Why Is My Body Changing as I Age?

I often hear from women, “As I’m getting older, my body is changing. I’m still training and eating healthy, but I seem to be softer around the middle!” I can relate as I also started to notice these changes in my early 40s.

As an active female, it is important to adjust your training routine and nutrition as you age, starting in peri-menopause. Peri-menopause years are the years leading up to menopause and usually start anywhere from mid – late 30s to mid – late 40s for most women.

When changes in hormones begin to occur, we need exercise stress to stimulate the body in the way the hormones once did. As females, we inherently have the ability to move slow (think endurance sports / trail running) and burn fat, but we lose the ability for speed and fast movement. So, as we reach the peri-menopause years, it’s important to change our exercise routine to help preserve lean body mass, power and speed. Resistance training with heavy weights and high intensity interval training will help to maintain and improve lean body mass. I’m not suggesting we have to stop running long! Believe me, long trail runs are my favorite! But, it’s important to build your training routine to include days for heavy lifting and high intensity interval training.

During the peri-menopause years and in post menopause, it is critical to fuel your body in and around training. So, pre and post workout nutrition need to be a top priority! Exercise creates stress on the body, which is a good response. However, we must fuel the exercise stress in order to adapt, get stronger and improve performance. If we fail to fuel our exercise, over time, this can cause our body to break down, body fat to increase, our immune response too slow, fatigue can set in, and we become more prone to injury and gut issues.

Focus on fueling your body in and around training with quality protein to help build and preserve lean body mass and a wide variety of colorful fruits and veggies to increase gut microbiome and help minimize insulin resistance. Protein and carbohydrates post exercise work like magic together to help reduce inflammation and boost immunity.

Nutrition supports your body during exercise and through all activities and stages of life. Optimizing your health or reaching a new level of performance can be frustrating and confusing, especially as we age. Enduralife takes the guesswork out and helps active individuals implement personalized nutrition and lifestyle changes to reach higher levels of health and performance.