cmcole
07-05-2006, 11:02 AM
http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=27
Surprisingly, there have been few studies done on menopausal women and exercise. I suspect as the boomers continue to age, we will see much more interest in the subject. Most research has been done on pre- or post-menopausal women. The problem with studying menopausal women as a group is that it is difficult to distinguish the particularities of menopause from the particularities of aging, as well as the individual variation in terms of body weight, physical activity levels, genetic propensities, nutrition, etc. As one writer notes, "Much of what has been considered aging in the past is considered functional disuse today."[1]
The main concern for menopausal and postmenopausal women is the drop in estrogen levels which is associated with bone density loss. This is especially problematic for those women who may have been amenorrheic in their youths, since there is likely some bone density loss which has already taken place. Weight training, however, has been shown to have very beneficial effects irrespective of age. Obviously a menopausal woman isn't going to respond in the same way as a teenage girl, but the positive consequences of weight training are undeniable. Within every age group, active women fare better than inactive women in just about every test. Some studies show that exercise can reduce and/or delay much of the symptomology (hot flashes, anxiety, etc.) associated with menopause.
If one has been inactive, menopause is a good time to become active. It's never too late to begin to strength train and engage in regular exercise. Excess body fat is associate with a host of later-life problems such as heart disease and diabetes. As I have shown in the other articles, increasing one's muscle mass contributes dramatically to a decrease in injuries and chronic problems, as well as to a loss of excess body fat. If you have been inactive for a period of time, make sure to see your doctor for a complete physical before you begin. One important point for aging women: in the calculation of body fat percentages, the same actual caliper measurement (say, 15 mm) will mean different body fat percentage readings depending on age. This is due to inter-abdominal fat deposition with age. In other words, the older you get, the more fat you accumulate on your internal organs as opposed to beneath your skin (subcutaneous fat). Thus the "healthy" range of percentages increases with numerical age.
[1] Peters, Gregory. "Conditioning the Aging Female". The Athletic Woman, ed. Arthur Pearl. USA: Human Kinetics Publishers and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, 1993.
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/menopaus1/a/exercsemeno.htm
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/hc/wom/meno/alert12262003.jsp
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16169.asp
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/pdfs/fitfacts/itemid_91.pdf
http://www.newstarget.com/011643.html
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408896
http://holisticonline.com/remedies/hrt/hrt_exercise.htm
Surprisingly, there have been few studies done on menopausal women and exercise. I suspect as the boomers continue to age, we will see much more interest in the subject. Most research has been done on pre- or post-menopausal women. The problem with studying menopausal women as a group is that it is difficult to distinguish the particularities of menopause from the particularities of aging, as well as the individual variation in terms of body weight, physical activity levels, genetic propensities, nutrition, etc. As one writer notes, "Much of what has been considered aging in the past is considered functional disuse today."[1]
The main concern for menopausal and postmenopausal women is the drop in estrogen levels which is associated with bone density loss. This is especially problematic for those women who may have been amenorrheic in their youths, since there is likely some bone density loss which has already taken place. Weight training, however, has been shown to have very beneficial effects irrespective of age. Obviously a menopausal woman isn't going to respond in the same way as a teenage girl, but the positive consequences of weight training are undeniable. Within every age group, active women fare better than inactive women in just about every test. Some studies show that exercise can reduce and/or delay much of the symptomology (hot flashes, anxiety, etc.) associated with menopause.
If one has been inactive, menopause is a good time to become active. It's never too late to begin to strength train and engage in regular exercise. Excess body fat is associate with a host of later-life problems such as heart disease and diabetes. As I have shown in the other articles, increasing one's muscle mass contributes dramatically to a decrease in injuries and chronic problems, as well as to a loss of excess body fat. If you have been inactive for a period of time, make sure to see your doctor for a complete physical before you begin. One important point for aging women: in the calculation of body fat percentages, the same actual caliper measurement (say, 15 mm) will mean different body fat percentage readings depending on age. This is due to inter-abdominal fat deposition with age. In other words, the older you get, the more fat you accumulate on your internal organs as opposed to beneath your skin (subcutaneous fat). Thus the "healthy" range of percentages increases with numerical age.
[1] Peters, Gregory. "Conditioning the Aging Female". The Athletic Woman, ed. Arthur Pearl. USA: Human Kinetics Publishers and the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, 1993.
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/menopaus1/a/exercsemeno.htm
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/hc/wom/meno/alert12262003.jsp
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art16169.asp
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/pdfs/fitfacts/itemid_91.pdf
http://www.newstarget.com/011643.html
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408896
http://holisticonline.com/remedies/hrt/hrt_exercise.htm