Are you navigating the challenges of perimenopause and menopause? In this episode, Dr. Jan Schroeder, PhD, a fitness expert specializing in women’s health, reveals how to manage hormonal changes, maintain fitness, and stay empowered through menopause. Learn how to take control of your symptoms, prioritize bone and heart health, and embrace your body’s transition with confidence and grace.

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In this episode you will learn about:

How hormonal changes affect fitness during perimenopause and menopause.
Why adjusting cardio workouts can help reduce weight gain and cortisol levels.
The critical importance of heart health and bone health for women in menopause.
Managing menopause symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, and sleep issues with exercise.
Why strength training and shorter, more focused workouts are key to maintaining fitness.

Episode References/Links:

Guest Bio:

Dr. Jan Schroeder is a professor and past Chair of the Department of Kinesiology at Long Beach State University. She coordinates and teaches in the Fitness and Integrated Training Bachelor of Science degree program and has authored over 60+ articles in the area of exercise physiology and fitness. She also owns Garage Girls Fitness, an in-person and online training company focused on group exercise and health and wellness education for women. In 2021, she was named the IDEA Fitness Leader of the Year. Her areas of expertise include older adults, women experiencing the menopausal transition, as well as fitness trends and programming.

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Episode Transcript:

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 0:00

The media around menopause so oftentimes is negative that it doesn't focus on the positive aspects of menopause, like, thank God I no longer have a freaking period. I mean, that's a huge positive. I just sometimes think that the media focuses on all the big changes that can affect us. But they don't focus on, hey, this is just part of life. This is natural. This is not a big deal. We can make it better.

Lesley Logan 0:21

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.

Ladies, this is the episode you have been asking me for. This is the one I have been hearing from you. I already say this when we get to Jan, but I just want you to know. I want you to be excited. I love this interview. I know I love them all. I do. But I love this interview. Shout out to my friend Michelle Sims, who introduced me to Jan Schroeder, our guest today. We are talking perimenopause, menopause and fitness. And I am so, so excited for this, because in being until we see it, when our hormones change, it can be freaking annoying. It can be very difficult. It's a big change. There's a lot you'll learn about yourself. And so what I love is we are now armed with some information, how to listen to our bodies and what our workouts need to look like. And you are going to love this, and it is positive and exciting, and there's not doom and gloom when it comes to perimenopause in this episode. So I cannot wait for you to get this information in your ears. Here is Jan Schroeder.

All right, Be It babe. You asked a lot. I heard you. I told you to be patient. I know patience is not for many of us, but also especially when you want to know about perimenopause. So today's guest is Jan Schroeder. She's amazing. She's a dear friend of one of my friends, and so I'm so glad when the world's collided and we can talk today. Jan, will you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 2:16

Of course. Well, first of all, Lesley, thank you so much for having me on because this is a topic that I love talking about. My name is Dr. Jan Schroeder. I am a professor at Long Beach State University. I am the coordinator for our Bachelor's of Science degree in fitness. We are one of the only universities in the country that has a degree in fitness. So we really focus on training students to go into the fitness industry, which is, I love it, because I developed the degrees.

Lesley Logan 2:47

That's a degree I needed, and I went to college down the street. I should have gone there.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 2:51

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Most of, most universities have an exercise science degree, which is more of a clinical track. You know that students want to go into physical therapy or occupational therapy, but we focus on, let's get them into the industry and teach them how to work with clients, and all of that. The science plus the art of the industry.

Lesley Logan 3:12

Yeah, because working with humans is a whole, I've been teaching Pilates for 16 years, and I'm often a client of a personal trainer or something. I was telling this to my, those in my mentorship today, they're complaining. They said one of their clients is like, complain about being uncomfortable. And I said, Well, change is uncomfortable, and sometimes we have to be honest with people. So there's a difference between pain and discomfort. And I said I had a trainer called me out because I had fractured my tibial plateau, non-surgical, but I was off it for eight weeks, and so I'm starting to squat and lunge again, and I was immediately like, ow, can't do it, it hurts. And he, the first couple of times, changed the exercise, and then one day he's like, so Is it painful, or is it hard? I was like, oh, noted, and that's like long story to talk about your thing, like the art of working with people.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 4:06

Exactly. But it's also what makes it fun. You know?

Lesley Logan 4:11

Never a dull day. So okay, but that means you've been doing this for like, your whole life?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 4:18

Yeah, yes, yes, and we just won't say how long that's been. It's, yeah, I've been in academia for a very long time, but I'm also in the industry. So I teach group exercise. I have my own business that deals with women who are going through the, you know, menopause and beyond. That's a clientele that I love. I love, love, love working with these women, because it's such a unique transition in our life, not just what's going on physiologically, but what's going on socially and psychologically, that it just is exciting. And I find that these women that I work with, they want to know the education behind it. Instead of just, just tell me what to do so I look better, it's now it moves beyond that, tell me what to do and why to do it so that I feel better.

Lesley Logan 5:14

Yeah, I agree. I was telling my team. I was like, OPC is not for the 20-something who needs a burn. This is for the woman who's like she is, she's done on things. She's not, she knows what working out means. She knows she has to do it. She wants to feel seen and supported, and she wants it to make to be amazing in a few minutes she has for the day and like, that is who this is for. But she wants to know how it's working. But I think you know when you're younger, you can get away with, like, not knowing. You could just do anything.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 5:41

Yeah, exactly.

Lesley Logan 5:44

You do get to a point especially, it's also very interesting. I think it really, I don't know, maybe doesn't suck because it's not doom and gloom. But it's interesting that at the point that our bodies are changing is also often, for many women, the point when they have time to think about their bodies and why it changed. So then it's almost like they don't have a baseline to kind of go off of. I don't know. Maybe that's just like something I've noticed.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 6:06

Yeah, and I well, and I also think the, I don't want to call it, I don't know, I'll call it the press, the media, around menopause, so oftentimes is negative that it doesn't focus on the positive aspects of menopause, like, thank God I no longer have a freaking period, you know? I mean, that's a huge positive. I can't get pregnant. That's a good thing. I just sometimes think that the media focuses on all the big changes that can affect us, but they don't focus on, you know, hey, this is just part of life. This is natural. This is not a big deal. We can make it better.

Lesley Logan 6:49

Yeah, I think you're right. First of all, I rarely heard a, I would call when I was younger, they called like, the change. And like, it was a little hush, and you just see grandma, like, just fanning, you know, and you're freezing. And so just very specific examples, and then it's you're on the other side. But no one actually, like, talked about it and I feel what's really cool for me, I'm 41, and I have most of my friends are over 45 there are in their early 50s, and so they are telling me all the things are going through, and they are also telling me, like, hey, I wish I'd done this in my 40s. It would have made my whole life a whole lot easier. And so since you are in fitness, like, our fitness does change, especially when we're in the change. So can we talk a little bit about perimenopause, fitness versus menopause? Like, what happen? Do we get to work out easier (inaudible)?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 7:41

Well, it's, you know, with what our body's going through. So if you think about our physiology, we really peak for our strength, our cardio, respiratory fitness, our range of motion, so our flexibility. We peak in our 20s, which is pretty young to be.

Lesley Logan 8:00

Why do we waste the peak on the 20 year old? She doesn't even know what she wants. She thinks she does, but we all know when we look back.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 8:08

Exactly. So then once we you know, we get past that, late 20s, early 30s, where, okay, now things are a little bit different. And you hear women go, oh yeah, I can't just go run five miles and lose 10 pounds. It's those sorts of things. So what's happening in the body is there's a lot of physiological changes that happen with aging. So just real quickly, my area of expertise, my PhD, is in exercise physiology, with a concentration in gerontology, so with the older adult, so studying how we possibly will decline in our physiology, it's not something that we can stop. We're all aging, but we can make it so we delay it. If you're an elite athlete when you were younger, you're going to see declines. If you didn't exercise, and you start exercising later in life, you may be in the best shape of your entire life because you got stronger, you got fitter, you know. So it's everybody's a little bit different, but with fitness, it does not need to decline, like people think it does, but we also have to take into account, okay, it may be harder to maintain that really elite level of fitness that some people enjoyed, maybe they were an athlete or a fitness competitor or something like that. That's hard to maintain as we get older, to have really good fitness level, not as hard to maintain. So does that make sense?

Lesley Logan 9:46

Yeah, I think I'm with you. People have told me, like, oh, after 30 you're not getting any muscle, and there's all this more doom and gloom. It's like, then what's the point? My dad is 72, the time we're recording this, and he deadlifts almost 300 pounds, he back squats almost 300 pounds, and he benches over 200 and he is 72 and yes, he's not having huge gains whenever we do one rep max is like, it's not like 15, 20 pounds difference, but he's actually getting stronger. It's kind of amazing. So, yeah, it's, I see what you're saying. It's very cool. We have to just have expectations. Like I'm I used to run seven-minute miles. I no longer do.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 10:25

And do you want to?

Lesley Logan 10:27

You know, I don't. Actually once I, here's the thing I noticed that perimenopause, and we'll get there, ladies,but like once I started working out, based on my cycle, I got this app, but it told me, like today, do higher volumes. This is what it looks like, if it's cardio, this is what it looks like when it's strength training. I feel so much better than when I worked out the exact same every single day of every single week, right? Just but me, you know, I again. I'm older now, so my body needs.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 10:54

Yeah. So it's, you know, with working out, as we go through this change, our hormones change, and that affects how we should work out for whatever particular goal it is. So I always talk to my clients about when they're going through this, we want to hit three areas. We need to worry about the symptoms. Maybe you have hot flashes, or maybe you can't sleep, or maybe you have that brain fog or some cognitive difficulties during this. These are all typical symptoms of menopause. So we need to work out to make sure that we're addressing those symptoms, and that's usually what women focus on. I want the symptoms gone, and especially like weight gain. That's a huge thing, because we tend to gain weight around the middle during this time period. But I also have to explain to them, okay, that's fantastic, and we are going to get there. We are going to do that. We're going to work on providing exercises and exercise routines that hope to minimize the symptoms, but we also have to work on our heart health, because as soon as we go through menopause and we lose our estrogen, our risk of heart disease increases dramatically, about five times.

Lesley Logan 12:15

I heard that the other day, and I was like, oh, because you know, like, you're, I'm like, okay, how do we prolong? How do I get menopause (inaudible) I'll have my (inaudible) in my 60s. I'm sorry, I shouldn't beg for it to go away.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 12:28

Yeah, exactly. And the problem is with heart we don't think about it as women. The men have the heart disease. The men have heart attacks. Well, we get right up there with them, the same risk factor, and we do it really quickly. And the scary thing is, is that we don't recognize the signs of heart disease and heart attacks in women, because they're slightly different than men. But not only do we have to worry about heart health, we have to worry about our bones because you break a bone and it's not great.

Lesley Logan 12:57

Yeah, I know. Everyone listening, whenever I teach on tour, whenever I can, I teach this one Pilates marching exercise. It's a standing marching thing, and I would make my 80-year-old client do it all the time, and she came twice a week, and she and she hated it. She rolled her eyes, and she's like, why am I doing this? And I'm like, to be honest, it's because if you fall and break a bone, that's kind of it for you. Like, that's the end. I'm just gonna be, it comes with risk, it's just like, it's a downward spiral. And she was like, you know, whatever, that day she went to Rodeo Drive. So I taught in L.A., she went to Rodeo Drive, and she had her phone in one hand and her purse in the other, and she was walking down those rounded Roman type steps, and she missed one, and her body did the marching thing where it picked its legs up, and she basically ran down the stairs. She did not fall, she did not break anything. And she said, do I have to do it every day? I'm like, yeah. And then I was like, thank God it worked. Yeah, but it's true. Like, it really is. It's a bad thing. So okay, we've heard about bones. We've heard about our heart, and that's like, so yes, we, yes, in perimenopause, a lot of women are like, I would like to not have this. My body is changing, my clothes don't fit, but you're saying we need to have, we have other focuses that are more important.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 14:12

Well, and I'm not saying symptom relief is not important, because it really is. If you have one through menopause, those hot flashes are brutal. They are brutal. A friend of mine explained it to me as she said, my body is internally combusting. And I'm like, yes, that is it. Because it's not like you're hot from being out in the sun, you are on fire. And if we can reduce the severity of that through activity, that's fantastic. If we can improve sleep, which is critical in this stage of our lives through exercise, that is important. So all three areas we gotta kind of keep in the back of her mind of I need to work on my heart, I need to work on my bones, but I also want symptom relief.

Lesley Logan 15:05

Okay. Yeah. And we can do that through fitness? Because that's, okay, hold on, you have to tell me. Because when I read something, it was like, well, the workouts you can do, it almost seemed like baby workout. I was like, this is not gonna work for me. I already work out like, this is that's great if you've never done it, and I'm glad that there's something out there, but like this, I'm not just going to do a little bridge and hope it helps.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 15:26

Exactly, yeah, it's, you know, for those of us who've worked out all of our lives, one, we're a little bit better off in menopause than somebody who starts later. So, if you're, you know, for your listeners, if they're in their late 30s, early 40s, they gotta get on it. They gotta get that regular exercise program going. Because what the research shows is that women who have been active are better at keeping off the weight gain that we see, especially the weight gain around the belly, our bones are better. Our heart disease risk is lower. Symptoms tend to be less severe if we work out prior. You know, if we've, so, continue to work out. That's a good thing.

Lesley Logan 16:13

My ladies who are in that age range, I don't care if you've got kiddos, busy life, this is the time. So yeah.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 16:19

But if we start working out later in life, doesn't mean that, oh well, I'm not going to have those benefits. Yes, you will, I promise you will.

Lesley Logan 16:26

Yeah, good, yeah. So that's not that it's ever too late. It's just that there are some signs that, an evidence that it could be easier if, if you have the option to start, do it. Okay.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 16:37

Right. Yeah. And then for those of us who have worked out consistently. I typically work out 14, 15 hours a week. But, I mean, I'm in the industry. I've always been active, those sorts of things. I can't slack off on that. So what we find is that when we go through menopause, we start to reduce our activity level. We reduce our exercise level. We reduce our what we call spontaneous physical activity. You know, where you're up and cleaning the house, or you're up and gardening or whatever, we reduce that by almost 40%.

Lesley Logan 17:16

Oh, that's going to be, you're gonna start seeing changes everywhere, inside and out, because that's a huge, that's not a little bit, that's a lot.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 17:25

That is a lot and we might not even realize that we're doing it. So you know, keeping a fitness tracker that is letting you know how many steps you get into the day, or keeping a fitness journal where you're jotting down what did I do today? How often did I sit today becomes really important because, you know, a client sometimes will say to me, Jan, I'm doing all the workouts that you've prescribed, but it's not working. And I say to them, what are you doing in the other 23 hours of the day? You know, and that helps them to go, oh, oh, okay, I understand that. And here's the thing, I don't want to blame women for doing that, because that is dictated by estrogen. When we lose estrogen in our brain, so estrogen affects all different tissues in the body. So when we start to lose estrogen, it affects our brain, specifically the hypothalamus. And the hypothalamus is responsible for how much food you eat, how much energy you expend, and when we take estrogen away through menopause, what the brain does is that hypothalamus can't regulate that anymore. We tend to eat more. We tend to move less.

Lesley Logan 18:44

Okay, this is, so it's not a willpower thing. It's like biological and so we have to be conscious about getting up then having that spontaneous movement or tracking things to make sure that whatever, not whatever you were doing before it, but like, just that so you're not doing a 40% drop like you're,

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 19:02

Correct.

Lesley Logan 19:02

That's so huge, you know.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 19:04

It is. And I find that women all the time, they just go, it's my fault. It is not your fault. It is physiology. It is biological that your brain is putting you into this pattern. And so we just have to be extra aware of what we're doing.

Lesley Logan 19:25

Yeah, yeah, intentional. So, okay, so if we are in the perimenopause, so the women who have not had that one year, no cycle, you know? And that's, it's like, it's like a moment that you're menopause, it's so confusing. One day and that's it. And you can be in perimenopause for years.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 19:48

Yeah, years. You can be in perimenopause for up to a decade.

Lesley Logan 19:53

Yeah. Fun. One of my girlfriend says, I'm having hot flashes for her birthday. So enter these inserts that go in your bra. They're from the freezer, and you can stick them in your bra. And she loves them. I was like, I think that would be so hard to put in my bra one day, but I don't have hot flashes. So how should they be thinking about their working out in the perimenopause years?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 20:17

Okay, so a big thing with this working out is a lot of us who are going through menopause right now, we grew up in the 70s and the 80s, and cardio was king. You did high intensity cardio. You did tons of cardio.

Lesley Logan 20:34

I did step classes as a teenager. I was, my mom, I would have step class, Jazzercise. Hello.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 20:41

Exactly. So cardio is, I should say cardio is queen, type of thing, but with it, a lot of times during this stage of our life, we need to actually back off on cardio. And the reason for it is because of our cortisol levels. So cortisol, they call it the stress hormone, and it can lead to weight gain. So cortisol is really, really important in the body, and it gets a lot of bad press, but it's a good hormone. It's that fight or flight hormone, and we naturally have a high and a low during our day with cortisol. We are naturally high in the morning, so that promotes alertness, and it helps us wake up and get our day going. And then throughout the day, cortisol is going to drop. So at night, we want our cortisol low so that we can sleep, otherwise it interferes with our melatonin and a bunch of other hormones. So that's what we want to have happen. But during this phase of our life, a lot of us are working, children, aging parents, you know, maybe financial stress, whatever it is, we have a lot of stressors going on. And when we have stress, cortisol comes up high, and it stays high. That's not good for our body. We are in this constant state of what do I do, where do I go? How do I solve this? As opposed to having a natural high and a natural low. So when we hold on to that cortisol, what it does is it increases our food cravings and it increases belly fat. So exercise is a stress. It is a stressor, but it's a oh, we peak and then we come down. So cortisol comes up while we're exercising, comes down. But if we are stressed, hot flashes are killing us, you know, I'm forgetful, I'm not sleeping, our cortisol level is high, and if we do a lot of cardio on top of that, we're going to really spike, which then can lead to additional issues. So a big thing in this phase is, if you are feeling those symptoms and you're feeling episodic stress or chronic stress, then we need to take that cardio down short bursts. So like a hit training, where you have a high and then a rest period, high and a rest period, but that activity is short, as opposed to doing these long duration exercises that maybe you know you've been used to you might do an hour, hour and a half. We need to cut those down to less than 40 minutes, to help control the cortisol levels. And that is probably the biggest thing I can suggest to women, because they say I gotta do cardio to lose weight, but the cardio could be making you gain weight.

Lesley Logan 23:40

Oh, thank you for sharing this, because it is something that I've been really trying to help because I was a runner. I was a professional, so I ran all the time. And, you know, definitely in my 20s, like I was my leanest when I was running, I still run. I run very differently now, because it's not actually the same, because I run my own business. So there are stressful moments, and then, you know, I can tell, like, if I've run during certain times of my month, because I still have my cycle, it actually makes me feel worse, because I'm, you know, like I got, like it's a whole thing. So I have, I definitely have been trying to change how I see cardio, but also I've been trying to help people and women say, like, you don't have to do these hour-long like, kill yourself at the gym workouts to get results, you can do a lot in a little bit of time. I love that you're saying this. Like, that's hard for the hour-long session people, but like, we've it's because we pay people by the hour. I'm convinced that's why hour-long classes exist. But you know, like, we can give ourselves permission to stretch. You know, take some time to bring that down, instead of being at the gym doing cardio for an hour or some sort of like jazzercise class for 50 minutes.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 24:51

Yeah. So I own a website where I have in-person clients. I have on-demand classes, and most of my classes are 30 to 40 minutes, and I would get the question, why don't you have hour classes? And I'm like, Well, let's talk about hormones. And once you educate women and you give them the permission that it doesn't need to be an hour, then it just is like, oh. Because of all those stresses, you gotta get the kids to baseball practice or or gymnastics, or whatever it may be. And we're tide crunched, and you're, you may be working as well. Half an hour. Awesome. Beautiful. You know? Yeah, and the other important one on especially cardio and resistance training is the timing of them becomes important as well, that ideally, during this time period, we would love to see you working out in the morning, and that's challenging. I get it because I'm teaching at the university in the morning, but when we work out at night, our cortisol levels are going to spike because the exercise this is exact opposite of what we want to have happen, because we want the cortisol levels to drop so that we can have restful sleep. And that's a challenge.

Lesley Logan 26:14

It is a challenge. My husband's going to listen to this. We're going to talk about it, and we work out from 6pm to like five and sometimes 4:30 and I am like, I wish you were a morning workout (inaudible). So just see, hear this babe. He wouldn't, when I say morning, my morning is like 6am but I would love 10. Okay, so we talked about the workouts for before peri, then peri, and once we're there, we obviously worry about our heart, but like, what are some working outs that? Is the workout still 40 minutes or?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 26:51

Yeah, because as we grow older, both men and women, our cortisol levels tend to rise. It's just natural. It's not something you can stop. So ideally, yeah, we still want to keep those workouts to 40 minutes or less, but now, if you're not stressed and you don't have any of the you're sleeping like a baby, you can go and do your two-hour workout. That's fine. If you start to see changes in your body or that's not working for you anymore, then you need to modify. So I don't want to discourage anyone from working those longer endurance sessions, but if you're not seeing what you expect to see, then we can modify and maybe take it down.

Lesley Logan 27:38

Yeah, that's cool. So often people will then blame the food or the other things. And we're not often looking at the thing if they were doing the gym, that could actually be causing not the results we're looking for. Yeah.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 27:51

Yeah, as we say in menopause, and I use that as, from peri to post, we have to focus on three things, the exercise, the nutritional environment. What are we doing? We might not be able to do the same thing that we did when we were in our 20s. And then our hormonal environment. Those three work together to protect the heart. They work together for symptom management, and they work together for our bones. So if you just do one, if you only do exercise, it's not going to work. If you only watch what you eat, it's not going to work. If you ignore your hormonal environment, it's not going to work.

Lesley Logan 28:31

Good luck. We had on a female telemedicine, and I was like, you know, I've had years of low testosterone, and everyone is just like, you need to lift heavy weights. And I'm like, I do. I lift as heavy as I could hold on to in this moment, I am aware I bought it. I'm not the girl who doesn't pick up the big weight like I am bought in. It is not going up. And so I finally had someone listen to me, and holy freaking moly, guys, find someone. I am loving life. This is amazing. Just a little bit of, a little bit, I'm like, I actually, like, I have, I have awareness. And my point is, like, we don't have to suffer with the hormones because we're changing. There are ways of helping your hormonal environment. And one way I heard about hormone therapy, that was a really great way of thinking about it is, it's so you don't feel like you dropped off a cliff. Yep, you're not replacing what you're losing. It's making it so that it's not, it's a slower, it's a slow downhill.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 29:31

Yeah, exactly, yeah. And I am all for bio-identical hormones. They make a big difference. Now some women cannot take them. I took them for probably four or five years. I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I had to come off everything except testosterone. I was allowed to stay on testosterone, and I agree with you, it is, it makes a world of difference, the brain fog lifts, the belly fat decreases, sexual desire goes up, there's all these benefits. Your bone density can even improve, but it's definitely a personal decision that that female has to talk with about, you know, with their clinician. But I mean, science has come a long way. It's not like it was back when our moms were going through menopause, and they were taking hormone replacement therapy that might not have been the best for them.

Lesley Logan 30:28

I know. Have you? Have you read the book Eve?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 30:31

No.

Lesley Logan 30:31

Okay, all right, I just keep asking any amazing woman if they have because maybe they know her. It's me trying to get Cat Bohannon on this show. So, she talked about in her book, you would nerd out about it, by the way, it's about the evolution of female mammalian bodies, and each chapter is a different Eve on different body parts, and one of them's perception. It's a very cool chapter about how we can hear better than men and all these things. But it's true, the dosing on medicines are not usually tested on women ever, and so Ambien is like, the reason why women are, like, wandering around. (inaudible) So it is true, like we are very lucky to be in today's world of, like, what they are doing, and it's only going to get better. But I think what's really cool, and why I wanted to have someone like you on the show is that women are actually talking about perimenopause and menopause now, and we're talking about it in a way so that everyone around us can understand it. Because it's not just for us ladies to understand who are listening, but also the people in your lives, men and women and children, because you are going to be different.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 31:35

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Lesley Logan 31:38

And so it's important for them to, they, I feel like the more educated everyone is on the topic, the better circumstances and environments we can put into place for ourselves. You know?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 31:49

Yeah, I 100% agree, because we need the support of those around us. And I get where it's hard for a male to understand what you're going through, but we need to be able to help them understand, so that they can be supportive.

Lesley Logan 32:05

Yeah, yeah. And I think not just in perimenopause, but that's kind of like all things like, the more that everyone is on understanding what your goals are, the easier it is for you to get where those are. You're so cool. Okay, so what are you most excited about right now, Jan?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 32:19

I'm really, again, a nerd out here, I am so excited about all the new research that's coming through, because, as you said, medications are tested on men. Well, exercise programs are tested on men in research, and now we are finally getting the research on women in perimenopause, on women in menopause with exercise programs in the different formats. And I am just, as opposed to just walking programs. And so, you know, heavy lifting, which we know is, I mean, that is just key to, one, esthetically look good. Two, to be able to perform all your activities of daily living, and it's the thing that's going to protect your bones. So we are now getting that research, and that, to me, is just like, oh, thank God, you know, because I've lectured for years and presented around the world on this type of things, and when it comes to the exercise programs, it's like, well, this is what was done with men. Well, this is done with college-age women, because they're the easiest people to get as subjects. And now we can actually say, okay, you know what those high intensity, long duration cardio sessions not working. We can say that now and that, I just love that, because it gives us a place to go.

Lesley Logan 33:45

Yeah, yeah. It's not just, like, a feeling or like, oh, I've noticed in my own experiences, like, actually, there's research. And now it's not just, like, in this one example. I'm excited about that too, because it's yeah, it's, you know, every workout program I've ever done, I'm like, how, who is this is for? Like, how do we how are we doing that? And then you're like, okay, now I gotta find the female trainer over 40, and I'm gonna do her workout, which is great for her. But like, how do we know, you know what, it's, I want more information. We can have that we can arm people with information, and they can make the best decision for what their life is and what's wrong with them. And I think that we're not guessing, and that's really cool.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 34:20

Yeah, because with menopause in general, you know every client is unique of what their past experiences are, in activity, in their nutritional behavior. Every woman is unique when they go through menopause, some glide through with like they're just sailing through. Others are having some pretty severe symptoms. And so the exercise design can't be the same. You have to look at what is going on, you know, if I'm really stressed, then maybe I should be doing some more mind-body type activities to bring my stress level down. If I'm sailing through I can keep doing what I've been doing for years until something changes.

Lesley Logan 35:03

Yeah, yeah. I think it's, I just love that so much. I really, really do, and this is really exciting. I will have to keep talking with you as more research comes out, as you're willing to share. But it's been great. We're gonna take a brief break, and then we're gonna find out where people can find you, follow you, work with you.

All right, Jan, where do you hang out? Where can people stalk you? Because I have a feeling we've got some ladies who are like, I want to work out with this lady. She gets me.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 35:29

Well, I am in California. I'm in Southern California, and I'm in the Huntington Beach area, but I do have a website where it is education in this area, as well as on-demand workouts that can be put together. So that's at garagegirlsfit.com. I'm not a big social media person. It drives me. I just think it's a time waste, and I'm like, I'm too busy. I got other things I got to do, so I'm not really on social media that much. Just for my mom and dad to see their grandson.

Lesley Logan 36:04

So many people, so jealous of you, including me, like I said before we hit record, like, amazing that you can if it's proof that you can do what you love, and you can do it without having to be on social. So I love that. You've given us so much already, but before I let you go for my perfectionist overachievers, my hold on, I love you so much, but what do I do right now? The bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us?

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 36:28

I think one of the things is, is you need to give yourself permission to back down, to, you know, when we're thinking about our workouts, it doesn't need to be here. We can be here and actually get greater benefits, but you gotta give yourself permission that that's okay, and you need to possibly try new things in exercise. So maybe you were a runner, but that's too intense right now, so maybe you back it down to walking with a weight vest. Those sorts of things. We don't always have to be at our highest level to be at our best self. So a lot of times we need to drop things down. And believe me, I am type A, all the way.

Lesley Logan 37:13

I have a fitness instructor who isn't.

Jan Schroeder, PhD. 37:16

Exactly and even you know, I have to remind myself, I need to back down because of what I'm feeling, and we have to be in tune with what we're feeling and be honest that I don't like to say when I'm stressed, but I occasionally, or either myself or my husband, go, Jan, you gotta bring it down. And that's when I go, okay, I need to drop down my workouts, and it's okay. And what I find is that I actually feel better at that particular moment. We just have to give ourselves permission to say, I don't have to be high-intensity, excelling at everything all the time.

Lesley Logan 37:58

I really love what you said. You guys have to rewind. It has to be a quote. It needs to be knitted on a, stitched on a pillow. My knitters, you gotta put this in. I don't have to be up here to be my best self, whatever you sound like. That is, oh, I'm gonna repeat that to myself every day until this comes out so I can hear it again. Beautiful and brilliant. And thank you for the permission, and thank you for the education. And I hope our paths cross so soon, because I would just love to meet you. You're so great, Jan. Everyone, how are you going to use the tips in your life? Do yourself a favor and send it to every female because no matter what stage in life, Jan gave her amazing education. The more we're armed with information, ladies, the better decision we can make about ourselves and our lives, and we get to make them for ourselves. And I think that is so cool. We don't have to do what our friends are doing because it works for them. We can actually go, this is what works for me, and I just love this so much. So Jan, thank you so much and everyone until next time, Be It Till You See It.

Lesley Logan 38:51

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 39:34

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

Lesley Logan 39:39

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

Brad Crowell 39:43

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

Lesley Logan 39:50

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.

Brad Crowell 39:53

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

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418. How to Make Fitness Work for You During Menopause