Throughout a woman's life and menstrual cycle, oestrogen levels affect collagen levels in the body: High oestrogen causes an increase in collagen.
Collagen has a really positive influence on the body, it's a protective protein which provides a sheath around muscle fibres protecting and supporting them.
You may have noticed, if you're 40+ that you now have a lot more injuries, aches, pains and niggles that don't just heal themselves like they might have in the past?
This is because in peri menopause, our oestrogen levels start to decline, which causes collagen levels to decline too.
We have oestrogen receptor sites in every single joint and muscle, so injuries tend to hang around as we don't have the oestrogen or collagen to be able to help in the healing process.
The other issue with declining oestrogen, is that it makes it more difficult for a person to build or maintain muscle mass.
Oestrogen functions as an anabolic hormone - it helps stimulate muscle growth and maintenance, without it, muscle wastage or sarcopenia is very common.
So with less ability to maintain muscle mass and less ability for muscles to heal, it's essential for women in their forties to not only be proactive in training to build muscle but also to recognise their body's weaknesses and try to avoid injury as much as possible.
A soft tissue injury can be catastrophic to training progress and day to day life for women at this age, as it takes so much longer to heal - sometimes twice the length of time it might have taken 20 years ago!
This is not only due to lower oestrogen and collagen but also the fact that the quality of our tissues naturally declines with age.
We all have problem areas - niggling knees, hips and shoulders are very common, as are pelvic floor dysfunctions - remember your pelvic floor is affected by declining oestrogen levels just like all other muscles, this can make leaking more of an issue and prolapse symptoms too.
If you know you have a problem area, one of the most important things to do is to proactively manage it: Injuries, niggles and weaknesses won't just go away and can get a lot worse in time.
Below are my top tips for maintaining musculoskeletal health in to your 40's:
1) Warm up properly - You may have gotten away with this in the past but failing to warm up muscles and joints will over time lead to injury.
2) Fully mobilise your entire body daily - You need to be moving your body in every direction on a daily basis in order to maintain the range of movement of muscles and joints.
If we lose our range of movement, it becomes easier for us to lose balance, fall and get injured, as it's more difficult to make the necessary adjustments to catch ourselves.
3) Actively strengthening your muscles via resistance training - Strength training doesn't need to involve huge amounts of resistance, it can be achieved using light weights or bodyweight too.
Choose whatever method suits your energy levels and personal preference.
If you opt for lighter weights or body resistance, just increase the number of reps until the muscle is fatigued.
Remember the aim is to fatigue the muscle, which stimulates it to lay down new muscle fibres and this can be achieved either way.
4) Increase protein levels - Eat enough to gain muscle mass.
Protein is made of amino acids which gets broken down to build new muscle tissue.
If you don't have the amino acids available to build muscle then resistance training becomes pointless.
Aim for 1-2g per day per kg of body weight but don't get obsessed with increasing levels too much - excess will always be stored as glycogen or turned to fat.
5) Make sure you sleep and recover well - Research proves that sleep is vital for repair and recovery of muscles and to avoid muscle loss.
Aim for 7-9 hours a night, getting to bed early, ideally by 10pm to ensure you've had enough time in a deep sleep pattern.
6) Be aware of your day to day postures - Some posture changes happen with age but most are down to lifestyle and the positions we put our bodies in.
Spending long periods sitting in a chair is proven to cause drastic changes to posture over time.
Hip flexors get shorter causing back pain, chest muscles tighten and upper back muscles lengthen and weaken, often causing a humpback appearance.
These muscle imbalances make injury more likely, so to avoid them we need to get up and move as much as possible, stretch tight muscles and strengthen weaker muscles.
7) Resistance training to reduce Osteoporosis - Research shows that during peri menopausal years we have a dramatic rate of bone loss, about 1.5% per year which is very fast.
Osteoporosis is somewhat determined by genetics but it can be slowed down or reversed in many women. The best way to achieve this is via resistance training which will rebuild lost bone tissue and prevent further loss.
So in conclusion, please remember that aches and pains are not down necessarily just because of age, they are quite often mechanical issues, a muscle may be too weak or too tight or a joint may be too stiff - and these issues can be fixed via movement and exercise.
Let me help you with this...
Anna xx
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