C (6:35)

The key thing you're. You're saying here, I think, is that you need to be really focused on something that is really heavy. So you're describing something where, you know, you lift up the equivalent of these heavy grocery bags, which, you know, might be your dead lift. You're saying you do three of that. That already was hard, you have a little rest, you do it again, that's getting harder. You want to be able to do that five times. By the time you end up to the fifth try, like, you can't even do it three times. That's almost your test of whether this thing is heavy. And that is a sign that it is really heavy, because, you know, otherwise, you know, that's not very many times you're lifting. And what you're saying is that is really important because suddenly the loss of estrogen means that you did have these hormones that were really supporting, you know, your muscle maintenance. And suddenly that's gone. And so unless you're doing this, you're going to basically be losing muscles where, in fact, I Think you're saying you really want to gain them for the benefits for the rest of your in this sort of perimenopause and menopause state is that.

B (7:37)

Yes. And it is incredibly difficult to build muscle. So one of the biggest myths out there is that if I lift like that, Stacy, I'm going to get super bulky. That is almost impossible if you are perimenopause and a postmenopause. So if we look at like train by Joan or train with Joan, she's a woman who's very inspirational in this space. She was almost obese when she's in her 60s, pre diabetic, not healthy at all. Her daughter has been a personal trainer for most of her adult life. So she got to this crossroads and she turned to her daughter and said, I don't want to go on medication. I need you to make me healthy. So now you fast forward 15 years and she is deadlifting on a regular basis, 80 to 100 kilos. She's bench pressing 50. And she looks amazing and she's super strong, but she is not bulky. If you are really wanting to put that bulk on, you have to do no cardiovascular work. You have to be in the gym for hours at a time every day and you have to eat a lot. And I don't think women listening to this podcast for most general population is going to put that time and commitment in.

C (8:58)

You're saying that for a lot of people there's actually a concern that actually I'm gonna look in this way. I don't want to look and so I can put all these muscles on. And you're saying, truthfully, it's not much of a concern.

B (9:10)

Exactly. And it's driven by a lot of our sociocultural constructs. Right. So if you're going to go join a gym and you're a woman and you walk in and you say, hey, I want to get fit, I want to join your gym. The person who's taking you through the membership person is going to say first, how much weight do you want to lose? And this is the list of our group classes. And there's the cardiovascular equipment. If you're a guy who comes in and and says, hey, I want to get fit and I want to get healthy. What can you do for me? They'll say, okay, well, how much weight do you want to put on muscle wise? Right? And here's the trainer, if you want a trainer. And here's the squat rack and all the weights and go through all the hammer strength equipment. It's Just an automatic thing. So we're conditioned to think that women need to gravitate to cardio to get the fit, tone body that they want. And men should be in the weight room, which is an automatic barrier. When someone like me goes in and says, hey, wait, no, women need to be in the weight room. We need to be lifting. We're not going to get bulky, we're not going to turn into the hulk. But it is so incredibly important for longevity, it's incredibly important for glucose control because the more muscle you have, the better you have. Blood sugar control. We see how it changes the diversity of our gut microbiome, so it improves brain health. And yes, you're going to look better, you're going to get some definition, you're going to be stronger. And it's just so important to break that sociocultural idea that women shouldn't be in the weight room because, you know, they're delicate flowers.

C (10:47)

I think we get a lot of questions from our listeners, actually. Men and women saying that the gym is really intimidating. And particularly they're thinking about the idea of going over to like the place where the weights are, which, by the way, I understand because I think it's quite intimidating when I go into somewhere new because you can see these people hanging around with like enormous muscles and like that feels quite scary as opposed to going and like going on some sort of group class or treadmill or something like that. And so I think that is, that is definitely true. What is your advice for anyone who is maybe, and I think you already talked about, first of all, learning to move, but let's say they've done that part, but they're maybe still feeling intimidated about the idea of going to the gym because they feel like they're not at that. Maybe they don't feel good enough about themselves and they're not confident. What's your advice?

B (11:36)

The next step forward for that is a lot of women through Covid found the love for working out at home. So if we're looking at someone who hasn't, doesn't have a history of lifting, wants to get more involved in it, learning how to move, then there are plenty of apps and online coaching and programs that we can turn to. If you want the group dynamic, you can go to something like Les Mills because they have strength development classes on demand or virtual classes that you can join. Then you can also look at someone like Haley Happens Fitness, where she is specific to training women 40 plus for beginners all the way through. So there's some really fantastic resources as that step to be in the comfort of your own home, getting direction and not having to have a lot of equipment. You can have a dumbbell and a kettlebell, or you can have a backpack that you're putting home things in to add some weight. So there's definitely that stepping stone to do the resistance training without actually having to front up and say, oh, gosh, I need a trainer to go into the weight room. Kind of as my guardian in the we show me what to do. I mean, I've been in a weight room since I was 16, from my sporting history, But I too, can walk into a foreign place and knowing what the gym culture is and walk back and feel intimidated. And I am way older than 16 now, let's put it that way. So I completely understand that fear is real, but it's understanding how your body moves, becoming confident in your movements, and looking at these stepping stones of how do I incorporate this resistance training in if I know I'm not going to go to the gym? And one of the good things about COVID is it opened up this whole parameter of how am I going to do my exercises when I can't get to a gym or I'm locked down and I can't get outside? So there's an influx of really fantastic resources out there.

C (13:36)

I think that's fantastic. I know. I know. The one thing I've also heard a number of other guests talk about exercise outside of this space, talk about is, you know, often, you know, getting a trainer, even for a short period of time for somebody who's new to this, can be really great because it helps you to understand the things you're describing about how to move, gives you the confidence, can help you to understand what to do. And certainly at a personal level, I would say that was sort of transformational for me as someone who had never set foot in a gym basically until they were probably 40. That really enabled that transition, which I would have found very difficult otherwise. But of course, it has a cost. But I think as you're thinking about what you're describing, this is for the rest of your life and the impact that it has on your health. I think that's also something potentially to think about.

B (14:23)

Yeah. I mean, I've done some work with lower socioeconomic classes where there are women who are experiencing the same thing. Menopause is the aging thing. It doesn't discriminate. So we have women who are wanting to get healthy, but they cannot afford to go to a gym. They have kids. Right. So they don't have childcare, but we can go to a playground, right? We can go to a playground and we can use the equipment there as some resistance training. You have monkey bars for pull ups. You have cargo nets for being able to pull yourself up and over. You have the seesaw that you can do with your kid, and you can use it as kind of a jumping square. So there's lots of things that we can do on a playground that incorporates the physical activity that we want that is also free.

A (15:13)

That's all for this week's Recap episode. You can find a link to the full conversation in the episode description. If you want to make smarter food choices for your body and transform your health for life, why not try zoimemp Membership? The first step is easy. Take our free quiz. To find out what Zoe Membership could do for you, Simply go to Zoe.com podcast.