Lift, Don’t Wilt: Strength Training during Peri-menopause & Menopause

Hot flushes, mood swings, sleepless nights where you wake up thinking you are in the middle of a Bikram yoga - welcome to the joys of peri-menopause and menopause ! But while your body is going through what I like to call Cougar Puberty, there’s one habit that can completely change how you feel, look, and function: yes you've guessed it strength training.

Dumbbells, Kettlebells and Resistance Bands for Strength Training

1. Lift Heavy to Build Muscle

From your late 30s onwards, women naturally lose muscle mass each year. Less muscle means a slower metabolism, making it easier to gain weight even if your diet hasn’t changed. Strength training helps rebuild and maintain lean muscle, so you burn more energy at rest and feel stronger in everyday life.

Strength training is more than a few Pilates classes a week - whilst the reformer is brilliant for core strength, posture, and flexibility - and it absolutely has its place in a well-rounded routine when it comes to menopause, it doesn’t deliver the heavy, progressive resistance your muscles and bones need.

To truly protect your strength, metabolism, and bone density through the hormone rollercoaster of peri and menopause, you need to lift heavy sh*t.

Heavy, progressive resistance is lifting enough load to challenge your muscles and bones to adapt (usually in the 4–6 rep range, near failure, for multiple sets). This creates mechanical tension that signals the body to build/maintain muscle mass and bone density.

Strength Training

2. Protect Your Bones

Declining oestrogen levels during menopause speed up bone loss, raising the risk of osteoporosis. Weight-bearing and resistance exercises stimulate bone density, giving your skeleton the strength it needs to support you long-term. Think of it as an insurance policy against fractures later in life.

3. Hormone Helper & Mood Booster

Exercise — especially lifting weights — releases endorphins, your natural mood elevators. It also helps regulate insulin, reduce cortisol (the stress hormone), and may even improve sleep quality. When your hormones are unpredictable, strength training brings some balance back.

High Five : Two women in perimenopause exercising

4. Confidence Inside & Out

It’s not just about health - it’s about how you feel. Strength training builds not only physical resilience but also mental resilience. Every time you lift a little heavier or complete one more rep, you prove to yourself that you are capable, powerful, and in control.

Ready to Start Your Stronger Chapter?

Strength training during menopause isn’t optional - it’s essential. And the best part? You don’t need to spend hours in the gym to see results. That’s why I created my new 80-page eBook: Health, Exercise & Nutrition Made Simple for Menopause: How to Laugh Lift and Lunge Your Way Through Cougar Puberty .

Inside you’ll find practical strength workouts, nutrition tips, and lifestyle strategies tailored to your changing body - without the jargon or fluff.

👉 Download for $14.99 today and take the first step toward feeling stronger, calmer, and more in control throughout your peri and menopause journey.

If you need 1:1 coaching from an experienced Menopause Coach, PT and Nutritionist I am taking a limited number of clients until the end of the month call me 0449775240 to discuss availability or Join my 9 week Resistance Training 4 You Course Starting Wed 08 October details here.