Why exercise matters during menopause and how to get started

From night sweats to irregular periods, headaches to joint pains, heart palpitations to vaginal dryness, the symptoms of menopause aren’t something any woman looks forward to.

These physical changes can have a significant impact on how you might feel about your body and yourself, and while some treatment does exist to help manage those symptoms, particularly menopausal hormone therapy, that treatment rarely includes any information about the potential weight gain you might be experiencing in this chapter of your life.

In fact, you’ll likely have rarely seen changes to your body weight mentioned as a menopausal symptom, which can feel confusing when you wake up feeling a little softer around the middle.

The question of whether or not weight gain is a natural part of menopause isn't an entirely straightforward one, which makes the question of what exercise is best to introduce into your routine to combat it perhaps even harder.

Here, we'll take a look at why you might be losing muscle mass as you experience menopausal symptoms, and how you can get back to looking and feeling your best.

Does menopause cause weight gain?

While menopause itself isn’t going to make you gain weight, the combination of life phase and hormonal changes that accompany menopause can lead to physical changes that include decreasing muscle mass and increasing body fat. In particular, this is caused by 3 factors:

1. When you enter menopause, or perimenopause, your body reduces the amount of oestrogen that it produces. Low oestrogen has been found to cause body fat to move to your waist from other areas of your body in a process often called ‘menopause belly’.
2. By the time you’re in your late thirties, your muscle mass naturally decreases, which also causes your metabolism to slow down, and can impact your bone health. If that’s not addressed with a consistent exercise habit and other lifestyle changes, that can lead to weight gain.
3. Menopause has a range of symptoms, including muscle and joint pain, hot flushes, sleep problems and fatigue, all of which can affect your daily routines. That joint pain might impact your workouts at the gym for instance, and have you ditching the resistance training for something a little less intense, or fatigue might have you dozing on the couch instead of going for a walk with a friend [2].

This last one in particular can be tricky to manage, especially as weight gain has been found to make menopausal symptoms worse [2]. As a result, adjusting your exercise and activity routines to suit this new chapter of your life is imperative to helping alleviate symptoms and manage your weight.  

Why is exercise important during menopause?

Exercising regularly is important for everyone, regardless of what phase of life you’re in. Not only does it improve your physical health, but it’s been found to have significant benefits when it comes to your emotional and mental wellbeing.

For both premenopausal women and postmenopausal women, exercise has been found to significantly support a better quality of life, helping women to lose weight and achieve better health outcomes overall.

When it comes to menopause in particular, a diverse exercise routine has been found to help relieve some symptoms, in particular through:

• Helping with weight loss and weight management
• Keeping bones healthy by supporting bone density and preventing bone loss, which can increase post-menopause [2]
• Improving low mood
• Improving sleep quality and energy levels

How much should you be exercising?

The recommendation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) is that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise per week, or an equivalent combination of both [3].

Moderate intensity exercise is activity that will raise your heart rate and make you breathe faster and feel warmer. It generally includes activities such as a brisk walk, water aerobics, dancing, Pilates, tennis, or hiking.

Vigorous intensity exercise makes you breathe hard and fast, and is generally more intense. It includes activities such as running, swimming, aerobics, jumping rope, martial arts, or group sports like soccer, netball or hockey.

What are the best workouts for menopause exercise?

Most studies have found that the best exercise programs for menopause incorporate 3 different areas of activity:

1. Aerobic activity
2. Flexibility training, such as yoga, to support your mobility and balance; and
3. Strength training to help strengthen and build bone and muscle mass [2]

All 3 areas of exercise, particularly brisk walking, dance and swimming for your aerobic activity, and yoga for flexibility and strength, may help to reduce hot flushes and night sweats, as well as overall health, physical function and physical fitness in menopausal women.

Yoga has also been found by a range of studies to relieve sleep issues, and support mood and energy levels in women generally, but particularly women experiencing menopause, making it a great activity to work into your routine [3].

If you have any health conditions, including chronic illness or disability, or haven’t exercised regularly before, please speak to your doctor or a medical professional before commencing any exercise program.

The importance of strength training

While aerobic exercise and workouts focused on supporting your flexibility and balance are vital to any workout plan, strength training can be particularly valuable for women going through menopause.

Strength training is a form of exercise that helps you to build and maintain muscle mass, and through doing this, it increases your metabolic rate. One of the reasons you might gain weight in this phase of your life is because menopause decreases your oestrogen levels, which in turn causes your muscle mass to decline and your metabolism to decrease.

Your metabolic rate, like your own body weight and body composition, is unique to you, and depends on a whole range of factors. That said, there are a few universal things, namely, if your metabolic rate slows down, you need fewer calories, and if it increases, you need more.

Your metabolic rate is partially dictated by the amount of lean muscle tissue your body holds compared to fat, with the more muscle tissue you have generally meaning a faster metabolic rate.

As you naturally lose muscle tissue when you age, your metabolic rate naturally slows, so focusing on building that muscle tissue back up through strength training, and strength-focused exercises such as lifting weights or using resistance bands can help you to get that metabolic rate back up and support you to lose weight [5].

What exercise program helps get rid of menopause belly fat?

The best workout for targeting that menopause belly fat is anything centred around weight-bearing exercise that targets your abdomen, which is where menopausal weight deposits, and focuses on building core strength [6].

This can include a range of aerobic, strength and resistance exercises, but in particular, studies have found the most effective way to target that belly fat in particular is Pilates, weightlifting, tennis and high intensity interval training (HIIT) [6].

For more advice and guidance on what exercise is most effective for targeting both menopausal symptoms and weight gain, Juniper's Weight Reset Program is here for you.

This medically-grounded, community-focused program offers health coaching, practitioner support, peer encouragement, and education and movement guides for all abilities, ages and body types to help you achieve your weight loss and fitness goal.

How to approach weight loss during menopause

Menopause can be a challenging time for many women, and weight gain during this period can really impact not just your physical health, but your mental health too.

The important thing to remember is that this period of change for your body will pass, but creating and maintaining positive habits around regular exercise and a healthy diet will be something you can carry forward forever. Focusing on making sustainable lifestyle changes that focus on improving your day-to-day, can be just what you need.

If your menopausal symptoms are severe, speak to your healthcare provider about potential treatment options.