If you're experiencing unpleasant side effects from the transitional phase that bridges your fertility years and post-menopause, strength training may be a way to help. Although not a cure-all for every symptom of perimenopause, strengthening and toning your muscles can provide several benefits for your body, both inside and out. Building a better body through resistance exercise may help you sleep better, feel better and look better.
Identification
Perimenopause is the interval in which a woman's body shifts from regular cycles of ovulation and menstruation toward permanent infertility, or menopause. You can start perimenopause as early as your 30s or 40s, and it can last from as little as a few months up to 10 years. Symptoms may include irregular periods, including longer, shorter, heavier or lighter periods, hot flashes, sleep problems, vaginal dryness, depression, bone loss and weight gain.
Bone Benefits
As women move through perimenopause to menopause and beyond, they can lose up to 2 percent of bone mass each year. Research at Tufts University in 1994 found that strength training increased bone density and reduced the risk for bone fractures among women aged 50 to 70. A study published in February 2011 in "Experimental Gerontology" showed that after eight months, women subjects using resistance exercises had an average bone mineral density increase of 3 percent. A 2007 study in the "British Journal of Sports Medicine" demonstrated that power training, in which women rapidly contract and then relax muscles over four seconds while lifting weights, was the most effective type of strength training for maintaining bone mineral density in postmenopausal women.
Mood and Sleep Benefits
Strength training can lead to improvements in mood and depression that are equivalent to antidepressant medications, although the exact mechanism isn't clearly understood. Regular strength training can also improve your quality of sleep, allowing you to fall asleep more quickly, sleep more deeply, awaken less often and sleep longer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Weight Benefits
Among of the most common complaints among women going through perimenopause are weight gain and the inability to lose weight. By lifting weights and using resistance exercise, you increase your muscle mass, which the CDC notes leads to as much as a 15-percent increase in metabolic rate. Weight gain is often associated with type 2 diabetes, and strength training can also help improve glucose control comparable to taking diabetes medications. In 2003, the journal "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" published a study from the University of Arizona showing that resistance exercise significantly changed total and regional body composition in postmenopausal women by increasing lean soft tissue. The women also had a mean muscle mass gain of 2.6 lbs. with a twice-a-week protocol after one year of resistance training.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Perimenopause; Mayo Clinic Staff; September 2010
- Experimental Gerontology; Effects of Resistance and Aerobic Exercise on Physical Function, Bone Mineral Density, OPG and RANKL in Older Women; E.A. Marques; February 2011
- British Journal of Sports Medicine; Differential Effects of Strength Versus Power Training on Bone Mineral Density in Postmenopausal Women; S. von Stengel; June 2007
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Growing Stronger - Strength Training for Older Adults; February 2011
- Resistance Training in Postmenopausal Women; Pedro J. Teixeira, et al.; April 2003
