Whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to peak, physically, by age thirty five.
If you’re reading this, then, yes, you may be past thirty five, but you are certainly not ‘passed it’ in terms of potential to be the strongest, fittest, fiercest ‘you’ of your entire life.
I am a huge believer in the power of now.
By all means, lament the fact that you are well over thirty five and on a downward spiral towards old age. Choose diminishment, if passivity is your approach. OR, RIGHT NOW, FLEX YOUR MENOPAUSAL MUSCLE from where you are currently at and change your trajectory towards strength, power and endless positivity. You are still young. You can still achieve the fittest body of your life. It is all there for the doing!
Exercise is hugely underrated in terms of mental and psychological wellbeing.
Of course its purpose, in the context of weight management, is to expend calories and tip the balance in favour of ‘calories out’. But there is so much more to the benefits of exercise. It is so easy to get distracted by your weight (mid-riff weight being the scourge of menopause) and to think of your excess weight as being the limiting factor to your sense of wellbeing, vitality and happiness in your skin. When you turn this thinking on its head, what you might discover is that the joy of exercise is in the actual feelings generated in the immediate. Weight maintenance or weight loss is but a pleasant side-effect. From these feelings – such as empowerment, a feeling of taking back control of your body, of feeling energised – you could develop, in the immediate aftermath, better habits around food, a more solid sense of self and a sense of ease in your own skin.
What are the benefits of exercise right now when I have never exercised and hate it?
Extreme as this question might seem; it is one I have been asked many times in many ways. Yes, you may have exercised when younger; often because you had free time and attended a class with a friend, or lived conveniently located beside a gym and had the time to engage in activities after the working day. Often, by mid-life, when the concurrent commitments of a busy work-life and home-life coincide you find you have lost the time; the freedom and the interest in exercising consistently. What might start off as a new regime in January has often dwindled by March. When paying up-front for classes becomes a source of stress in itself – the stress of having to now attend - we have a problem.
Where is the joy in exercise? How can I convince myself of the benefits?
You don’t have to! Let the endorphins do the work for you.
If you have a long history of fitness and exercising, or playing sport, then I am talking to the converted, or at least, convertible. If you have never enjoyed exercise or embraced if for its own pleasures then you need, yet again, to trust in the science here; trust me & even trust nike and “Just Do It!” How otherwise would you motivate yourself to walk every day in the pelting rain, cold and wind; agree to outdoor tennis competitions in crazy conditions and take a dip every week of the year in the unforgiving Atlantic, unless you were addicted to endorphins? The bouquet of a wet Labrador; the sorry state of once pink walking shoes and a fear of the cold would make these outings intolerable were it not for the hit of endorphins they produce.…..known as nature’s endogenous morphine.
According to Harvard Health “About 20 different types of endorphins exist. The best studied of these is beta-endorphin, which is the one associated with the runner’s high. We also release endorphins when we laugh, fall in love, have sex, and even eat a delicious meal”.
Convince me about the joy of exercise!
It is moderate intensity exercise that tends to release the most endorphins. What is moderate for you might be high for someone else and lower for another, dependent on fitness levels. Moderate intensity relates to your heart rate. This means that you exercise at a rate that gets your heart to 50 – 60% higher than your resting rate; maybe as high as 70%, but not higher. This might entail walking two miles (4.5km) in thirty minutes, as an example, or partaking of an aerobics class (virtual or in person) for thirty minutes, to begin with. This needs not be more complicated than that.
We don’t need to leave our home to exercise (an issue for many women I have coached over the years – where their confidence is so low that even the donning of ‘gear’ can be a deterrent); as we have such an array of programming and Apps at our disposal. In terms of gear; we need the bare minimum; a pair of well-fitting walking or running shoes is absolutely adequate. Equally, any athleisure gear, that is comfy and easily laundered, is bang on the money. The only rule, is that there are no rules!
Start from where you are!
If possible and for preference, it will do you the world of good to get out of the house and exercise out of doors. A moderate-intensity walk every day for, ideally, forty minutes (working up possibly from ten to begin with) will clear your head and stretch your thinking away from your bodily condition and more towards a broader perspective on life. Give yourself space to enjoy exercise for the sake of the activity itself. Expect to love it and it will surely grow on you.
Your bottom-line here is the attainment of a minimum of ten thousand steps per day; with ideally forty minutes worth of them at a moderate-intensity, highly-enjoyable, endorphin-producing rate. From here there is no limit to what you may take on board. You might find yourself mountain-climbing in a year’s time; swimming lengths of a pool like a teen or completing a charity cycle for fun. There are no limits. Just start. Start today. Start from where you are. Ten minutes is great, if no minutes is your norm. There is no end goal. The pleasure is in the fitness itself. Enjoy the journey.
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