your bodyrecovers from it very well.
How many days for cardio?
Well, it kind of depends on howmany days you're strength

(17:28):
training, but ideally three daysa week of strength training and
three to four days of thatcardio should absolutely be
enough to help you through thetough times.
All right Food.
Wise Food is your friend, andyou know many people that go
through menopause gain weight,and it's common because the

(17:51):
hormone changes and it's justtough.
And if you've known any womenor men that have gone through
hormonal changes, you know thatweight gain is pretty common.
With it or not being able tolose the weight as fast as you
once did especially women isthey start to starve themselves.
They don't eat nearly enoughbecause they see the pounds

(18:24):
going up a little bit and ofcourse you know, like everybody,
they're going to freak out alittle bit.
And then what do people do thatare weight conscious?
They stop eating.
That's not good.
You've got to feed your body.
You've got to feed your muscles.
You've got to feed your muscles.
You don't want to starveyourself, you want to eat.
You just want to eat healthyfoods.

(18:46):
I don't recommend countingthings when you're going through
menopause.
If it works for you, great, butI don't recommend it.
I recommend instead just takinga lifestyle change and eating
nutritious foods.
Fuel your body, be your body'sbest friend.
If you're not, who's going tobe?

(19:07):
Think about the foods that aregoing to make your body
healthier.
Junk food isn't going to makeyou feel any better.
The last thing you want to dois to get other endocrine
systems fired up with low bloodsugar or high blood sugar.
So you want to make sure thatyou're not eating a lot of

(19:28):
processed carbohydrates, not alot of junk carbs.
It doesn't mean don't eat carbs, don't eat carbs, for goodness
sakes.
Eat your fruits, eat yourvegetables, eat your beans, eat
your quinoa, eat your brown rice, eat your sweet potatoes.
Of course, that's not junk food.
Eat food.

(19:51):
That's going to fuel your body,fuel your mind, make you feel
good about yourself becauseyou're eating healthfully.
That's what we need to donutritionally during hormonal
changes.
Okay, so I don't recommendcounting.
I really don't.
I think there's enough going on.
I think it's better to just sayyou know what.
I'm not going to pay too muchattention to the scale right now

(20:13):
.
I'm going to exercise, likeCoach Rob and others have told
me to do, and I'm going to dothe best I can to eat what we
call nutrient-dense foods, andnutrient-dense foods are foods
that are either high in leanproteins or high in fiber and

(20:36):
complex carbohydrates and low insugar, and I mean processed
sugar.
Remember the banana thing?
We're not having any troubleeating bananas.
Okay, that was from a previouspodcast.
But anyway, processed sugar wewant to try to eliminate.
Eat regular fruit sugar, don'tworry about that.

(20:56):
But we want to avoid high fattyfoods and high processed sugary
foods and we want to eat leanprotein sources, whether it be
plant or whatever, and fibrouscomplex carbohydrates.
Okay, those are what we callnutrient dense foods.
Choose them Every meal the bestyou can.

(21:20):
Nobody's perfect.
You're going to slip, you'regoing to have a treat, don't
worry about it.
It's your food staples.
You want to try to change thesame 18 to 20 food sources that
most people eat every day,between 18 and 20.
Pick out what those are.
If you see any caloricallydense foods that means processed

(21:41):
sugars or high in fat try toeliminate them.
You know again, treat here andthere.
It's not what I'm talking about.
Try to eliminate them as far asyour staples goes.
And then eat.
Don't starve yourself.
Have a good three meals a day,eating nutrient dense foods, not
getting on the scale.

(22:02):
Weigh when you see your doctor,all right, let them talk to you
.
Treat it the way I told you totreat it physically, with
exercise and diet, and followyour doctor's recommendations.
All right, next step stress andsleep.
You've got to do the best youcan to get some good sleep.

(22:25):
And I know, you know I get it,it's hard.
People tell you that and thenyou don't sleep.
I totally get it.
And again, you need to talk toyour physician about that.
But you do have control overyour bedtime activities.
You know, I don't suggestwatching the news and things

(22:45):
that are just going to rile youup in the evening.
People say all the time oh, Iwatch the news as entertainment,
it doesn't bother me.
Yes, it does.
I mean, do you know anythingabout psychology?
We forget about Freud, don't?
We People have fallen asleeptoo much on old Freud because he

(23:07):
had a couple crazy views.
He did, but he also was verysmart and he was the first
person to start talking to usabout our unconscious and
subconscious brain.
And let me tell you, eventhough you think it's not
bothering you, when you see somedisasters or you see shootings,
you see war, you know.

(23:28):
You see crisis, you seefinancial problems, it bothers
you, even if you say it doesn't.
So you know, if you're mad atme because you work for you know
WESH TV2 or whatever, okay,well, I'll own it.
But my suggestion is reallyprotect what you watch in the
evening.
You know, watch some comfortingsports or TV that you really

(23:53):
enjoy.
You know some goodold-fashioned sitcoms.
You know maybe an engaging showon Netflix or something, but
something that doesn't upset you.
And if anything is evenpotentially upsetting to you and
again you have to remember youmay not know that it is have you
ever watched something at nightand had a dream about it?

(24:13):
I mean, gosh, I did just theother day and I'm like that must
have bothered me more than Ithought because that was a
really weird dream.
Well, if you remember, one ofFreud's famous books is called
the Interpretation of Dreams.
I mean, a lot of things go intoour unconscious and then it
works its way into oursubconscious and then we can't
sleep and we get agitated.

(24:33):
So you got to watch yournighttime routine.
You also have to make sure thatyou've eaten a healthy dinner
at night.
You want to make sure thatyou're not one of those freaking
out, skipping dinners.
That's not going to help you goto sleep when you are basically
going through some stomachgrowling.
That's not good.
And it's also not good to eattwo to three hours before

(24:55):
bedtime because your blood sugarmight spike and that might
affect your sleep.
So those are things we want towork on.
Again, we may not controlperfectly how well we can sleep,
but I believe we can controlour evening and nighttime
routine.
We have control over that right.
Many physicians recommend a nicewarm bath before bed.

(25:16):
Calm yourself down, have somerelaxing tea, relax.
That could be something youthrow in.
For me, conversation's great,you know, I like to talk, I like
to get stuff off my chest, Ilike to be able to vent.
That works for me very well.
I suggest that with yourfriends, with your partner, with
your kids.

(25:37):
You know, obviously, don'tshare things with your kids,
that's going to stress them out,but I think you get the point
on this.
Journaling is another way tovent.
If you don't share things withyour kids, that's going to
stress them out, but I think youget the point on this.
Journaling is another way tovent.
If you don't like talking topeople, I like to journal.
I'll journal either at night orin the morning and it helps.
And I think if you're goingthrough any hormonal decline, it

(25:57):
will help quite a bit to helpyou get a good night's rest.
All right, so sleep is very,very critical.
And then, finally, the lastpiece to this and again, it's
out of my scope of practice so Ican't tell you how to do it,
but I will suggest what youshould do, and that is get
counseling.
There's absolutely nothingwrong with going and getting

(26:19):
counseling and talking about thedifferent things that are
coming up, you know, once you'regetting older and once, about
the different things that arecoming up, you know, once you're
getting older and once you havesome hormonal decline, there's
nothing wrong with that.
I would absolutely suggest thatyou do that.
Some people don't like to admitwhat's going on, but again, we
have to go back to Freud andremember, and not just Freud.

(26:40):
I mean, there's so manydifferent psychologists that
talk about the unconscious andthe subconscious, so I'm
throwing them out there.
I'm a psych major, so you knowhe's the first one I studied so.
But you know, we think we canhandle things like we really
believe we can, and there'snothing wrong with having a
positive, confident attitude,positive, confident attitude.

(27:06):
But you know there is alsonothing wrong with asking for
help either, and getting somehelp I mean talk therapy is so
darn effective that I 100%suggest it.
You know, I mean, and that'swhat we can do.
These are the things we havecontrol over.
We can exercise appropriately,we can see our physicians and
take their advice, we can makesure we're eating properly and

(27:31):
we can make sure we're gettingour rest and we're not stressing
ourselves out, burning thecandle at both ends, and we can
seek some guidance of some kindor another.
I mean that's what we can do,can seek some guidance of some
kind or another.
I mean that's what we can do.
I hope this helps.
I know it sucks Again, I'vebeen doing this for a long time,

(27:52):
so I've heard many, many, many,many, many different women
through the years as they gothrough menopause, and you know
they're frustrated, and you knowI'm one of the first people
they call when it comes toweight.
You know, and it's frustratingfor me too, because I can give
them some advice and we can doall the stuff we have to do.
But at the same time, you knowthe hormones are very, very

(28:14):
powerful and there's only somuch we're going to do, and so I
usually suggest look, let's doeverything we can to get healthy
.
And so I usually suggest look,let's do everything we can to
get healthy, but let's not, youknow, think about weight loss
during this part.
Let's focus more on getting ourhormones as balanced as we can
be, because if we get everythingas balanced as we can be and

(28:45):
they can be then good thingswill start to happen.
So instead of obsessing overthis scale, let's worry more
about getting our balance of ourhormones in check to the best
of our abilities.
And I'll tell clients that, andyou know, some will listen and
some will listen intently andthey'll do everything, and then
some, you know, get frustratedand go to more extreme measures
to lose weight.
But that's usually not the wayto go.
I've never seen that besuccessful for anybody.

(29:06):
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the question.
Please email this text it topeople.
Please hit subscribe if you'renot already subscribed.
It helps me greatly and ithelps me continue to be able to
do this and I would appreciateit.
Until next time, be max fit andbe max well.
Thank you for listening totoday's show.

(29:28):
I ask you to please follow thisshow on wherever you get your
podcasts and also please hitautomatic downloads.
It really helps me and it helpsthe show.
Now I want to thank OverheadDoor of Daytona Beach, the
premier garage door company inVolusia County, with the best
product, with the best service.

(29:49):
I can vouch for Jeff and ZachHawk, the owners.
They are great people.
If you need any help with yourgarage doors, give them a shout
386-222-3165.