419. Why It's Important to Adjust Exercises Around Menopause

00:00

Lesley and Brad recap an insightful conversation with Dr. Jan Schroeder, Ph.D., an expert in exercise physiology, focusing on fitness and self-care during perimenopause. This episode offers actionable insights on how to adapt your exercise routine and lifestyle habits to support your health during this transition.

If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co.

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In this episode you will learn about:

Pros and cons of using the AeroPilates reformer for home practice.
The impact of perimenopause on women’s reduced physical activities.
Understanding the role of cortisol in your body during menopause
Adjusting workout routines to align with your body's changing needs.
Why crucial to give yourself permission to adjust your fitness goals.

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Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00

She advocates that you have to have a holistic approach to combining exercise, nutrition and hormonal management to navigate menopause effectively. And she really gave us some tools on just adjusting our behavior so it's not like this negative thing, but actually it supports these changes, because these changes don't have to be a bad thing. There's positives to it as well.

Lesley Logan 0:20

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.

Lesley Logan 1:01

Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I

are going to dig into the implementable convo I had with Jan Schroeder in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to this one, you should go back and listen. It's a perimenopause one, guys, we finally got someone who really is like a wealth of knowledge in this area and on a specific niche of it. And I'm so, so excited for it to hear, for you to hear all of it. So anyways, you're gonna want to listen to this and listen to that. Today is September 12th 2024 and it's Are You Okay Day. So the history of Are You Okay Day, in 1995 Barry Larkin's death by suicide left his family and friends in deep grief and with unanswered questions. In 2009, his son, Gavin Larkin, chose to do something about his father's death. He came up with just one question to honor his father and prevent more suicides: "Are you okay?" Gavin and a few of his friends decided to turn it into a national campaign from this realization and with their expertise and passion, R U OK? was born. So Gavin actually passed away in 2011 but truly held onto the belief that a conversation could change a life. His legacy is now a national conversation movement. R U OK? is a harm and suicide prevention charity that encourages people to have conversations that help others and themselves navigate the difficult times in their lives. You can learn more about R U OK? on the thing, it's really wonderful what they're doing. There's also some really other amazing charities. Our friend, Mai, is actually part of the Nevada suicide prevention.

Brad Crowell 2:23

Yeah, it's ruok.org and I think it's ..org.au

Lesley Logan 2:28

Awesome.

Brad Crowell 2:29

And that's A, not A-R-E, it's the letters R and then the letter U, ruok.org.au

Speaker 1 2:37

There's also, in the States, there's the AFSP and this one, you can learn more about suicide. You can learn how to help prevent it. And usually, different states have their own local organizations of those. So, really important and if you are needing a phone number, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) is the phone number you can call for prevention, lifeline for suicide. And there's also a lot more information on calling it death by suicide or died by suicide, because there's a lot more research around why this is happening, how this is going on. And it's not as selfish as we have come to think. So it's really, really important that you check that out. All right, some upcoming events and travel. Like we said last week, we're kind of sitting around and that and in Las Vegas and enjoying the best time of the weather that is here. But we're also thinking big time about 2025 because it's gonna be here before we know it. And a lot of the things we work on are years in the making. So eLevate, which is our mentorship program, that is something we actually accept applications for early, because it's a big program, and we wanna make sure

Brad Crowell 3:39

It's a commitment, it's a, you know, the transformation that you are going to get is massive.

Speaker 1 3:45

And it also is something that will continue to change and evolve in your life over time. So it's not like you just do it for nine months and it's over. There's like, more that you get out of it. It's like a fine wine, it just, or a tequila, right? So if you are a teacher interested in our mentorship program, go to lesleylogan.co/elevate and you can learn more about it. You can hear what our past grads had to say. We've now had 49 people do the program, 50 people.

Brad Crowell 4:10

Yeah,Something like that.

Lesley Logan 4:10

Yeah. And I'm, just because we keep the groups nice and small. So I'm really, really excited for 2025. Also in 2025 is our February Cambodia retreat.

Brad Crowell 4:18

Yeah, come join us.

Lesley Logan 4:19

Oh, my God. I cannot wait to spend a week with the people who have signed up. I'm really, really excited to get to know them more. We do Pilates classes, we tour temples, we go to Lotus farms.

Brad Crowell 4:27

We had two more sign up. It's gonna be great.

Lesley Logan 4:28

I know it's gonna be so amazing. So crowsnestretreats.com is where you can get more information on the retreat. And by the way, like you can come straight to Cambodia and leave and be home and only miss like eight days of your busy life, or you can hit Thailand or Laos or Vietnam on your way in or your way out, and like, really make Southeast Asia a tour and a trip. And we curate the week for you on this retreat. It's really fun. We do breath work. We do a lot of work on life balance and things like that. Plus we get to enjoy a beautiful country.

Brad Crowell 4:32

Plus lots of Pilates.

Lesley Logan 4:54

Lots of Pilates. And because you are listening to this, you might actually be a little Pi-curious, Pilates curious. And so we hope that you check out onlinepilatesclasses.com as a way to get more Pilates in your life. We really do pride ourselves in making it easy and accessible to get accountability and community and feedback on your form at OPC. So go to opc.me/40 because you can take Pilates classes from us in our app. You can talk to us about the class in our app, and you can celebrate others in there as well.

Brad Crowell 5:32

And if you're a business owner, whether that's a super small business owner just getting started, maybe you have one home client or something like that, all the way to I've got multiple studios. If you're feeling stuck with your money, I want you to come join me for a free webinar that I'm hosting called the Pilates Studio Growth Accelerator. And we're going to be uncovering three big secrets that we've come to realize over the years after having coached more than 2000 businesses coming through our coaching program, join me at prfit.biz/accelerator. That's profit without the O dot biz slash accelerator to sign up for free.

Lesley Logan 6:09

All right, before we get into the amazing conversation, I had with Jan about our fitness and perimenopause, we've got an audience question to answer, yes?

Brad Crowell 6:16

Yeah, we sure do. "Is the AeroPilates reformer sufficient for reformer training in a small space or a piece of junk, and I should just try to find a legit reformer somewhere else to practice with?" asks @etain.pilates on the YouTube.

Speaker 1 6:31

Yeah. So we actually even went deep into discussion, because I had several questions about affordable reformers for home practice and things like that. So there is an actual long form answer to this question, and I'm going to give you a snippet of it, and hopefully, if you need more information, you go watch that. Actually I have two videos. We have one on how to choose reformer for at home, and then we have me answering this question, like, how do I find affordable reformer at home? So I'm not going to call anything junk, especially when I don't know why it was created. Something that's really important to note is that Pilates equipment is typically created for the style of Pilates that's designed to go on it. Just like a treadmill or a bike or, you know, any kind of fitness thing, it is created for the style of work that you're going to do on it. So for me, if you are trying to do Pilates that's more classical or even typical contemporary I'm not talking like athletic reformer, because I don't know more about that. Then I don't know that the AeroPilates is going to be sufficient enough for home practice, because it's going to limit you, and it's going to change things in a way that you can't modify. So the foot bar, for example, it's not going to be the angle you're used to when you teach or you go to a studio, the straps, the handles, the bungee cord versus spring. So I'm not going to say it's junk. I'm going to say that if you are trying to deepen your reformer practice, it's going to be like you don't see sprinters for the Olympics training on ice skates. They don't. Right? It's just, there's nothing wrong with ice skates.

Brad Crowell 7:57

I think a better comparison there would be, they're not training in a walking shoe, they're training in a running shoe.

Lesley Logan 8:05

Correct. You're correct. Okay, that's a better example.

Brad Crowell 8:07

They are certainly not training on ice skates. Obviously, you're you're not going to try to do Pilates on a trampoline.

Speaker 1 8:11

Fair, fair, fair, a better analogy. Kind of come up things on the spot, some, they can't all be brilliant, but you're correct. Like, the sprinters are not in, they're not even in regular running shoes but they're in track shoes with like.

Brad Crowell 8:11

That's actually the best analogy. They're not training in running shoes, they're training in sprinting shoes.

Speaker 1 8:27

We got that, we got we got there, we got there. So what I would say is I would find a studio that you can rent space at and abuse theirs, or I would find a used reformer that truly is more like what you're used to and accustomed to and make it a piece of furniture in your home. People are not expecting homes to look like hotels. They expect homes to look like things you live in, so get the one you like. That's my answer. If you want to get a discount on a Balanced Body or Contrology piece, you can check out opc.me/perks, we do have discount links on all of that stuff.

Brad Crowell 8:58

Yeah. And if you're trying to find our YouTube channel, just go to opc.me/yt. All right. Well, thanks for asking that question. If you have questions that you'd like to ask, feel free to text us at 310-905-5534, or hit us up on Instagram. Just that. Mention us and fire away. Stick around. We'll be right back.

Brad Crowell 9:17

All right. Now, let's talk about Jan Schroeder. Dr. Jan Schroeder is a professor at Long Beach State University and coordinator of their unique Bachelor of Science in fitness. So you can literally go to college for fitness. And that's.

Lesley Logan 9:33

It's like, one of the only places you can do that.

Brad Crowell 9:35

I think she said it is the only place.

Lesley Logan 9:37

Yes, yes. Oh, shout out to Michelle Sims (inaudible), she connected me with Jan because she said is there anything you need? I'm like, yeah, I need two people. I need people on perimenopause, who do you know?

Brad Crowell 9:46

Yeah, so Jan, Dr. Schroeder has a PhD in exercise physiology and she's passionate about educating women on the importance of personalized fitness strategies, overall well-being and self-care during and after menopause. She encourages women to prioritize their health, understand the changes in their bodies, and adapt exercise and lifestyle habits tailored to their physiological, social and psychological needs.

Lesley Logan 10:12

Just, okay, was, I found it really enlightening. I felt like there was so much permission. I found like she had so much information. There's a lot of people who are out there now talk about perimenopause, and I'm loving how much advice and information out there. I thought I was like, oh my god, I'm going through it early. I got some help from Femgevity, and I'm not, but I actually do have some support, some bio identicals to just enjoy my life and keep a baseline. But she talked about, like, how we don't really need to, like, go, oh my god, I'm going through this. I can't go, there's so much support out there. But a lot of times the things that we are doing as we go through perimenopause and into menopause are actually giving us reverse results we want. So she specifically took a little lens of fitness. And when you are in perimenopause and post-winter and like, winter menopausal because your hormones change, she advocates that you have to have a holistic approach to combining exercise, nutrition and hormonal management to navigate menopause effectively. And she really gave us some tools on like just adjusting our behavior. So it's not like this negative thing, but actually it supports these changes, because these changes don't have to be a bad thing. There's positives to it as well.

Brad Crowell 11:21

Yeah, that was one of the biggest things she was talking about. Is that we only ever seen to hear or talk or think about the negatives, and we very rarely think about the positives of it.

Lesley Logan 11:35

I also just want to say, like, I love that what she talked about, like a 40-minute workouts or less, working out in the morning, doing different things that can actually support so that the workouts you're doing are supporting your health, your longevity, your cardiovascular system, your bones, if weight loss is something you're wanting to do, those are all really important things. And the world is set up with these hour-long classes, high-intensity classes, and we've got women over 40 doing these crazy metabolic workouts when really they need some strength. They need some move meditation. And so I was like, patting myself on the back. I'm like, OPC is 30-minute classes, just saying, and you can do when you want.

Brad Crowell 12:15

Well, I thought something that was really interesting was she talked about this natural inclination that we have to we, meaning women who are going through menopause, that they have, as they hit menopause, they just stop moving.

Lesley Logan 12:30

It's a real it was really interesting. The part of the brain that just goes, okay, I'm not gonna tell you to get up.

Brad Crowell 12:35

Yeah, she said the stats are 40% less movement typically as a woman is hitting menopause, and I don't know if that's just built into how we are, or if it's like, oh, this societally adopted thing of like, oh, I hit this phase in my life and I'm gonna just stop now.

Lesley Logan 12:52

It did. And she said it doesn't even sound like it was a conscious thing. It's like

Brad Crowell 12:55

(Inaudible) she said women tend to sit more. They're just sitting more. And she said, it's really important to start paying attention to those things using a fitness tracker or a journal, so that you can start to track yourself and be like, oh, wow. I used to get 10,000 steps, and now I'm getting 6000 steps. How did I end up doing that? Right? So we use an aura ring. Can't give you a link to it, really, it's not that easy to do that, but the Oura ring, it connects to your health app on your phone, and it tracks a whole lot of different things. But she said, be mindful. Jot those things down. She said it is actually reduced activity level is dictated by estrogen. So yeah, you're right. It doesn't seem like it's a conscious thing. She explained, the estrogen affects different tissues in the brain, especially the hypothalamus, which is responsible for how much food you eat, how hungry you feel, how much energy you are feeling like you can expend, want to expend. She said, when we take estrogen away through menopause, what the brain does is the hypothalamus cannot regulate these things anymore the way you used to. So it's important for you to consciously regulate them yourself. Be aware of that stuff. So yeah, I mean, I found that really intriguing. Stick around. We'll be right back.

Brad Crowell 14:08

All right, welcome back. So finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Dr. Jan Schroeder? She advised against long duration cardio workouts during menopause. And y'all, we talked about this about a million times that the 80s were all about running and cardio, and that was how you're gonna lose weight and it has been busted and disproven. That is not reality a million times over. But what I found really interesting was she started to talk about cortisol, and when we hear cortisol, we immediately think negative things. We're like, oh, cortisol bad. And she said, No, actually, cortisol is also good, but we have to regulate how much of it that we have in our system. And as we age, more cortisol is just natural in our bodies. And then through menopause, it can kick it up a notch even more. And she started talking about things like, when are you doing your workout and how are you doing your workout, right? So when she started talking about working out earlier in the day, and then how you're doing your workout, cardio is gonna just add a lot of cortisol. And she said the problem with cortisol is it affects your sleep. You need it in the morning. It gets your brain going. It gets you going. But then in the end of the day, if you're jamming a lot of that, you know, if you're kicking off a lot of cortisol, you're going to have a difficult time sleeping. You're not going to process during sleep, because you're not going to be getting that sleep. And so basically, it becomes a problem if you're adding a lot to it at the end of your day. So she did recommend, this is where she was talking about 40 minutes or less and working out in the morning. And she recommends short bursts of high intensity of interval training to manage cortisol levels that's instead of long, long distance running kind of thing. So what about you?

Lesley Logan 15:53

She said, You need to give yourself permission to back down. Oh, my god, are we sensing a theme of this podcast? So you need to give yourself permission to back down. She said, if you're a runner, that's gonna be too intense for you. So walk and put a weighted vest on. And I added a weighted vest to all of my walks. I'm gonna tell you guys, holy freaking molly, even if the walk is short, I'm no longer like, oh, my own we didn't do long enough walk today because it was too hot. Just adding that weighted vest intensified the walk.

Brad Crowell 16:19

What did you get, 12 pounds?

Lesley Logan 16:20

Not 12 pounds. Yeah.

Brad Crowell 16:22

It's in the middle of the road one, right?

Lesley Logan 16:23

Yeah, yeah. And I think now, hey, my in-laws, I would like a weighted vest where I can add weights or take them off. That's what I want for Christmas. Okay, but, like, maybe I have to look it up, because I'd like it to be a little sexier than what I've got. This is like the ugliest thing, but it's okay. It's fine. The looks don't matter. But it's those kinds of things, like, give yourself permission, that's going to be okay. We don't have to be at our highest level all the the time to be at our best self. And I thought that was really cool. You don't have to be your highest level all the time to be your best self.

Brad Crowell 16:48

I think that is something that's been interesting for me, is being like, hey, today I generally don't feel like I can take on the world when I go to all my workout, right? And then being like, all right, it's all right, if I only do 80% of what I did last week on as far as weightlifting goes, or whatever.

Lesley Logan 17:06

Yeah, and by the way, guys, it's called listening to your body. And also, like, if you keep going, wow, I keep feeling like I can't do it, then that's a sign you do that. Like other things are going on. You need to do some other things if you still have your cycle, ladies, I do use an app I have no affiliation to, called wild.ai that actually helps me figure out what kind of workouts I should be doing based on where I am in my cycle, which is really, really cool, because then what I do is I do more high intensity on the first two weeks-ish, and I do a little longer duration, lower intensity on the last two weeks. It has really helped me manage the cortisol as well. So I'm not doing cortisol when I have progesterone coming in, because that is a bad thing, and that's going to affect my sleep. It's going to affect my cycle. So.

Brad Crowell 17:46

If all this is foreign language to you, we definitely encourage you to connect with Femgevity who has been helping Lesley really wrap her head around all this stuff and understand it for her body.

Lesley Logan 17:56

You can go to beitpod.com/femgevity.

Brad Crowell 17:59

Yeah. F-E-M Femgevity.

Lesley Logan 18:01

Jan, you're brilliant. You gave us such an amazing look on fitness and perimenopause, and really great tips to just stay strong and stay with energy. And I'll also understand what's going on with our body and not see it as such a negative thing. Thank you so much, y'all. How are we going to use these tips in your life? We want to know, so make sure you can't tag Jan, because she's like, non-social, which I think, how cool is that?

Brad Crowell 18:24

So cool. She's a professor. That's amazing. She also still teaches.

Lesley Logan 18:27

She still teaches fitness, yeah, but tag the Be It Pod and then do me a favor, share this with a woman in your life. The thing that is so fascinating to me is that, how many women older than me did not have this information? And no, it wasn't out there. There wasn't a lot of research and we're doing more research now. But also, if we talk about this stuff, then it forces people, companies, other people, to find information for us. We get to demand what they talk about, by the way. So please share this with a friend so that we can change more women's lives and make going through perimenopause and endomenopause, and our years after that really thriving. It doesn't mean like it's bad. There's like, good stuff out there. So until next time, Be It Till You See It.

Brad Crowell 18:32

Bye for now.

Lesley Logan 18:43

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.

Brad Crowell 19:51

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan 19:56

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.

Brad Crowell 20:01

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex, Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan 20:08

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 20:11

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally, to Meredith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.

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