Oestrogen, the female hormone, plays a huge role in the body of every woman. It’s levels are always changing throughout the life cycle of a woman, with the monthly menstrual cycle, decreases during peri-menopause and beyond, and it’s manipulation through a woman’s life with the oral contraceptive pill and HRT. We also know that it is clearly beneficial for muscle mass and strength in the training athlete and everyday exerciser.

Here are some cool facts to ponder from the research, especially if you are trying to build muscle strength and are in the menopausal period of life.

💋 Muscle mass, and therefore strength, is largely dependent on the balance between the synthesis and degradation of muscle protein when stimulated through exercise or load.

💋 Higher rates of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown have been observed in these women when compared to age matched men and pre-menopausal women (Smith et al., 2014). There appears to be an imbalance between the protein build-up and breakdown, leading to a shift to the latter and a rapid decrease in muscle mass and strength.

💋 When oestrogen levels were raised to that of pre-menopausal women using estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), the response to the muscle protein synthesis and overall muscle mass was normalized (Hansen et al., 2012).

💋 ERT or HRT is therefore beneficial for peri- and postmenopausal muscle mass and function. Combined with exercise, improvements in muscle mass and function have been shown to be more beneficial than HRT ( or exercise) alone.(Beydoun et al., 2012)

Training smarter and chatting with your GP about the right oestrogen replacement for you, will get you feeling stronger, less vulnerable to injury or frailty, and achieving those goals!

#muscle #musclestrength #musclemass #perimenopause #menopause #menopausemuscles #oetrogen #ERT #HRT #thefixprogram #thefixprogramonline #thefixprogramsydney #physio #pilates

When it comes to good shoulder function, upper back posture and a content neck, it all comes down to the work across your upper back and shoulder blade support muscles. We call this ‘scapular stability.’ When your shoulder blades (or scapulae) are supported with the right muscles and in the correct alignment, everything up there in the top of your body just works well and in balance.This can alleviate pain and injury, with everything from neck pain and tension, headaches, rib and upper back complaints, shoulder impingement, rotator cuff and biceps tendon issues and upper limb nerve pain.  

Let’s keep the shoulder blade and ‘scapular stability’ awareness super simple. 

✅ Imagine your shoulder blades sitting on your upper back. You want to feel that they are gently widened and sitting flat upon your back (not winging or sticking sharply off your back). You could imagine them sitting into their little ‘pockets’ like you would picture your bum pockets on your jeans.

✅ Like the image in this post, the pockets on your jeans sit slightly splayed away from each other, just as your shoulder blades should also sit.

✅ You will feel a little work across the upper back - this is excellent and exactly what is required to endure your scapular stability throughout your day.

✅ Also notice that your chest at the front is gently widened.

❎ We do NOT want to squeeze the shoulder blades ‘back and down.’ This creates a dropped shoulder posture, inefficient and non-ideal shoulder movement, pulling on the neck and an over worked or over active “back gripping” posture strategy. Not good end results at all.

#posturalawareness #scapularstability #mindfulposture #shoulderposture #happyshoulders #shoulderalignment #upperback #exercise #pilates #clinicalpilates #thefixprogram #thefixprogramonline #physiotherapy #physio #pictureworthathousandwords

The importance of your upper and middle trunk cannot be underestimated when it comes to your body’s efficient function. Typically a stiffer part of the trunk due to the protective cage for the heart and lungs underneath, the ribs and associated thoracic spine posture issues can quickly arise with our sedentary lifestyles and lack of postural strength.

This important region of the trunk relates so closely with many other functions of your body. Think about your breath and diaphragm action, your neck above, the shoulders and the lower back below. The ribs also play an important role in good pelvic and pelvic floor function, hips and the lower leg. You could say, they play a part with just about everything! 

How can we keep our rib posture and awareness here more simple?

✅ Imagine your rib cage like a stack of 12 dinner plates. Feel how they would sit on top of each other. Note how there would be a small space wrapping all the way around each rib or plate, allowing it float from the plate below.

✅ Pause to take a few comfortable, yet deep breaths, becoming aware of the extra space you create in these ribs as you inhale.

✅ Does your breath bring more mindful focus to how your 12 ribs really are like a floating stack of dinner plates, with your neck above and waists sitting below?

✅ Where do your ribs sit at the moment? Are they stacked?

#mindfulposture #ribposture #upperback #thorax #pilates #clinicalpilates #thefixprogram #thefixprogramonline #physiotherapy #physio #pictureworthathousandwords