059: How to Prevent Muscle Loss in Menopause: Tips for Staying Strong

In this episode of the Strong Bones Coach Podcast, Carly Killen dives into an important topic for women navigating menopause: how to prevent muscle loss and stay strong. 

As hormonal changes can lead to a decline in muscle mass, it’s essential to understand the impact of menopause on our bodies and what proactive steps we can take to combat this challenge.

Carly shares evidence-based strategies to help you maintain your strength during this transformative time, including the importance of strength training, nutrition, and lifestyle adjustments. 

Whether you’re looking to enhance your fitness routine or simply want to feel more empowered in your body, this episode offers valuable insights to support your journey.

Join Carly as she provides practical tips and encouragement to help you embrace strength and resilience during menopause. Tune in and discover how you can take control of your health and well-being!

Not sure where to start?

Join me for a free Clarity call: 30 minutes 1:1 focused time where I support you to create the steps you need to take to gain clarity on supporting your menopause journey. No obligation, my gift to help you move forward

Book here: https://carlykillen.com

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If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question about today's episode or to find out how you can get support from my coaching, reach out on the following links:

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Thanks for listening to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast!

If you’d like to get in touch with a question about today’s episode or find out how I can support you with coaching, here’s how to reach me:
📧 Email: hello@carlykillencoaching.com
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Do you crave unshakable confidence in your strength from midlife and beyond? Would you love to achieve your goals without sacrificing family time or self-care?

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Thank you for being here, and I look forward to supporting you on your journey to strength, health, and confidence! 💪🦴✨

Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Welcome back to the Strong Bones Coach podcast with me, your host, Callie, and today we are tackling something that is quite personal for me and so many of you listening as well, and that is how we're going to maintain our muscle mass during our menopause. Now I've certainly noticed that as I've started to enter my perimenopause years, I've felt it's been a lot harder to maintain my strength. I had some illness last year and rebuilding my muscle and my strength has been a slower process. It's taken a lot of patience and persistence, self compassion, and lots of support. Luckily I have a coach to support me with that. So if you're in a position right now, if you feel like your strength feels like it's just slipping away for you, or maybe You're struggling to build it back, it's taking a bit more effort, then you're absolutely not alone. So today we're going to explore why this happens and what you can do to stay strong and have confidence in your ability to build strength as we get older. So let's start with the why. During menopause there's a lot of factors that contribute to muscle loss. Firstly, we have our hormonal shifts. So we start to see the drop in oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone throughout these years. So let's break down how they actually play a part in supporting our muscle growth, maintenance Why? It becomes problematic as we get older. Oestrogen itself plays a major role in maintaining our muscle volume or our muscle mass. And that is because it's responsible for the build up of our muscle itself. And it also helps us to maintain our bone mass too. It helps us build our bones back faster than what they break down. And it's the same for our muscles. Our muscles are constantly breaking down and building back up. So as our estrogen levels drop, the rate of muscle breakdown increases. And the rate at which it builds back can slow down, which makes it harder for our body to repair and rebuild muscle. And unless we pay extra attention to this, we will start to see a net loss over time. So over time, our muscle volume within our body will reduce as we get older. So yes, it's a natural part of aging, but it doesn't mean we need to just accept it and see what happens. We can influence and support our muscles as we get older. So let's look at progesterone. So this is also known for its anti inflammatory properties, very much like oestrogen. Um, progesterone can also help to support reduced inflammation in muscles and joints, which can help us to support our recovery after workouts. So you may notice as our levels decline, we may feel a little bit more sore in the joints. This is also linked with oestrogen as well. And we may also notice that our sleep gets a bit disturbed. So progesterone is known to help to support sleep, which can then help to support our recovery. Now, going on to testosterone being also a female hormone, it's not just a male hormone. And we might produce smaller amounts of testosterone than men. We do actually produce a lot of testosterone in relation to the amount of oestrogen we produce. And this is particularly supportive of our muscle growth and repair. So this is what helps us even have the energy and the vitality. To go after perhaps as heavier weights to be able to recover from our strength training to feel, even feel motivated to go and do the strength training and give us that confidence to go ahead and do it too. So as they start to drop, we can find it harder to even just feel that get up and go, which can lead to us. Not training as much, perhaps not feeling like we can approach someone for support straight away to help us know what to do with lifting weights. And of course, the actual support in building strength, reduces as we start to see further drops in testosterone as well. And also we have our human growth factors. This is more something to do with our general aging. So this hormone supports muscle repair, regeneration, our muscle protein synthesis, which is basically our body building any kind of protein in the body, but our muscles are a big location of that. So we do see a natural decline in our human growth factor as we age, which can then make it harder again to rebuild. And when we do exercise and we do strength training, we are purposely breaking our muscles down, which is a good thing as long as we can recover from it. And as long as our body can respond by building back the required amount of muscle to support further activity, it just gets harder when we don't have these hormones on board in the same proportions as we did when we were younger. this also leads to a general slowing down of what we would call muscle protein synthesis. So this is the process where the body repairs, rebuilds muscle tissue, and as we age our muscles need more of a stimulus to activate this muscle protein synthesis or MPS effectively. So this means that strength training and getting enough protein is essential to counteract this natural decline. So what normally happens when we, our body goes into this mode where We build muscle is because it receives information from our environment. So when we start to lift a heavy weight, when that's also coupled with an environment where there's plenty of protein available because we've had some to eat or perhaps had it in a shake, we've ingested it somehow, those two things work together to create an environment that help us to build muscle. So it's like our body needs to receive that information that Heavy weights are being lifted, activity is being done, so there is a requirement for more muscle. It's a bit of a use it or lose it situation here, and as we get older we need to do more to show our bodies how much that muscle is needed. And when we don't do these things, when we do just leave it to let nature take its course, if we were to stay sedentary, if we're no longer lifting heavy weights or moving around, living an active life, then we will start to see the drop off of our muscles. And when we have larger amounts of muscle loss, and then that becomes more pronounced, especially when we start to see muscle wastage, this can contribute to sarcopenia, which is the situation where we have a low amount of muscle in our body, and perhaps a higher amount of body fat cells. So this can lead to a loss of strength. a loss of mobility and a loss of energy. So it can get harder to get up and go as well to try to reverse this. And the less muscle we have in our body, the harder it is to live our daily lives. So you can see the value here of trying to keep hold of this muscle and support our body to build as much as possible. As soon as we can, as soon as we realize that this is what we need to do for ourselves, to realize that not all of us have grown up with this information, and especially my generation, my age, Perhaps a bit older, didn't necessarily get the encouragement to, to do these things. This information wasn't available to us all when we were younger. So if you necessarily happen to be quite sporty or have parents that like to go to the gym, then just like me, bit of a late starter with all of this, we might just be feeling like we're catching up here, but that's okay because we can support ourselves. We can still gain muscle, which I will talk to you about very shortly. And I mentioned earlier as well that about sleep disruptions. So, of course, we have those hormonal changes that can impact our sleep quality, so particularly the declining progesterone alongside the oestrogen. And because muscle recovery largely happens during our deep sleep poor sleep, whether it's shorter in hours or it's more fitful, it's less restful, this can interfere with the body's ability to repair itself after exercise. So this is really important. The recovery is super important. When we break our muscles down, as they're naturally breaking down, but also when we go and lift weights, we encourage them to experience some stress. The recovery is super important so we can reap all the benefits from having done that in the first place. So let's look at how strength training supports our muscle maintenance. So not all about just all about staying fit, although that is fantastic. Our fitness, our heart and lung strength and health is super important. Our heart needs to keep beating, we need to keep breathing for the rest of our lives, so of course that's super important. But when we're looking at muscle, then strength training is absolutely key here. So, as I touched upon, strength training activates our muscle protein synthesis. So, when we perform resistance exercises, we create those tiny tears in the muscle fibres. And the body responds by repairing and rebuilding these fibres and building them back stronger. And this is the process of muscle protein synthesis in action. as I mentioned before, we need some information, we need some stimulus to tell our body that this needs to happen. And as we get older, basically those signals need to be A bit bigger. It's like we need to shout a bit louder to let our muscles know they need to grow. So the older we get, the more stimulus is needed to trigger this process. So it's just why progressive overload, that gradual increasing of weight and resistance, is so effective alongside getting enough protein to support that too. Of course, strength training supports our bone health. And it stimulates the bones as well as the muscles, which helps us to maintain our bone density, reduce our risk of fractures. And again, the more strength training we are doing, our muscles are pulling on the bones, putting them under a bit of stress. That lets the body know we're still using our body. So can the bones, can the muscles stick around to support us to live this active life that we're living? So let's look at other ways that we can support our muscle maintenance. So one of those things is what we eat. So the role of nutrition. So I'm going to cover protein briefly. Now we have previous episodes that go into a lot more detail, but I'm just going to give you the basics here. So protein matters because it's essentially is what we build our muscles with. Within protein, we have those small building blocks, those amino acids, which are what we need to repair our muscles and to grow them. So for those of you that. Do any sort of tracking or you like numbers if you are lifting weights and you're wanting to encourage that maintenance that growth of muscle Protein intake might need to just be a little bit higher than what you might hear from government guidelines in the UK The guidelines are as low as 0. 8 grams per kilogram of body weight But to really encourage maintenance and perhaps growth of muscle if you can aim for 1. 2 to 1. 6 grams of protein per kilo Body weight each day. So you want that spread across meals if you get your calculator out and multiply your body weight in kilos by 1. 2 to 1. 6 that will give you a bit of a range and then divide that between the number of meals you plan to have. So, another great way to look at this as well is just spreading it out across those meals. So if you get, on average, you know, I don't know who you are right now, you'd need to come and speak to me personally to give you more tailored advice, but many people do really well with aiming for about 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal. That's based on three to four meals per day. Now, if that sounds a bit overwhelming, then Then just start to have a look at what your diet might look like. Are you getting a source of protein, whether that's through animal sources, eggs, fish, chicken, or whether it's dairy like Greek yogurts or pulses, lentils, tofu, maybe even a top up with some, some whey protein now and then. These are all ways that you can give yourself a little boost. So perhaps just focus on one meal that you'd find it a little easier to boost up the protein with. And when that starts to feel a bit more routine, focus on the next meal that might need a little protein boost. I find most people I work with tend to find breakfast being the most challenging, so feel free to reach out if you'd like some more support with that. So also we can look at the timing of our protein intake as well. Now if you're someone that feels like they're a long way away from, you know, incorporating more protein into your diet, perhaps you don't need to. worry about this one too much, but I often get asked about the timing of this anyway, regardless of whether somebody is particularly ready to focus on their nutrition at this level of detail. But there is evidence there to say to really optimize that muscle protein synthesis, having the protein in your meals around your workouts, It's a great way to make sure that we have those building blocks available at a time when your muscles have received that stimulation to grow. So we don't need to worry about knocking back a protein shake the minute we've finished lifting weights. Of course, that can be helpful if you know you haven't got a meal coming up anytime soon or you find that you're hungry and it's going to stop you from stopping off at the shop on the way home and getting lots of chocolate, then that's fine. But generally, if you're having a balanced meal with enough protein and within four hours, of your training session. This is sufficient to support your muscle growth, your muscle maintenance, that muscle protein synthesis. So don't need to make it too complicated. If you focus on having those balanced meals with enough protein, you'll be great. Of course, we want to make sure we're managing our hydration too. if we're dehydrated, the vitamins, the nutrients, they can't get around the body. So if our muscles aren't receiving everything they need to, to grow, to be supported, to be healthy, then that's going to impact our ability to, to grow, to maintain. So being dehydrated can impair muscle recovery. So make sure we're getting plenty of water throughout the day, especially during your workout, especially in hotter weather, which in the UK is not something we have to worry about. at the moment. So let's look at some practical steps into maintaining your muscle during menopause or perimenopause. I always like to cover something practical in these, in these podcasts. We're starting with strength training. This is key. We'll want to be aiming for two to three sessions per week, focusing on those compound movements, which are things like squats, lunges, rows, and these exercises target multiple muscle groups at once. So this makes it super efficient, so if you are short on time, including these kind of movements will stimulate much more muscles than if we just go for something, what we might call an isolation exercise, like a bicep curl and of course you can progress from starting out with body weight exercises. It's a great place to start if you are new, if it's been a long time since you've done any exercise, if you're completely new to strength training. Having quality movement is really important before we start to add extra load. And if you've been quite sedentary, you'll find you'll make progress with bodyweight exercises to start with anyway. Of course, as you progress, you can start to use resistance bands, dumbbells, even machines as you build confidence. Of course, get support with this. We offer support within our Strong Bones Club each week to our members. And this is a great environment Where our ladies can show up, do their training, interact with each other, and of course get support from myself and Amy, our strong bones support coach as well. So if you have access to a group like that, of course, if you're in Hull, you can come down and see us, or perhaps invest in a coach for yourself. This can save so much time and confusion and self doubt, knowing you're having the right exercise programmed for you and having someone to review your technique as well. It really does help. So remember, you don't have to do this alone, support is there. Of course, remembering, trying to stay consistent as well. So intensity of lifting weights is important. We do need to make it harder over time. So as things start to feel easy, do want to make them feel a little bit harder. This is the nature or the principle of progressive overload. But we want to make sure we can still train regularly. So, even if we did short, very focused sessions, if we can do these consistently and we can recover from them, this is going to be much more sustainable for you, which is then going to support you with your muscle maintenance. Much better than if we go for a really hard, tough session that means you can't do much for the rest of the week or perhaps even puts you off from coming back. So don't be afraid to keep it feeling a bit easy to start with. The main thing is that we come in regular. But also incorporating recovery time. So this is why I suggest two to three sessions of strength training per week initially, because we need that recovery time to help your muscles actually have time to grow. So ensure you're scheduling in, you know, one to two rest days per week, prioritize that good sleep, that muscle repair. And these rest days don't need to be on the couch or in bed or anything like that. They can just be taking relaxing walks. Perhaps it's the day You might choose to go for a swim, a gentle swim. Perhaps this is the day where you might do gentle yoga or even some short mobility sessions. But the, the goal here is really to move in ways that are supportive, that allow rest. Of course we want to also balance with some flexibility work as well, so mobility is very important and we can only get strong within the range of movement that we have available to us. So if there's anything that we can do to support our range of movement, it might be things like yoga and Pilates, it might be ensuring you have a balanced mobility Program like what I do with my clients, what we do within Strong Bones Club, and this is just to ensure we are moving our bodies within the range of what we are capable. Now we all have slightly different anatomy, and as we get towards perimenopause, we may have picked up injuries or perhaps had surgeries over the years, which might mean we move a bit differently to how we used to. It's all about seeing how we can support ourselves to move in the best way that we can. So mobility, flexibility work can be a great way to complement the strength work by improving our coordination, stability, and also fantastic for injury prevention, which helps with the sustainability as well. Then another top tip, tracking your progress. So keeping a journal of what you've lifted, and how many reps you're doing, how you're feeling, how much weight you're lifting if you're adding load or adding weights. So tracking your progress is a great way to keep you motivated. And to help you see the benefits of your hard work, in the grand scheme of things, and we're maintaining our muscle mass, we're doing this forever. So, finding ways to make it enjoyable, and showing yourself that you are making progress, even if that progress is maintaining. As we get older, sometimes maintenance is the best we can do, and that definitely is worth celebrating. Of course, we can look at strength from that bigger picture as well. As I said, we're doing this in the grand scheme of forever. Which, you know, it can feel a lot when we start to look forward like that. And it's not just about our whole life revolving around the gym, is it? So, of course, muscle maintenance is not just about staying strong. It's about how we feel, feeling capable, confident. maintain our independence. So perhaps you can reframe our strength training as a way of implementing self care, especially through our menopause years. It's about reclaiming our energy and investing in our health for the long term. So remember it's okay. to ask for help. I've had plenty of coaching over the years. I have support to rebuild my strength. It makes a big difference. So that is it for this week. So remember if you are feeling in any way overwhelmed, unsure of where to start, you are absolutely welcome to join me for a free 30 minute clarity call. And this will help you lay out the steps for what you need to do next to maintain your muscle and help create that confidence for your menopause years. You don't have to do any of this alone, so you can book that session on CarlyKillen. com. The link will be in the show notes. So thank you for spending your time with me today, for all of your listens, for those of you that share and interact with the podcast as well. So, so grateful. I've just seen today that we've just hit 3000 downloads, which is a nice surprise. So thank you so much again to everybody that is a regular listener and all of you that have joined that are new. I hope that you have enjoyed this and want to return again. So remember, muscle maintenance is entirely achievable. It just takes the right approach, some patience, and a little, or maybe a lot, self compassion. So stay strong, and I will see you next time.