Strength Training: Empowering Women with Celiac Disease through Perimenopause and Beyond Ep. 172

Discover the secret weapon to aging gracefully and living independently: strength training! 
This week, we're diving deep into the transformative power of strength training, especially for women navigating the challenges of perimenopause and celiac disease. Strength training is not just about building muscle—it's a crucial strategy for enhancing bone health, preventing osteoporosis, reducing fall risks, and boosting your overall well-being. I chat about how incorporating strength training can aid in weight management, improve heart health, and even alleviate perimenopause symptoms, ensuring a more vibrant and resilient future.

But how do you seamlessly blend strength training into your busy life? I share my personal journey with Reformer Pilates—a fantastic method that combines strength and cardio with the unique resistance of reformer springs. Whether you're more inclined towards home workouts, hitting the gym, or exploring free online resources, I've got practical tips to kickstart your fitness regimen. I'll also highlight the importance of muscle recovery and offer advice on tailoring your workouts to accommodate any injuries or limitations. 
Tune in and find out how you can embark on your strength training journey today, ensuring a healthier and more empowered you!

Previous Episode Mentioned:

https://thehealthyceliacpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1720208/15414770-the-overlap-of-perimenopause-and-celiac-disease-a-look-at-the-shared-symptoms-ep-168

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 Music Credit bensound.com 

Chapters

• 0:00 Strength Training for Women's Health
• 9:53 Adding Strength Training to Your Routine

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Welcome back to this week's episode of the show. If you are brand new here, welcome. My name is Belinda Whelan. I am a certified holistic health coach. I'm absolutely obsessed with working with women to support them on their celiac journey, to feel better and to love their life again. If you are back after listening to the show for a long period of time, thank you for coming back. It's so great to have you here, and on today's episode we are talking all about strength training.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Now Lisa wrote to me this week and asked if I could talk about this topic on the show. I'm always open to ideas, so if you've got a topic that you want to learn more about, make sure you send me an email at info at Belinda Whelan dot com and I'll take your ideas on board. So Lisa reached out because she is like me she's in her mid 40s and she's in the midst of perimenopause and also dealing with celiac disease and wanted to know how strength training can play a part in our lives as women and how it can also help with our gut. So I thought that was a really great topic suggestion, because I have talked about exercise and movement and how important that is in our lives, but I hadn't really delved too deeply into specifically talking about strength training. So let's jump on into it, shall we? So strength training is when our muscles are working against a force or by using weights. So we build up our muscles by doing strength training, and by doing so, there are so many amazing benefits. So we're going to talk about those benefits on the show, and we're also going to talk about how you can start incorporating strength training and what is the ideal amount for you. All right, so let's jump in.

Speaker 1: 2:18

So stronger bones is one that we probably don't really think about too much when we talk about strength training, but when we do, you know, do this type of exercise, we are helping our bones and in the long term, this is a major benefit for us. As women, you know you have less risk of dealing with osteoporosis later on in life, and you may or may not know that many women with celiac disease and men also deal with osteoporosis because their body is not absorbing the nutrients that they need to have strong, healthy bones. So it's important that you take action to support your bones, and by doing strength training, you can certainly help with that. Now, when we talk about having stronger bones, we also need to think about our chance of falling. So as women get older and as men get older, they have an increased risk of falling, and what happens with a lot of falls is broken bones happen, and many elderly actually die from breaking a bone, so that could be something like a hip and they actually die from that incident. So if you can decrease your chance of falling, you are decreasing your risk of aging badly, so you are improving your overall health when it comes to aging. So this is a huge, huge factor to look at, because the people that are exercising and doing strength training live a longer, healthier life. I don't know about you, but I want to live my life in a way where I'm not sitting in a room watching television because I can't physically get up and do things for myself and I'm waiting for a nurse or a loved one to come and care for me. I want to still be enjoying my life for a very, very long time, and the thing is that starts now, that starts today, that starts with us putting these steps into place so that we can live an amazing, long, healthy, strong life. So think about your future and how you want that to look, because if you've got anyone in your life that is elderly and you've seen them become frail and them, you know, lose their independence, you you could probably see a correlation from their life and what type of lifestyle that they've lived. So think about what you want to be like when you're older, as that can be a huge motivator for getting off your butt and doing something that you enjoy doing.

Speaker 1: 4:58

As far as strength training goes, we'll talk about some different options in a moment. Now, when we talk about building muscle, there is so many benefits to having strong muscles, is so many benefits to having strong muscles. So by increasing your muscle mass, it has this incredible flow on effect for your health. So we talk about improving our bones and strengthening our bones, but it also helps with weight loss in a way that you may have never understood. So when you have more muscle mass, you actually decrease the amount of weight that is in your body when you are resting. So when you are resting, your body is burning more calories than if you didn't have as much muscle mass. So if weight loss is something that you are focused on and you are simply just doing cardio, you are doing yourself a major disservice. You could be doing more strength training and losing weight more effectively. So that's something that many people don't understand. So think about it that when you are resting and you're not actually doing exercise, your body is burning more calories. So that in itself is incredible.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Now, if you've listened to my previous episode, you know that I don't have a focus on calories. I'm not a calorie counter, I don't get my clients to count calories, but it's just an awareness because that's the easiest way of putting it into terms that your body is doing more when you are resting than if you didn't have that muscle mass. So I hope that makes sense. It also increases your heart health. So as we get older, we want to have a nice, healthy heart. So by doing strength training you can also improve your heart health.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Now when we talk about that improved metabolic rate so that whole you know your body is working harder when you're at rest. This can help improve perimenopause symptoms. So if you are at that stage in life where you are going through many perimenopause and I've talked about this on a previous episode so if you don't really understand perimenopause, I'll pop a link below in the show notes so that you can go back and check out that episode. But if you know you're in perimenopause or you know you're coming up to it, know that by being healthier it eases your symptoms. So if you are eating well and exercising and getting sleep, it actually lowers your risk of struggling dramatically with perimenopause symptoms. So that's a major one to think about as well.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Now the next one is improving your gut health. So this goes without saying. I've talked about gut health on previous episodes as well, but our gut health is improved dramatically by not only what we eat and our stress levels and our sleep, but it's improved by working out, especially by adding in strength training. So it's one of these things where it's kind of like the chicken or the egg. So which one comes first? So do I get the motivation and the want to go and exercise because I have a healthy gut or do I go and exercise so that that I do have a healthy gut? It kind of it can work both ways.

Speaker 1: 8:18

So it's one of those things where I've talked about in the past about the roll-on effect or the flow-on effect, where you do one thing and it has this incredible flow-on effect. So if you were to add in strength training, you would probably find that, hey, hey, hang on a minute. I need to actually up my protein levels here, so I'm going to start eating better. So by you eating better, then you're improving your gut health even more. And when we improve our gut health, we feel better, we look better because it improves our skin, we have a better mood, we increase our confidence. We have all of these amazing benefits by exercising to improve our gut health. It has this flow on effect that it's kind of interesting that many people don't realize it until someone points it out to them. And I've done this time and time again with my clients where they start to improve their health by adding in exercise, improving their gut health, improving their diet and all of the lifestyle factors that I teach and then when we come to the end of their coaching because I take massive notes when I am coaching my clients and I can point out all of the things that have improved in that period of time of working with them. It's amazing. So if you aren't aware of the difference, of how you feel when you exercise, I highly, highly recommend that you start exercising and adding in strength training and taking note of the changes that happen in your life, because it is absolutely powerful.

Speaker 1: 9:53

You may have heard me talk about how I started adding in Reforma Pilates, so that is part of my weekly routine now, absolutely obsessed with Reforma Pilates. Some people say it is a form of strength training. Some people say it isn't. It's definitely improved my muscle strength. So for me, I do class as a form of strength training. It's not going to build my muscles dramatically like it would do lifting weights, but for me, I know it is definitely building my strength, my ability to be stronger and to also improve my overall physique. So I love Pilates. So if you want to include that as part of your strength training, that's a really, really good start and improving your cardiovascular system is amazing for cardio workout as well. So I feel that Pilates is definitely a combination of the cardio and the strength, but not to build up the muscle as much as what we do need to through other forms of strength training. So that is something that I like to just mention, because I feel that for me, pilates has been a game changer and the women that I talk to absolutely love it as well.

Speaker 1: 11:05

So you might think of adding in something like that a couple of times a week by doing some reformer pilates not not the standard mat pilates, more the reformer pilates, because you're using the machine and you've got that resistance training with the springs. If you don't know anything about it, you can add different springs on your machine and that increases the amount of strength that you need for doing those different movements. So something to look into. If you've never looked at reformable parties, it's become very, very popular. But we can also look at doing different weight training, whether that be in the gym or it be at home. It can even be doing things like squats. And something I've mentioned before as well is there are free workouts. If you don't want to join a gym, if you don't want to spend the money to go and do something like going to a gym and using weights there, you could maybe use some things at home. You could download a program off the internet. You could watch something on YouTube. There's free programs on YouTube. There's videos on Netflix. There's so many options. There's also apps which you can pay for if you want to do it in the comfort of your own home.

Speaker 1: 12:16

You know people aren't actually judging us as much as we think when we go to the gym. I don't know about you if that's something that you're worried about. People are there to focus on themselves. Most people are not standing there judging you if that's something that you are worried about. So it's about making that move and starting, and In the beginning you may find that you go once a week and you're sore for days.

Speaker 1: 12:42

I know sometimes I do Pilates and my legs are still hurting four days later, so it's incredible. And other times I can go three times a week. So you might want to build it up. You might want to start by going one day a week and doing something. You might want to do something at home, then build it up to three times a week. Three times a week is a really good number and for some people they do four days of strength training a week. They do some cardio. It's about working out what works for your unique body and, of course, your schedule. So another thing to be mindful of is not overdoing it, because your body needs time to rest and I I'm not a personal trainer, so this is not my area of expertise. I'm more help people discover what works for them and then they can get the guidance and the support from the right person to.

Speaker 1: 13:32

You know, figure out a program or a plan for themselves. But if you can think about it like, all right, I want to start going three times a week to the gym and I'm going to do weights. But you don't want to be doing, you know, a whole heap of weights with your arms and then a whole heap of weights with your legs, whether that be, you know, doing different types of exercises with equipment and then doing the same thing a couple of days later. You're better off focusing on one group of muscles and then giving yourself a couple of days rest. You're better off focusing on one group of muscles and then giving yourself a couple of days rest, doing another group of exercises on another group of muscles and giving yourself more rest so that you're not constantly, you know, not giving yourself a chance to rest is more what I'm saying. So those muscles to repair. So when we do work out, what happens is those muscle fibers tear and when they repair, that's when they build more strength. So you need to give those muscles time to repair before you know working out again on those particular muscle groups. So that's something to be aware of and to focus on.

Speaker 1: 14:35

So, yeah, I think it's important to look at this, look at your lifestyle, look at how you can add it in. I've given you some options of how you could perhaps add strength training into your lifestyle. Like I said, don't have to go to the gym, you can do it at home. You might want to work out with your partner. That's a really good option as well, because you can push each other and finding what works for you Because, like I said, we are so unique, we all have different bodies, we all have different goals.

Speaker 1: 15:05

You know, some people have knee injuries, some people have shoulder injuries, so you don't want to damage yourself further. You want to look after your body and you want to build up the muscles that you have access to. So, you know, if you do have a knee injury, you might want to work with a personal trainer that can help you build up some leg muscles without injuring that knee further and focusing on that. So you know, look for a personal trainer, ask for recommendations from friends, family, loved ones, whoever you know you want to feel comfortable reaching out to, that might be able to just recommend someone for you to help you with a, you know, a plan or a program or whatever, but otherwise, focus on the apps, focus on the freebies that you can find online. Even Pinterest has some really great videos that you can find on there. You know you might find someone that you absolutely love on Instagram and you follow their guidelines. So, yeah, I hope this helps.

Speaker 1: 15:58

I really hope that this has inspired you to at least look at adding strength training into your lifestyle and helping you understand some of the major benefits of it, because, you know, if you have been a you know a cardio gym junkie for a long time, it's about shifting from that cardio and adding the strength training in. It's too important to do cardio, but adding the strength training on top of the cardio is fantastic for your overall health and all of these amazing you know improvements to your body that we mentioned. So I hope this episode helps. Massive shout out. Again, thank you to Lisa for the suggestion of this episode, and if you've got any suggestions that you'd like me to add onto the show, please let me know. As I mentioned, info at Belinda Whelancom, and you can find me over on Instagram at the healthy celiac as well. So thank you so much for listening and I look forward to talking with you again very, very soon. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next week. Take care Bye.