Menopause stopping you exercising?
As a person who loves exercise and feeling strong, I was surprised when I started to struggle to find the motivation to do a workout. Now this happens to everyone, male or female, every now and then. It normally means you need a bit more rest & recovery. But then you go again a day or two later and all is fine.
However, when I was in ‘peak peri menopause’ I just couldn’t be arsed! Mentally I was low and despite knowing that exercise would make me feel better, I still struggled to do a workout. It felt awful.
You may recognise this if you are in peri menopause. Just the thought of getting out the door to exercise is even too much. Especially when your class is early morning and you have been awake half the night, (another unwanted symptom of peri 😩).
But I want to reassure you. Yes it’s bloomin’ hard and can feel almost impossible to find the energy. But first, don’t be too hard on yourself. Feeling guilty and berating yourself will not help your mental health/mood. And it certainly wont motivate you to exercise….
When you are struggling to exercise, go back to the beginning of your fitness journey and start small. A walk instead of a run. A 20 min session instead of an hour. Lighter weights than you would normally lift, maybe adding in more reps but not necessarily. The aim is do something rather than nothing. So even if it’s a fraction of what you feel you ‘should’ be doing, it’s still better than nothing. I guarantee you will feel better for it.
My solution was to change my training. I started jogging on a treadmill just for 20 mins a couple of days a week instead of an hour of weights. This helped lift my mood and I told myself I could stop at any time after 10 mins. I rarely did because by then I was feeling ok and only had another 10 mins to do. I still did the weights but for a while, didn’t worry about what I was lifting. I was faffing about really but still getting a bit of movement.
Consistency
I think the key here is, as always, consistency. Whatever you do, no matter how small, do it at least every other day. This helps to cement an exercise habit.
Peri menopause is crap, let’s face it, so many things are more difficult. Anxiety and a lack of concentration will be helped by exercise but will also make it harder to do so. Be kind to yourself and focus on what you can do, not what you haven’t. When you really didn’t feel like doing anything, celebrate when you went for a walk instead of a big session.
You’ve got this!
The good news is that at some point your mojo will come back. And then because you didn’t stop altogether, you can get back to regular exercise with less stress.
In the meantime, just hang on in there. You’ve got this, even if it doesn’t feel like it!