Why Resistance Training is Your Power Move

How Resistance Training Can Transform Your Body Composition and Boost Your Metabolisms

Quick Breakdown:

Resistance training is a game-changer during menopause. In this article, we explore why lifting weights can help you navigate menopause effectively. We’ll dive into:

Whether you have time for full workouts or just short bursts throughout the day, resistance training can fit into your lifestyle and help you feel empowered during this phase of life.

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Menopause and even perimenopause can feel like someone hit the pause button on everything that used to work for your body. Hot flashes, stubborn belly fat, and sudden mood swings—yeah, not exactly fun.

For years, women have been told that cardio is the key to staying fit, and many of us have spent countless hours running, cycling, or dancing our way to exhaustion. And here’s the thing—daily life already gives you a lot of cardio: walking, shopping, taking the stairs, and even cleaning the house all count as cardio activity.

Unless you’re a complete couch potato, your body is already getting a decent amount of low-intensity cardiovascular exercise. But when it comes to building muscle and transforming your body composition, cardio alone falls short. Unless you’re in heavy physical labor, you’re almost never lifting anything heavy enough in daily life to build muscle fibres or change your fat-to-muscle ratio

“What worked before might no longer work, You might be doing everything ‘right’ — but the results just aren’t there like before.“

Chris Feld

What worked before might no longer work, and that can feel incredibly frustrating. You might be doing everything ‘right’—the same workouts, the same eating habits—but the results just aren’t there. The basics of this lie in hormonal changes. During perimenopause and menopause, lower oestrogen levels mean your body is more prone to storing fat and losing muscle, which directly affects your metabolism. I’ll dive deeper into the science behind these changes and how to tackle them effectively in my upcoming eBook, Flaming Hot and Totally Cool: A Menopause Survival Guide

Many women over-rely on cardio, partly because it’s what we’ve been conditioned to do for decades, and because it’s more familiar or seems more accessible. But while cardio has its benefits, it’s resistance training that truly transforms body composition and boosts metabolism. 

Highlighting this distinction helps shift the mindset from endless cardio to a more balanced approach that prioritizes building muscle—something that daily activities simply cannot achieve. 

This shift is crucial, especially during perimenopause and menopause, when muscle-building activities can bring greater long-term benefits. This is why resistance training truly comes to the rescue when menopause throws you a curveball. Thankfully, we are starting to see a shift—more women are lifting weights than ever before—but there’s still a long way to go in spreading the message. Here’s why picking up weights might just be the best decision you make in this phase of life.

1. Muscle: Your New BFF (Best Fitness Friend)

Why Building Muscle is Key to Staying Strong During Menopause

Once menopause kicks in, muscle mass starts to disappear faster than your patience during a hot flash. It’s called sarcopenia—a fancy way of saying, “Your muscles are shrinking!” This sucks for a lot of reasons, but the big one? Muscle burns calories even when you’re Netflix-binging. The less muscle you have, the fewer calories you burn, and hello weight gain!

Solution? Pick up some weights. Resistance training keeps that muscle loss in check, helping you stay strong and boosting your metabolism. Unlike cardio, which mostly burns calories while you’re doing it, lifting weights has lasting effects—your muscles keep working long after you’ve put the dumbbells down.

Pro tip: Focus on moves like squats, lunges, and push-ups. These hit multiple muscle groups and give you more bang for your buck.

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2. Bye-Bye, Sluggish Metabolism (Hello Afterburn!)

How Resistance Training Boosts Your Metabolism Long After Your Workout Ends

Ever feel like your metabolism just packed its bags and ghosted you? Yeah, thanks, menopause. Cardio burns calories, sure, but once you stop running, cycling, or Zumba-ing, that calorie burn halts. Resistance training, on the other hand, keeps things burning after you’re done. It’s called the afterburn effect, and it means you keep burning calories for hours after your workout.

Building muscle is key to transforming your body composition and boosting your metabolism—especially during menopause. When you focus on building and maintaining muscle, you’re not just burning calories during a workout; you’re setting your body up to burn more calories all day, every day. Muscle is metabolically active, unlike fat, which means it continues to burn energy even when you’re resting, eating, or just lounging around.

This makes weight management significantly more effective in the long run, helping you tackle that stubborn midsection and keep the weight off for good. Improving body composition isn’t just about losing weight—it’s about changing the ratio of muscle to fat, leading to a leaner, stronger, and healthier version of yourself. During menopause, this becomes even more crucial as hormonal shifts make it easier to lose muscle and gain fat. Resistance training is the game-changer here, allowing you to maintain a healthy muscle-to-fat ratio, keep your metabolism revved up, and feel empowered in your body.

3. Bones of Steel (Okay, Maybe Not Steel, But Close Enough)

Strength Training to Keep Your Bones Strong and Resilient

Menopause loves to mess with your bones too, making them weaker and increasing your risk for osteoporosis. Sure, walking or jogging can help, but resistance training does even more for bone health. When you lift weights, your bones have to get stronger to handle that load.

Think of it as a “stress test” for your skeleton—the kind that actually makes you stronger, not stressed. Lift some weights, and your bones will get denser and tougher, especially in areas like your hips and spine, where women are most prone to fractures. Cardio? Not so much.

Pro tip: Focus on natural compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and shoulder presses. These moves mimic the types of movement patterns you do in everyday life, like lifting, pushing, and squatting. They work multiple muscle groups at once, making them super efficient and practical for building strength that directly supports your daily activities.

4. Mood Booster-Because Menopause Can Be a Mood-Killer

Why Lifting Weights Helps You Stay Mentally Strong

Menopause is like a hormonal rollercoaster. If you’ve ever found yourself tearing up at a random commercial or snapping at someone (who maybe deserved it), you’re not alone. Exercise in general helps with this because it releases endorphins—the feel-good chemicals.

But resistance training adds a bonus: the more you lift, the stronger you feel, both mentally and physically. There’s something empowering about knowing you can lift heavy stuff that cardio just can’t match. It’s like telling menopause, “Not today, Satan. I lift weights now.”

5. Weight Control Without the ‘Dread’mill

How Resistance Training Helps You Burn Calories All Day Long

We all know cardio burns calories, but resistance training gives you muscle, which helps you keep those calories in check long term. It’s not just about burning off the slice of cake you ate at lunch—it’s about creating a body that burns more all the time.

Cardio may help for an hour, but resistance training? That’s the gift that keeps on giving. Plus, let’s be real—who wants to spend hours on the ‘dreadmill’ when you could crush a 30-minute lifting session and feel like a superhero?

6. How Resistance Training Fits Easily Into Your Lifestyle

Quick, Fun, and Flexible (Just Like You Want Your Workouts)

One of the best things about resistance training is that it doesn’t take forever, and you don’t need a gym full of equipment to get started. A simple 30-minute session a few times a week can do wonders for your body.

Plus, you can switch it up to keep things interesting: bodyweight exercises, dumbbells, resistance bands—whatever floats your boat.

And if you don’t have the time or energy for a full workout session, remember that even 5-minute bursts throughout the day can add up.

Personally, when I’m working from home for many hours on my laptop, I make sure to get away from the screen about every hour and do a single exercise for 3 sets of 10 reps—whether it’s squats, lunges, or push-ups. It keeps me active and breaks up the monotony of sitting. Do a few squats while waiting for the kettle to boil, or some push-ups during a TV break—every little bit helps!

Let’s Wrap It Up: Keep It Balanced, But Make Strength Your Main Squeeze

The Final Word on Why Resistance Training Should Be Your Go-To During Menopause

Look, cardio has its place, and it’s great for your heart. But if you’re looking to crush those menopause symptoms—build muscle, protect your bones, and rev up your metabolism—resistance training is where it’s at. So, maybe ditch the endless treadmill sessions and pick up those weights.

Try this: Add two resistance training sessions to your weekly routine. Focus on big muscle groups and give yourself time to recover. Your muscles (and your bones) will thank you!

References:

Kohrt, W. M., Bloomfield, S. A., Little, K. D., Nelson, M. E., & Yingling, V. R. (2004). “Physical activity and bone health.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise

Phillips, S. M., & Winett, R. A. (2010). “Uncomplicated resistance training and health-related outcomes: Evidence for a public health mandate.” Current Sports Medicine Reports.

Hunter, G. R., et al. (2000). “Resistance training increases total energy expenditure and free-living physical activity in older adults.” Journal of Applied Physiology.