Fit or Fat? Training and Measuring Fitness in Menopause

Measuring fitness in menopause is complicated. I’m going to take a stab at this and let you know that if you’re not measuring beyond your weight, body composition, inches, and muscle mass at regularly scheduled intervals, you’re doing a disservice.

We get all up in the business of burning calories (wrong goal), having it “feel hard” (sometimes the wrong goal), and forget to measure strength (did you see Olympians test grip strength??? Impressive!) and how well your training is actually helping your HEART.

Let’s go there.

Yes, you want to gain lean muscle. It immediately improves your body composition and takes stress from your heart and joints. It also boosts your metabolism, energy, and blood sugar balance, decreasing insulin resistance and your metabolic health improves.

But your heart fitness IS important.

Mistakes in Measuring Fitness in Menopause and Beyond.

You don’t want or need to know your pace or that you did a mile while you’re doing it. Why? It gives you a false impression of “good” “bad” and means zero. When you’re going uphill, you’re going to go slower. When you’re doing an interval workout you also won’t go as fast as when you’re simply walking a steady state (because to do an interval right you should be recovering completely and that means going slower than your steady pace).

Only if you personally are doing the exact same trail or route you’ve done and you’re trying to go as fast as you can, would that be important.

Not knowing what your heart rate being higher or lower than normal exertion heart rates mean you may interpret it incorrectly as “good” or “bad.”

Measuring Fitness in Menopause During Heart Rate Zone Training

Unless you’ve been tested … on the treadmill or bike by an experienced trainer who can monitor your stages and interpret results… the zones shown are based on “average.”

For adults over 40, age-related predictions underestimate where you should be. You’re then going to get a red flag when potentially you shouldn’t.

On an interval day, you’re not “working too hard” simply because your breathlessness exceeds some arbitrary heart rate not based on you. If it doesn’t feel like a fit, get tested. (more below)

But on a recovery day, you absolutely could be working too hard even if you “feel fine.”

All signs should be assessed, not just one.

How do I know this?

Less from 40 years of exercise physiology education (and 25 as an educator/master trainer of other trainers)…

And more from time training as a triathlete.

From day 1 that I decided I wanted to be (I was 20 working at a health club in the south my summers in college) to the point I actually did begin training (I thank 4-0 for making me take action), I was working with a science-geek coach who daylighted/moonlighted as an engineer at a university and a USAT coach to some pros as well as age-group weirdos like me who went to the country club pool… to swim laps, got up at 3am at USAG (golf) events with my son to run miles in the dark before his tee-time. You get the idea.

Had I not experienced the ability to test both in clinical settings (I did years of VO2 max testing on students every semester after having done it myself in undergrad and grad school) and more accessible predicted and associative zone testing that can be done using Heart Rate monitors and treadmill protocols to arrive at personal zones, I would have severely UNDER or OVER trained. My post here is to help you avoid doing that. And avoid what you THINK is ideal based on the “peer pressure” from social media that may be less supportive than it is distractive.

Measuring Fitness in Menopause (what we think)

• Always working as hard as possible when exercising
• Completely relying on “feels like” for recovery status between sessions
• Getting heart rate high in a long endurance workout
• The more intervals the better
• Doing weightlifting and cardio intervals alternately
• It feels hard
• It makes me lose weight

Measuring Fitness in Menopause and beyond (What is Really Good)

• Knowing how hard to push for 4 mins vs 30 seconds
• Knowing how to do a recovery day and keep heart rate low
• Not allowing heart rate to creep up during a recovery workout
• Using high intensity intervals on specific days
• Reaching muscle fatigue with a muscle-specific workout (followed by 48 hrs min recovery)
• Reaching breathlessness in interval training when you’re fresh for optimal speed, resistance or power (depending on the mode)
• Understanding bike, rowing, and swim heart rates will differ from on your feet but breathlessness doesn’t lie

The bottom line is this…

A good fitness program improves:

• strength
• absolute skeletal muscle
• body composition (decreases body fat)
• energy levels throughout the day
• speed
• heart rate response at the same effort level (lower heart rate at same effort over time)
• heart rate recovery rate after exercise

So, if you aren’t TESTING, before you start and periodically, let’s get that started right now, shall we?

[in our member’s area there is a self-test protocol that we’ll help you interpret if you share results]

Doing a more comprehensive test (like the one using stages of speed and or incline or both) to record heart rate response is the way to determine heart rate zones.

The following options won’t do that. But they will give you a way to gather information on how you’re doing now, compared to averages or not.

A Few Facts on Measuring Fitness in Menopause:

Heart rate on a bike will be about 10 beats lower than corresponding “work” on your feet (treadmill). So, if you test on a bike, you need to know “bike heart rates” vs “treadmill heart rates.”

Want to Test So You Can Measure Fitness in Menopause and Beyond ?

VO2 testing is uncomfortable. The last time I did it was December 2018. You don’t have to go to a university, but chances are if they have an exercise physiology lab or an extensive athletic program, you can test there. Other fitness and health pros also offer this, most often on a bike. But if that feels like too much or too expensive, you can establish a way to learn if your fitness is working.

If you have no access to protocol [our member’s area or an experienced coach who can do this] start here:

Keep it simple.

1. What is your resting heart rate? First thing in the morning. (average of 3 days)

2. What is your heart rate before this test?

3. Do a mile walk test. (For a more elaborate test that was originally published in 1987, see the Rockport Walking Test, see the resource below). Do it on a flat course that you can repeat exactly. Even though we all have the ability now to do a mile and know, it needs to be repeatable. Same start, same course. A track would be ideal. A treadmill is not.

   When it’s a test you should be pushing it to find out what your fastest walk pace is. Without your feet leaving the ground (this is running), what is your mile walk time?

4. What’s your final heart rate?

5. Then how soon does your heart rate come back to the rate you were pre-test? Record that time.

Measuring Fitness in Menopause

Whether you do this simple test or you use the ROCKPORT test you begin to understand all of the components that measure true fitness. Skinny is not fit. Fat is not unfit. There are health complications with each for both now and later.

What you want, no matter your weight, is strong, and getting so will improve your heart too.

Now you have data at least to measure whether your fitness is improving.

And yes, there is a way to compare yourself to others, however, right now that’s not the point. The point is YOU. Is you now fitter than you last year? Is you in six months – let’s make a date to do this again by putting it on your calendar – more fit than now?

Look, life happens. A virus may happen, as I write, we just saw that again globally at the Olympics. Your smooth sailing life will have babies and funerals and interruptions. But from time to time check in and consider how it’s going for you.

And how refreshing to actually stop looking at weight and fat for just a second and look at your heart.

References:

https://www.verywellfit.com/rockport-fitness-walking-test-calculator-3952696

Kim K, Lee HY, Lee DY, Nam CW. Changes in cardiopulmonary function in normal adults after the Rockport 1 mile walking test: a preliminary study. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015;27(8):2559-61. doi:10.1589/jpts.27.2559

Note: the Rockport test suggests you can use a treadmill. I prefer the outdoors. The treadmill is doing a degree of the work for you moving that belt. However, if it’s the only safe option, do the pre and post test in the same way. Try not to hold on (this should be true always! And definitely don’t hold on and lean back!)

Other Episodes You Might Like:

• What are Heart Rate Zones and How are They Helpful Over 50?https://www.flippingfifty.com/heart-rate-zones/
• Muscle and Body Composition in Menopause: https://www.flippingfifty.com/muscle-and-body-composition-in-menopause/
• 9 Ways to Measure Fat & Body Composition | Best & Worst: https://www.flippingfifty.com/measure-fat/

Resources:

• Want to comment? If you’re not in a program or our membership, join the Flipping50Insiders Facebook group where we’ll hear you!
• Stronger: https://www.flippingfifty.com/getstronger