According to the National Institutes of Health, only one in five women engage in strength training even once per week. Despite strength training’s surge in popularity recently, plenty of barriers, such as myths about “getting bulky,” still exist that prevent women from feeling motivated and comfortable in the weight room. My aim below is to convey the benefits of strength training, specifically class-based strength training, and how women can age with strength and health by participating in classes twice per week.
Strength Training for Women Over 50: What Changes and What to Do About It
Everything below applies to women at any age. After 50, two of these benefits start carrying more of the load than the rest, and they are worth naming before we get to the list.
Muscle stops being automatic
Adults lose as much as 3 to 5 percent of their muscle mass per decade after age 30, and the decline gets steeper through the menopause transition. Muscle is what gets you out of a low chair, up a flight of stairs with groceries, and back on your feet after a stumble. Resistance training is how you keep it.
Bone responds to load
Bone loss that begins as osteopenia is very difficult to reverse once it becomes osteoporosis. Loading the skeleton on a regular schedule slows that loss, and it also trains the balance and reaction time that keep a fall from happening in the first place.
Neither of those is a short project. Muscle and bone respond to load that shows up week after week, and the results compound. That is the argument for a class rather than a solo plan you write yourself: the programming is already there, the progression is decided by someone who watches you lift, and the session is on the calendar whether or not you feel like going.
Two sessions per week, full body, with weights that get heavier over time, is enough to change what your body can do. If you want more on what to load and why speed of movement belongs in the plan, read Why Muscular Power is Essential for Fitness & Function.
1. Maintain Independence
Strength training is a critical component of “functional fitness,” meaning exercises that mimic everyday activities. Squats help you get in and out of chairs more easily. Overhead presses help you put things on a high shelf or in the overhead bin. Lunges help with balance. Floor exercises ensure your continued ability to get down on the floor (and back up!). Maintaining your ability to do the things you enjoy is incredibly empowering. No one wants their health to dictate what they can and can’t do. Regular participation in strength training classes can help you continue doing the things you enjoy plus your regular activities of daily living by keeping your muscles strong and flexible and your joints mobile.
2. Reduce disease risk, manage chronic conditions, maintain health throughout reproductive stages
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of women in the U.S. Participating in strength training classes helps you reduce many of the leading cardiovascular disease risk factors such as elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. When you participate in strength training classes, you will follow a full-body and safe program that, with consistency, will improve the function of your circulatory system, thereby reducing your numbers and your risk.
Strength training also can help prevent cancer because of its role in hormone regulation and reducing inflammation. But what if you’ve already had cancer and have gone through treatment? While it’s great news that breast cancer survival rates have increased, it’s still the leading cancer diagnosis among women, which means there are more and more breast cancer survivors dealing with the effects of the treatments. Women who have lymph nodes removed are at an increased risk for lymphedema, and supervised, progressive resistance training is considered safe for women living with or at risk for it. Radiation is another common treatment, and it can cause a buildup of scar tissue. Strength training can help you regain mobility and circulation in affected areas. Chemotherapy can cause a multitude of side effects with varying degrees of severity, and regular strength training classes help empower women to combat the fatigue that accompanies treatment. And physical activity after a cancer diagnosis is associated with lower cancer-specific and all-cause mortality.
After lymph node removal
Removing lymph nodes raises the risk of lymphedema. Supervised resistance training that starts light and progresses slowly is considered safe for survivors living with or at risk for it.
After radiation
Radiation can leave a buildup of scar tissue. Loaded movement through a full range helps restore mobility and circulation in the affected areas.
During and after chemotherapy
Treatment fatigue is one of the side effects women report most. Moderate resistance training two to three times a week is one of the few things shown to push back on it.
Across survivorship
Physical activity after a cancer diagnosis is associated with lower cancer-specific and all-cause mortality. Strength work is part of how survivors stay active.
For osteoporosis prevention, strength training has been shown to reduce the rate of bone loss that occurs naturally as you age. This bone loss, which typically starts as osteopenia, can lead to osteoporosis, which is very difficult to reverse. Strength training classes can help build habits that can lower your disease risk, prevent falls and fractures, and keep you moving confidently at any age.
Reproductive health plays an important role in a woman’s life from pre-puberty to post-menopause, and may or may not include pregnancy and postpartum stages as well. Strength training classes are appropriate and beneficial for any age and stage. Whether you want increased body awareness to help with menstrual cramps or you want to ease pregnancy symptoms and increase your chances of a simple birth or work towards “getting your body back” after childbirth, you’ll find that strength training classes help increase your own body awareness which helps build confidence and manage stress.
3. Improve body composition and manage menopause symptoms
Many women notice weight gain, especially abdominal weight gain, when they start perimenopause (the roughly 6-8 years before menopause when hormones are fluctuating wildly). This is also a time when the body’s muscle mass can start to diminish unless deliberate action is taken. And the best action to take is to engage in strength training classes. Strength training provides a metabolism boost, and it can help prevent muscle mass loss. Of course strength training is not a miracle weight loss tool, but a consistent full body strength training program combined with healthy nutrition, sleep, and stress levels can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Ann Brennan, one of our exercise physiologists, goes deeper on this stage in Exercise for Menopause: A Guide to Staying Strong and Healthy.
4. Prevent injury and enhance performance
Many middle-aged and older women participate in regular activity, whether it’s a pickleball league, running races, equestrian, hiking, golf, masters swimming, or soccer. Many women have active hobbies that are an important part of their lives. If you’re a regular athlete you might think you’re in great shape from your sport and that strength training is at best unnecessary or you might even think it could be a detriment to your performance. No matter the activity, strength training helps you strengthen your bones in addition to the muscles around the joints. This added strength can help prevent repetitive use injuries, which aren’t just caused by sports but by any repetitive activity, e.g. doing arts and crafts, playing music, gardening, by building balanced strength throughout the body. So even if you’re not running 5Ks or half marathons, strength training can help you stay strong all over and prevent falls by developing more body awareness and improving balance and mobility.
Two Ways to Stay Active After 50
The same pickleball league, the same hiking group, with and without two strength sessions a week behind it.
A sport trains the movements the sport needs, over and over. That builds real fitness and it also concentrates wear on the same joints and tendons. The muscles the sport skips stay skipped.
Two full-body sessions a week strengthen bone along with the muscles around the joints, and they cover what the sport leaves out. Less repetitive-use trouble, better balance, more seasons of playing.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Trust me, everyone in the class will have been new at some point too. The best advice is to start now. Hope to see you in class soon!
Two Sessions a Week, With People Who Know Your Name
The MY180 program pairs you with a Health Coach, a Registered Dietitian, and an Exercise Physiologist working from one plan for 180 days that fits your lifestyle and your goals.
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Sources
- National Institutes of Health. Women may realize health benefits of regular exercise more than men. NIH News Release, 2024.
- Harvard Health Publishing. Preserve your muscle mass. Harvard Medical School.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart Disease Facts.
- Campbell KL, Winters-Stone KM, Wiskemann J, et al. Exercise Guidelines for Cancer Survivors: Consensus Statement from International Multidisciplinary Roundtable. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2019.
- Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023.
5. Create and maintain social ties
The Surgeon General of the U.S. has written about how loneliness is a major health problem in our country. The prevalence of digital communication technology plus the aftermath of the pandemic have caused hundreds of thousands of people to feel isolated. This isolation is a documented risk factor for physical illness. Participating in strength training classes gives women an opportunity to create social connections, while engaging in a healthy activity. The community that naturally evolves from the class setting becomes a reinforcing mechanism for motivating women to come to class. You will be missed if you don’t attend!
Being missed is the part a solo program cannot copy. If accountability is the piece that has been missing, Accountability is Calling: Five Ways Health Coaches Keep You on Track covers how that works outside of class too.
Strength training classes are a great way to make friends and learn safe and appropriate exercises. When evaluating strength training classes, look for those that are run by nationally-certified health coaches and exercise physiologists. Ask about the specificity of the class:
When you find a place to try, jump in and enjoy this new experience.