Does Lifting Weights Help with Menopause?
Menopause affects muscle mass, bone density, metabolism, and joint health due to declining estrogen levels. Strength training helps counter these changes by preserving lean muscle, supporting bone strength, improving insulin sensitivity, and reducing common musculoskeletal symptoms that emerge during midlife.
Regular resistance training improves daily function, protects long-term mobility, and supports cardiovascular and metabolic health. Following a structured program like my Meno-Strength Sampler can make it easier to build strength safely and consistently during menopause.
Menopause brings a lot of changes which can include hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain, body composition changes, and just feeling different in your own body. Many women also notice they’re not as strong as they used to be.
The good news? Lifting weights can help with all of this. And no, it’s not just about building big muscles. It’s about staying strong, protecting your bones, increasing your energy, and feeling overall better with less aches and pain, and more confident in your body as you go through midlife and beyond.
How Strength Training Can Make a Difference During Menopause
1. Strength Training Protects Muscle and Strength
One of the biggest changes during menopause is the loss of muscle mass.
This muscle loss is also a natural part of aging called sarcopenia. This process speeds up when estrogen levels drop. Strength training slows the muscle loss and keeps your muscles strong. I always say that it is never too late to get started and you are never too old.
The key is just to start. You can lift using dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, or even just your bodyweight. It’s important too feel like it is hard and that it requires effort and not feel like you can do the exercise forever.
A full-body strength routine even just 2 times a week is enough to see results and stay consistent. A day of rest between strength session is important so you should not lift on consecutive days. This allows your muscles time to recover and get stronger.
When you have strong muscles, it makes everyday life easier. Carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or playing with your kids or grandkids becomes fun and easy.
2. It Supports Bone Health
Menopause affects bones. The decrease in estrogen speeds up bone loss, which increases the risk of osteopenia (mild bone loss) and osteoporosis (more significant bone thinning). This makes bones more fragile and more prone to fractures, especially in the hip, spine, and wrist.
About 1 in 2 women over 50 will experience a fracture related to osteoporosis. Lifting weights and other weight-bearing exercises are one of the best ways to keep your bones strong and resilient.
Bones respond to stress, just like muscles do. When you do exercises like squats, lunges, dumbbell carries, or step-ups, you’re putting healthy stress on your bones, which helps maintain bone density and slows down bone loss.
Your bones adapt to the types of stress you give them, so having a variety of different exercises can help target different areas and keep your skeleton strong.
If your body and joints can handle it, your bones will benefit from some impact exercises like jumping, skipping, bounding up stairs, or controlled plyometric moves (jump squats or pogos). These movements create extra stress that tells your bones to get stronger.
Even just a few minutes a couple of times a week can help improve bone density. Just make sure to start slow and progress gradually.
3. Strengthening Helps Manage Weight and Body Composition
Many women notice that menopause brings changes in body composition, including less muscle and more fat, especially around the midsection.
These changes are mostly due to hormonal changes, particularly the decline in estrogen. Strength training helps counteract this by stimulating muscle protein synthesis and preserving lean tissue.
Because skeletal muscle is metabolically active, maintaining or building muscle helps keep your metabolism more active and supports overall metabolic health.
For managing body fat, strength training is important, but it’s even more important to focus on nutrition. That means getting enough protein and fiber to support your muscles and keep you feeling full.
I usually recommend at least 100 grams of protein and 25 grams of fiber per day. These small changes can make a big difference when combined with regular strength training.
4. Supports Heart and Metabolic Health
Strength training isn’t just about muscles and bones as it also plays a key role in blood sugar control, metabolic health, and cardiovascular function. Skeletal muscle is the primary site for glucose uptake, so maintaining muscle mass improves insulin sensitivity and helps your body clear sugar from the bloodstream more efficiently.
This supports steadier blood glucose levels and a healthier metabolic profile.
This becomes especially important during menopause, when hormonal shifts can increase insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk. Regular strength training helps counter these changes by preserving lean mass, improving glucose utilization, and supporting heart health.
Over time, it can also contribute to lower blood pressure and improved cholesterol markers. Along with proper nutrition and regular movement, strength training becomes a powerful tool for maintaining metabolic and cardiovascular health through midlife and beyond.
5. Strength training keeps your joints and bones feeling good during menopause.
Menopause can bring a range of musculoskeletal changes that often surprise women. The decline in estrogen affects not only bones but also muscles, joints, and connective tissues, which can lead to aches, stiffness, and decreased mobility.
Common symptoms include joint pain, tendon discomfort, frozen shoulder, and general muscle soreness, even without injury.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Vonda Wright has done important work in this area, even coining the term “Musculoskeletal Syndrome of Menopause” to describe the collection of symptoms many women experience as estrogen levels fall.
Research shows that more than 70% of women going through the menopause transition experience musculoskeletal symptoms, and about 25% are significantly impacted by them, affecting mobility and quality of life.
Dr. Wright’s work highlights that estrogen isn’t just a “reproductive hormone”, it has receptors throughout the musculoskeletal system. This means that when estrogen declines, tissues like cartilage, tendon, and muscle don’t function as well, which can lead to pain, stiffness, and slower recovery from movement or activity.
Strength training and regular movement can help reduce these symptoms. Maintaining muscle strength supports joint stability, improves posture, and reduces the risk of overuse injuries.
Resistance exercises also help keep connective tissues strong and resilient. Incorporating stretching, mobility work, and low-impact cardio can help manage stiffness and improve overall function.
How to Get Started with Strength Training Safely
If you’re new to weightlifting, start simple and build gradually. Full-body workouts a few times a week with basic moves like squats, lunges, push-ups, rows, and carries are enough to start seeing results. Focus on form, control, and consistency rather than lifting heavy from the start.
You can do it at home with dumbbells, bands, or just your bodyweight. And if you have any concerns, a physical therapist or trainer experienced with midlife women can make sure you’re progressing safely.
If you’re ready to get started, go check out my free Meno-Strength Sampler (also linked below). It’s beginner friendly, and gives you a full-body routine designed specifically for women in midlife and menopause. It takes out all the guess work and tells you exactly what to do so you can start feeling stronger without overcomplicating things.
Lifting weights during menopause isn’t about chasing a certain look. It’s about staying strong, protecting your bones, increasing your energy, and feeling empowered in your everyday life.
It can feel incredibly overwhelming to know where to start with strength training, especially if you don’t feel like you know what you’re doing when it comes to lifting weights and getting stronger.
Here are a few ways I can help you:
Get on the waitlist for my 1:1 Meno-Strength RX program: Personalized monthly fitness programming for women in menopause and midlife developed by a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Empower Hour: 1:1 Coaching Session: This highly personalized session can be centered around a specific area that you need coaching on to help you meet your goals and answer any questions you have about menopause and strength training. You will leave this call with a newfound clarity and direction to help you move forward.
Grab my FREE Meno-Strength Sampler (just fill out the form below!): A look inside my Meno-Strength 8-Week program and a way for you to get started TODAY!
[FREE] Get access to my Meno-Strength™ Sampler Program
A FREE sample program that will get you started with strength training in midlife and menopause and beyond. Just type your first name and email below and it will be sent to you! Be sure to check your spam if you don’t receive it within a few minutes!
