Exercise The menopausal metabolism is more insulin resistant and cortisol reactive. This means that the exercise component needs to address both of these elements. This is why movement, not exercise, and stress reducing activities take precedent. These were covered in module 4 and include activities such as leisure walking, meditation, spending time with supportive friends etc. Remember, the distinction between movement and exercise is not often made. Think of movement as anything that is used as transportation or as part of activities of daily living. This means walking from place to place, working in the garden, cooking, taking out the rubbish, etc. Movement should be prioritised. You should look for every opportunity to move. You can’t do too much movement, but you can do too much exercise.

Another important factor, covered in module 3, is that diet is still the most important factor for fat loss, and exercise should never be overdone, especially in a low-calorie state. Intense exercise, if done excessively over a period of time, whilst dieting, can push the body into a state of muscle breakdown and metabolic compensation.

The Wrong Way to Exercise Let’s talk about the wrong way to exercise first. Exercise is a stress to the body. That’s the first thing you need to understand. If it’s done the correct way—not overdone—it’s what psychologists call an “eustress” or a positive stress to the body. In this case the body is able to adapt to the stress and it utilises metabolic resources that are a product of that stress to become leaner, faster and stronger. However, exercise overdone or done the wrong way becomes a negative stress. This is the first, most important aspect, of exercise physiology to understand, because most people just think any old exercise is good exercise and the more, the harder, the longer, the better. Unfortunately, what most people think, is dead wrong.

Mistake No. 1 - Ab Exercises Traditional advice tells us that if we want a slim tummy we need to exercise our abs. It is the furthest from the truth. Spot reduction ANYWHERE in the body does NOTHING. It’s impossible. If fact, ab exercises can make your waist bigger. If you’re not burning the fat over the top of muscles it is like putting on your jumper under a raincoat. It will just make you look bulkier.

Mistake No. 2 - Over Exercising and Excess Insulin When you over-exercise you stress out the body and emphasise the secretion of stress hormones, namely cortisol. It should be clear why this is a problem at this stage. Just remember the equation:

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Excess Calories + Excess Cortisol + Excess Insulin = Weight Gain

Even if you are in a calorie deficit, if you over-exercise the excess cortisol you produce is likely to minimise or undo your result. This is a key reason the whole “eat less, exercise more” paradigm can’t work. This is compounded by the fact that cortisol makes us crave sugary, salty, and fatty foods which can lead to overeating. This, in turn, causes you to release excess amounts of insulin and you end up in a downward spiral toward packing on the fat.

So the trick is to exercise in a way that releases enough cortisol, but not too much, and releases hormones like human growth hormone, testosterone, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and compounds like lactic acid along with the cortisol. When all those things come together, they enhance cortisol’s positive effects and blunt cortisol’s negative effects. Now you’re on the positive upward spiral toward fat-burning nirvana. What does this exercise look like? Well, from a menopausal metabolic perspective it elicits what is called the “Goldilocks Effect” on cortisol: Not too much cortisol, not too little cortisol, but just the right amount to stimulate fat burning right around the middle. The endless bouts of cardio on the treadmill—forget about it. That stuff will seriously stress out your body. When it comes to diet, exercise, relaxation—really anything in life—you want to achieve the Goldilocks Effect: Not too much, not too little, but just right. That’s the real ticket to effective, efficient, sustainable fat loss.

Mistake No. 3 - Not Relaxing Most people dismiss the importance of relaxation in today’s world. They tell themselves they are simply too busy to take some time out, relax and chill. If you’re committed to burning off that slab of fat on your belly you need to seriously rethink this position. Relaxation isn’t optional if you want to burn fat. It’s mandatory.

One of the best times to walk is right after you work out. This is ideal because going for a walk is a great way to cool down and it brings down the elevated cortisol levels you experience during a workout. I suggest you try to take a 30 to 60 minute walk immediately after your exercise routine. Consider it the R&R part of your workout.

But don’t stop there. In general I believe we could all afford to add more relaxation time in to our lives. So make time to do the things you love that relax and nourish you. And make sure to integrate activities into your life that nourish you physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Finally, when you’re looking at belly fat it’s essential to remember that all of us are different. You are different. You are an individual. When it comes to putting all of this together, the AIM process—assess, investigate and modify—becomes your major critical tool to make sure that you understand how to burn fat for you. And that’s the real key. If you follow that, you’ll never get confused by the latest food, infomercial or diet program again. Those are all one-size-fits-all

approaches.

What I’ve taught you here is how to adjust and do this for yourself. And that’s probably going to be the thing that you’ll have to come back to, over and over and over again, until you finally figure out how to attack fat and get rid of it once and for all.

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The Exercise Plan The exercise approach on the BTC Plan is as follows:

Traditional Strength Training These sessions are traditional standard weight training workouts that stimulate muscle growth and sculpting. They are different to the more modern and somewhat popular metabolic conditioning programs in that they do

not over-tax (think stress here) the body. With the increased risk of osteoporosis due to the menopause weight training exercise is even more important. This type of training works the full body and in between each exercise you will rest for between 1 to 3 minutes. This rest is very beneficial because it allows the body to recover fully before continuing. This way you can push your muscles to failure and benefit from the muscle gain. The metabolic conditioning workouts do not do a great job of overloading the muscles in a way that will stimulate growth or maintenance but they are good at burning fat when the diet is right.

The goal with these workouts is to tax the body with heavy weights and then allow it to recover before repeating. Choose a weight heavy enough that it is very difficult to complete 10 reps. If you can do more than 12 reps, increase the weight. If you can’t get at least 8 reps out then you will need to reduce the weight. The first few workouts will be a bit of trial and error but eventually you will be able to estimate what weights are suitable for you.

There are two traditional strength workouts in this program, A and B, so rotate them as desired or stick to one for a few weeks before you change. You will be using dumbbells which makes these workouts ideal to do at home or can be done in the gym. These sessions should last approximately 30 - 40 minutes depending on your length of rest.

Metabolic Conditioning Workouts These workouts are the ones that will stimulate fat burning and to understand the workouts in this section you first have to understand that metabolic conditioning is not interval training. While you will be doing some interval exercises, metabolic conditioning is a bit different. Metabolic exercise is also very different to aerobic exercise. If the body is not being pushed to higher intensities than traditional aerobic exercise (jogging for example) allows, then you are not reaping the best benefits for your metabolism.

These workouts are also not power lifting or bodybuilding. Both forms of exercise use longer periods of rest, while metabolic conditioning has much shorter rest periods. You will know when you are doing this style of

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Traditional Strength Training 2 x workouts per week. 4 x Sets of 8 -12 reps

Rest period = 1 - 3 minutes

Metabolic Conditioning 2 x workouts per week.

20 Minutes

training correctly, because it has a distinct feeling associated with it. You’ll be breathless, your muscles will be burning and you will be very hot and sweaty. In these workouts you are doing both cardiovascular training and resistance training at the same time and you will attack the same muscles again and again. The benefits are great: you’ll balance your hormones, but also burn the maximum amount of calories possible during a workout. Metabolic conditioning also creates a metabolic ripple effect that produces elevated fat burning long after the workout has been completed. Done correctly you will stimulate testosterone and with a diet that unlocks fat, they will together ignite fat burning for days. Because these workouts use relatively heavy weights they are even more effective. This specific brand of metabolic conditioning involves overloading the muscles. It is wonderful at burning fat but it can fall short in muscle toning unless it’s tweaked. This is why the workouts add in an approach to muscle building too. This approach is what is known as “overload” and it means that for the body to respond it must again and again encounter an increasingly greater stimulus that forces it to adapt. To get individual muscles to respond they must encounter overload. Multiple sets and reps of the same movements will always be used in both types of training to achieve this effect. This is why you must do more than one set of exercises, increase your weights frequently and make sure the muscles you are working are actually stimulated again and again.

Types of Metabolic Conditioning Workouts These workouts utilise full-body exercises that involve multiple planes of movement and not only add to the metabolic element of the workout but also help to develop greater fitness and a more athletic looking physique. We are not going for big and bulky or skinny fat. We are going for the athletic lean look. Full body exercises are also the best way to include the cardio component into weight training workouts.

Rest-Based Training (RBT) This approach is an essential tool in the metabolic conditioning workouts. The “push until you have to rest” format allows each person to generate the correct intensity necessary to turn on fat burning long after the workout is over. Similar to interval training in that there are alternating periods of hard exercise with periods of easy exercise, this type of training has been shown to reliably stimulate EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) or in other words – enhances fat burning that lasts for hours and even days after a workout is over. But rest-based workouts differ from interval training because there is no set time limit on how long to work and when to rest. Interval training prescribes a very definitive “work phase” with a finite “rest phase”, which, like aerobic exercise, may lead to “pacing yourself”. Rest based training eliminates the pacing effect by “pushing yourself” until you can no longer perform the exercise, then resting until you can begin again. The mantra to remember with rest-based training is:

The goal is to push as hard as possible for as long as possible with no pacing whatsoever. When you can’t perform even one more exercise because your muscles are so exhausted, you rest just until you have recovered enough – a matter of seconds to minutes – to start the exercise again and deliver the same degree of intensity. This means that anyone at any fitness level can self-tailor the workout to her exact specifications.

Think of it this way: a champion sprinter who attempts to run two 100-metre races one right after the other, without resting between them, could win the first race, but would likely finish last in the second race. The exertion required during the first race would be impossible to generate in the second. With rest the sprinter could not physically or mentally compete. The

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WORK UNTIL YOU CAN’T - REST UNTIL YOU CAN!!

same applies to you and your workouts. Focus on rest first and then it will be possible to achieve more high quality work. The more you rest the harder you will be able to push.

The workouts literally can’t be done without it. Using structured rest periods ignores the individual metabolism and fitness level, causing many to miss out on the workout benefits. The idea is to optimise your work-to-rest ratio. Short rest periods mean the workout intensity can be elevated to adequately generate breathlessness, burning muscles and heat. Also known as the B’s and H’s - breathless, burning, heavy and heat.

Breathless: You should be so breathless that you can’t talk as you’re exerting effort during the workout and are forced to rest at times because of it. You should be panting.

Burning: You should reach metabolic failure, which is signalled by muscle burn so intense that you will need to stop and recover.

Heavy: You need to lift weights heavy enough to induce strain in the muscles and joints at times. For this reason, you’ll lift heavy weights and use explosive exercises like jumps and squats.

Heat: This means you’ll be getting hot and sweaty. Since we all sweat differently, this is the least effective biofeedback signal to assess during your workout. More heat means increased blood flow and therefore more fat being shuttled to the

areas of the body that can burn it. You might find you sweat more as your fitness improves.

There are several different types of workouts that you can do: • Basic Spark - better for beginners • Sprint Intervals - good for use in the gym and for beginners • Metabolic Chains - better for the more advanced exerciser.

Create Your Own Workouts! Constructing a Metabolic Chain You are five steps away from making your own chain workout. Here’s what you should be looking for:

Get metabolic: Choose a base exercise to activate fat burning. Burpees and jump squats are great places to start.

Build the chain: From the base exercise, “chain together” two to four movements. For example, adding a push-up at the bottom of a burpee and an overhead press at the top creates a challenging chain.

Get focused: Isolate a body part by adding reps to one of the exercises. Want to target your chest? Do one push-up the first time you repeat the chain, and continue adding one rep each time you repeat it. When you reach 10 reps start over at one and do it again.

Choose your weights: Pick a dumbbell with which you can knock out 10 reps of the toughest movement. If you’re a pro at curls but need to work on your overhead presses you should be able to eke out 10 shoulder

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Breathless

Burning

Heavy

Heat

presses with your chosen weight. A quick way to find the right weight for you is to choose a dumbbell in which you can’t do more than 3 reps (your 3 rep max) when doing the hardest movement, then cut that weight in half. For example, if you can perform no more than 3 bicep curls with an 8kg dumbbell then your weight for the workouts is 4kg.

Time it: Set your stopwatch for 20 minutes. Rest when you need to, and begin again right where you left off.

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Get Metabolic

Build the Chain

Get Focused

Choose your Weight

Time it