I Don’t Want to Life Weights!

I have been fairly active my whole life. I did a few sports until matric. I had had gym memberships fairly consistently over the years and when we cut it from our budget I did yoga at home a few times a week. Having always struggled with my weight and with my hip issues I am very aware of how important staying active and mobile is.

I cancelled my gym membership years ago when we needed to make some drastic cuts and I never missed it. I loved my yoga classes but I hate lifting weights and nothing about me says gym bunny so I wasn’t in a hurry to get back to it.

Then perimenopause entered the room.

A quick internet search will tell you very quickly that woman over 40 need to increase the amount of exercise they do and they need to include weight training. I have researched this endless, trying to find something that says this isn’t so. I have come up short.

That being said I was still not rushing to my local Planet Fitness. Until I ended up at a physio with the most intense neck pain that just wouldn’t go away. This then led me to a biokineticist to help tackle the issue and she dropped the bomb “You need to start resistance training”. Blergh! She confirmed everything I had read and my physio agreed with her. BLERGH BLERGH!

I am not sure why I had such a visceral reaction to this. I mean what is the big deal? It’s just a couple of sessions a week in the gym.

The big deal is that life seems to get harder for women simply by being woman! We started bleeding once a month when we are barely teenagers and fighting for our lives with puberty. Then for some of us we have baby/ies and that wreaks havoc with our bodies. Just when we think we have recovered from that we are slapped in the face with perimenopause and its 30+ symptoms AND then to counteract some of those symptoms like weight gain, we are told to get in the gym, regardless of if we want to or not, and life weights! WTAF!!!!

When do we get a break? I almost have an empty nest, the two kids still at home don’t “need” me as much. I should be spending time doing the things I want to do – coffee dates with friends, dinner dates with my husband, reading all weekend, working in my garden – instead I am now having to make time to get back into the freaking gym to do a workout I really really do not enjoy!

If you want to read about how and why weight training helps with menopause, check out this article. The short version is it helps to slow down muscle and bone loss. So it is kinda important.

I have made a compromise because I am at the stage in my life where I am intentionally looking for things I enjoy doing. Once a week David and I go to gym together – I workout for about an hour, I do some cardio and some resistance training. I wouldn’t say I enjoy it, yet, but I don’t hate it and it is something David and I do together. I do yoga at home 3-4 times a week and have just started incorporating a kettle bell workout into my at home routine.

While I understand the importance of weight training I do not enjoy it which means it is very hard for me to get up, get ready and get into the gym. This reluctance makes it very easy for me to just not do it. Doing something I enjoy means I will be consistent with it – I have been doing yoga for years and I believe firmly in the benefits to my body and my overall health and wellness. So that is and will always be my focus but I will make sure there is some weight training.

If you find yourself standing face to face with perimenopause and are looking for ways to manage this stage of life – focus on the things you enjoy first. It is much easier to make something a part of your routine if you enjoy it. It will be easier to add in the things you don’t enjoy if you are doing more things you do enjoy.

I also firmly believe that being active should be the main goal. Start where you are and grow from there – the goal, for me anyway, is to stay active.

What are you doing to stay active?