Busy Philipps Has A Few Things To Say About Perimenopause
Actor Busy Philipps started talking about perimenopause because she wants to remove the stigma around the symptoms. (Photo: Getty Images)
It’s a grim, gray morning and I’m trying to get my steps in for the day. I’ve got my headphones on and I’m listening to actor Busy Philipps talk perimenopause on Apple’s Fitness+ app.
The Cougar Town and Girls5eva star is sharing her experience as part of the app’s Time to Walk fitness series, which regularly features celebrities—everyone from Nick Jonas to Prince William to Malala Yousafzai—who talk listeners through a 30-minute stroll.
Perimenopause is a word, Philipps says, that wasn’t even in the zeitgeist up until a few years ago.
She isn’t wrong—but wow, have things changed. These days, if you’re a woman in your 40s, you’re being inundated with perimenopause and menopause-related health and fitness advice. While much of it is appreciated, not all of it is making the transition easier or less confusing.
Philipps, for her part, talks about why she’s compelled to speak out about her perimenopause symptoms—which were initially dismissed by her doctor. “Part of why I started talking about it," she says, "is because I didn't want other women, my friends who are younger than me, to feel like I was feeling.” (As she walks, Philipps also shares a moving story about her relationship with her sister, and talks about the importance of midlife friendships.)
The episode is part of Apple’s broader push into peri/menopause virtual training space, which includes programming from other platforms like Peloton and PVOLVE. This spring, Apple launched a three-week workout program called Strong Through Menopause. And come fall, you’ll also find educational tips and info on peri/menopause symptoms and management on Apple’s Cycle Tracking feature, part of Apple’s Health app.
Apple has already incorporated various life stages like pregnancy into its health and fitness content, so doing the same for peri/menopause feels like a natural step, says Dr. Lauren Cheung, a physician and member of the clinical team at Apple whose expertise informed the new menopause programming.
“With our new features, we’re extending that continuity into a life stage that affects roughly half the world's population but has historically been under-researched, misunderstood and often stigmatized.”
The Strong Through Menopause collection consists of nine 20-minute workouts—six strength training sessions and three yoga classes. (The idea is to commit to doing two strength workouts per week alongside one yoga flow class.)
The strength training workouts are progressive and involve a handful of familiar full-body movements (bent-over rows, lunges) and are broken up by short bursts of cardio (such as skater lunges and skipping). The yoga sessions are chill but focused, with an emphasis on breathwork and postures that engage the pelvic floor, as well as working on balance and flexibility.
According to Julz Arney, Apple’s senior director of fitness, the workout programming intentionally hits seven clinical priorities for maintaining fitness in menopause, including incorporating moves that support pelvic floor health, muscle maintenance and building, and—crucially—cardiovascular health. (The hormonal fluctuations of menopause increase the risk of heart disease.)
Amanda Thebe, a Toronto-based fitness expert and author of Menopocalypse: How I Learned to Thrive During Menopause and How You Can Too!, is skeptical of a lot of the menopause fitness advice and content that’s currently trending, especially when it tells women they need to radically overhaul their diet and exercise routines.
“Our physiology still responds to the basics,” she says.
Lauren Colenso-Semple, an exercise science researcher based in Burlington, Ont., agrees. She believes breaking down barriers to exercise is crucial for women at any stage of life—especially when most people aren't meeting the standard recommended guidelines for daily physical activity, period. (Health Canada recommends adults get 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, which is about 20 minutes a day.)
“We want more people to exercise,” she says. “It shouldn’t be complicated or confusing.”
Colenso-Semple isn’t prescriptive but says if she could “wave a magic wand” she would have more midlife women prioritize strength training each week because it offers a greater “bang for your buck” when it comes to maintaining muscle and bone density.
“Even doing two strength workouts a week—you’re getting huge benefits,” she says.
Thebe hasn’t tried the Fitness+ workouts, but she’s encouraged to hear that Apple’s entry into the trend doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to its menopause fitness programming. She likes that it leans into strength training and incorporates yoga, which is important for flexibility/balance but also for building some chill movement in your life.
Fitness trends come and go, but ultimately, Colenso-Semple says, consistency is the real dividing line between effective and ineffective activity. You can try every perimenopause workout trend out there but if you’re not doing it consistently, then you’re not going to improve muscle tone and bone density in the same way as committing to strength training two times a week.
Apple’s menopause programming—which Arney says leans into building resilience rather than focusing on high-performance metrics—was designed with the challenges of working out while enduring peri/menopause symptoms in mind.
“It’s about finding ways to protect your health and to feel strong and more like yourself while you're going through this journey,” she explains.
I did one of Apple’s Strong Through Menopause strength training workouts on a day where I felt pretty rotten (thank you, hormone-related migraine) and found it offered a short and sweet way to feel like I did something worthwhile for my health without blowing out what remained of my already low energy. It feels like a light, go-to option for my increasingly miserable can’t-deal-with-an-hour-long-workout days.
For Thebe, learning the art of self-regulation is crucial for building resilience—especially when it comes to health and fitness trends.
“If you feel like a dirty dish rag because you had night sweats and you didn’t sleep, you need the autonomy to say, You know what? I’m not going to do my 10 out of 10 workout today. I’m going to go for a walk instead,” says Thebe.
And if you want to listen to Busy Philipps talk you through that walk, you can. But no one will blame you if you need to tune her out and enjoy the silence.
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Flannery Dean is a writer based in Hamilton, Ont. She’s written for The Narwhal, the Globe and Mail and The Guardian.
