Benefits of Strength Training During Menopause
1. It Builds Muscle
Estrogen plays a role in muscle protein synthesis, or the process of creating new muscle protein, according to a review of research in Bone. When estrogen levels drop during menopause, building and maintaining muscle becomes harder, eventually leading to muscle loss.
“On top of that, all of us are naturally losing muscle because of the aging process, so it’s kind of like a double dose effect for [people in menopause],” says Tina Tang, CPT, a certified personal trainer who specializes in menopause. Age-related muscle loss, also known as sarcopenia, starts after the age of 30. This is the point when we begin losing approximately 3 to 5 percent of our muscle mass per decade, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, with things speeding up after the age of 60.
The downside to losing muscle is that strength declines as well, which makes everyday activities more challenging. If your muscles keep shrinking year after year, you’ll eventually reach the point where the simplest tasks — like getting out of bed and walking — are beyond your abilities.
You’ll also find it harder to maintain your balance, increasing your risk of falls. And falls are the leading cause of injury and injury-related death among adults 65 and over, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns.
You can help prevent all of that with resistance training. Lifting weights is one of the best ways to build and maintain muscle mass, helping ward off and even reverse sarcopenia and hormone-related muscle loss.
“It’s never too late to start strength training,” says Paula Amato, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the OHSU School of Medicine in Portland, Oregon. A meta-analysis published in Aging Clinical and Experimental Research found that resistance training three times per week for 16 weeks on average led to significant increases in muscle mass in women ages 50 to 80.
2. It Strengthens Bones
Menopause is the time to consider your osteoporosis risk. Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens the bones and makes them easier to fracture.
Normally, your body breaks down old bone tissue and replaces it with new tissue with the help of estrogen. But once estrogen levels dip, your body has a tough time building bone and you wind up breaking it down faster than you can replace it. This is why the risk for osteoporosis increases drastically after menopause.
In fact, research published in PLoS One suggests an estimated 17.4 percent of postmenopausal people in the U.S. have osteoporosis.
Strength training is one of the best strategies for building bone, Dr. Amato says.
Strength training works by pulling and pushing on bone and forcing you to move against gravity while your skeleton supports a heavier weight. These actions tell your bone cells to shift into “build” mode, resulting in denser bones, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
And it doesn’t take much to see benefits. In the results from a clinical trial published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, postmenopausal people with osteoporosis improved bone density and strength with just two 30-minute strength sessions per week for eight months.
3. It May Lower Insulin Resistance
Strength training may even improve insulin resistance, a condition where your cells stop responding to insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar). When left unchecked, blood sugar stays elevated in the bloodstream, which can eventually lead to diabetes, according to the CDC.
This is especially worrisome during menopause. Estrogen affects how your cells respond to insulin, and changes in hormone levels after menopause can trigger blood sugar spikes, notes the Mayo Clinic. Your blood sugar levels may fluctuate more than they did before menopause, and if this becomes out of control, it puts you at greater risk for diabetes or diabetes-related complications.
A study in the Journal of Diabetes Research suggests that resistance training improves insulin sensitivity and helps transport glucose out of your blood and into your cells to be used for energy.
4. It Helps Manage Weight
Another perk of strength training is it can help prevent unwanted weight gain, a common side effect of menopause and aging.
In general, strength training doesn’t burn as many calories during the workout as cardio activities like running. Harvard Health Publishing estimates that a 30-minute weight-lifting session burns 90 to 126 calories, whereas running at 5 miles per hour for the same length of time burns 240 to 336 calories.
However, strength training can help keep your weight in check by building muscle. After all, muscle loss is a major contributor to age-related weight gain, according to a report in Science. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, which means that your body needs energy (calories) to maintain it. Adding muscle might help you burn more calories throughout the day and prevent your metabolism from slowing down.
5. It Might Reduce Hot Flashes
Menopause causes several uncomfortable side effects, the most common of which is hot flashes. In fact, research in the Journal of Clinical Medicine suggests that 75 percent of menopausal people experience them.
Strength training might help. In a study in Maturitas, postmenopausal people who completed a 45-minute resistance workout three times a week had half as many hot flashes as inactive people after 15 weeks. The study authors theorize that neurotransmitters released during lifting may help our brains control and stabilize body temperature, ultimately cutting back on the number of hot flashes.
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