Are you in your 40s or 50s? Feeling irritable? Finding it difficult to sleep? Erratic periods? This could be the start of the menopause, known medically as the perimenopause. It can be an incredibly challenging time on many levels – physically, mentally and emotionally. Yet it is a completely naturally process, that happens as oestrogen levels start to fall. Symptoms like night sweats, hot flushes and difficulty in concentrating are common, but affect everyone in different ways. Some women breeze through and others really struggle.
With women now living to well over 80, we can expect to spend at least 30 years being post-menopausal. So it’s important to empower ourselves to live our lives feeling the very best we can.
This is where exercise and keeping your body moving becomes more important than ever. Even if your energy levels are low, and your brain feels engulfed in ‘fog’, spending some time on your mat, reconnecting your breath and body will make a big difference to how you feel. Pilates is the ideal exercise as it’s low impact, you can adapt every movement to suit your body and you can do it anywhere – in a studio or at home with your dog or cat for company.
In a Pilates session, you concentrate on how you move and how you breathe. Your whole attention is focussed on precise and controlled movements that improve your strength, balance and coordination. Research shows that Pilates offers many health benefits and has a positive impact on your cardiovascular system, bone density, strength, weight management and also helps improve your mood. Due to a focus on the small stabilising muscles surrounding the pelvis, your pelvic floor will stay strong yet supple and elastic by working through a full range of movements.
It's been scientifically proven that learning a new skill helps improve brain health. So, if you’ve never done Pilates before, you’ll have an extra brain bonus, as well as the benefits of exercise. If you’re a regular Pilates fan, you could try adding weights or glute bands into your sessions to make them more challenging.
Pilates is a brilliant form of exercise at every stage of life. It helps you take back control of your mind and your body. And most important of all it’s fun!!
Namaste
Jo xx
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