1 Exercise – really?

Exercise and health in menopause

Exercise has a particularly important role in menopause. Whether you are used to being active in your job, whether you take part in sport, or whether you haven’t exercised for some time (perhaps many years), the menopause years are a time to pay special attention to incorporating exercise into your life. But many women become less active as they get older, even from as young as the teenage years, so that by the time they hit their mid-40s, they may not have exercised in any formal way for 30 years.

Exercise plays a big part in protecting menopausal bodies from the effects of declining oestrogen levels. As you have seen, oestrogen is not only involved in menstruation and reproduction. It also has significant benefits in terms of protecting our bones and cardiovascular health. Once oestrogen levels drop in menopause, this protective effect is lost, and we are then at significantly increased risk of both osteoporosis (loss of bone density) and cardiovascular disease. Activity 1 introduces the role of exercise and what exercise should be done.

Activity 1 The importance of exercise

Timing: Allow 10 minutes

Watch this short film, where menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson talks about the importance of exercise.

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Transcript: Video 1 The importance of exercise

Dr Louise Newson

Exercise is really important for all of us. It doesn't always have to be an actual exercise class that we go to. We need to find exercise that we can do as part of our lives that fits in with us so we don't have excuses not to do it.

So for some people, it might be as simple as walking to work or walking up the stairs instead of using a lift. For other people, it might be going to three or four classes in a gym every week. But we have to just choose what works. For myself, personally, doing a yoga practice is enough for me. And I know that I have my mat, and I can use it anywhere. And I can do my class to myself, if you like.

But everyone's different. Some people wouldn't want to do yoga. Other people would want to do pilates. Some people like to do HIIT classes. And some people do a variation.

Keeping active is really good. It's really good for our muscle strength. It's good for our fitness. It's good for our heart health, our bone health, our brain health but our mental health as well. We know that doing exercise regularly really helps. And it can be very hard if you don't have much motivation. But the more you exercise and make it part of your routine, the better and easier it is going forwards.

End transcript: Video 1 The importance of exercise

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Video 1 The importance of exercise

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What are the main points that resonate with you from Dr Newson’s ideas?

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There are some key ideas mentioned in Video 1:

1. Exercise has to be something that suits you and that you can fit in to your life.
2. Everyone is different and will like different kinds of exercise. Some people go to gym classes 3–4 times a week, but if you prefer doing your own yoga practice, that’s absolutely fine too.
3. Exercise doesn’t have to be what you might think. It can mean simply walking to work rather than driving or using public transport or walking up the stairs rather than using the lift or escalator.
4. Exercise is good for lots of things: muscular strength, fitness, and the health of our heart, bones and brain. Also, it is beneficial for our mental health.
5. Sometimes it can be hard to find the motivation to exercise, but if we make it part of our routine, it gets easier.