MENOPAUSE

Pilates helps women with menopause to keep a positive attitude and make you feel good about yourself and your body. One of the main symptoms of menopause is weight gain, pilates greatly reduces this by increasing your metabolism and tightening and toning the stomach muscles where most of the weight gain occurs.

Women tend to experience mood swings, depression, irritation and sleep disturbances, among several other symptons, during menopause. Moderate-intensity exercise is known to help manage these symptons, and simple exercises like breathing and stretching are also great stress releases. Deep abdominal breathing not only calms and focuses the mind, it helps tone and strengthen abdominal muscles.

Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue and is also responsible for skin strength and elasticity. As we age, the ability to rebuild collagen decreases, which leads to wrinkles and sagging skin, as well as a decreased muscle tone. Exercise has been proven to have the ability to stimulate collagen regeneration in the muscles and bones, a double benefit for menopausal women with the beginnings of osteoporosis.

Weight gain often occurs around the middle, this is caused by hormonal fluctuations and the slowing down of the metabolism. Exercise including pilates is one of the main ways of controlling this.