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Why is Exercise during the Menopause so Important?

Exercise to Build Bone Mass during the Menopause

Exercise is an important part of life at any age, but is particularly important during menopause.

Why is exercise during menopause so important? Exercise during menopause not only helps to boost bone mass, it also helps relieve many of the common signs and symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, irritability and insomnia.

Exercise is particularly important because it can help reduce your risk for developing osteoporosis, and can help head off any weight gain resulting from menopause. It is not uncommon for women to start losing bone mass during their menopausal years.  Excessive bone loss often results in osteoporosis, which can be debilitating during the prime years of your life.

What Type of Exercise is Best?
While all forms of exercise are beneficial during menopause or pre menopause, resistance training is the best form of exercise to engage if you want to build bone mass. Now, you don't have to be a super athlete or a prize body builder to benefit from strength training. You should however lift weights to help build muscle, which will in turn help delay or prevent bone loss altogether.

How does resistance training help build bone mass during menopause? It stimulates the minerals in your body that help promote strong bones. Resistance training will also help improve your muscle mass, which also contributes to weight loss and helps maintain bone mass over time.

Of course, other forms of exercise including flexibility training and aerobic training are beneficial during menopause. Aerobic exercise will help relieve stress and anxiety, help boost your cardiovascular strength and help you maintain a healthy weight.

Likewise flexibility training will help keep your muscles and joints limber, which in turn will help prevent injury as you age.

Developing a Bone Mass Building Exercise Program
It is important that you start working out regularly during your pre menopausal years if at all possible.The best exercise program for building bone mass will incorporate a balanced routine that includes resistance training combined with aerobic and flexibility training.

You should try to work out every day if you can, but if you are not able to at the very minimum you should strive to work out regularly, three to four days a week if possible.

If you haven't worked out at all prior to your menopausal years, you can still develop a bone mass building exercise routine that is safe and effective. Be sure you consult with your healthcare practitioner to ensure that the exercise program you are interested in is safe given your medical and health history.

You might consider enlisting the assistance of a personal coach to help motivate you when you first start a resistance training program. A personal coach or trainer can also instruct you as to the proper use of any resistance training equipment you are using, to ensure that you avoid any and all injuries.

Building Bone Mass with Friends
One last note of encouragement for all you would be fitness enthusiasts. One of the easiest ways to stay motivated to exercise whether during menopause or pre menopause (or any other time for that matter) is to enlist the aid of a work out buddy. Have one of your friends work out with you. You are each more likely to stick with a program and motivate each other when you go it together rather than alone.