Strength Training for Women Over 40 | Fitness & Health

by Bernd Thomas

Many women over 40 know this: their pants no longer fit like they used to, and there are more kilos on the scales. Weight and body shape begin to change in midlife, which is due to a change in hormones in the female body. Performance can decline and mood swings often occur – consequences of natural change processes and the first harbingers of menopause. What can help?

Sport is particularly important for women over 40

The good news: exercise and, above all, regular endurance and targeted strength training help. Although they don’t solve all problems, they do make a crucial contribution to staying healthy in the long term. Because many dangerous risks, such as those for diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, increase significantly after menopause. Exercise can effectively reduce them. The training also has a positive effect on your psyche and figure.

It has long been known that sport can act like medicine. For example, women who are physically active have a 20 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause.

It is only in the last two decades that this question has become the focus of science: How can sport help women during and after menopause to sustainably promote and maintain their own health? The most important message: It’s always worth starting, the sooner the better.

Changes from the mid-30s: basal metabolic rate drops, muscle mass decreases

The physical changes begin in your mid-thirties, explains Professor Vanadin Seifert-Klauss, a specialist in gynecological endocrinology and reproductive medicine at the University Hospital of the Technical University of Munich. The basal metabolic rate drops because many tissues no longer grow. The so-called peak bone mass, the maximum bone mass, is reached around the age of 30 and then drops again, as does muscle mass.
From the start of your forties, female hormones also change. For example, progesterone, which normally increases women’s body temperature by around half a degree, drops. This alone means the body burns around 300 fewer calories per week, a factor in gaining more body weight.

Menopause: Drastic changes in metabolism

Menopause begins around seven years before menopause. All important metabolic cycles, protein metabolism, bone metabolism, fat and energy metabolism begin to change.
In addition to genetic factors, the stress hormone cortisone and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) also play an important role in fat storage. Its level increases to years in your early forties. Fat is then no longer stored as before, especially on the thighs and buttocks, but increasingly in and on the stomach, as potentially harmful, visceral abdominal fat.
However, the changes continue even after menopause occurs at an average age of 52.

Dangerous additional risks

Women who enter menopause late often gain more weight than others due to the longer-lasting effects of estrogen, explains Professor Vanadin Seifert-Klauss. This can increase the risk of certain cancers such as uterine lining cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.

Professor Patrick Diel is researching how women can effectively reduce the increasing health risks at the Institute for Circulatory Research and Sports Medicine at the Cologne Sports University. Because higher blood fat levels increase the risk of stroke or heart attack. The altered protein metabolism makes it harder to maintain or build muscle, leading to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The accelerated bone loss also increases the risk of bone fractures.

Health goal: combination of endurance and strength training

Proper movement is important. Researchers recommend a combination of endurance and strength training. Both should be individually adapted to your own needs and circumstances. The main goal is not to achieve a dream figure, but rather to sustainably promote and maintain physical and mental health. Nevertheless, training always has an impact on weight, provided that sport and exercise become part of everyday life. This is best achieved by having fun and setting realistic goals.

Getting started: A little is better than nothing

Basically, exercise is always possible and a little is better than nothing. So don’t be afraid to get started! This could be an initial increase in exercise in everyday life, such as counting steps. Climbing stairs is effective strength training that can be done anywhere and at any time. It is also important to move often throughout the day.

Low-threshold endurance training

Two units of low-threshold endurance training of 35 to 40 minutes per week with a pulse rate above 130 make sense, advises Professor Patrick Diel. This can easily be achieved by walking, running, cycling or similar activities. But concentrated, slow movements like Qigong or yoga are also useful. Exercise in everyday life and endurance training influence fat metabolism and thus protect the cardiovascular system. It is important not to overdo it. Not only does this increase the risk of injury, but fun and therefore sustainability are also lost. Specific strength training can then be built on the increased movement.

Strength training for women: Building muscle is essential

Strength training influences protein metabolism, maintains and builds muscle mass and, with appropriate intensity, also has positive effects on bone density. It increases the basal metabolic rate of energy and the muscles play a crucial role in stabilizing blood sugar levels.

Muscles and healthy bones are particularly important for older people. Trained muscles prevent pain and falls and ensure physical stability. By the way, building muscle is possible at any age and has many other health-promoting effects. Many messenger substances are activated during training. How and what exactly happens is the subject of intensive research.

Strength training: increase load

Unfortunately, to achieve positive effects with strength training, exercises with your own body weight are not enough. So-called high-intensity units are necessary for progress. This involves training specifically to the limit of the load. This is strenuous and should definitely be done under supervision to avoid injuries.

Two 45-minute sessions per week are important; it is not the time that matters, but rather the intensity and frequency of the exercise sets completed. If you have the energy and time, you should even train three times a week. Exercises in a studio with free weights are useful, but also sports such as power pilates or rowing. Rowing is a full-body sport that combines strength and endurance.

Rapid progress and impressive achievements

The first results of targeted strength training can be seen after around eight weeks. Many people are already feeling positive changes in their everyday lives. The long-term results can be impressive. In studies at the Cologne Sports University, women were able to achieve an increase in strength of up to 80 percent through targeted strength training. Nobody needs to be afraid of ending up looking like the muscle-bound Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because that requires different training.

Regular training is important

The conditions under which women do sport are as individual and different as the women themselves. Factors include age, genetic background, physical condition, nutrition, training rhythm and form. Unfortunately, according to Patrick Diel, there is not one sport that helps everyone equally.

There is no data on whether and what helps with hot flashes, mood swings and other menopausal symptoms. But one thing is certain: the combination of endurance and strength training has been proven to help maintain long-term health. Provided that the woman trains regularly, in an appropriate manner and makes sure that sleep and regeneration are not neglected.

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