Stretching: Concentrates on improving flexibility. Stretching requires no fitness equipment. Types of stretching include Yoga and Pilates. Whether you decide to stretch before, after or during your exercise routine, there is no doubt that stretching should be included every time you exercise. It keeps your body agile while engaging in any type of resistance or cardio training routine.

Benefits of stretching: 1. improves flexibility 2. increases range of motion 3. promotes relaxation 4. improves performance and posture 5. reduces stress on your body and reduces risk of injury for any resistance training routines or athletic performance

Strength Training, Weight Training or Resistance Training: Concentrates on improving muscles. Strength training or weight training may require you to lift free weights or use equipment that makes you lift weight. It may also be called resistance training because you are putting resistance on your muscles to improve them. In resistance training you may use tools like rings and tubes rather than weights. Some exercises also allow you to use your own body as resistance. For instance, abdominal crunches can be part of a strength or resistance training routine. Strength training should be included in an exercise routine.

The benefits of resistance and strength training: 1. helps you lose weight in two ways: improves your muscle mass and increases your energy expenditure, both make you to burn more calories. 2. helps you tone and look better even if you are not overweight. 3. gives you more strength and endurance 4 increases bone density 5. has cardiovascular benefits 6. may help reduce risks of injury in athletes

Shocking and novel as these concepts may be to today's medical community, they are nothing new to Maharishi Ayurveda, a consciousness-based natural medical system from ancient India. For over 5000 years, Ayurveda has acknowledged menopause as a natural transition, not a mistake of Mother Nature's that requires hormone replacement therapy. Maharishi Ayurveda reassures us that menopause can be health-promoting, spiritually-transforming and free of troublesome symptoms.

Experts today are affirming this positive view of menopause, stating that it is not natural to get weak bones, heart disease and rapid aging after menopause. Rather, osteoporosis, heart disease and other chronic health problems develop over a lifetime, resulting largely from poor diet, stress and lack of physical exercise. And hormone replacement therapy (HRT,) once heavily promoted as medical solution to these problems, is no longer recommended for their treatment or prevention.

Menopause: A "Balance Deficiency" What is recommended for prevention of major health problems after menopause is a healthy lifestyle. And, according to Ayurveda, healthy living is also best way to ease symptoms of menopause transition itself. How balanced, or overall healthy you and your lifestyle are when you reach menopause largely determines how smooth your transition will be. If you are "burning candle at both ends" in your 30's and early 40's, you are more likely to have mood swings, sleep problems and troublesome hot flashes when your hormones start to change. Whereas if you are have healthy lifestyle habits and are managing your stress effectively, you are likely to breeze through menopause without any major problems.

Health problems at menopause represent imbalances in body that were already growing in body and are unmasked by stress of shifting hormones. Menopause symptoms are Nature's wake-up call to let you know you need to start paying more attention to your health. Age forty-five to fifty-five is a critical decade, according to Ayurveda. It provides foundation on which your later health is laid. Just like putting money in your IRA, timely investing in your health can dramatically increase your "yield" of healthy years at midlife and beyond. Particularly if you have not been taking care of yourself in your 30's and 40's, making lifestyle changes now is critical to ensuring that you age gracefully without burden of chronic health problems.

What You Can Do Now to Get "In Balance" While eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise provides foundation of good health for everyone, each woman's menopause experience is unique. Symptoms vary from woman to woman. Knowing precisely how your body is out of balance can guide you in selecting key lifestyle changes you should make to relieve your symptoms. Ayurveda describes that type of symptoms you have depends upon which bodily principle or dosha is "out of balance" in your mind/body system.

There are three bodily principles: movement and flow (vata or airy), heat and metabolism (pitta or firey), and bodily substance (kapha or earthy.) And there are three basic types of imbalances relating to each of three doshas. Easing your menopause transition can be as simple as "reading" your dosha symptoms and taking measures to get your doshas back in balance. The following symptoms and lifestyle prescriptions are indicated for each of three dosha imbalances:

V-Type- Prone To Nervousness: anxiety, panic, mood swings, vaginal dryness, loss of skin tone, feeling cold, irregular periods, insomnia, mild or variable hot flashes, constipation, palpitations, bloating and joints aches and pains.

Ayurvedic Tips: Increase warm food and drinks, regular meals, early bedtime, oil massage, meditation, yoga, walking and spices such as fennel and cumin. Decrease caffeine and other stimulants, refined sugar, cold drinks, salads.

P-Type- Prone to Hot Temper: anger, irritability, feeling hot, hot flashes, night sweats, heavy periods, excessive bleeding, urinary tract infections, skin rashes and acne.

Ayurvedic Tips: Increase cooling foods, water intake, sweet juicy fruits (grapes, pears, plums, mango, melons, apples,) zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, organic foods. Go to bed before 10 PM and try to wind down earlier in evening. Decrease excessive sun and overheating, hot spicy foods, hot drinks and alcohol.

K-Type- Prone to Weight Gain: sluggishness, lethargy, weight gain for no reason, fluid retention, yeast infections, lazy, depressed, lacking motivation, slow digestion.

Ayurvedic Tips: Increase exercise, fruits, whole grains, legumes, vegetables, spices such as black pepper, turmeric and ginger. Get up early (by 6AM). Decrease meat, cheese, sugar, cold foods and drinks.

Your Hormonal "Backup System" Ayurveda describes that your hormonal changes at menopause will be smooth and easy if three factors are in place.

• Your mind/body system (consisting of three doshas) is in "balance." • Your diet is wholesome and rich in phytoestrogens. • Your body is "clean" and uncluttered inside so your hormones and body can "talk" effectively.