Hormonal Changes and Muscle Building in Menopause

In this episode of Biohacking Superhuman Performance with guest Dr. Stephanie Estima, we discuss the importance of heading into menopause in the healthiest way possible. Muscle is often thought of as a negative thing for women as we were taught not to get bulky. However, it’s a myth that needs to be totally left behind. It’s very hard for women to build muscle and get bulky. But muscle is essential for hormonal balance and longevity. 

We also dive into the science behind balanced hormones, and what steps you can take to make sure you’re heading into menopause as a confident powerful woman, rather than take it on as if it’s a disease. Menopause needs to be thought of as an evolution of your body, not a nightmare situation. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is essential for some women, and we guide you through how to talk with your doctor to get the best treatment possible. 

Overall, this episode offers guidance on navigating hormone health, talking to your doctor about what you specifically need, and how to use menopause as a growth opportunity, not a season of anxiety and hardship.  

Dr. Stephanie Estima discusses all facets of health including nutrition, fitness, hormones, stress management, performance, recovery, longevity, health span, mental resilience, and energy production. Her passion is to assist you in making informed decisions about your health and to catapult you into the hero of your own life.

Dr. Stephanie has a special interest in exercise physiology, biomechanics, neuroscience, and performance nutrition. She spent 19 years in private practice and is a best-selling author, international speaker, and mother.

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Find more from Dr. Stephanie Estima: 

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Website: https://drstephanieestima.com/ 

Podcast: Better with Dr. Stephanie

Book: The Betty Body

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What We Discuss: 

(1:10) Intro for Dr. Stephanie Estima, the muscle lady, and how to optimize hormones for menopausal health. 

(4:41) Menopause isn’t a disease; it’s an experience you can be prepared for.  (6:45) Preparing at a younger age, by adding muscle and taking care of your hormones can give you an easier time throughout menopause. 

(8:45) The importance of lean muscle for women (hint: you don’t get bulky!)

(17:45) Hormonal changes can affect your ability to build lean muscle. 

(22:43) The turnover rate of bone as we age changes under the influence of estrogen. 

(26:30) You don’t want too much estrogen- it can negatively affect ligaments and joints. You just want it balanced with testosterone. This is why joint issues are common in post-menopausal women. It increases the risk of injury. 

(29:00) The importance of strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular health for aging women.

(30:00) Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy is a great solution. 

(36:00) Be so in tune with your body that you can tell when something is off, and be able to have data-filled conversations with your doctor. If you can’t talk with your doctor about hormones, get a new doctor. 

(40:10) Cognitive health - our ability to think clearly - and lack of sleep is affected by decreasing levels of hormones like progesterone. 

(46:00) Stress management and its role in adrenal gland health. Nutrition and supplements can feed the brain! Your body is very clear about this - if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. 

(53:44) The lack of literature on common “health practices” today for women, like cold plunges and sauna. It needs to be synced with the time in your cycle. 

(1:03:33) Minimum effective dose of exercise - strength training and cardio. 

(1:11:25) How to find more from Dr. Stephanie Estima

Key Takeaways:

• Reframing the importance of lean muscle for women is essential for hormone health. Women in their 40s and 50s have grown up with the thin supermodel being ideal. The environment you grew up in can highly affect your perception of hitting the gym and building muscle. However, for the vast majority of women, it is very hard to build muscle and get “bulky.” The bulky myth and fear of lifting heavy just need to go away and die because it’s very inaccurate for women. 
• You can build muscle at any age, at any stage in life - peri, menopausal, and post-menopause. However, it is much easier to build muscle when you have a larger concentration of estrogen and testosterone (peri-menopausal). Women have somewhere between 10-20x more testosterone than estrogen. It’s the most abundant sex hormone in the body. Lifting weights close to failure drives up testosterone for 10-48 hours post-workout. When you stimulate the muscular system, you also stimulate bone density. Muscles and bones are sisters! They grow at the same time. Osteoporosis is common in older women going through menopause, so growing muscle and bone density pre-menopause is essential. 
• Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is a fantastic option for those who aren’t heading into menopause with the correct amount of muscle and balanced hormones. Lifestyle interventions will help 60-70% of women who experience menopause symptoms like hot flashes and mood swings. The 30-40% of women who don’t get relief from these symptoms can highly benefit from HRT. It’s important to do bloodwork around age 30 so that you have a baseline hormone level you know you need to maintain. It’s best to keep track of it twice a year. Be so in tune with your body that you can tell when something is off, and be able to have data-filled conversations with your doctor. If you can’t talk with your doctor about hormones, get a new doctor. 
• You can be a powerful, clear-thinking, confident woman by keeping your hormones, specifically testosterone, balanced (and high!). It affects our ability to read the room, analyze risk, and make decisions throughout menopause if we don’t focus on hormone health. It can cause anxiety and brain fog. Stress management is also highly important during this time. Adrenals take over the job of what the ovaries once did, so they have to produce all hormones after menopause. Stress management helps negate the negative side effects of an overactive adrenal gland. 
• The minimum effective dose of exercise is 3 times a week of strength training. Three is good, but four is better. But cardiovascular health for menopausal women is very important as well, as heart disease is the number one killer of women, not breast cancer. Women are very well adapted for zone 2 oxidative phosphorylation for burning fat. More focus needs to be put on explosive movements like burpees, HITT, and sprints because we lose speed and type 2 muscle fiber. We can lose up to 8% per year if we’re not training type 2 muscle fibers. Explosive training also helps build muscle, rather than deteriorate muscle like steady state cardio does.