Cycling through perimenopause & menopause: Stay strong, fit & motivated

Lower estrogen levels cause dryness and tissue thinning in the vulva and vagina, which might increase saddle soreness.

The inability to concentrate, the decrease in balance and coordination, along with mounting hormonal induced anxiety, can mean normal routes may be suddenly terrifying even though you’ve ridden them many times before.

You may feel like you’ve lost your spark, your motivation and your love of cycling. But there is some good news, too! Cycling can be the very thing that helps your symptoms.

Why cycling helps during midlife changes

You might be surprised how much cycling and staying active can help you through the menopause transition.

We’ve all heard the stories of menopause rage, moodiness and sadness. But exercise, especially intense exercise, releases endorphins that can improve mood, combat anxiety and help you feel more regulated.

New evidence suggests that regular activity can even decrease the frequency and intensity of hot flashes. Physical fitness is known to have a positive effect on sleep, helping you manage insomnia and night sweats, which help you rest better and feel more energetic.

Cycling burns fat and calories and boosts metabolism, which can help to counteract menopausal weight gain. It also strengthens your heart, lowers blood pressure and improves circulation.

Since cycling is low-impact, it protects the joints while strengthening muscles, so it may help to ease the discomfort of joint pain that comes along with shifting estrogen levels.

And of course, regular exercises like cycling can boost energy and stamina, which makes your day-to-day activities feel easier and better.

Common challenges women face on the bike

One challenge you may see on the bike is that your training plan doesn’t work for you anymore. You might find that long rides build up too much fatigue, or the nutrition plan isn’t working for you anymore, either.

As estrogen declines, we become more sensitive to carbs and insulin resistance. That means we may need to adjust what we eat both on and off the bike.

You may find yourself suffering from saddle issues due to thinning tissues and changing body composition. You may find yourself overly anxious on rides. That descent you sailed down last week – might make you tremble in fear this time. Or you overheated on that climb and had to get off and walk because you felt so hot and uncomfortable.

And maybe you’re suffering from a big lack of motivation. Because when you suddenly feel like your body is betraying you, working out can be the last thing you’re motivated to do. And physically, you might not even feel up to it.

When I found myself crying on the bike because I was so fatigued I couldn’t hit my watt targets, I knew something had to change in my training plan.

Practical training adaptations for midlife riders

Menopause and perimenopause aren’t the end to your riding and competing, but you may need to make some adaptations to your training and fueling to make it work.

In the past, it was thought that we needed to do lots of Zone 2 training to create the mitochondrial adaptations we needed to get faster.

But in perimenopause, this can create too much fatigue to be helpful. Instead, Dr. Sims suggests adjusting your training balance to include HIIT workouts and strength training.

Prioritize heavy lifting in order to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, and to maintain lean muscle mass, and incorporate High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) once or twice a week. HIIT uses short, intense bursts of exercises followed by recovery with a lower-intensity exercise such as walking.

How to train indoors when symptoms flare

It can be pretty tough to find the motivation to do a big bike ride when your symptoms are flaring. But you can lean into your indoor rides to keep up the consistency in spite of your symptoms and even find some relief along the way by adjusting your training strategy.

For example, on low-sleep days, choose a shorter, sharper session on your trainer. Aim for 35 to 60 minutes of a HIIT or a Sprint Interval Training (SIT) routine Try one of the short, hard workouts on the ROUVY app, or just give it a full-gas sprint followed by about 5 minutes of recovery. Repeat 5 to 7 times, if you can. Or try some of the other strategies listed below.

Nutrition & hydration tips

As your hormones change over time, you may find it helpful to gently adjust your nutrition strategy along the way. Hot flashes and night sweats can increase your need for hydration, and if you aren’t compensating for this, you could feel sluggish, tired and slow.

On the other hand, your body probably needs more protein to offset sarcopenia (declining muscle mass that happens as we age). Protein also helps maintain bone mass and it helps you feel fuller, longer, so you are less likely to binge on high calorie foods.

The general recommended daily allowance for protein is .8 grams of protein per kilogramme of body weight. However, for older adults, 1 to 1.2 grams per kilo might be better to lessen the effects of sarcopenia. But for athletes or those looking for changes in body composition, 1.4 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight may work even better, according to The Nourished Menopause.

Comfort matters: Saddles, clothing & bike fit

During our fun rides, my friends and I talk about all the different aspects of feeling comfortable on the bike, including preventing saddle sores. Even small changes in body composition can affect our position on the bike, how our bibs fit and how good or bad our saddles feel.

If you find yourself suddenly uncomfortable on the bike or getting a lot of saddle sores that interrupt your ability to ride, you might want to take a look at your chamois and your bike fit.

You may need to replace your old, worn-out chamois or switch to a different brand. I find that an extra snug fit – even if it’s a little hard to pull on – means the chamois doesn’t move around and is less likely to create friction that can cause sores.

It might help to dial in your bike fit even more, and you may need to consult a professional. For one thing, perimenopause can bring with it aching joints and muscle pains, which are exacerbated by a poor bike fit.

Or changing body composition may mean your muscle and fat stores have shifted and you need a different saddle, seat position, or higher rise handlebars. You can have your saddle, your bike, and your cleats fitted to make every ride more comfortable so you can ride further for longer – and have a lot more fun!

Motivation & mindset for riding through menopause

My friend Shannan hit a wall when the workouts that had always worked for her stopped working. Pushing harder didn’t help. Eating less didn’t help.

Once she recognized her shifting hormones were affecting her day-to-day life, she showed me a better way to approach fitness: Stay consistent without being rigid.

She adjusted her schedule, added strength training with weights and cross-training, and leaned into the rides and workouts she genuinely enjoyed.

The result was not just better fitness. It was more energy and a lot more joy.

Shannan’s lesson is one we can all use:

Changing hormones don’t have to be the end of our fitness, but they do give us a reason to pause and re-evaluate what we’re doing.

For Yeager, it’s about looking forward, not back. On the Let’s Talk Menopause podcast, she said, “I just really firmly believe that you should live forward as long as you can... When I raced, I would always not want to look over my shoulder because the race is in front of me. Right. There's not much I can do. If something's coming up on me, it's coming up on me, I'm going as fast as I can. So just keep eyes forward, that's where it's happening, that's what's going on. So I carry that on into this space. I think ‘live forward’ because there's a lot of great things that are out there still.”

Our best days aren’t behind us if we honour our bodies for where they are, and give them what they need to thrive.

When to seek professional support

Some symptoms can be managed with training, hydration, fueling, and stress reduction. But if symptoms are significantly affecting your daily life – such as sleep disruption, persistent anxiety or low mood, unusual physical symptoms, or pain – you deserve support.

One of my worst symptoms was night sweats. I was waking up constantly, and it left me too tired to function, much less enjoy training. A doctor friend, who I love to ride with, suggested I talk to someone about menopause care, including hormone therapy.

That reminder mattered: you don’t get bonus points for suffering. If you need help, that’s not a weakness. That’s wisdom. Hormone replacement therapy helped me get my sleep back on track, which made everything better.

Also, because perimenopause and menopause happen at the same time other health issues can appear, it’s always smart to get checked if something feels truly unusual or alarming for you.

The Takeaway: You can keep riding strong

If you’ve been wondering whether you’re alone in this, whether menopause and cycling can coexist, whether cycling during menopause can still feel strong and joyful, let me offer you the reassurance I needed: This isn’t the end of your riding. It’s a new chapter.

In this article by CyclingWeekly’s Yassmin Abdel-Magied, London-based ultra-endurance cyclist Fatima Ahmed said:

We can still make gains – we just have to tweak our process.

You may need:

• To recover more

• To strength train

• More intentional intensity

• Fewer endless moderate grinds

• More airflow

• A fresh bike fit

• To fuel earlier

• To hydrate more seriously

But none of that means you’re “less of an athlete.” It means you’re adapting and adaptation is what athletes do best.

Keep going. Keep adjusting. Keep choosing the version of training that builds you up instead of burning you out. Your strongest riding might not look exactly like it did before, but it can absolutely still be ahead of you.

Remember, you’re not starting over. You’re just training smarter.

Medical disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes and is not medical advice. If you have severe, persistent or concerning symptoms or if you’re considering supplements or hormone therapy, be sure to consult a licensed healthcare professional.

Further reading:

• BMC Women’s Health, “The Impact Of Physical Activity And Exercise Interventions On Symptoms Experienced At Menopause”
• ROUVY, “How To Choose The Best Women’s Cycling Shorts For Every Ride”
• Maturitas, “Effect Of Physical Activity On Sleep In Women Experiencing Vasomotor Symptoms Of Menopause”
• PLOS One, “Frequency And Perceived Influence Of Menopausal Symptoms On Training And Performance Among Female Endurance Athletes”
• MGH Center for Women's Mental Health, “Why Exercise Helps With Menopausal Hot Flashes”