Cardio Workouts for Perimenopausal Women

I’ve been following Dr Stacy Sims ever since I read her article on “not Zone 2 Training for women”. Today, I saw a post on how much cardio perimenopausal women should be doing which prompted me to re-examine my workout schedule.

So here’s the deal… I should do: SIT or HIIT 2-3 times a week for early perimenopause; and 3-4 times a week for late perimenopause. Am I in early menopause or late menopause? Here’s the difference: If you have a persistent change of seven days or more in the length of your menstrual cycle, you may be in early perimenopause. If you have a space of 60 days or more between periods, you’re likely in late perimenopause. Hot flashes and sleep problems. Hot flashes are common during perimenopause. I guess that means I am still in early perimenopause.

The Workouts

• SIT: 10 minutes warm up; 20 seconds high intensity followed by 2 minutes recovery (repeat 4-5 times).
• HIIT: walk as hard as you can up a hill or stairs until you’re breathing heavily and can’t hold conversation; recover for 2-3 minutes (e.g. walking back down); repeat 4-5 times.

Doing these 2 to 3 times a week is really going to eat into my “fun workout” time so I decided to see if there are any overlaps in what I am already doing.

What is HIIT?

High-intensity interval training, better known as HIIT, consists of short bursts of intense work that typically last between 15 seconds to 4 minutes. What are some examples of HIIT workouts?

• Boxing is a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT). Boxing is primarily a cardio exercise, but it also strengthens the muscles in the core and lower body. What muscles does boxing work? When done correctly, boxing works the entire body. But it mainly targets the muscles in the core and lower body.
• Spin class is a form of high-intensity interval training, often referred to as HIIT.
• Exercising on stairs is a very effective way to get the benefits of HIIT by increasing cardio fitness as well as toning and sculpting your body in a short amount of time. All the major muscle groups are targeted in your lower body – hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteus, calves and abdominals.

Hoho! So that means I don’t have to do extra workouts to meet my HIIT requirements if I am already doing spinning and/or boxing classes. The only workout I might want to throw in is perhaps a SIT workout to balance it out.