Why you should stretch more during perimenopause and menopause
Stretching regularly during perimenopause and menopause offers several benefits that can help manage various physical and emotional changes at this time.
Here are some reasons to incorporate daily stretching into your routine:
1. Improves flexibility and maintains your range of motion
When your hormone levels start to fall during perimenopause and menopause, that can have a big impact on your joints. Your joints can get a lot stiffer, causing flexibility and range of movement to decrease. And the problem is that if your muscles then tighten up, that impacts your joints even more.
So, for some of you, the joint pain may have nothing to do with the joints. The joints themselves may be fine, but it's just the fact that your muscles are so tight they're interfering with how your joints are moving.
It's really important from that point of view to do plenty of stretching, and also, if your joints and your muscles are more flexible, you're going to reduce the risk of injuries such as stumbling, falling over, and all sorts of muscle strains and joint sprains and strains as well.
2. Reduces muscle tension, stiffness and pain
Muscle pain and stiffness is a really common symptom in the perimenopause. A lot of it has to do with low magnesium. So, if you're low in magnesium, that's going to affect the energy that your muscles need to keep them moving. Also, if your muscles are all tense, especially when you go to bed, it's going to be much more difficult to relax and get off to sleep. So, this is a good one just to help with all these issues as well.
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3. Improves blood circulation
Falling oestrogen can affect your circulation, which can make you more prone to things like varicose veins, and Raynaud's disease. If your circulation is sluggish, it's going to affect your skin health, and how wounds heal. It's going to affect your immune function, and it can also interfere with proper hormone distribution all around your body as well. So, there's a lot of benefit to doing stretching to improve your circulation.
4. Supports bone health
If you're more supple, you're likely to have better bone health. And one of the things that's very common, especially post-menopause, is osteoporosis, where the bones get really weak. And if your muscles are stiff, if you're losing the flexibility of the muscles, that's going to affect the way in which you exercise; and weight-bearing exercise is really important to keep your bones strong. So, there are added benefits here for keeping your muscles nice and stretchy.
5. Helps your posture and balance
Number five is posture and balance. What happens if our muscles get really tight, is that it affects the shoulders. You can end up stooping. You can end up getting what's called a widow's (dowager’s) hump. So, you can have problems with your shoulders, and with your neck. It can interfere with the spine, which can affect the rest of your body too.
You've got balance issues as well, which can cause all sorts of problems and things like hip fractures. Your muscles getting a little bit weak and tight can contribute to these balance issues.
6. Promotes better sleep
So many of you have told me over the years that doing a little 5 or 10-minute stretching regime just before jumping into bed relaxes the muscles. You've had some deep breathing, which is going to get your stressed nervous system switched off, so you're going to be more relaxed physically and mentally, which is going to help you sleep much more easily.
Simple ways to stretch more during perimenopause and menopause
YouTube is great. You'll get lots of 5 to 10-minute videos of stretching exercises that you can do regularly. You don't need to go out. You don't need to go to classes. This is something you can do at home.
If you're like me, when I'm in the office, I do spend quite a lot of time at my desk, and then if I forget, if I'm really busy, suddenly, I'd be like, "Oh, I need to get up," and, you know, everything's kind of creaky for the first 30 seconds. So, if you're doing a lot of sitting, a lot of traveling, it's really important to get up and move regularly.
There are great websites that you can get that show you specific stretching exercises to do when you're sitting at a desk, so even if you can't get up, you can at least stretch your lower legs, your knees, your ankles, and your shoulders and neck as well, which is really, really important. You've got things like Yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi, so there's a whole range of different exercises that can help you get that little bit of stretching.
And I know from my own experience, if I go more than a few days without doing some kind of stretching exercise, be it yoga or something else, I really feel it in my muscles. And one of the things that happens if you don't move a lot, is it's more difficult for you to exercise. You then end up getting a lot more pain when you finish exercising. So, for those of you who do a lot of exercise, or go to exercise classes, that pre- and post-muscle stretch is absolutely vital. Otherwise, your muscles are going to be in a lot of discomfort afterward. So that's a really important thing just to bear in mind if you're out and about and exercising.
The one important thing here though, is don't overdo it, especially when you start, because I know, even for me, if I've had a few days without stretching and I jump into my yoga full of enthusiasm, then I'm usually sore the next day. So, it's important to be gentle with yourself, but make sure that you do it regularly so that your muscles get used to this new stretching and exercise.
So, I hope you found this one helpful. If any of you have found other benefits of stretching, please share them with us. You know I love reading all your stories.
Until next time, take care and have a lovely week.
Extra Tip: Arnica gel for pain relief
For muscular aches, pains and stiffness, as well as stretching, the herb Arnica can help. You can try our Atrogel Arnica gel, which is made from extracts of fresh Arnica flowers.
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