Cardio -vs- CARDIO

I’ve always loved a good huffy puffy cardio class. I leave sweaty, a little flushed, energized . Tick that exercise box for the day. Over time, I was doing the classes more religiously, and seeing no results. So wrong. So unfair.  Well , didn’t it come as a HUGE shock to me after studying, researching and building my knowledge bank as a Menopausal strength and mobility trainer,  that as a perimenopausal woman, this form of exercise is doing nothing more than working my heart muscle. Not a bad result as the heart is an important muscle to keep strong for my continued health and wellbeing ,  but seriously ???? My investigations proved that if I jump around for 60 minutes I’m not getting ripped abs and it’s not working off my sticky date pudding with ice cream from last night’s feast. What the xxxx ?!?!?!

I'm here to share some hard truths. As your body rockets into a new phase it needs different stimuli. Your old diet, exercise , sleep and stress management program just don’t ‘cut the mustard’ anymore. It’s not about eating less and moving more. It’s about doing the RIGHT things through  metabolic changes and in turn, seeing the benefits in terms of body compositional change. What this means is- if you want to keep looking a certain way, you’ve got to change up what worked for you before to what is going to work for you now.

So moving forward your cardio session is going to be completely different my friends. 

My business mentor ( Hi Alex) always tells me hard news should be delivered between favourable bookends . Something positive, then the hard facts, then something positive again. So I’m going to try it here. The first piece of good news is that cardio for menopause is a really short session - we’re talking 10-20 mins max ! When you first embark on this journey it may even be 5 minutes. No judgement. We are aiming for quality over quantity. 

Now the hard facts: the younger you, doing the group classes or 60 min run/ bike ride / swim used to work at around a 60% effort for the entirety of your session. Hard enough that you always felt you were putting in effort, yet manageable enough to continue the hard work for a full hour. ( sound familiar ?)  The new you is going to work at 90% effort ( we’re talking tiger chasing you on an African safari) for short bursts ( 10- 30 seconds) with full rest between efforts.You will not be able to sustain this effort for a long time, in fact your inner voice will be begging you to stop short. Your inner voice will also be loudly opposed to repeating this effort. If that’s how the conversation is going between you and your inner voice you… you’ve got this right. 

Here comes the other good bit - CHANGE WILL HAPPEN ! Fat will burn, your shape will alter, your jeans will fit again. ( Disclaimer: this is not a once and done scenario. You are going to have to visit that Safari park twice weekly for an extended period to see results) Follow up your session with 15gm of protein to consolidate your work. 

Oh, I need to add another disclaimer - that sticky date pudding from last night needs to become a less frequent indulgence… as women are also becoming more insulin resistant as our oestrogen levels deplete with age. But let’s  leave that good news sandwich for another day. Meanwhile- enjoy your shorter cardio sessions!