Like-minded women gained invaluable insights from Ironwoman Carla Papac at Jungle and Co on Wednesday 21 February.
The Waves of Wellness event, presented by Bendigo Community Bank Sunshine Coast, was a holistic exploration of exercise, nutrition, and well-being for women at every life stage.
It’s important to normalise and start conversations around the changes in a woman’s body during puberty through to menopause, Carla said, as she delved into her own experiences.
“Last season, I moved up to Noosa from Sydney to try and kickstart my Surf Lifesaving, Ironwoman career,“ she said.
“I’ve been training and competing since I was eight years old but for me this was the big step to take it very seriously. I had the goal to do the Coolangatta Gold. I ended up winning, so it was a fairy tale ending. I trained very hard and fuelled myself in what I thought was the correct way.
“In the first round of the Nutri Grain series, I raced horribly and I kind of just accepted that it was my body adapting to the shorter racing.
“To cut a long story short, I never really recovered. I was suffering from a lot of fatigue, I started having really painful and intense periods which I had never suffered from before, and I was just lacking in my recovery. I wasn’t performing well and I knew something was up, however a lot of these symptoms are normalised for athletes, in a way they shouldn’t be.
“I just pushed through and I felt a lot of pressure to keep going and show everyone that my Coolangatta Gold win wasn’t just a one off.
“It didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen because I didn’t adapt with my body. My body went through a lot of changes in this time and it was demanding more from me. It needed more fuel, more recovery, and a change in my training mindset.“
With her knowledge as an exercise physiologist, Carla said it was vital to accept that women’s bodies change in a way that’s different to a man.
“I’m grateful for my studies because it’s giving me this new idea that we don’t just train the same way all throughout our life,“ she said.
“There are a lot more female studies coming out, guiding us on how we can better support our bodies as we go through hormonal changes.
“Previously all of the studies were mostly just done on men. The studies were done on men because it was easier, it was cheaper, they didn’t have to take into account hormonal changes throughout the month, and they just adapted the studies from men to women.
“For myself as an athlete this has been really valuable information that I’ve been able to take on and put into my own training.“
Carla said it’s time to start these conversations with the people around us, about how to support women’s bodies through these changes.
“These changes are normal and they need to be normalised and not feared and dreaded,“ she said.
“Generally, what we’re seeing through periods to menopause, females are dreading the changes that are happening to their body and most of the time they’re trying to offset the changes.“
So how can we better support girls throughout puberty as coaches, parents, friends?
Carla said it’s important not to push girls throughout this time, if you’re a coach it’s the time to decrease the intensity of the workouts.
“I think there is more that we can do to help our young girls going through puberty,“ she said.
“The focus of this period is to just empower the girls and remind them why they love the sport to begin with.
“We want to educate them about fuelling their bodies. I train with a lot of young girls, so I’m always trying to start these conversations.
“I’ve been normalising these conversations with my own coaches and they are male, so yes it is a little bit uncomfortable sometimes. But if I can start the conversation, or you guys can start the conversation, it’s not going to be weird.“
Just before you reach menopause is the most optimal time to start lifestyle interventions, Carla said.
“We don’t want to do it once we’ve reached menopause, it’s in that before phase. The biggest things have to do with exercise. As we start to head into menopause, it’s the classic ’If you don’t use it, you will lose it’. So, if we don’t stimulate the muscles, we will start to lose that stimulation, causing that decrease in bone density.
“We want to be doing more strength training. If you weren’t weight training before, this is the time to start. We need impact on our bones. In terms of a nutritional point of view, we are prioritising protein intake during this phase.“
