The Cost of More Information.
We are living in a constant stream of information. There is no shortage of advice, no shortage of experts, and no shortage of instruction on how we should be living, eating, training, and taking care of ourselves. And somewhere in all of this, we seem to have lost the habit of pausing long enough to ask whether what we are hearing is credible, or even relevant to us.
The pace at which information is delivered makes that difficult. There is very little time to sit with an idea, to test it against your own experience, or to decide whether it fits within the context of your life. Instead, most people are trying to reconcile multiple, often conflicting, messages at once. Over time, this does not lead to clarity. It leads to uncertainty.
That uncertainty has consequences. It shifts the way decisions are made. Rather than feeling grounded in what you know or what you’ve experienced, it becomes easier to look outward for direction. You begin to feel as though there is always something you might be missing. A better program. A more effective supplement. A more precise way to track progress. Each new idea carries the suggestion that there is a more optimal path, and that you are not quite on it yet.
Some of this information is useful in isolation. But in aggregate, it creates noise. And that noise has a subtle but important effect—it erodes confidence in your own judgment. It becomes harder to decide what to do, and even harder to stay with a decision once you’ve made it.
This is where the focus needs to shift.
Health, strength, and vitality are not built on an ongoing search for better information. They are built on your ability to make decisions and follow through on them over time. This is what we are referring to when we talk about self-efficacy. It is not about knowing more. It is about being able to act, consistently, in your own best interest.
There is a point at which continued learning begins to interfere with that process. Each additional input introduces another option, another variable to consider, another reason to pause. And instead of moving forward, you find yourself reconsidering. Adjusting. Waiting until you feel more certain. That pattern, repeated often enough, becomes a barrier in itself.
Most women do not need more information. They need the space to act on what they already understand. They need the time and the capacity to establish a few behaviours and repeat them with enough consistency for those behaviours to have an effect.
This is where the work actually lies. Not in finding something new, but in doing the same things often enough that they begin to compound.
Getting to bed at a reasonable time. Moving your body regularly. Eating meals that are simple and balanced. None of this is particularly complex, but it does require attention and repetition. It also requires patience, because the results are not immediate and they are not dramatic.
This is often the point at which people begin to look for something else. Something more efficient, more targeted, more effective. But the issue is rarely that the approach is insufficient. More often, it is that it has not been applied consistently for long enough.
Rebuilding self-efficacy means reversing that pattern. It means reducing the volume of input and increasing the consistency of output. It means choosing a direction and staying with it, even when there are other options available, and even when the results are slow to appear.
It also means paying closer attention to your own experience. Not in a vague or intuitive sense, but in a practical one. Are you doing the things you said you would do? Are you doing them often enough? What happens when you do?
These are the questions that move things forward.
Over time, this process restores a sense of agency. You begin to rely less on external validation and more on your own ability to observe, decide, and act. That is what makes the process sustainable. Not the specific program, or the specific method, but your capacity to engage with it consistently.
Health is built in that space. Not in the search for the next idea, but in the steady, repeated execution of simple behaviours. It is slower than most people would like, and it is less interesting than what is often promoted, but it is far more reliable.
And importantly, it returns you to something that is easy to lose in the current environment—a sense that you are capable of managing your own health.
Yours truly,
Tina
Women, Perimenopause and Training: Finding Strength in the Transition
The fitness industry is awash with messages about female-specific training. Scroll through social media and you’ll quickly come across influencers or self-proclaimed experts telling women that perimenopause requires radically different approaches to exercise. The implication is that your hormones alone dictate what you can and cannot do.
But here’s the thing: much of this narrative is not built on robust exercise science in women at all. Instead, it often comes from rodent studies, or mechanistic cell data extrapolated in ways that don’t reflect real human training outcomes. These theories, when sold as fact, do more harm than good. They plant the idea that women in perimenopause are fragile, limited, or somehow incapable of doing “normal” training. As a coach, I see that as deeply disempowering.
The truth is more encouraging: you are capable, and training remains one of the most powerful tools to support your health through this transition. The question is not about tailoring your exercise plan to hormone patterns, but about learning how to navigate your unique experience of perimenopause so you can continue to show up for yourself.
How Perimenopause Can Affect Training
Yes—hormones during perimenopause can feel like they’re all over the place. This shifting hormonal landscape can influence:
Energy levels – Some women feel unpredictable dips that make workouts feel harder than usual.
Recovery – Sleep disturbances or hormonal fluctuations can lengthen recovery time.
Body composition changes – Redistribution of fat, loss of lean mass, and difficulty maintaining muscle may be more noticeable.
Thermoregulation and endurance – Hot flashes or changes in temperature regulation can affect cardiovascular training.
Mood and motivation – Shifts in mood, anxiety, or brain fog can influence consistency.
These aren’t imaginary, and they’re not “weaknesses.” They’re real physiological responses to a transition period. But importantly: how, when, and to what degree these affect you will be entirely individual. No two women will walk through perimenopause the same way.
Connective Tissue, Tendons, and Ligaments
Another subtle but important shift during perimenopause involves connective tissue. Estrogen helps maintain collagen and tendon elasticity. As estrogen fluctuates, tendons and ligaments may become stiffer and slightly less resilient. This doesn’t mean they suddenly become fragile, but it can partly explain why some women notice:
Increased stiffness or achiness in joints.
Higher susceptibility to tendon irritation (like Achilles or shoulder tendinopathies).
Slower healing time from connective tissue–related injuries.
It’s not that injury is inevitable, but the balance between load and recovery can become trickier. Think of it less as a sign of decline and more as a reminder that your tissues may need a little extra care.
Practical ways to support this include:
Progressive strength training: Strong muscles protect joints and help tendons adapt to load.
Eccentric training: Slowly lengthening a muscle under load (like lowering into a calf raise) strengthens tendons.
Mobility and circulation: Regular walking, stretching, and low-level movement keep tissues supple and nourished.
Recovery attention: Prioritizing rest, protein intake, and overall inflammation management supports healing.
The Real Work: Building Your Own Work-Arounds
This is where empowerment comes in. Instead of trying to decode a “perfect menopause workout program,” the goal is to build flexibility and resilience into your routine.
Here are some practical strategies:
Listen to your body, but don’t over-interpret. Feeling sluggish one week doesn’t mean training has stopped working for you. It may just mean adjusting intensity or volume that day.
Prioritize strength training. It’s the single best investment for protecting muscle, bone, and connective tissue health as hormones shift. The way you train may need small tweaks, but the principle doesn’t change.
Have a “menu” approach. Some days heavy lifting feels right. Other days, walking, yoga, or Zone 2 cardio may be a better fit. Give yourself permission to choose based on how you feel, while keeping consistency as the larger goal.
Focus on recovery. Better sleep hygiene, nutrition (especially protein), and stress management become more important than ever.
Detach from self-limiting narratives. Perimenopause doesn’t mean decline. It’s not a signal to stop—it’s a call to adapt.
Strength Over Fear
Rather than getting lost in hormone levels or searching for the “magic bullet” exercise plan for women in perimenopause, I encourage women to anchor their training in self-knowledge. Recognize that your body may feel different week to week, even day to day. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build strength, improve endurance, and pursue fitness goals.
The narrative that women’s capacities are reduced by perimenopause serves no one. What does serve women is understanding their own bodies, seeking support when needed, and finding sustainable ways to keep moving. Exercise isn’t something you lose access to during perimenopause, it’s something that can carry you through it, helping you feel stronger, steadier, and more in control.
There is no universal “perimenopause workout.” There is only the training approach that fits you best in this season of life. The aim isn’t to hack your hormones, but to respect your body’s signals, adapt where needed, and keep going.
Perimenopause isn’t the end of strength—it’s another chapter in discovering it.
[Readers are encouraged to follow Dr. Lauren Colenso - Semple for the science of exercise physiology and Tony Boutagy for more science-backed information on how to navigate training through hormone fluctuations.]
© Tina McInnes Coaching 2025
Blog Post Title Two
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.