Why yoga in menopause

Menopause

In 2022, 17% of adults globally practised yoga with women twice as likely as men to participate. 

However research is showing that with increasing frequency women aged 45-55 are joining and soon after leaving gyms, yoga classes, exercise programs, health clinics. Their unique needs are not being met turning them away from mainstream health services and classes.

Professor Wendy Sweet undertook her doctorate with these women and found that yoga needs to be specifically focused on the benefits for women over 50.

Is this you?

Menopause is a natural phase of life for women

Most women experience a transition through menopause as a natural part of ageing between the ages of 45-55. 

Women in these midlife years wish to exercise, be healthier. Many experience symptoms including brain fog/fatigue, an increase in weight and body fat, more pain/stiffness in the joints. Often they take up a form of exercise (yoga, weights, gym) to manage some of these effects. 

But this longitudinal study of women’s health since 1990 found that women aged 45-55, in the context of ‘exercise’ for health, were not well understood by health and fitness professionals. 

 

The important focus in menopause for yoga (& other exercise) … 
your arteries, your fascia, your collagen, your health condition.

VASCULAR (arterial) stiffness –  very typical for women between 40 and 70 years are changes in the myocardium (muscle of the heart). 

How can yoga practices help?

Yoga Therapy Melbourne

FASCIAL (tissue) stiffness – as oestrogen levels decline a stiffening of muscles occurs (fascial stiffness) with an increased sensitivity to ‘pain’. 

So what happens?

weight building

Collagen reduces with lowering oestrogen levels, increasing stiffness in ligaments and slowing the healing of tendons.

So what happens?

Limitations of yoga practice here:

Many chronic health conditions are the result of inflammation which again coincides around the age of menopause for women.

Brain fog, fractures, fatigue are some of the symptoms reported in menopause that are also consistent with chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, declining cognition.

Research by Professor Singh, Gerontologist and Exercise Physiologist, focuses on chronic health conditions in ageing and how to improve health status and quality of life.

Yoga Therapy video

Why you need a Yoga Therapist not a young nimble teacher!

 

As a Yoga Therapist my approach is with you, the ‘whole’ person, not simply your condition(s) or medical label. 

I offer a deeper understanding of the physiological changes that occur for most (but not all) women at this stage of life. 

From this knowledge we can more effectively work together and explore tailored practices whilst supporting you to ongoing health and well-being.

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Caroline Giles Experience yoga studio melbourne

I’m Caroline Giles, a Yoga Therapist and Yoga Teacher, and the owner of Experience Yoga. I’m inspired to teach you practices of yoga for health, well-being and wholeness. My students are the everyday person like you and me. They come to create strength, vitality, inner peace and courage in their life through the practices of yoga.

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