There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
The Method Behind Managing Menopause
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Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a Method to the Madness. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, rob here. How are all of you MaxFitters doing today?
Speaker 1:I am going to talk to you a little bit about menopause and other hormonal concerns. I asked somebody if they had something pressing they wanted me to cover and they said menopause, because it blanking sucks. I said okay, that sounds pretty bad, and I am well aware of that. Knowing a lot of females in my life, I understand the concerns that come along with it and I've been in this business for 31 years, so I have heard all of the concerns. So I have heard all of the concerns and you know the endocrine system in general needs a lot more concern and understanding than we give it. You know, not just menopause, although that seems to be the most you know glaring problem or problematic situation, but you know men have hormonal changes throughout life as well. They lose we lose testosterone. You know women lose both pro to show some decline. So I'm going to talk about it from my perspective as an exercise physiologist. And what are the things you can do regarding your health and fitness and wellness? Because those are the things in my scope of practice and a lot of it is completely outside of my scope of practice and I learned long ago not to venture outside of my scope of practice. It won't do me any good, it won't do you any good. So we need a comprehensive team to cover these types of things. Types of things and it's funny when this person asked me to cover it this is probably at least the third time that it has come up and I mean each time it'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 redo it because the bottom line is there's nothing wrong with taking the same topic and talking about the information again, because it is such a problematic situation. So what can we do about it?
Speaker 1:So, first off, we need to understand that the body does go through its natural decline. There are things because of Mother Nature, that happens in the body, that changes over time and the endocrine system goes through those changes, with a decrease in hormones in hormones because, you know, we're not, after a certain point, necessarily biologically supposed to be, you know, parenting children as far as biologically. So you know, the body goes through its natural changes. So we first have to understand that it is natural. But we also have to understand that we don't necessarily have to accept all of the negative symptoms that go along with it, whether it be, again, male or female. There are things that we can do and again, I'm only going to speak to the wellness side of things, the health and fitness side of things. I am a licensed nutritionist, so I can speak to the wellness side of things, the health and fitness side of things. I am a licensed nutritionist, so I can speak about the food side of things.
Speaker 1:But the rest and it is a very medical situation I would state to you you know, females or males that if you're noticing some of the symptoms you know, then first you need to start with talking to your physician. Whichever physician you feel comfortable with, whether it be your general practitioner, your family medicine doctor, your OBGYN or whomever you feel the most comfortable with. I would speak to a board certified, licensed medical doctor. All right, I think that's very important to get out of the way. So some of the symptoms for men are decreased sex drive, decreased sexual performance, you know. Lack of motivation, potentially weight gain, because testosterone is a muscle producer. So when we start losing some testosterone we can lose some muscle mass which could decrease our fat mass. Mood swings, irritability, lack of sleep. So that's kind of on the male side. On the women's side, same thing decreased sexual activity, sexual desire, basically dryness everywhere, if you know what I mean, and you know literally dehydration that's a very common symptom of menopause. Decreased energy, lack of sleep, mood swings, weight gain for sure, more so there than with men when they lose testosterone. So those are the common symptoms. I think I mentioned fatigue. Yes, those are the common symptoms. I think I mentioned fatigue.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you know, the first step is always consult your doctor and see if there is something you can do to try to supplement your hormones. You know, either through a not necessarily legitimate physician or online. I mean, I always warn people against stuff like that. If you're going to do anything hormonally, please speak with your physician and do it the right way. And if you do it the right way, I mean there's pretty good research behind it and they can discuss all that with you. All right, so that's the medical side.
Speaker 1:Now, as far as the health and fitness side, for both sexes with change in hormones, yes, there are things that we can do. Strength training is critical for both sexes. Now it may not feel as good when you're going through hormonal changes. You may not feel as energetic to get to the gym. You may not have as good of a performance when you're at the gym. You may notice you're not as stronger as you used to be. But that is focusing too much on the outcome and not enough on the process, because in common self-help and recovery circles the saying is feelings aren't facts. So we have to remember that, even though we may not be feeling it, meaning that we see a decrease in our gym performance, whether we are male or female, we notice that we're not pressing the same weight we used to, or squatting the same weight or whatever, or just maybe you don't feel as strong in the gym. That is okay. Doing strength training is still going to help.
Speaker 1:Now we know, when you train anaerobically, whether you be a male or a female, your acute level of testosterone increases. What that means is we don't produce testosterone, resting or higher levels of resting testosterone when we strength train. That's a myth, like even when you're in your 20s. That does not happen. When we see changes in testosterone and human growth hormone, which are the two basically anabolic hormones that increase muscle mass and drive and things like that, it happens acutely, which means at the time. So when we strength train, when we are in our anaerobic system, we are, at least for a brief period, flooding our system with a little more testosterone than when we are at rest. Now, there are ways to train for that, though, so there are specific ways to train. So if you are, you know, say, a real old school strength athlete mostly male will do this, and they go to the gym and they work on pure strength like a bench press and try to do two or three repetitions, and then they take a long break afterwards. Well, that's not going to have a very big impact on your hormonal system.
Speaker 1:Research has found that the better way to strength train when we are trying to manipulate our endocrine system, our hormones, is to do moderately high reps. So moderate rep range, say like 8 to 15, at an intensity that matches that level, meaning as close as you can get to fatigue, in that the set should last roughly a minute and you should have lower rest times. That seems to produce more good hormones than basic, pure strength training and that's really the way most people train. So don't get too wrapped up into that if you kind of miss some of the particulars on that, because that is how most adults do train at the gym. They do moderately high reps, again 8 to 15. The rep intensity should match that. I've talked about that before. We shouldn't just do a load. That's too easy for that rep range and people typically move from one exercise to the next or take a very brief break in between those sets. That's how we train to influence our endocrine system and it's kind of very similar to how a bodybuilder would train to increase their muscle mass. Bodybuilder would train to increase their muscle mass, and the reason for that is because they also want high levels of testosterone, human growth hormone and insulin, growth factor F, which are positive growth hormones. Are going to happen from that more bodybuilding higher rep, moderate load, low rest training. Also, we want to try to use the larger muscle groups in what we call multi-joint exercises, because we do want to produce higher levels of intensity. All right, so that is rule number one Strength train like a bodybuilder, would I suggest three times a week of strength training for about 30 minutes, because one thing we have to be very careful with and this is a big part of what I can speak to you about as far as exercise and menopause is you don't want to overtrain.
Speaker 1:So doing exercise after exercise or too long in the gym, too many sets, is going to be counterproductive. So I would try to not exceed 20 sets or so in the gym when you strength train, which will be somewhere around 30 minutes. We don't want to overtrain, we want to stimulate and not annihilate. That is a very, very important part of this. All right, so that is part one Strength train three times a week, moderate loads, low rest, moderate reps. Keep it to 30 minutes or 20 sets or so. Get out, all right, don't over train male or female. You will just see your hormones drop even lower if you do. All right Now, cardio respiratory wise, we want to make sure we also train the aerobic system, which is where cardio respiratory exercise comes in.
Speaker 1:Which is where cardio respiratory exercise comes in. Again, though, the biggest part of this is, yes, we need to do it, but no, we don't need to overtrain. Somebody going through menopause really should not be doing real long, slow distance cardio. In other words, look, going for a nice long walk is one thing. I wouldn't really call that LSD cardio, but doing a 90 minute jog where you're in that moderate range of your heart rates up pretty high, but not too high where you can't sustain it, is really going to overtrain most people. So, you know, everybody has to worry about the balance between stimulate, not annihilate, but people that are suffering some hormonal decline need to worry about it even more. I mean, when you see competitive endurance athletes going through menopause, you know, or males that go through it, I mean they just beat their bodies to shreds because they know that exercise makes them feel better. So they get out and they'll go for a long run like they used to, but then they're just going to feel zapped and it's almost going to cause some like depressive type symptoms if they're not careful.
Speaker 1:So two things you can do Moderate aerobic exercise, meaning you know, let's say, if you're a runner, somewhere in the two to four mile range is going to be more beneficial for you than maybe a 10 mile run and if you're going. Well, I do endurance and I train for marathons. Okay, I'm not going to tell you what to do, I'm just telling you what is best for menopause and exercise. I mean, you can do that, but you're just going to have to understand that there's no free lunches. So you're doing that and you might suffer some more decline due to it, all right. So it's a very, very slippery slope. You're on when you are going through hormonal changes and you're pushing. You're burning the candle at both ends or you're pushing too hard, all right.
Speaker 1:So you can do that moderate cardio, the two to four miles at a moderate pace, and if that sounds like a lot because you're not doing it, well, then that is a lot if you're not doing it. But I'm just saying that moderate for you, 30 to 40 minutes at a moderate intensity is one thing you can do. Or studies have shown that people that do more HIIT training or more interval training when they're going through hormonal decline can be beneficial because you don't have to spend as much time doing it. So you can do 20 minute sessions of, say, higher intensity exercise with breaks. That's what interval training is. So it would be like maybe if I'm just using the walking running example it could be like a warm-up and then a 30 minute pretty high tempo-tempo pace run and then a 90-second walk and do that for 20 minutes. That has shown to be beneficial because you're maintaining your cardiovascular system and your fitness and you're probably getting some endorphins. So some runners high, but you're not beating the snot out of your body and your body's going to recover from it very well. Snot out of your body and your body's going to recover from it very well. So studies have shown that hormonally, as long as you don't overdo intervals, your body recovers from it very well. How many days for cardio? Well, it kind of depends on how many days you're strength training, but ideally three days a week of strength training and three to four days of that cardio should absolutely be enough to help you through the tough times.
Speaker 1:All right Food. Wise Food is your friend, and you know many people that go through menopause gain weight, and it's common because the hormone changes and it's just tough. And if you've known any women or men that have gone through hormonal changes, you know that weight gain is pretty common. With it or not being able to lose the weight as fast as you once did especially women is they start to starve themselves. They don't eat nearly enough because they see the pounds going up a little bit and of course you know, like everybody, they're going to freak out a little bit. And then what do people do that are 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 starve yourself, you want to eat. You just want to eat healthy foods.
Speaker 1:I don't recommend counting things when you're going through menopause. If it works for you, great, but I don't recommend it. I recommend instead just taking a lifestyle change and eating nutritious foods. Fuel your body, be your body's best friend. If you're not, who's going to be? Think about the foods that are going to make your body healthier.
Speaker 1:Junk food isn't going to make you feel any better. The last thing you want to do is to get other endocrine systems fired up with low blood sugar or high blood sugar. So you want to make sure that you're not eating a lot of processed carbohydrates, not a lot of junk carbs. It doesn't mean don't eat carbs, don't eat carbs, for goodness sakes. Eat your fruits, eat your vegetables, eat your beans, eat your quinoa, eat your brown rice, eat your sweet potatoes. Of course, that's not junk food. Eat food. That's going to fuel your body, fuel your mind, make you feel good about yourself because you're eating healthfully. That's what we need to do nutritionally during hormonal changes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I don't recommend counting. I really don't. I think there's enough going on. I think it's better to just say you know what. I'm not going to pay too much attention to the scale right now. I'm going to exercise, like Coach Rob and others have told me to do, and I'm going to do the best I can to eat what we call nutrient-dense foods, and nutrient-dense foods are foods that are either high in lean proteins or high in fiber and complex carbohydrates and low in sugar, and I mean processed sugar. Remember the banana thing? We're not having any trouble eating bananas. Okay, that was from a previous podcast.
Speaker 1:But anyway, processed sugar we want to try to eliminate. Eat regular fruit sugar, don't worry about that. But we want to avoid high fatty foods and high processed sugary foods and we want to eat lean protein sources, whether it be plant or whatever, and fibrous complex carbohydrates. Okay, those are what we call nutrient dense foods. Choose them Every meal the best you can.
Speaker 1:Nobody's perfect. You're going to slip, you're going to have a treat, don't worry about it. It's your food staples. You want to try to change the same 18 to 20 food sources that most people eat every day, between 18 and 20. Pick out what those are. If you see any calorically dense foods that means processed sugars or high in fat try to eliminate them.
Speaker 1:You know again, treat here and there. It's not what I'm talking about. Try to eliminate them as far as your 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. Weigh when you see your doctor, all right, let them talk to you. Treat it the way I told you to treat it physically, with exercise and diet, and follow your doctor's recommendations. All right, next step stress and sleep. You've got to do the best you can to get some good sleep. And I know, you know I get it, it's hard. People tell you that and then you don't sleep. I totally get it. And again, you need to talk to your physician about that. But you do have control over your bedtime activities.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't suggest watching the news and things that are just going to rile you up in the evening. People say all the time oh, I watch the news as entertainment, it doesn't bother me. Yes, it does. I mean, do you know anything about psychology? We forget about Freud, don't? We People have fallen asleep too much on old Freud because he had a couple crazy views. He did, but he also was very smart and he was the first person to start talking to us about our unconscious and subconscious brain. And let me tell you, even though you think it's not bothering you, when you see some disasters or you see shootings, you see war, you know. You see crisis, you see financial problems, it bothers you, even if you say it doesn't. So you know, if you're mad at me because you work for you know WESH TV2 or whatever, okay, well, I'll own it.
Speaker 1:But my suggestion is really protect what you watch in the evening. You know, watch some comforting sports or TV that you really enjoy. You know some good old-fashioned sitcoms. You know maybe an engaging show on Netflix or something, but something that doesn't upset you. And if anything is even potentially upsetting to you and again you have to remember you may not know that it is have you ever watched something at night and had a dream about it? I mean, gosh, I did just the other day and I'm like that must have bothered me more than I thought because that was a really weird dream. Well, if you remember, one of Freud's famous books is called the Interpretation of Dreams.
Speaker 1:I mean, a lot of things go into our unconscious and then it works its way into our subconscious and then we can't sleep and we get agitated. So you got to watch your nighttime routine. You also have to make sure that you've eaten a healthy dinner at night. You want to make sure that you're not one of those freaking out, skipping dinners. That's not going to help you go to sleep when you are basically going through some stomach growling. That's not good. And it's also not good to eat two to three hours before bedtime because your blood sugar might spike and that might affect your sleep. So those are things we want to work on. Again, we may not control perfectly how well we can sleep, but I believe we can control our evening and nighttime routine. We have control over that right.
Speaker 1:Many physicians recommend a nice warm bath before bed. Calm yourself down, have some relaxing tea, relax. That could be something you throw in. For me, conversation's great, you know, I like to talk, I like to get stuff off my chest, I like to be able to vent. That works for me very well. I suggest that with your friends, with your partner, with your kids. You know, obviously, don't share things with your kids, that's going to stress them out, but I think you get the point on this.
Speaker 1:Journaling is another way to vent. If you don't share things with your kids, that's going to stress them out, but I think you get the point on this. Journaling is another way to vent. If you don't like talking to people, I like to journal. I'll journal either at night or in the morning and it helps. And I think if you're going through any hormonal decline, it will help quite a bit to help you get a good night's rest. All right, so sleep is very, very critical.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the last piece to this and again, it's out of my scope of practice so I can't tell you how to do it, but I will suggest what you should do, and that is get counseling. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going and getting counseling and talking about the different things that are coming up, you know, once you're getting older and once, about the different things that are coming up, you know, once you're getting older and once you have some hormonal decline, there's nothing wrong with that. I would absolutely suggest that you do that. Some people don't like to admit what's going on, but again, we have to go back to Freud and remember, and not just Freud. I mean, there's so many different psychologists that talk about the unconscious and the subconscious, so I'm throwing them out there. I'm a psych major, so you know he's the first one I studied so.
Speaker 1:But you know, we think we can handle things like we really believe we can, and there's nothing wrong with having a positive, confident attitude, positive, confident attitude. But you know there is also nothing wrong with asking for help either, and getting some help I mean talk therapy is so darn effective that I 100% suggest it. You know, I mean, and that's what we can do. These are the things we have control over. We can exercise appropriately, we can see our physicians and take their advice, we can make sure we're eating properly and we can make sure we're getting our rest and we're not stressing ourselves out, burning the candle at both ends, and we can seek some guidance of some kind or 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've been doing this for a long time, so I've heard many, many, many, many, many different women through the years as they go through menopause, and you know they're frustrated, and you know I'm one of the first people they call when it comes to weight.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's frustrating for me too, because I can give them some advice and we can do all the stuff we have to do. But at the same time, you know the hormones are very, very powerful and there's only so much we're going to do, and so I usually suggest look, let's do everything we can to get healthy. And so I usually suggest look, let's do everything we can to get healthy, but let's not, you know, think about weight loss during this part. Let's focus more on getting our hormones as balanced as we can be, because if we get everything as balanced as we can be and they can be then good things will start to happen. So instead of obsessing over this scale, let's worry more about getting our balance of our hormones in check to the best of our abilities. And I'll tell clients that, and you know, some will listen and some will listen intently and they'll do everything, and then some, you know, get frustrated and go to more extreme measures to lose weight. But that's usually not the way to go. I've never seen that be successful for anybody.
Speaker 1:Hope this helps. Thanks for the question. Please email this text it to people. Please hit subscribe if you're not already subscribed. It helps me greatly and it helps me continue to be able to do this and I would appreciate it. Until next time, be max fit and be max well. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the premier garage door company in Volusia County, with the best product, with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout 386-222-3165.
