7 Exercises You Need to Try If You're Menopausal

When you get to that stage in life when you never have to deal with tampons or period cramps again (yay!), but also have to wear a tank top in January because of hot flashes (boo!), it's a great time to rethink and overhaul your exercise routine. And, hey, if your exercise routine lately has involved little more than lifting the remote to stream the latest season of Hacks, there's no better time to jump back in!

Why exercise is important during menopause:

When your body goes through the menopause transition, your ovaries stop producing estrogen, and that not only leads to symptoms such as hot flashes, sleep disturbance and brain fog, but it also increases your risk for heart disease, stroke and osteoporosis. The decrease in estrogen also coincides with an increase in LDL cholesterol, a decrease in HDL cholesterol and an increased risk of type-2 diabetes, says Sharon Malone, MD, an OB-GYN in Washington, DC, and medical director of Alloy. So, upping your exercise game can help keep your heart and bones healthy as you age.

How exercise can help with menopause symptoms:

Exercise can push back against some annoying symptoms of menopause mention above. It can also help stabilize your weight and the increase in belly fat you're noticing (though don't blame weight gain all on menopause, says Dr. Malone, who points out that aging, lack of activity and stress as you juggle multiple responsibilities are also major players.)

The reason it's important to pay attention to midlife weight gain isn't so you can dust off those stone-washed jeans from high school. "The weight you gain in midlife tends to go to your belly," says Dr. Malone. "That's the type of visceral fat that gets around your internal, organs and heart and increases the risk for cardiovascular disease."

"After the age of forty, we lose about 1 to 2% of muscle mass year-over-year, and that really impacts us long-term," adds fitness expert Antoinetta Vicario, VP of training at P.Volve, an online exercise platform that has recently introduced a new Moving With Menopause program. "Muscle is much more metabolically active than fat, so we need to keep our muscle optimized on the body on order to rev our metabolism.”

The type of exercises you should try during menopause:

According to Vicario, you should try to get up and move your body every day, and add in weight training and pelvic-floor work three times a week, for 20 to 25 minutes. Dr. Malone points out that you can split the exercise up into 15 minutes in the morning and another 10 or 15 after you get home. And you don't have to go to a gym, which can add an extra travel time into your already busy day. "If you have a yoga mat, a set of weights and the internet or cable TV, you can do all the exercise you need to do at home," she says.

Here are seven types of exercises and what they can do for your midlife body: