Best strength training exercise for menopause
The best strength training exercise for menopause is the one you’ll actually do! Strength training in menopause can be thought of as a secret weapon, as its effects on the whole body are literally incredible. The good news is, it’s never too late to start to reap the benefits and you actually don’t have to “lift heavy shit” as you might have heard, to see amazing health benefits during midlife and beyond.
Whether you’ve never strength trained in your life, or have been strength training regularly for years, this article will reveal the benefits of strength training in menopause as well as the best strength training exercises for menopause, so you’re maximising your time and effort in your sessions.
In this blog I’ll cover:
What is menopause
What is strength training
Why is strength training important for menopause
What are the best strength training exercises for menopause
How to strength train around pain, injury, pelvic floor dysfunction or chronic disease
What is Menopause?
Menopause signifies the end of a woman’s reproductive years. It is not a sudden event, but more of a transition over time which can last around 10 years culminating in the ovaries reaching a point where there are no more follicles capable of ovulating. i.e. no more eggs. The stages of menopause in order are:
Early perimenopause
Late perimenopause (including the first year after the final menstrual period)
Final menstrual period
Post menopause
Menopause itself is actually only a one day event. It falls on the day following one year without a menstrual cycle. Then the day after that, you are post-menopausal.
Without ovulation, we experience a drop in estrogen which causes a lot of the symptoms and health concerns that are associated with menopause. However, estrogen is not the only hormone playing a part in the various stages of menopause. Other hormones involved include:
Progesterone
Testosterone
Anti-mullerian hormone
androstenedione
Follicular stimulating hormone
What is strength training?
What image does the term strength training conjure up in your mind?
big bro’s lifting in the gym?
crossfitters heaving tires, climbing ropes and lifting barbells?
toned women in activewear with just the right amount of sweat glistening on their foreheads to look attractive?
Yes, I’m a bit cynical about fitness industry marketing!
Strength training can be anything that improves your strength. For someone deconditioned this can be as simple as standing up and sitting down.
The exercises you perform and the way you perform them will depend on your current strength levels, any injuries or illnesses you have and most importantly, your goals.
Why is strength training important for menopause?
Now we’re getting into secret weapon territory.
Strength training can preserve and increase muscle mass.
As we age, both men and women lose muscle mass at a rate of 3-8% per decade after the age of 30 with menopause adding a little extra kick in the guts with research finding this rate increases to 10% between early perimenopause and late peri or postmenopausal women.
The reason for this? It’s actually not what you might think. There is actually no research to support the hormone changes of menopause causing or contributing to loss of muscle mass during this life phase. Instead it can be attributed to the symptoms we experience affecting our ability to train as hard or recover as well due to sleep being affected.
Why does this matter?
Muscle tissue contributes to a lot of beneficial health outcomes for menopausal women including
Improved heart health
Reduced risk of insulin resistance
Improved body composition (fat levels and distribution)
Improved pelvic floor function (yes our pelvic floor muscles need volume as well as support from a strong system)
The benefits of strength training for menopausal women are not limited to muscle volume. Strength training also improves:
Strength levels
Being strong feels incredible. It literally feels like you have superpowers. It makes your everyday tasks feel easy including:
being able to get up and down off the floor,
carry your groceries,
climb a flight of stairs without difficulty,
hang your washing out,
move the furniture around (I love a good rearrange),
load potting mix at Bunnings,
spend the day in the garden,
go on a hiking or skiing holiday.
spend the day sitting while you sew or craft without experiencing back or neck pain
Bone density
You might have heard the claim that women need to “lift heavy shit” to have healthy bones as we age. While heavy lifting can absolutely help with that, it is not the only resistance training intensity that benefits our bones. In fact, research has found that moderate and even light intensity resistance training can improve bone density. The key is to keep progressively overloading (increasing the load through weight, reps OR sets) and train to near failure. It needs to be challenging!
Bones also respond well from loading in a variety of ways. Which is great news because when choosing exercise to improve our health long term, consistency and therefore enjoyment is important too.
Balance
We have many different muscle types in our body, but two important skeletal muscle types are stabilisers and prime movers. As you’ve probably guessed, stabilisers help stabilise us! From providing single joint stability to whole body stability during movement. Moving weight around as we do when strength training also strengthens those all important stabilising muscles, leading to improved balance and joint stability. Especially if we choose exercises that will optimise this effect.
Weight management
Strength training for weight management is a bit more of a hidden secret weapon.
You may have heard that muscle burns more energy (or calories) than fat, which is true, but the difference is actually very small. Like ‘13 calories per kg of muscle per day at rest’, small. It’s not much- but it does all add up.
Likewise, our ability to gain muscle even BEFORE menopause is not huge. One study investigating muscle growth in healthy active young women found an increase in lean tissue (muscle) mass of 1.5kg over 20 weeks of training, or 0.3kg per month.
So rest assured, there’s no fear of getting bulky from weight training!
So, how does strength training help with weight management?
Firstly there’s the energy cost of actually performing the exercises.
Secondly, there’s EPOC. Or Excess Post Energy Oxygen Consumption, which is an increase in the amount of energy required 24 hours following a strenuous exercise session to return the body to its resting state and adapt to the exercise just completed.
Thirdly, muscle tissue helps keep insulin resistance at bay, which in turn helps to keep body fat levels down.
Finally, if you are strong, movement in general will be easier and you’ll likely move more!
What are the best strength training exercises for menopause?
Strength exercises focusing on hypertrophy (muscle growth)
It used to be believed that performing exercises using different rep (repetition) ranges, had very different outcomes:
Sets with 1-5 reps maximise strength increases,
Sets with 8-12 reps maximise muscle mass increases,
Sets with 15+ reps maximise strength endurance increases,
But, research has now found that even sets with higher repetition and lighter weights can lead to hypertrophy and strength gains. The key to see benefits in all the above rep ranges is continuing to progressively overload your sessions and going close to failure (while maintaining good technique).
Recent research has also found high volume strength training to have a significant effect in total body hypertrophy in post menopausal women. In this study, high volume was 6 sets per exercise which is around double the standard set number of 3-4 for hypertrophy.
NB: This is research, NOT a recommendation. 6 sets is a lot and may not be necessary and the risks of injury may outweigh the potential benefits. This would be way too much for a beginner and it will be time consuming. If performing this many sets, recovery, nutrition and and careful programming will be super important for injury prevention and the full benefits to be experienced
Single leg, or unilateral strength exercises
In my opinion these are underrated, especially if you are someone managing pelvic floor dysfunction or pain and injury.
When training a single leg exercise you will need a much lighter load to create enough stimulus for change than with a bilateral exercise. This will also result in decreased load on the pelvic floor.
Unilateral exercises also prevent one side compensating for another and therefore help with asymmetries, imbalances and balance.
Power
Power training involves moving weight quickly and while it won’t have as much of an effect on muscle mass, it will improve your connective tissue health, your reaction times (through nervous system improvements) and your strength. Connective tissue can be found all through the body, from your ligaments and tendons, to your fascia which connects muscles together in something called fascial trains. Power training often uses movements that support coordination of muscle groups through fascial trains. And it can help you stay springy!
Pelvic floor strength and function
Now this is a topic all on its own!
Firstly, it’s important to learn how to contract your pelvic floor and deep abdominals in a coordinated manner to help manage the increase in intra-abdominal pressure when strength training.
Secondly, otimising your posture including the position of your pelvis when lifting will contribute to improved pelvic floor function DURING your lifting and lead to improvements in PF strength.
Thirdly, strengthening muscles and connective tissues that support optimal pelvic floor function such as glutes, adductors, hamstrings and abdominals will give your pelvic floor a huge helping hand.
Lastly, optimising your breathing patterns will greatly improve your ability to manage pressure and optimise joint alignment for healthy movement patterns when strength training.
Bone loading strength exercises
If you have or are at risk of osteopenia or osteoporosis which is a decrease in bone density leading to an increased risk of fractures then loading the bones in a way that stimulates bone growth is important.
Research by The Bone Clinic has found that strength training exercises that load the spine either directly with a deadlift or back squat, or indirectly with an overhead press that transmits load down through the spine. In addition to this, jumping or stomping exercises that create an impact through the heels have been found to be effective for stimulating bone growth.
However, it is important you are able to perform these exercises safely before adding them to your program.
Back squats and overhead presses can be hard to perform with restricted shoulder mobility and/or sub-optimal posture.
Likewise, ensuring you have good pelvic floor function before performing squats, deadlifts or jumping exercises is also vital.
Finally if you already have osteoporosis it’s important to build load slowly and avoid certain movements under load such as rotation to avoid spinal fractures.
How to strength train around pain injury or dysfunction?
By the time we reach menopause, we’ve put some miles on our bodies and are quite likely to have a history of injury, pain, pregnancy, child birth, surgeries and other life events.
If you do have pain, injury, pelvic floor dysfunction or chronic disease, you don’t need to avoid strength training. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water.
The first thing to do is get a rehab plan in place. Check out my programs coming soon, or see an exercise physiologist to prescribe a rehab exercise plan for you.
Next, come up with a ‘trainable menu’. This is a list of exercises that can be done to help you with your limitations or can be done despite your limitations. An exercise physiologist (like me) can help with this.
Get clearance from your GP. Some strength training exercises should be avoided or modified in certain health conditions or with some medications. For example, if you have high blood pressure, the valsalva manoeuvre or overhead pressing can cause a dangerous increase in BP. Blood sugar levels in diabetics will also need to be closely monitored when performing exercise including strength training.
Conclusion
So, there you have it: the best strength training exercises for menopause according to an exercise physiologist and fellow perimenopausal woman.
As you can see, strength training really is a secret weapon both during the menopause transition and post menopause.
If you’ve never strength trained before, want to check in to make sure you’re training in a way that will be your midlife goals, or have concerns such as pelvic floor dysfunction, persistent pain or other symptoms affecting your ability to strength train, you can book in to see me at Ebb & Flow Exercise Physiology in Toowoomba, Queensland.
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Disclaimer:The information provided in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before starting any exercise or health program. By using this content, you agree that FIND THE FLOW is not responsible for any injuries or health issues that may arise from your use of the exercises or advice provided.