Strength training through perimenopause and menopause

A note before anything else: we are coaches, not clinicians. Nothing here is medical advice, and questions about HRT, symptoms or treatment belong with your GP or a menopause specialist. What we can talk about is training.

What changes, and why training helps

Falling oestrogen through perimenopause and menopause affects more than symptoms people talk about openly. Two things matter most for training:

• Bone density declines more rapidly in the years around menopause, which raises fracture risk later on.
• Muscle mass gets harder to hold on to, and muscle is what keeps you strong, stable and independent.

Resistance training is the most direct thing you can do about both. Loading bones and muscle signals the body to maintain them. Walking and swimming are good for you, but they do not load the skeleton in the same way.

Many women also report that strength training helps with sleep, mood and the sense of being at the mercy of their own body. That last one comes up in our gym constantly.

The myths worth dropping

"Lifting will make me bulky"

It will not. Building visible muscle mass is slow and deliberate work, and it is considerably harder during and after menopause, not easier. What you will build is strength and shape.

"I should stick to cardio to manage my weight"

Cardio has its place, but muscle is metabolically active tissue. Losing it makes weight management harder over time, not easier. Most women we work with get better results from lifting two or three times a week than from adding more cardio.

"It is too late to start"

Strength improves at every age that has been studied, including well into the seventies and eighties. Starting later means you gain more from starting, not less.

What sensible training looks like

You do not need anything exotic. A good programme through this stage of life usually includes:

• Two or three sessions a week, with a rest day between them
• Compound movements such as squats, hinges, presses, rows and carries
• Progressive loading, adding a little weight over time rather than doing the same thing forever
• Impact work where appropriate, since bone responds well to it
• Pelvic floor awareness, which almost nobody is taught properly

Recovery matters more than it used to. Sleep is often disrupted during this period, so training that leaves you wrecked is counterproductive. Consistent and moderate beats occasional and brutal.

Mel helps all sorts of people who thought they could never go to a gym realise that they can, and thrive. Menopausal mums, PTSD survivors, disability athletes, people battling cancer, an amazing mix of people.

Rob Smith, Google review

The pelvic floor conversation

This is the part most gyms skip entirely. Pelvic floor changes are extremely common through perimenopause and menopause, and they affect how comfortably you can lift, jump or run.

They are also very often improvable. Being told what is happening and what to do about it changes what women feel able to attempt in a session. We run a dedicated workshop on it as part of our six week programme, because leaving it unsaid helps nobody.

Starting when your energy is unpredictable

Some weeks will be harder than others, and a programme that only works when you feel great is a bad programme. Practical ways to handle it:

• Set a floor, not a target. "Two sessions, even short ones" beats "four or nothing".
• Tell your coach when you have slept badly, so the session gets adjusted rather than abandoned.
• Track something other than the scales. Weight lifted, sessions attended, how stairs feel.
• Train with other people. On the days motivation is not there, turning up for the group usually is.

The All Woman programme

Our All Woman six week programme was built for exactly this. Three coached strength sessions a week, a pelvic floor workshop, practical nutrition guidance and a mindset seminar, in a small group of women going through the same stage.

It is £249 for the full six weeks, and the next cohort starts in early September. You do not need to be a member or to have trained before.

If a six week programme is more than you want to commit to right now, our regular memberships and small group PT cover the same ground at your own pace.