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Having raced well into my forties, I thought I might be one of the “lucky” ones. That maybe I’d cruise through this menopause thing with a hot flash or two and call it good. Mother Nature had other ideas (she always does), and I got hit with pretty much all the common symptoms you hear about.
I was no longer cruising, and I certainly wasn’t crushing it. Because let’s face it, hot flashes, lousy sleep, muscle loss are not exactly a recipe for cycling success. The hormonal shift that comes with menopause brings on some permanent changes in your metabolism that can affect your training and riding, as well as your overall sense of well being. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up riding or downgrade your goals.
For some advice on that front, I called up my go-to source for all things female physiology: exercise physiologist, nutrition scientist, and fellow cyclist Stacy Sims, who has devoted over 20 years of her career to studying these issues. Here, we offer a quick refresher on what happens during menopause and Sims’ best advice for what you can do to keep on riding strong.
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What happens during menopause?
While menopause was long referred to as “the change” (years before we all got comfortable with using words like “menopause”), this implies just one change—the end of your menstrual periods.
Of course, that alone is a pretty seismic shift that is itself brought on by a series of changes, and it leads to a succeeding series of changes that go beyond simple freedom from feminine hygiene products.
Around the age of 40, your ovaries produce less estrogen and progesterone. Because these chemical messengers control your menstrual cycle, you’ll likely start to bleed irregularly, stop ovulating, and no longer be able to get pregnant.
However, these hormonal changes have effects on more than just your reproductive system. The main metabolic change many women notice is body composition. As the estrogen level drops, there’s a tendency to accumulate fat in your midsection and to lose lean muscle mass.
That’s a problem for a few reasons: If you can’t maintain muscle, you can’t produce the power to push those pedals up hills or in a paceline as hard, and you’re bound to slow down—especially if you’re also gaining body fat. Even if you aren’t racing or riding competitively, gaining weight and slowing down just isn’t fun for anyone. Here’s what you can do about it.
How can I handle hot flashes?
Hot flashes are one of the hallmarks of menopause and affect about three-fourths of menopausal women. Studies are mixed on how much exercise helps alleviate them, but most have found that active women have fewer or at least less extreme ones than those who aren’t active.
They can affect your performance because “postmenopausal women break into a sweat later during exercise, and they vasodilate longer,” explains Sims. In other words, your body sends more blood to the skin to get rid of heat since it can’t rely on perspiration to cool you. It’s also harder for you to handle increases in your core temperature. So racing or riding in the heat is just plain harder.
Because of this, hydration becomes even more important during menopause and beyond. If you’re going out for a long and/or hard ride in the heat, prehydrate with a sodium-rich drink before you get on the bike. Take in at least one bottle an hour while riding and grab a protein-rich recovery drink to sip on when you’re done. Consider also cooling yourself before exercising in hot weather by draping a cold towel around your neck. Consume ice-cold fluid during your ride if you can. And to cool down and speed recovery, dip yourself in a cold bath, shower, or pool when you’re done to help constrict those dilated blood vessels so your blood returns to your central circulation.
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How can I maintain my muscle mass?
Your body uses protein less effectively as you approach menopause and in the years after, making it more difficult to maintain your muscle integrity. Recovery is harder, as is holding on to your lean muscle tissue. That means you need to be pickier about the proteins you consume.
“It’s essential for menopausal and postmenopausal women to lower their post-exercise stress hormones, like cortisol, as quickly as possible, since that makes you catabolic, and you can’t afford to be eating into your muscle tissue at this point,” says Sims. That means bathing your damaged muscle fibers in essential amino acids, which helps stop the production of cortisol and promotes muscle synthesis and repair. “You don’t want soy at all,” says Sims, noting that many women reach for soy proteins with the thought that they’re better for women. “It may help stop cortisol, but it does nothing for muscle synthesis. You want whey and casein for the best results.”
Sims recommends taking 15 grams of whey or 9 grams of BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids) about a half-hour before training. You can get that in 8 ounces of Greek yogurt or two eggs. After you’ve racked your bike, get another 25 grams of protein (that’s 3 ounces of tuna or 6 ounces of cottage cheese) within 30 minutes. If you’re training hard, take in another 20 to 25 grams of mixed protein two hours after training and 10 to 15 grams before bed.
If it sounds like you’re piling on the protein, it’s because you are. You need it. And it’s still well within the 90 grams a day that protein researchers like the University of Illinois’ emeritus professor Donald K. Layman, Ph.D., recommend for active women, especially those who are also watching their weight or trying to lose a few pounds. Personally, I swear by 30 grams—sometimes more—per meal, especially when I'm doing lots of riding and racing. As a bonus: Extra protein may boost your immunity to protect you from getting sick when you’re training hard.
You don’t want to skimp on resistance training to maintain your muscle mass. Beyond muscle, skeletal health is a big concern for postmenopausal women. Your osteoporosis risk rises sharply during this stage of life. Make sure you work resistance training into your weekly routine around two to three times per week to keep your structural system as strong as the rest of you. Here are some workouts to help you get started.
How Else Should I Adjust in My Training?
If you’re used to doing long, steady-state rides, you’ll want to ride faster and harder sometimes. The speed and strength of your muscle contractions often decrease after menopause. You can counteract that by shifting your training to focus more on power—think intervals on the bike and strength training in the gym—and a bit less on those long, steady, and often slower endurance rides.
“Power and speed training are essential elements in a postmenopausal woman’s training arsenal,” says Sims. Add interval workouts and strength moves to your routine: You’ll be happy you did.
What About Eating on the Bike?
Other than loading up on protein, you may also want to curb your carb intake. You become more sensitive to carbohydrates as you enter menopause, which means you’re more susceptible to blood-sugar swings, and you actually need fewer carbohydrates overall, says Sims. “Eat more mixed-macronutrient foods during your rides,” she says. “Aiming to get about 30 grams of carbohydrate per hour”—about what’s in one banana—“on long rides is probably sufficient.”
What About Sleep?
Insomnia is common during menopause, as are night sweats, which can be extremely disruptive to sleep. And, of course, poor sleep quality is a double whammy, because you need sleep not only to fend off fatigue (which is common during menopause) but also to do the normal nighttime muscle repairs and recovery—and this is during a time when recovery is more difficult in general.
If sleep eludes you, Sims recommends topping off your evening dose of protein with 400 to 600 milligrams of valerian (an herb known for its sleep-inducing properties). “The combination helps with overnight muscle repair, keeps cortisol low (which helps keep the stimulus for developing belly fat low), and helps maintain a lower core body temperature so you’re less likely to experience hot flashes.”
Above All, Just Ride!
Just getting out there on your bike will help alleviate some of the nagging symptoms you face during this time of hormonal havoc. While there are very few studies on menopausal athletes, there is a healthy body of research on exercise’s effect on menopause, and it’s overwhelmingly positive.
In one Spanish study, the scientists asked 48 women ages 55 to 72 to either exercise for three hours a week or go about their mostly sedentary lives as usual. At the start of the study, 50 percent of the women in the exercise group and 58 percent of the non-exercisers complained of severe menopause symptoms like fatigue and insomnia.
By the study’s end, the percentage of women with severe symptoms dropped to 37 percent in the active group but rose to 66 percent among the non-exercisers. The active women also reported better mood and mental well-being, while their non-exercising counterparts were having a tougher time mentally and emotionally. So even if you don’t always feel like it, get out there and ride. You’ll feel better for it, and that’s something that even the change can't change.
This article is an adapted excerpt from The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Women Everything You Need to Know for Whatever, Whenever, and Wherever You Ride, published by Rodale Books, 2015.
