'At 44, I switched spin and HIIT for walking and weights'
Kate Rowe-Ham, 48, is a menopause fitness coach and member of the Women’s Health Collective expert panel. After years of going hard in multiple HIIT and spin classes per week, she now manages her perimenopause symptoms with a combination of walking and strength training.
I was in my early 40s when the crippling anxiety, breathlessness and joint pain descended. It was the year after my third child was born – and at first, I put the symptoms down to being a tired mum, along with teaching five spin and six HIIT classes a week. It was only when I started doing some dedicated research into my exhaustion that I landed on the cause: perimenopause.
Aged 44, with every resource directing me towards strength work, I took up weightlifting, building to three to four sessions each week, and dropped from six HIIT classes to one per week. The change was almost immediate; within a month, my energy levels had soared and my anxiety levels plummeted. But it wasn’t until I added walking to my workout week – a shift necessitated by the lockdowns – that I noticed a real difference in my pain levels, too.
When the gyms closed in March 2020, I started strength training at home, but craving nature, I also started walking for an hour a day. Hip joint pain had always been my most crippling symptom (oestrogen reduces inflammation in your body by limiting cortisol, and my oestrogen levels had nosedived). Walking increases the circulation of synovial fluid – the liquid between your joints; after a few weeks, the pain had all but disappeared. But walking also grounded me like nothing else; maintaining a steady pace and breathing slowly activates the parasympathetic nervous system, making me feel calm.
Today, I have a deeper appreciation for exercise. In weightlifting and walking, I’ve found a routine that brings me back to my body, while futureproofing it for the next stage of life. If ever I needed proof of the value of working with your ageing body, it came when I ran the London marathon. When I ran it the first time, at 21, I was doing several long runs per week. More than two decades later, I combined runs with weight training and walking, and yet I finished with the exact same time: 3 hours 47 minutes. The perimenopause doesn’t mean exercising less, it simply means exercising differently.
What are the benefits of walking and strength training in your 40s?
As a menopause fitness coach herself, Rowe-Ham says: ‘Oestrogen – essential for muscle growth – declines, so muscle mass decreases. Strength training offsets this by promoting hypertrophy – where your muscles break down, then grow back stronger. As for walking, research suggests that regular walks could reduce hot flushes by decreasing cortisol levels in your bloodstream, while other studies show that just 10 minutes of brisk walking could help you sleep more deeply, by balancing your hormones.
'Strength training and walking in combination can stabilise blood sugar levels, too. Oestrogen is responsible for secreting insulin; low oestrogen means low insulin, which means excess glucose in your blood as insulin signals to your body to use glucose for energy. This can increase weight gain, and the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
'Resistance training and walking have also been shown to build bone density by stimulating osteoblasts through impact as you step. This is important, as low oestrogen means low vitamin D and calcium, which means weaker bones. Recent research found that walking 4k steps daily could reduce your risk of osteoporosis.’
How often should women in their 40s walk per week?
‘Aim to walk for 30 to 40 minutes per day, or around 4,000 steps. But know that anything is better than nothing. Also, it’s worth remembering that perimenopause isn’t linear; 40 minutes may feel do-able one day, while 10 minutes may be all you can manage the next day.’
How often should women in their 40s strength train per week?
‘Plan for one upper-body, one lower-body and one full-body strength session per week, lasting 35 to 45 minutes each. Any more than that and you may inadvertently exacerbate symptoms by increasing cortisol levels. Alternate workout days with walking days; walking can ease DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) by encouraging blood flow.’
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