Strength Training is Essential Before Perimenopause

Strength Training is Essential Before Perimenopause

October 22, 2024 FIT4MOM x Jessica Maurer x Christina Maril

As women approach their 40s and beyond, the body undergoes a significant phase called perimenopause, which eventually leads to menopause. This time is marked by hormonal fluctuations that bring about both physical and emotional changes. While these transitions can be challenging, one of the most empowering ways to navigate this period—and to prepare for it—is through strength training. For moms, particularly those managing the physical demands of raising children, strength training becomes essential for surviving and thriving through these changes.

This blog will explore why strength training is critical during perimenopause and menopause. We’ll define these life stages, explain strength training, and highlight how this type of exercise directly benefits moms' everyday lives, such as carrying car seats and toddlers or supporting sick or hurt children. Most importantly, we’ll stress the value of training before major life changes occur, ensuring that your body is prepared for whatever comes next.

Be Ready for What’s Next

The best time to start strength training isn’t once you’re already deep into perimenopause or menopause—it’s before these changes fully take hold. Preparing your body for the hormonal shifts ahead gives you a head start, helping you maintain muscle mass, bone density, and functional strength before they start to decline.

By training now, you ensure your body is in its best shape to handle the shifts of perimenopause and menopause. Waiting until after the changes occur means playing catch-up, and it can be more challenging to regain lost muscle mass and strength. Think of it as "training for your next step": Strength training before these major life changes ensures you're ready for what’s ahead, physically and mentally. Rather than reacting to the changes, you’re proactively preparing your body to navigate them with resilience and strength.

During perimenopause and menopause, strength training offers a wide array of benefits that directly combat some of the most common symptoms of this life stage:

Preserve Muscle Mass: As estrogen levels decrease, maintaining muscle mass becomes harder. Strength training helps combat muscle loss by keeping your body strong.
Supports Bone Health: Estrogen plays a critical role in maintaining bone density, and its decline increases the risk of osteoporosis. Strength training places controlled stress on the bones, encouraging them to rebuild and strengthen while reducing the risk of fractures.
Boosts Mood and Mental Health: Strength training boosts mood by releasing endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Regular exercise helps balance emotions and provides a sense of empowerment and control over one's body.

Fatigue Your Muscles

In strength training, the goal is to work your muscles to fatigue—not exhaustion, but reaching a point where another repetition is challenging with good form. Fatiguing your muscles is essential for triggering muscle growth and increased endurance. For moms, working their muscles to fatigue means preparing their bodies to handle the physical demands of daily life with greater ease, strength, and confidence. Whether lifting their kids or simply staying active, building strength now will make everyday tasks easier.

Strength training isn’t just about building muscle for the sake of it—it’s about ensuring your body is ready for the real-life tasks you face as a mom. Here’s how strength training directly benefits everyday mom-life:

Carrying Car Seats and Toddlers: A loaded car seat can weigh 20 to 30 pounds or more. Carrying it from the car to the house, daycare, or the store can feel like an intense workout. Strengthening your upper body—particularly your biceps, shoulders, and core—through exercises like bicep curls, deadlifts, and shoulder presses makes this task easier.
Lifting Sick or Hurt Kids: When your children need extra care, whether sick, hurt, or just seeking comfort, you’ll often need to pick them up and carry them. Strength training exercises like squats, lunges, and planks target your lower body and core, ensuring you can lift your kids safely without straining your back or risking injury.
Tackling Everyday Chores: Strength training helps you handle the day-to-day physical demands of motherhood, from carrying groceries and cleaning the house to keeping up with your active kids. A strong back, legs, and arms mean these tasks feel lighter, faster, and less tiring, giving you more energy to focus on the moments that matter.

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MOVES TO DO

Reverse Lunge to Knee Lift

Stand with your feet hips-distance apart. Step back with one foot and bend both knees as if you were "proposing." Press through your front heel as you lift your back leg into a knee lift in the front. Hold the knee lift as you say "I am strong" before stepping back into the lunge again.

Bicep Curls to Upright Row

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Hold the dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing forward. Keeping your elbows close to your body, slowly curl the weights toward your shoulders. Slowly release back to the start.

Now, flip your palms facing inward, and lift them by pulling your elbows up and out until the weights reach chest level. Slowly lower the dumbbells back, maintaining control and focusing on using your shoulders and upper back. Keep your core tight and avoid arching or swinging throughout both exercises.

Deadlift to Squat

With your feet hips distance apart, hold your weights at the front of your thighs. Keep your knees soft, hinge forward, and keep your back straight. Drive through your heels to return to standing as you exhale. Rotate the weights to the side of the body as you bend your knees to sit down into a chair position. Press through the heels to return to standing.

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Chest Fly to Supine Triceps Extension

While lying on your back, place your feet on the floor. Find a neutral spine so your back is on the ground, the weights are above your chest, and your palms face each other. Inhale and separate your arms to the sides of your body, hovering above the ground. Exhale and return the weights to the top. Now, bend your elbows to lower the weights to your ears. Exhale as you press the weights back to the top.

It's Time to Find Your Village

If you aren’t sure of where to start, consider joining us for our Body Ignite program. Body Ignite is a mom-only strength workout that targets every muscle in your body. This easy-to-follow program will increase your metabolism, athleticism, and ability to lift, lunge, and push everything mom-life throws your way!

Your first class is always free with FIT4MOM.

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For moms, the importance of strength training cannot be overstated. The physical demands of motherhood don’t take a break, and strength training ensures that you’re not only capable of handling them but thriving while doing so. Remember, the best time to train is before major changes like menopause occur. Start now, and you’ll be ready for whatever comes next, equipped with the strength and confidence to take on life’s challenges with ease.