Do hot flashes have you feeling like you want to rip off all your clothes or move to Antarctica?
I get it.
For women in perimenopause with insufferable hot flashes, doing a hot exercise session probably isn’t exactly your idea of a good time.
Of all the natural ways to cool off from hot flashes, exercise is at the top of the list.
Why doing hot exercise helps with hot flashes
Getting hot and sweaty from the inside out can stimulate the hypothalamus, your body’s thermostat. When the hypothalamus is working properly, it does a good job regulating your body temperature all day long.
And the really good news is that research suggests women who exercise have fewer hot flashes than those who do not.
If you move your body in a way that makes you hot and sweaty, that activates your body’s thermostat. By doing heat-building workouts, you trick your body into thinking it’s already hot– so then you have fewer hot flashes.
Exercise in Perimenopause: Fight fire with fire
Doing hot workouts also stimulates your body’s human growth hormone production (HGH). HGH is a necessary part of the hormonal cocktail that prevents weight gain. If you want to reap the benefits of greater natural HGH production, you need to up the intensity of your workouts.
Interval training workouts offer you the hard work and short rest format that will benefit you. That means interval training workouts are an ideal form of exercise for women in perimenopause.
For those of you who work out at home, do not fear! A few simple bodyweight exercises will still offer you a productive challenge. If you need more structure to your workouts, check out Balance Virtual Bootcamp for a series of workouts you can do in your own home with minimal equipment.
Interval workouts like these will get you hot, sweaty, and producing HGH to build muscle and burn fat. So if you’re 40+ and struggling with unexplained weight gain, amp up the intensity of your workouts.
Weights are a great way to build heat
Look around any gym, and you’ll see men 40+ in the weight area, trying to hold on to their glory days. Where are the women?
Most of them are over on the cardio machines, trying to hold on until the “dreadmill” tells them their hour of mindless torture is over.
This cultural arrangement isn’t doing you any favors, Ladies.
I’m here to tell you Cardio Bunnies that you should hop off the machines and hop over to the weights.
If you don’t feel confident working with free weights, you can use weight machines. Most of those have images on the side that show you how they work. I always recommend a session with a trainer so you know your form is correct. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Adding strength training to your workouts will get your internal fire going. Strength training helps you build muscle. Adding muscle has lots of great benefits, including increasing your metabolic rate and helping to strengthen your bones.
Weights > Cardio
There’s another reason you should stop slaving away on the elliptical: long periods of moderately-intense cardio exercise may actually exacerbate unpleasant perimenopausal symptoms.
If you suffer from greater anxiety now that you’re 40+ than you have before, an hour long steady-state cardio workout is sending the wrong message to your body.
While you want your body to be hearing “Get Strong! Fight Fat!” it’s actually hearing “We’re still running away from whatever it is we’ve been running away from for the last hour. More adrenaline! More cortisol!” And that’s exactly what we *don’t* want!
The anxiety and stress your body is feeling is what is fueling increased belly fat and what feels like a slowing metabolism.
So if you’re doing long, steady-state cardio and not seeing any shift in your weight, your body could be responding to your workout thinking you WANT to be running away from something. It produces cortisol, a stress hormone that triggers fat storage around the abdomen.
The good news is that exercise in perimenopause can (and physiologically SHOULD) be done in short, intense bursts. So if you’re drowning in responsibilities and struggle to fit in fitness, know that a 20-minute high-intensity workout (or two 10-minute bouts) will deliver positive results when done on a regular basis.
Just make sure you’re getting hot & sweaty. Burn, baby, burn!
Karen Shopoff Rooff is a certified health coach. The Well Balanced Women blog is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please discuss your health issues with a licensed medical practitioner.
