Menopause is a transition that every woman will experience sooner or later.
It is not a disease, but a transition in life—ovarian function gradually declines, estrogen and progesterone slowly decrease, and the body enters a completely new hormonal environment.
But this transition is often accompanied by a series of troubling symptoms: hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, mood swings, joint pain, bone loss, weight changes, and that inexplicable fatigue and anxiety.
Faced with these challenges, many women are unwilling or unable to use hormone therapy and are thus seeking alternatives. Exercise—especially gentle mind-body exercises like Chanrou—is becoming an increasingly popular choice.
What happens to the body during menopause?
The core of menopause is hormonal changes.
The decline in estrogen and progesterone is associated with a range of symptoms that affect quality of life, including vasomotor symptoms (such as hot flashes and night sweats), psychological symptoms (such as mood swings and depression), and genitourinary symptoms.
The decline in estrogen also brings a long-term health concern: bone loss. Estrogen plays an important role in maintaining bone density, and its reduction significantly increases the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
At the same time, muscle mass is lost with age and declining hormone levels, which in turn affects strength, balance, and body composition.
These changes make menopause a stage of life that needs to be well cared for—not only to alleviate immediate symptoms, but also to protect long-term health.
How much does exercise help with menopause?
There is already considerable research to support this claim. Moreover, different types of exercise can be helpful for different aspects of menopause.
Exercise can improve mood, sleep, and overall quality of life. A randomized controlled trial found that 12 weeks of moderate-intensity exercise improved sleep quality, insomnia, and depression in sedentary women. Exercise also supports mood, self-esteem, and quality of life.
Exercise can help bones and muscles. A systematic review of strength training found that this type of exercise can improve leg and pelvic floor strength, bone density, metabolism, and hormonal changes—areas that are most vulnerable to menopause.
Gentle exercise can even improve hot flashes. This is particularly important. A common concern is: will exercise induce hot flashes? But research has yielded a crucial finding—high-intensity exercise may be associated with an increased risk of hot flashes, but light exercise, such as stretching, is unlikely to increase their occurrence.
In fact, a randomized controlled trial in Japan on stretching exercises found that stretching for 10 minutes before bedtime significantly reduced menopausal and depressive symptoms in middle-aged women, and participants did not report any adverse reactions, including an increase in hot flashes.
Mind-body exercises are particularly helpful for mood and sleep. Mindfulness-based stress reduction, yoga, and Pilates—exercises that combine breathing and awareness—have shown positive effects on menopausal vasomotor symptoms and sleep quality. For example, research has found that Pilates' emphasis on core stability, flexibility, and controlled breathing can significantly reduce the severity of hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and psychological symptoms.
How should Chanrou address the needs of menopause?
As a gentle body and mind exercise that combines breathing and awareness, Chanrou's characteristics perfectly correspond to the multiple needs of the body during menopause.
Gentle, yet protects bones and muscles
Chanrou provides stimulation to muscles and bones through the resistance of the equipment and the body's own weight—bones and muscles need to be maintained through load. Unlike high-impact exercises that put pressure on joints, it continuously protects bone density and muscle strength.
This is a particularly suitable balance for postmenopausal women who are worried about osteoporosis but are not suitable for high-impact exercise.
The intensity is moderate and will not induce flushing.
Gentle, flowing exercise can be adjusted to suit individual needs. This aligns with research findings that mild, flowing exercise does not increase hot flashes but can actually improve menopausal symptoms.
You don't need to push yourself to the point of sweating profusely and having your body temperature spike to reap the benefits of exercise.
Rhythmic breathing regulates mood and sleep.
The mood swings and sleep disturbances during menopause are largely related to the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system.
Gentle, rhythmic breathing directly stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the nervous system to switch from tension to repair. This provides neurological support for alleviating menopausal anxiety, mood swings, and improving sleep quality—the core mechanism by which mind-body exercises have been proven to help menopausal mood and sleep.
Spinal and joint care to relieve soreness and stiffness.
Muscle and joint pain is a common problem during menopause. Chanrou's multi-directional spinal mobility, joint space maintenance, and fascia nourishment directly help relieve this systemic stiffness and pain.
Strengthen pelvic floor
A drop in estrogen levels can also affect the function of the pelvic floor muscles, leading to urogenital problems. Chanrou's deep core and pelvic floor training provides gentle strengthening for this often-overlooked yet important area.
Menopause is also an opportunity to rediscover your body.
Besides relieving symptoms, Chanrou has a deeper significance for menopause.
Menopause often makes women feel that their bodies have become "unfamiliar"—they no longer function as before, and various uncontrollable changes occur, causing confusion and even loss.
The body awareness cultivated by Chanrou can change this relationship. When you start to feel your body again through practice, understand its changes, and learn to respond to its needs, you transform from someone who passively accepts change into someone who can accompany your body through this transformation.
This re-established connection is itself a profound form of stability.
A gentle way to accompany you during this stage
Menopause is not a sign that the body is beginning to decline, but rather that the body is entering a new season.
Just like all seasonal changes, it requires different ways of care. Exercise—especially gentle, fluid, mind-body exercises like Chanrou that combine breathing and awareness—can support the body smoothly through this transition on multiple levels, including the skeletal, muscular, emotional, sleep, and circulatory systems.
It doesn't fight menopause, but accompanies it. It doesn't force the body back to the past, but helps it find its strength, balance, and stability in this new phase.
Menopause will pass, but what you do for your body during this time—preserving your bones, maintaining your muscle strength, learning to breathe—will remain.
