Strength Training During Menopause

First, What Actually Happens During Menopause?

Menopause is reached when you've gone 12 months without a menstrual period, but the transition leading up to it — called perimenopause — can last for several years.

During this time, levels of hormones including oestrogen fluctuate and eventually decline.

That hormonal change can contribute to many of the symptoms associated with menopause.

Not every woman will experience the same symptoms, and their severity can vary enormously.

Some women experience relatively few problems.

Others may experience disrupted sleep, hot flushes, night sweats, fatigue, changes in mood, joint or muscle discomfort and difficulty concentrating.

And all of those things can potentially affect how you feel when you train.

The important point is that your body hasn't suddenly become incapable of exercise.

Your circumstances may simply have changed.

Why Strength Training Becomes So Important

One of the biggest reasons I encourage women to strength train during and after menopause is that maintaining muscle and bone becomes increasingly important as we age.

We naturally tend to lose muscle mass and strength as we get older, particularly if we aren't doing anything to challenge our muscles.

Bone health also becomes increasingly important around menopause.

Oestrogen plays a role in maintaining bone, and declining oestrogen levels around menopause are associated with increased bone loss.

That's one of the reasons organisations including the NHS recommend resistance and weight-bearing exercise during menopause.

Strength training gives your body a reason to maintain and build the physical structures you still need.

You're effectively telling it:

I still need this muscle. I still need to be strong.

And that matters enormously for how capable you remain in later life.

You Can Still Build Muscle During Menopause

There's a persistent idea that once a woman reaches menopause, building muscle is somehow off the table.

It isn't.

Women can continue to become stronger and build muscle during and after menopause.

What may change is how much attention you need to pay to your training, recovery, nutrition and sleep.

Rather than seeing menopause as the point where your physical abilities inevitably decline, it can be useful to see it as the point where maintaining strength becomes more intentional.

And if you've never lifted weights before, don't assume you've missed your opportunity.

You haven't.

Starting in your 40s, 50s or beyond can still make an enormous difference to how strong and physically capable you become.

Strength Training Helps Protect Your Bones

Muscle gets most of the attention in gyms.

But during menopause, we also need to talk about bones.

Bone is living tissue.

When you place appropriate stress on it through activities such as resistance training and weight-bearing exercise, you provide a stimulus that helps support bone strength.

This becomes particularly relevant after menopause because bone loss can accelerate as oestrogen levels fall.

The NHS specifically recommends strength and resistance exercises during menopause, while menopause guidance from the British Menopause Society also supports combining strength training with weight-bearing and aerobic exercise.

That doesn't mean you need to panic about osteoporosis.

It means that looking after your bones should become part of the bigger picture when deciding how to exercise.

Strength training isn't just about looking better.

It's an investment in what your body will still be capable of doing decades from now.

What About Weight Gain Around Menopause?

This is an area where a lot of women become frustrated.

They may feel as though they're eating and exercising in exactly the same way as they always have, yet their body is beginning to look different.

Changes in body composition are common through midlife.

Ageing, activity levels, lifestyle and hormonal changes can all play a part, and fat distribution can change around menopause.

But menopause doesn't mean weight gain is inevitable.

And desperately trying to compensate by eating very little and doing endless cardio isn't necessarily the best solution.

Strength training helps you preserve and develop muscle while you're working towards changing your body composition.

That's important.

If your goal is fat loss, you don't simply want the number on the scales to come down.

You want to lose body fat while retaining as much useful muscle as possible.

That's one of the reasons resistance training should form a major part of a well-designed fat-loss programme for women during menopause.

Your Training May Feel Different

There may be days when the programme says one thing and your body says something else.

Perhaps you've had several nights of disrupted sleep because of night sweats.

Maybe you're unusually tired.

Perhaps you're experiencing joint discomfort.

Or maybe you feel absolutely brilliant and are ready to train hard.

All of those situations can happen.

The solution isn't to abandon structured training.

It's to build enough flexibility into your programme that you can adapt when necessary.

A bad night's sleep doesn't automatically mean you shouldn't train.

But several nights of poor sleep combined with significant fatigue might be a good reason to reduce the load slightly, perform fewer sets or have an easier session.

There is a big difference between:

• adjusting your training
• and
• giving up on training whenever you don't feel perfect

The first is intelligent programming.

The second can stop you making progress.

You Don't Need to Start Training Gently Just Because You're Menopausal

This is worth saying clearly.

Being menopausal does not automatically mean you should only use tiny weights and perform very gentle exercise.

Your training should be appropriate for you.

• Your experience.
• Your current fitness.
• Your medical history.
• Your joint health.
• Your technique.
• And your goals.

A healthy woman with years of strength-training experience may be capable of training very hard.

A woman who hasn't exercised for 20 years may need to begin much more gradually.

Those decisions should be based on the individual — not simply the word “menopause”.

The objective should be to progressively challenge your body while giving it sufficient opportunity to recover.

Sleep and Recovery Matter

One of the less obvious ways menopause can interfere with training is through sleep.

Hot flushes and night sweats can make good-quality sleep more difficult for some women, and poor sleep can leave you feeling fatigued before you've even entered the gym.

You can't always control whether you've slept perfectly.

But you can control some of the demands you place on yourself.

If recovery is becoming difficult, look at the whole picture.

• How frequently are you training?
• How hard are those sessions?
• Are you doing excessive amounts of additional cardio?
• Are you eating enough to support your training?
• Are you allowing easier days?
• Are you trying to train hard seven days a week while also dealing with work, family and poor sleep?

Sometimes the answer isn't to work harder.

It's to organise your training better.

What About Aching Joints?

Joint and muscle aches can occur during menopause, and this can make some women nervous about resistance training.

But avoiding movement altogether isn't normally the answer.

• Exercise selection can be adjusted.
• Range of movement can be adjusted.
• Training volume can be adjusted.
• Loads can be progressed gradually.
• And exercises that don't suit you can often be replaced with exercises that do.

You don't have to force yourself through painful movements simply because somebody told you that a particular exercise is compulsory.

There are dozens of ways to train almost every muscle in the body.

A good programme finds the movements that allow you to train effectively.

Persistent, unexplained or significant pain, however, shouldn't simply be trained through. That's something to discuss with an appropriate healthcare professional.

Don't Forget Your Pelvic Floor

Pelvic-floor health can also become more relevant through midlife and menopause.

Symptoms such as leaking urine during exercise, a sensation of heaviness or pressure, or other pelvic-floor problems aren't something you should simply be embarrassed about and ignore.

They also don't necessarily mean you have to give up strength training.

Appropriate assessment and support from a women's-health or pelvic-health physiotherapist can be extremely useful.

Training can often be adapted while the underlying issue is addressed.

Cardio Still Matters Too

This article is about strength training, but that doesn't mean cardiovascular exercise should disappear.

It isn't strength or cardio.

Both have benefits.

Walking, cycling, swimming, running and other forms of cardiovascular activity can all have a place depending on your preferences and abilities.

General UK physical-activity recommendations encourage adults to accumulate regular aerobic activity alongside muscle-strengthening exercise.

So rather than spending every available hour in the gym, think about the bigger picture.

• Strength train several times per week.
• Keep moving.
• Walk regularly.
• Look after your cardiovascular fitness.
• And allow yourself to recover.

How Often Should You Strength Train During Menopause?

There isn't one perfect number for every woman.

For many women, two or three properly structured strength sessions each week is an excellent place to start.

Two days can be enough to make meaningful progress.

Three days gives you more opportunity to train while still leaving plenty of recovery time.

Some experienced women may happily train four or more times per week.

More isn't automatically better.

Your programme needs to fit into your life and be something you can sustain.

The NHS recommends resistance exercise and weight-bearing activity during menopause, and general adult guidance recommends muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days each week.

What Should a Menopause Strength Programme Include?

You don't need a collection of strange “menopause exercises”.

The fundamentals of good strength training still apply.

A well-designed programme will normally include movements that train the major muscles of your:

• Legs
• Glutes
• Back
• Chest
• Shoulders
• Arms
• Core

That might involve exercises such as squats or leg presses, deadlift variations, rows, pulldowns, chest presses, shoulder presses and other resistance exercises appropriate to the individual.

The exact exercises are less important than having a programme that:

• Trains the whole body.
• Progressively challenges you.
• Uses movements appropriate for your ability.
• Allows enough recovery.
• And can be performed consistently.

You don't need a completely different form of strength training because you're menopausal.

You need good strength training that takes your individual circumstances into account.

Protein and Nutrition Matter Too

Training provides your body with a reason to maintain and build muscle.

But training is only part of the equation.

Eating enough protein, consuming an appropriate amount of food for your goals and maintaining a generally balanced diet all support your training and recovery.

Bone health also depends on more than exercise alone.

A healthy diet containing appropriate sources of calcium and adequate vitamin D is important, and the NHS includes these alongside exercise in its advice for women during menopause.

You don't need a cupboard full of “menopause supplements”.

Get the fundamentals right first.

Exercise Isn't a Replacement for Medical Treatment

Exercise can be an extremely valuable part of looking after yourself through menopause.

But it isn't a cure for menopause, and it shouldn't be presented as one.

If menopausal symptoms are significantly affecting your sleep, mental wellbeing, work, relationships or quality of life, speak to your GP or another suitably qualified healthcare professional.

Treatments including hormone replacement therapy may be appropriate for some women, alongside other treatment options depending on symptoms and individual circumstances.

Strength training and medical treatment aren't competing ideas.

You can look after your health through exercise and get appropriate medical support when you need it.

The Biggest Mistake Is Doing Nothing

For some women, menopause becomes a reason to retreat from exercise.

They've gained some weight.

Their joints feel different.

Their sleep isn't great.

Their energy isn't what it used to be.

So they decide they'll start exercising again when everything settles down.

But this stage of life can last for years.

Waiting for your body to feel exactly the way it did when you were 30 isn't a particularly useful strategy.

Instead, start where you are now.

You don't need to be as strong as somebody else.

You don't need to train six days a week.

You don't need to destroy yourself in every workout.

And you certainly don't need to be ashamed of starting from the beginning.

You simply need to give your body a reason to become stronger.

Then keep giving it that reason consistently.

Menopause Doesn't Mean Becoming Weak

Menopause is a normal stage of a woman's life.

It can bring challenges, and those challenges shouldn't be dismissed.

But becoming weak, inactive and physically incapable doesn't have to be accepted as an inevitable part of it.

Strength training gives you something enormously valuable:

The ability to influence what your body can do.

• You can become stronger.
• You can maintain muscle.
• You can support your bones.
• You can improve your fitness.
• And you can build a body that remains capable of doing the things you enjoy.

The goal isn't to train like you're 25.

The goal is to become the strongest, healthiest and most capable version of you, at the stage of life you're in now.

Need Help Getting Started?

If you're going through perimenopause or menopause and you're unsure how to start strength training — or your old training routine no longer seems to be working for you — having the right programme can make a huge difference.

At Wolverine Personal Training, your training is built around your current ability, your goals, your lifestyle and how you actually feel and move.

You don't need a punishment workout.

You don't need to spend every day in the gym.

And you don't need to accept that getting older means getting weaker.

You need a sensible programme, progressive strength training and the confidence to keep going.

If you're ready to get stronger, get in touch with Wolverine Personal Training and let's build a programme that works for you.