Why Your Joints and Muscles Hurt More in Perimenopause (And What Actually Helps)
You've been doing everything right. Strength training because every doctor, every expert, every algorithm keeps telling you it's the most important thing after 40. Eating reasonably well. Managing your stress as best you can. And still your knees hurt after every workout, your hips feel stiff and angry for no obvious reason, and your muscles stay sore for three or four days like your body forgot how to recover. Your doctor probably told you this is just part of getting older. That it's just menopause. That this is what exercising after 40 feels like now.
Stacey Roberts would like to offer a different explanation. She's a physical therapist, registered nurse, and musculoskeletal specialist with over 30 years of experience helping women get out of pain without surgery, drugs, or injections. Her take: there is almost always a specific reason for the pain, and it is almost never the one you've been given.
This is for you if you've been thinking:
I know I should be strength training but something always hurts when I try
I'm doing the exact same things I did five years ago and suddenly my body is fighting me
My muscles stay sore for three or four days after a workout and I don't know if that's normal now
I've started noticing my knees ache after every workout and I don't know if I should push through it or back off
I've tried rest and stretching and nothing has really changed
I've basically stopped working out because it just doesn't feel good anymore and I don't know how to start again
I want to understand what is actually happening in my body, not just be told to slow down or take ibuprofen
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Your Hormones Were Protecting Your Joints (And Now They're Not)
Here's something most doctors don't take the time to explain. Estrogen and progesterone were acting as natural anti-inflammatories for your entire adult life. When they're in good balance, your body can manage a remarkable amount of inflammation from daily life, workouts, diet, and stress. When they start to fluctuate in perimenopause and drop significantly in menopause, that protection goes with them.
The result is that inflammation you were handling just fine before starts to surface. It shows up as achy knees after a workout you've been doing for years with no problem. Stiff hips that weren't stiff last year. Muscles that take days to recover from something your 38-year-old self would have bounced back from by morning. You are not doing anything wrong. Your body just lost some of its built-in protection.
Hormones are a significant part of this picture, but not the whole thing. Other factors worth looking at: food sensitivities (some foods that seem perfectly healthy may be creating inflammation specifically in your system), gut health, sleep quality, movement patterns that may need to be updated as your body changes, and cortisol levels. Most persistent pain in midlife has more than one driver. The good news is that means there is more than one lever to pull.
The Pain Signals You're Probably Misreading
Not all pain means the same thing. Knowing the difference changes how you respond to it, and responding correctly is the difference between recovering well and digging yourself into a deeper hole.
During a workout: a stretching sensation is your body lengthening a muscle that was tight. That's normal, keep going. Sharp or shooting pain inside a joint is a signal to stop, reset your position, do some mobility work, and try the movement again within a pain-free range. Aching during a set usually means you're either using too much weight, too many reps, or your form has drifted. Correct it and continue.
Post-workout soreness that lasts more than two to three days, especially if that's a change from your usual pattern, is worth paying attention to. One thing most women never think to check: medications. Statins in particular can cause or worsen muscle soreness, sometimes making a simple stretching exercise feel brutal. If your soreness patterns have changed and you're on a medication, that's worth a conversation with your prescriber.
And then there's cortisol, which is where things get counterintuitive. You've heard about cortisol being too high. But in high achievers who have been running hard for years, cortisol can actually become too low. Because cortisol is also anti-inflammatory when it's at the right level, low cortisol at night can cause inflammation to surface. Which is why some women ache mostly at night, even when they can't connect it to anything they did that day. If that's you, it's worth getting your cortisol rhythm checked by someone who looks at the full picture.
Why the Problem Is Rarely Where the Pain Is
The spot where you feel pain is often not where the problem originates. Stacey Roberts knows this firsthand. She had a knee injury that healed, then developed plantar fasciitis about a year later for no apparent reason. When she traced it back, the real issue was hip weakness she'd built up from compensating after the knee injury. That weak hip was causing her leg to rotate slightly inward, which made her arch drop, which put constant strain on the plantar fascia. The fix wasn't treating her foot. It was strengthening and stabilizing her hip. Once she did that, the plantar fasciitis resolved.
She sees this pattern constantly in her practice. A weak hip showing up as knee pain. A tight chest and shoulders contributing to a shoulder injury. Neck pain that traces back to how someone sits. If you've been treating a pain site directly and not getting lasting relief, there's a good chance you're addressing the symptom instead of the source. A physical therapist who looks at your full movement pattern, not just the location of the pain, can find what's actually driving it.
How to Keep Moving When It Hurts
The worst thing you can do when something hurts is stop moving completely. This is not intuitive when you're in pain, but the cycle it creates is brutal: pain causes you to stop moving, which causes tightness, which causes more pain, which causes you to stop moving more. Next thing you know, you've lost range of motion and strength, and starting back feels impossible.
The goal is to keep moving within whatever range is pain-free, even if that range is currently small. That might mean shorter workouts. Less resistance. Different movement types. It might mean yoga or Pilates instead of the strength training you were doing before. It might mean walking with a weighted vest instead of lifting dumbbells. The principle is the same: keep the body moving and the joints lubricated while you work on what's actually causing the pain.
As for the "you must lift heavy" advice that seems to be everywhere right now: it's not wrong, but it's not the only path. Resistance is what matters, not the specific number on a barbell. Resistance bands, body weight, reformer springs, barre, yoga, even a loaded backpack on a walk all count as resistance training. If you're starting from pain or from a long break from exercise, start light, get guidance from someone who understands menopause and injury, and build from there. Stacey Roberts has been making this argument for years: strength training is a form of pain medicine, and you don't have to go heavy for it to work.
One more thing worth knowing: stability matters as much as strength and mobility. It's not enough to build strength or gain flexibility. You need the muscle control to hold the range of motion you gain. This is exactly what Pilates and barre train, and it's what keeps you from getting hurt when you reach for something you didn't expect to reach for.
FAQs
Is joint pain in perimenopause caused by hormones?
Hormones are a significant factor but not the only one. Estrogen and progesterone act as natural anti-inflammatories, so when they fluctuate and drop during perimenopause and menopause, inflammation that your body used to manage can surface as joint and muscle pain. Estrogen also supports the health of collagen, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and joint capsule tissue, so lower estrogen contributes to stiffness and pain in those structures. That said, diet, gut health, movement patterns, stress, medications, and cortisol levels also play a role. Joint pain in perimenopause is usually multi-factorial.
What can I do for joint pain in menopause besides HRT?
Physical therapist Stacey Roberts recommends starting with a food sensitivity test to identify which foods may be contributing to inflammation in your specific system. Managing stress through breathing or other practices helps, because chronic stress affects inflammation levels and hormone balance. General movement and cross-training keep joints mobile and lubricated rather than resting completely. Working with a physical therapist or movement specialist who understands menopause can identify and correct movement patterns that may be stressing specific joints. Gut health, sleep, and cortisol balance are additional factors worth addressing with the right provider.
How do I know if workout pain is normal soreness or something I should stop for?
A stretching sensation during exercise is typically normal. That is your body lengthening a muscle. Sharp or shooting pain, especially inside a joint, is a signal to stop and reassess. Aching during a set can often be corrected by adjusting your form, reducing weight, or reducing reps. Post-workout soreness that lasts more than two to three days, especially if it is a change from your normal pattern, is worth paying attention to. Pain that improves once you warm up is different from pain that worsens with movement. And pain at night that you cannot connect to a specific activity may relate to cortisol levels rather than the workout itself.
Why does my body hurt more after workouts now than it did in my 30s?
The most likely explanation is hormonal. Estrogen and progesterone were providing anti-inflammatory protection, and as those levels decline in perimenopause and menopause, inflammation that your body previously handled without issue can now linger and compound. Collagen and connective tissue are also affected by lower estrogen, which makes muscles, tendons, and joints more susceptible to soreness and slower to recover. It is also possible that movement patterns or workout intensity that worked before now need to be adjusted. This does not mean the damage is permanent, and it does not mean you have to stop. It usually means modifying variables like duration, resistance, and recovery time while supporting your body through diet, sleep, and stress management.
What should I do first if I've stopped working out because of pain?
Stacey Roberts recommends starting with your diet before you return to exercise. Look at whether the foods you're eating could be contributing to inflammation. Even healthy foods can be problematic for specific people, and a food sensitivity test with solid research behind it can give you useful data. From there, starting a probiotic to support gut health is a low-risk first step. Then begin moving again within whatever range is pain-free, rather than waiting until you feel completely better. Getting guidance from a physical therapist, Pilates instructor, or personal trainer who understands both menopause and injury is worth it, especially if you've been off movement for a while.
Meet Stacey Roberts:
Stacey Roberts PT, RN, MSN has over 30 years of experience helping patients live pain-free while achieving their health goals.
She is a Holistic Master’s Prepared Registered Nurse, a Musculoskeletal Specialist, a Pelvic and Sexual Health Physiotherapist, and a Functional Medicine Specialist.
Stacey owns the New You Health and Wellness Practice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, combining cutting-edge technology, advanced manual therapy, and functional medicine to help patients attain optimal health. Many of her patients, including herself have avoided surgery, drugs, and injections.
Connect with Stacey Roberts:
NewYouHealthandWellness.com | The Pain Free Formula book | The Pain Free Formula podcast | @newyouhealthandwellness
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Jessica Long (00:00.787)
Stacy, welcome to Midlife Advice. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Stacey (00:04.924)
my gosh, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.
Jessica Long (00:08.761)
It is awesome because we get to talk about the pain that a lot of us are feeling, which sucks. And you have some ideas for us that maybe we haven't heard of before. So I'm excited to share those with my listeners. So to just set the stage, we're going be talking about some of the common types of joint pain that affect midlife women, like frozen shoulder. I'm sure you've heard of it, tight, stiff hips, inflamed knuckles, which I get from time to time.
And so the first question I want to ask is pretty general. It's is joint pain and perimenopause and menopause primarily a hormone problem, or is that an overly simplified explanation?
Stacey (00:47.97)
it's that qu the answer of it depends. So I would say it's it's very common. Like if you look at the research that compares hot flashes and in perimenopause and menopause to joint pain, s and some studies joint pain will win out. So it absolutely can contribute, but there's a lot of factors that contribute to that as well.
Those hormones are like d are anti inflammatory protectors when they're in a good balance between estrogen and progesterone. And then all of a sudden when those levels start to fluctuate, we lose some of that anti inflammatory protection, right? So that and then you hit menopause and we have
basically hardly any of it left. all the things that we were doing for years that were probably creating inflammation and we our body was just able to manage, we don't have we don't have that ability to manage that as well anymore. So it really helps us identify like things that we're eating, some lifestyle choices that we're making that could really be creating inflammation in our system and then contributing to also the low estrogen progesterone levels, estrogen specifically the thinning of the collagen and the issues with ligament.
tendons, connective tissue, fascia, all those things that make us feel stiff and hurt will also bubble up to the surface as well. So it's a I wouldn't say it's the only, hormones aren't the only contributing factor, but they're a big part of it.
Jessica Long (02:13.464)
Yeah, and I think I can you can extrapolate from what you said that you could be doing all these same exact things and yet now feel pain due to inflammation. So you're not crazy and you're not doing anything wrong. It's just you've sort of lost your body's natural advil, so to speak. Is that fair to say?
Stacey (02:31.917)
Yep. Yep. Yeah. ad I wouldn't compare it to NSADS, but but yeah. For sure.
Jessica Long (02:37.222)
Yeah, I know.
Yeah. Well, so we know that when drops in hormones are at least correlated with, if not maybe the only cause of joint pain, inflammation, muscle soreness, that we can supplement with HRT if we choose to, and that could help a lot of women. But what are some of the other options that we have, maybe non drug, non injection options that we have that people don't know about, that aren't talked about in the mainstream?
Stacey (03:05.271)
Mm-hmm.
Stacey (03:09.899)
We really don't ever prepare ourselves from to with for menopause and perimenopause by looking at our diet.
Right. So, so many of my friends who are going through and having hot flashes, I'll ask them, Well, when are you having them? And a lot of times it's in the stressful, you know, they're getting angry with their child or they're getting frustrated with something on the computer and then all of a sudden they get this hot flash, right? That now they're also at nighttime as well too, and where the sweats happen as well. So, you know, it really
There's so many different things that we can do from managing stress, right? Breathing a lot of times sounds simple and almost ridiculous, but really it really is effective 'cause when we're stressed we have that kind of shallow breathing. So we don't allow our body to get into that parasympathetic nervous system. there you go.
Jessica Long (03:58.961)
I'm actually a breath work facilitator for midlife women, so you are spreeching to the choir, my friend.
Stacey (04:04.717)
Absolutely. So that's probably the easiest and the cheapest thing that we can do, right? For for anything related to stress. And then dietary, right? Dietary stuff. I hear so many to your point just a little bit later, I hear so many women coming to me and say, I'm doing exactly the same thing that I've done for the last ten or fifteen years. And and maybe that's even eating healthily. Maybe they made some lifestyle choices back in, you know, in their 30s and stuff to improve, you know, and maybe they've given up gluten or dairy or whatever it is, and some of these symptoms are still.
Jessica Long (04:08.839)
Yes.
Stacey (04:34.671)
coming in and they don't know what to eat. So that's where we look at doing some food sensitivity testing. I personally use the LCAT, the IgG test, I as in Idaho, G as in George, G as in George really don't have a lot of good data behind them, but the LCAT and the another test called the MTR have some good data. And that shows which healthy foods or which we foods that we all typically think are healthy may not be reacting really well with you, right? With your system. it doesn't mean I was getting rid of those completely and forever, but
rebalancing the gut to so that you can start to tolerate some of those foods or eat them less often. things like that are really the first place to start because if you
Jessica Long (05:14.3)
I actually did a food sensitivity test with my naturopath not too long ago, a few years ago. And I know I've known since I was a child that I've been allergic to cow milk and never actually got the official test because my mom said, your brother was too. I knew the signs. I didn't need to bother. But boy, that came up very clearly on my test. But so did some other foods that I eat regularly that I didn't notice. So I think it's
It's important to get this data because it like eggs showed up for me, almonds showed up for me. I was making smoothies with almond milk often, I was eating eggs often, and experiencing some kind of like I would say maybe low-grade inflammation symptoms. And it's what's interesting is you could have a sensitivity of food and know really well I'm sensitive to that food or I'm allergic to that food. And you can have a sensitive sensitivity and not be able to connect the dots back to that.
Stacey (05:56.653)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Long (06:10.406)
So super helpful to have that information.
Stacey (06:12.733)
absolutely. And you know, with food sensitivities, it it can be you know, you think you're doing the right thing, right? So I've had people have been sensitive to blueberries and they're like, Blueberries? Like how can I be sensitive to that? And again, that once you then work on your gut and optimizing your gut health, then sometimes you can add those things back in. But there's usually just a few that you're like, actually that that that's not gonna work for me. And for me personally that's gluten. For other people it might be, you know, white potato, and another person it might be chocolate. So it's very individualized. That's why that data is
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Long (06:44.004)
Mm-hmm. Okay, so food sensitivity test. What else could we be doing from just from the general standpoint of trying to improve inflammation pain in joints and muscles?
Stacey (06:56.129)
So movement, general movement is great. So making sure that if we're playing sports like pickleball or doing activities that we love, that we're also preparing our body for that. So we're doing, you know, you know, cross fit, I wouldn't say is the the best for everybody, but cross-training, right? So you're doing your flexibility, you're doing your
mobility and you know walking or if you're still running, you know, just balancing those things out to keep movement going and keeping your range of motion improved because when we hit menopause and we lose some of those hormones, that stiffness of our of our tissue, including these things called joint capsule, which is related to frozen shoulders, those joint capsules lose some of that that support from those hormones too and then can kind of shrink. So if you think of a shoulder, it has a capsule around it just like the hip and that capsule
Capsule is kind of like a balloon that cares that keeps all of that lubrication or what's called synovial fluid inside that usually lubricates the joint. And as we age and lose some of those hormones, that kind of balloon can shrink a little bit. And if you've got an autoimmune issue, or if you have the hormone issues, or a combination of both of those things, or your blood sugar levels are off, all that can then compound those things. And so keeping that movement as best you can and addressing it as soon as possible if you are finding that your limit.
for what seems to be no reason. Get that addressed. Don't wait until you can't lift your arm up or that your hip hurts so badly that you can barely walk. Getting those things addressed by a physical therapist right away will really truly pay off in the long run.
Jessica Long (08:32.552)
So we've talked about stress management, diet, movement. These are the pillars of s of health, the basics, the foundations that come up as themes in this podcast all the time. The fourth one being sleep. Would you say getting proper sleep would help us here too?
Stacey (08:48.927)
Absolutely. But the thing about that is when you're going through menopause, it's not like we're not trying to get sleep, right? We're like like like for me, I'm like, you know, in my fours and fifties, I'm like, how can I get home to get to sleep, right? So so there's not many people out there, at least that I know, that are like
Jessica Long (08:55.452)
Right. Thank you.
Stacey (09:07.723)
Well, I don't want to sleep. I mean everybody, you know, as we come to that age we're like like we can't wait, right? But so with the hormone changes and stress and potentially again the food, all those things that we just previously talked about, that can interrupt sleep. So really figuring that out and that balance out for sleep is really important to h to help, but because even with HRT, progesterone can often help people with their sleep patterns. But even with HRT, there can be sleep issues if those other things aren't
Jessica Long (09:10.183)
Ha ha ha.
Stacey (09:37.647)
Yeah.
Jessica Long (09:40.199)
Absolutely. And I actually have a free breath work for sleep session specifically designed for midlife women. I will link to that in the show notes. So please give it a try if you're if you're struggling. It absolutely helps me. It's not a panacea, but it can definitely help. I do want to go back to that movement pillar you were talking about, where we can get into a vicious cycle here, right? Like a lot of us know we need to be strength training, but how can we do that if we have
Stacey (09:47.789)
Please. Yeah.
Jessica Long (10:06.347)
frozen shoulder or knee pain or hip pain or inflamed joints and we can't even grip the weight. Like what do we do when we c feel like we can't get started?
Stacey (10:16.897)
Yep, so
Something like yoga, we oftentimes think of just I've got to lift heavy weights now. We're told that over and over and over again. But really the that that the movement in of yoga, that flow that you can get into for that is really helpful. Those those movements that keep those joints more lubricated, continue to bring blood flow to those areas that are stiffening up, right? is really, really important to add to your your exercise program. but when you've got pain, it this is where the perfect storm comes in.
Right. So you have to find ways to s continue to move because the vicious cycle is I hurt, therefore I don't move, therefore I get tighter.
Therefore I hurt more, therefore I don't move. And then all of a sudden, you know, you're on the recliner and you you've lost all this range of motion and strength, right? So be working with a movement coach, a physical therapist, a personal trainer, just to to allow you to move within the range that is not painful so that you can gradually increase that and see, like for me, it would be a physical therapist that would look at the your biomechanics, right? So how are you moving? How can we adjust things that might be triggered?
Triggering.
Stacey (11:28.481)
you know, your inflammation or irritation now that we have less of the hormone levels for that protection that our body would have been able to get away with before, but can't get away with now. So adjusting those movement patterns, you working with somebody who's an expert at picking those things out, like what we do in our clinic is I don't care if you're coming for a knee, a shoulder, you know, your big toe, we're looking at all the movement patterns of the body and and how you're walking and how you might be getting up from the chair and and giving little tips and tricks about how
to kind of balance your body out. And nobody has to be perfectly neutral, but taking some stress off of those joints that are being irritated can go a long way to help with pain.
Jessica Long (12:09.274)
And I think it's such a good reminder that there are always options. It doesn't have to be a 60-minute, really challenging, heavy weightlifting workout for you to get any benefit. And I mean, I learned this the hard way. I've been teaching fitness for almost 20 years. And I had to go through a phase where I could not do the workouts that I had been doing for over a decade with no problem feeling great. There was a period of several years there where I could not do them without being so sore after that I felt like I couldn't.
Do anything for three days. And then I put my ego aside and realized, like, wait, it doesn't have to be 60 minutes. It could be 35. And I started just kind of playing around with the amount of time I was spending doing these workouts. And that's one lever you can pull. So is the frequency. So is the resistance that you're using, if any. So just remembering, like, it doesn't have to be what.
Stacey (12:41.013)
Yeah.
Stacey (12:44.779)
Yeah.
Stacey (12:49.772)
No.
Jessica Long (13:06.652)
What worked for you before. You might need to get a little creative and you might have to swallow your pride a little bit to find something that works for you now. And then I can attest that once you do, you feel great again. And I love my shorter workouts now. Now 60 minutes feels way too long to me. Like, who has time for that?
Stacey (13:17.077)
Absolutely.
Stacey (13:23.117)
Exactly. Exactly. I think you you hit the nail on the head is sometimes it's an ego thing, right? and then some sometimes it's I've always done these. Why can't I do them now? Well, our body changes, right? So we want to adjust with those changes. And then once we do, to your point again, y you usually enjoy it, right? You usually like the adjustment because it makes your body feel so much better.
Jessica Long (13:45.343)
So let's talk about the people who are getting their frequent workouts in, but they're not feeling the same. Like my example was I'm doing my workouts, but I'm getting so sore after that it's not fun. Like this isn't it, it was good sore as in it's not painful, but it's lasting too long and it's not enjoyable. And like I'm okay with one, maybe two days of soreness, but three, four is it's too long for me. what what can we do in those types of cases?
Stacey (14:14.765)
So the first thing I would look at in those types of cases is what medications, if any, the person's on. Because sometimes the medications can exacerbate that soreness and you know, things like statins. So, you know, I see a lot of women in their 50s who are on statins for a different reason. So sometimes we have to work around that because that can cause some of that stiffness and soreness, even in things like a simple stretching exercise that used to be fine and great, and now it hurts like crazy every time you do it. If there's no medications that seem to be causing or contributing.
To the issue. Then we look at things, you know, we kind of look at that holistic view again of how people are generally moving, right? And seeing if you're overdoing it. and then if that's kind of if you are balancing that out, then we check out your cortisol cortisol levels as well, too. Because if your cortisol levels are too high, and everybody talks about that, cortisol and stress and it being too high, that can be inflammatory. But what a lot of people don't talk about, which happens for if somebody has been really
busy, really high energy high achiever doesn't stop am i describing you you at all here
Jessica Long (15:24.338)
You're describing my whole audience. We're listening.
Stacey (15:27.083)
Yep. Then your cortisol levels can actually be too low. And what people don't understand about cortisol is that's also anti-inflammatory in its a nice and balanced area. So then you lose some of the anti-inflammatory aspect of cortisol. And if you ache at night and only at night, and you haven't been re able to relate it to food, sometimes it's because your cortisol levels get too low at night and you lose some of that anti-inflammatory, and then that inflammation kind of bub bubbles up. Now I'm not talking about Addison's disease.
Which is a diagnosis of somebody who's not making enough cortisol and they need to be supplemented on cortisol. That's completely different. This is you're still functioning, your cortisol is still being created, but it's it usually should be highest in the morning when you wake up and then gradually come down to be the lowest at night so it's not stimulating you and you can fall asleep. But if it's too low in those times where it should be high and giving you that good anti-inflammatory support, then you run into trouble and your body is broken.
Down a lot faster, just like as if it was too high. So finding that sweet spot for cortisol breathing again, going back to that has a huge aspect to managing that stress. And high cortisol honestly can be managed a lot more easily than low consistently low cortisol over time. So that that's a bit of a bugger, and you get want to work with somebody to support your adrenals and get that cortisol, that diurnal rhythm that we call it back on track.
Jessica Long (16:55.254)
Mm-hmm. So interesting that cortisol can help with inflammation. We often, you know, hear about all the evil effects of chronically high cortisol, but to your point, it does, it's there to help us. It's it's there to mobilize us when we need to be mobilized. what about when the pain happens with respect to workouts? Like if the pain is happening as you're working out versus a day later.
Stacey (17:07.213)
Right.
Stacey (17:11.306)
Exactly.
Jessica Long (17:25.084)
Should we address those things differently? And, you know, should we be modifying if we're feeling the pain during the workout? And what kind of pain do we know is pain that we need to modify for versus just you're in your forties, fifties now and this is what it feels like to work out?
Stacey (17:38.89)
Absolutely. So with things like I I I instruct my patients or I try to teach my patients who maybe haven't been athletes in the past and really haven't experienced kind of stretching sensation versus what's painful because stretching can be, you know, painful. But is it a stretch sensation, which is good, you're lengthening the muscle that was tight because you know we all sit so much these days, right? Or is it the sharp shooting pain that you really
you have an intuitive sense that your body's like, mm, yeah, that's not good. Right? So if it's within the joint, sharp shooting. usually don't get an ache during workout unless you're doing, you know, too many reps in poor posture in the wrong position.
then you might get that little bit of aching going on. So the if it's more of an aching, I would correct that posture, you know, maybe decrease the weight or decrease your reps and then continue to go through as much pain-free range of motion as you can. If it's a sharp pain, I again would stop in the middle.
check my how I'm moving. Maybe I need to do a little bit more flexibility or mobility before I attempt that exercise again so I have more range of motion and I'm not trying to fight against these muscles that that are, you know, just fighting against me because they're too tight. oftentimes I see that as people like, stretching doesn't work and then they just do the strength training. But if you don't stretch as we get older, we will lose that mobility even if because we're not running around on a basketball court or volleyball court or even pickleball.
is you know kind of confined you know tennis right so we don't use that range of motion that we would have in our teens and 20s later on so we do tend to get tighter especially in the front pecks and things like that as we're on our phones and on our computers all day that all tightens up and if we don't stretch that out we go for that pickleball shot behind and guess what's going to get injured right your shoulder your neck those types of things so we want to maintain that mobility in the joints throughout so
Stacey (19:35.695)
So during a workout, listen to your body. And if it seems like, yeah, that wasn't right, take a minute, reset yourself, maybe stretch a little bit, and then try it again within that pain-free range of motion.
Jessica Long (19:48.349)
And as a Pilates and bar teacher for 20 years, I love hearing you talk about the importance of mobility, flexibility, stretching. That's that's woven into all the workouts that I teach. I'm a big believer in range of motion because what we used to be taught was a muscle that is strong but not pliable doesn't do you any service. So the muscle needs to be able to contract and release. so given that.
Stacey (20:09.708)
Right.
Jessica Long (20:16.83)
Tell us what you think is the best like post-workout recovery routine for us. Should we be stretching, foam rolling, sauna, ice bath, massage guns? Like what are you a fan of?
Stacey (20:28.843)
Wow.
So there's so many things that you can do. Number one, I would say do what you enjoy doing, right? I love the sauna. I think it's great, but sometimes it's it's hard if you don't have one in the house or find that extra time to do it after you especially if you're like doing a 60-minute workout and then 20 minute sauna, it it it adds more, right? But it is fantastic to do. I personally hate the cold, so I wouldn't do a cold plunge, but other people might be like, that makes me just feel so good and refreshing. And would it help to manage the inflammation that potentially was created with
workout yeah but I'm not personally not gonna force myself to do it and then just hate hate that afterwards. I personally like more of a flow like a stretch afterwards because that's when I'm warm and that's when I can get that mobility. And that's one thing that I didn't mention before is
Getting that mobility is important, but also working on the stability. So once you've gained that mobility, work on the muscle, not just strength, but stability of being able to manage maintaining that mobility that you just gained. So it's not always just about strength. You want to look at strength to be strong. Yep. And heavy weights are good for muscle and muscle metabolism. but we also want stability because stability will keep us from getting injured.
As well as as well as the flexibility.
Jessica Long (21:46.387)
And we I I love that you bring this up. We talk about exactly that in Pilates classes. There's always a part of the body that's moving and then a lot of the body that's not. And oftentimes we'll cue more the parts that aren't moving because those are the stabilizing muscles that need to fire to hold you stable in your pelvis, for example, when you're moving your legs. Or where can you stay stable? Can you stay stable in the shoulder and move the arm in the shoulder socket? So
Stacey (22:06.689)
Exactly.
Jessica Long (22:14.854)
I love that you're bringing that up. Like it's it's all holistic. We have to look at all aspects of this to to keep ourselves functioning optimally. and if you know pickleball is what you love, to your point from the top of the show, cross-train that. What's the right cross-training for you so that you can perform well in the game that you love to play?
Stacey (22:32.449)
Okay.
Stacey (22:38.133)
Exactly. And most people just go out and play because it is relatively straightforward, right? And but then they just don't prepare and and honestly, I mean, pickleball could keep my clinic in business for a long time. So I'm happy I would be happy if people
Jessica Long (22:42.129)
Right.
Jessica Long (22:48.158)
No, okay. Okay.
Stacey (22:55.103)
if I didn't have to see them, right, and we'd be less busy, because that means that they're preparing their body for going out there and and having fun and working out versus just jumping out there and then risk getting injured and then not being able to participate for weeks or months on end.
Jessica Long (23:10.534)
Right, right. Another thing you've said is that muscle weakness can be a contributor to joint pain. And I think this is sometimes counterintuitive to some people. So tell me what you mean. How does that work?
Stacey (23:27.021)
So let's say there was an injury. I'll give you an example of my personal experience. So back in 2021, I was at a wedding with my son, who was at that time 21 years old, and he was out on the dance floor trying to do a polka, and it was a little scary. So I had to go out and show him what a good Midwestern polka actually looked like. So he and I are doing the polka one, two, two, one two two, and my knee just popped. Like I I I felt like everybody in the
Jessica Long (23:46.931)
Mm-hmm.
Stacey (23:55.074)
barn. It was a barn wedding, everybody should have been able to hear it. Of course nobody did, but
I just felt like somebody took a fork and just jabbed it into my knee. So I hobbled off the dance floor. It it, you know, doubled up in size. thankfully I have my clinic. my my son did have to go get me crutches at two AM at Walgreens, but so I hobbled home to my clinic. I treated it with my device called Softwave, which immediately brings down the inflammation that allows me to do the rehab. So I was good within like three three treatments of that, back on track. Again, thankfully I I have the knowledge that I do and the ability to treat it.
that. Fast forward a year after it took me probably a good three or four months to really get back to where I needed to be in my journey. that was kind of my first clue that I was starting to deal with the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause. Because prior to that I really hadn't had any menopausal issues that that I really knew of. But then once other little things started to happen, I'm like, okay, that makes sense. But fast forward about a year after that, I started to develop plantar fasciitis for like no reason, you know. And I'm like, what in the heck?
you know, I try I pretty much ignored it because I'm for some reason my physical therapy brain went, You can't have planner fashitis. Like like you know too much, right? But
Jessica Long (25:10.215)
Ha ha ha.
Stacey (25:11.157)
When I sat down and thought about it, and paid attention to myself to take care of myself, I realized that when I interviewed a hundred women who had planner fasci before, sixty percent of them had a prior injury. So when I had my knee injury, my hip became weak because of how I was compensating as a result. And therefore the weakness in my hip actually made my
we we called internal rotation, made my hip internally rotate slightly, which made my arch fall, or what we call pronation. And so that kept on stretching the player fascia. So again, along with having lower estrogen levels and that fascia not being as pliable as was before, I developed the plain fasciitis. So I didn't really have to work much on my foot from a strength point of view. Did some flexibility there, but the strength part, the weakness was really in my hip. So then once I was able to strengthen and stabilize my hip and do the
flexibility exercises around my ankle and gastroc that that was able to get rid of my plain fasciitis. So that would be an example of how weakness can you know kind of set you up for an injury down the road or over time with compensation because of weakness that can set you up for injury.
Jessica Long (26:24.376)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Weakness in the hip causing pain that you feel in your foot or shooting up your heel. I've had plantar fasciitis. It's incredibly painful. I have no idea how you ignored it. I couldn't walk on my heel for weeks at a time. But luckily that's better. I'm and I fall in the 40% that didn't have an injury before. so it it it happens, it happens.
Stacey (26:30.795)
Yeah.
Stacey (26:36.394)
Yeah.
Jessica Long (26:49.816)
and you've also mentioned, I love this, that strength training is a form of pain medicine, but heavy lifting isn't necessarily the only effective approach. So, what are some other approaches that might feel more feasible to your average midlife woman who's not a heavy lifter?
Stacey (27:06.805)
So the the bane of my res existence right now is many of the experts who are fantastic and extremely knowledgeable getting on podcasts and going, we we must lift heavy, you know, heavy weights and da-da-da. Though I don't agree with that, somebody who or excuse me, though I don't disagree with that a hundred percent, somebody who's never lifted weights before, maybe is losing weight or whether they're on a GLP one or not, they're on the journey of losing weight.
They can't just start off lifting heavy weights because again, they're setting themselves up for coming to my clinic to be injured, right? So we want to ease into it. So if it depends on where your baseline is. If your baseline is no exercise at all, then start doing things like you know, Pilates and yoga. Advance the things like, you know, bar like you do. Use more body weight to help with your your strength training, getting your muscles engaged and your joints stabilized and doing those flexibility exercises and
Then start to look at increasing the weight. And you can do that now in different ways with body weight, right? You can use a ruck, you know, ruck thing to walk with or use that while you're doing yoga. Things like that can help with increasing that body weight. And then if you're comfortable and especially having good instruction, utilize somebody to help you with weightlifting. And that might be, you know, a six-month journey, right? To get to that point where you're lifting heavier weights than you do.
It's important that we do continue to to work and do resistance exercises even with bands. We can, you know, add some things for extra resistance with bands and there's so many different ways to do it today. and you know, lifting heavier weights than what you're used to is really i is very good to challenge your muscles to get them stronger, maintaining your metabolism, not losing that you know, eating enough protein to maintain your muscle mass as well too. It all helps to balance each other off.
Stacey (29:06.56)
Yeah.
Jessica Long (29:08.038)
Yeah, and I I like that you point out too there's so many different ways to add resistance. So heavy weight is one resistance option. But so resistance can be your own body weight, gravity, bands, tubes, springs. If you're working on a Pilates reformer, there's lots of options for ways you can add resistance. So thank you for pointing that out. It doesn't have to be heavy, you know, dumbbells that you're lifting or, you know.
Stacey (29:33.773)
Okay.
Jessica Long (29:34.226)
deadlifting. I don't even know how many pounds. Okay, so for anyone who's listening who's like, okay, well I kind of stopped working out because it just doesn't feel good anymore. What's one piece of advice that you would give her to help her get going again?
Stacey (29:36.984)
Yeah.
Stacey (29:49.327)
So it might be counterintuitive, but look at your eating plan.
really that's the big thing. If we go back to the beginning of the podcast, fine. If you're feel like you're really eating healthy, you know, do some sort of food sensitivity test that's accurate and has good research behind it. that's really gonna be for me always going back to that, number one, because that's gonna support your gut. So you and your gut needs to be optimized in order to decrease inflammation. There's something called the gut joint access. So even some people just need to even start with a probiotic, right? that can that first step
With a good probiotic can help some people if they have bloating or other symptoms. so that's where I would start and then kind of slowly move into that pain-free range of motion and seek guidance. If you, you know, if you haven't really been a person that's moved, if you haven't really been an athlete, or even if you you have been and you you don't necessarily have a lot of education about the human body, get help from somebody, you know, from an instructor, you know, like like yourself.
Or a physical therapist or a personal trainer that understands menopause and understands how to work around injuries and things like that. So, you know, seek help because it it you know going on YouTube, I can't tell you how many times patients will come in and say, Well, I did your exercise and then added these exercises on YouTube and and I think I hurt my back. And so, like, make sure if you have somebody that you if you see something on YouTube, you've got somebody you can get, hey, can you take a look at this? Would this be good for me to do? instead of just jumping in and doing.
doing it and then ending up hurting yourself, right? So keeping all those things in mind, depending on where you're starting from.
Jessica Long (31:30.258)
I love that. And I know it can feel like a barrier to walk into a gym and ask for a personal trainer. That can be really scary, but just know that they want to help you and that's what they're trained to do. Same with Pilates teachers, bar teachers. We're trained in alignment to help watch you through the range of motion that you're working in, make sure that you're doing it in a proper way so that you won't get injured. So it can feel a little scary, but it has a huge payoff. Stacey, thanks so much for coming on the show. Where can everybody find you and learn more about your work?
Stacey (31:58.165)
thank you for asking. So my my website is new or my clinic is New U Health and Wellness. So it's all spelled out. N E W Y O U Health and Wellness spelled out dot com. And also I I wrote a book called The Pain Free Formula, Solving the Puzzle of Muscle and Joint Pain Without Surgery, Drugs or Injections, and that's on Amazon. I have my pain free formula podcast. so that's on wherever you listen to podcasts. we've all of our socials are under New You Health and Wellness as well too. So hope to
You know, answer any questions that your listeners have, if they have
Jessica Long (32:31.422)
Thanks so much. We'll put all those links in the show notes. Thanks again for coming on, sharing your wisdom with us.
Stacey (32:36.183)
This has been a blast. Thank you for having me.
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Disclaimer:
Belong Wellness and its members, managers, employees, contractors, and other agents or representatives are not licensed medical care providers and do not provide medical services or advice, including without limitation diagnosing, examining, preventing, treating, or curing any medical conditions. The information shared in this podcast is meant to be educational, not prescriptive. Please consult your medical doctor before making any changes to your diet or lifestyle. Further, the opinions of guests on this show do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Jessica or anyone affiliated with Belong Wellness.
