So what is the best exercise strategy for women after menopause? My background is I love to exercise. Well, I love how I feel after and sometimes during exercise, and I’ve been a lifelong worker outer. I love how it makes me feel both mentally and physically strong in my body.
The truth of the matter is that these days women are losing weight and they’re using GLP1s. And for many women, this is an answer to a longtime struggle. The inability to lose weight at this stage in life can be really challenging. I talk more about that in the blog “Why Can’t I Lose Weight in Menopause?” And for many women, this GLP1 usage is bringing a lot of relief, and they have less food noise, fewer cravings, and weight loss finally feels possible. But there’s another side of this conversation that needs attention. Because if you lose weight without preserving lean muscle mass, you might be smaller but metabolically weaker. And after menopause, that matters.
Today I want to talk to you about the best exercise strategy for women after menopause and why it’s so important if you’re taking a GLP-1 medication, considering taking a GLP-1 medication, coming off of a GLP-1 medication, or you’re just a woman in menopause that is struggling to maintain muscle mass. Because unfortunately the truth is weight loss is not the same thing as health.
Why Muscle Matters More Than the Scale
And why does this matter? Let’s start with a little context. As women go through menopause, we naturally experience hormonal changes that affect muscle mass, bone density, recovery, strength, and body composition. Now add significant weight loss on top of that. Research suggests that approximately 15 to 20% of the weight loss using GLP-1 medications comes from lean body mass, and that includes muscle. This is why this conversation matters, and I’m going to help you understand.
So what’s the big deal? Why do we need to have muscle? Muscle is the biggest projector of longevity. Muscle is the biggest projector of long-term health. And so the goal isn’t simply to lose weight, but the goal is to lose fat while maintaining the tissues that support healthy aging.
What Muscle Actually Does for Your Body
Let’s look at what muscle actually does. When most people think of muscle, they think of appearance, having definition, or maybe they’re even afraid of looking bulky or too big, looking larger because they have more muscle. Well, I always like to use this analogy: how much mass does fat and muscle take up in our body? Our fist is the size of one pound of fat. Whereas our pinky is the size of one pound of muscle. Notice what takes up more space. Fat. So muscle, the more we have of it, we can still be very lean. That’s a good example of fat and muscle, what it looks like, how much space it takes up.
So what most people think about when they think about muscle is appearance. But muscle has so much more of an impact on our lifestyle and our longevity than we realize. Muscle helps support metabolism, blood sugar stabilization, insulin sensitivity, balance, mobility, brain health, strength, and independence as we age. That’s quite a list. I don’t know about you, but as I age, I certainly want to be independent. I don’t want to be necessarily in a nursing home when I’m much older. I want to be independent. And that means I need an able, strong body to help me get there. Muscle is the greatest predictor of how well we’ll function later in life. It’s what helps you carry groceries, get up off the floor, travel, hike, play with grandchildren, live independently. And that’s why preserving it matters so much.
The Biggest Mistake Women Make With Exercise
The biggest exercise mistake I see women making during this time of life or during weight loss is too much focus on burning calories. The goal of weight loss, we think, is: I’ll eat this much and subtract out this much with exercise and create that deficit. Well, unfortunately, that focus doesn’t work super well for a number of reasons. It slows down our metabolism and it doesn’t focus on preserving muscle. Many women just assume, I just need more cardio. But what most women need is a smarter balance of strength training, cardiovascular training, and recovery. Recovery is so important, and daily movement. That combination is what’s going to move the needle, and move it for the long term, not this up and down. We’re going to work toward that long, healthy, thriving life.
5 Pillars of an Effective Exercise Strategy for Women After Menopause
I’m going to give you five strategies for exercising postmenopause that will help you live that long, healthy life that we’re aiming for. These are the asem strategies I use with my menopause coaching clients.
1. Prioritize Strength Training
So, we know this, you’ve got to strength train. So what is it that gets in the way? Maybe it’s not knowing what to do, not having a plan of action, like needing a 10-minute workout you can go do right after work. Or making sure first thing in the morning your clothes are right by your bedside, you put them on, you get out the door. These are some things we need to think about before we’re like, “I just need to strength train.” It’s how and when am I going to do it? And then getting the right kind of guidance and support to put together a plan that works in your life. Do you have 10 minutes? Do you have 30 minutes? Maybe it’s 10 minutes twice a day. Every person that I work with is different, so it’s a matter of really figuring out what you can do — and it is really important to do strength training postmenopause, period. So whatever you can do, do it.
Research consistently shows that resistance training helps preserve muscle mass, improve insulin sensitivity, support glucose control, maintain strength, and support bone health. It also helps with brain function and healthy aging. So this becomes so important when appetite is lower and weight loss is happening. The goal isn’t to become a bodybuilder — nobody, I don’t want that. I bet you don’t want that, unless you do, which is super cool too. But most of us don’t want that. We just want the benefits, and we want to preserve muscle, because we are losing muscle by the minute as we go through this stage of life.
So aim for two to four strength sessions per week, depending on what you can do — maybe it’s four short sessions, maybe it’s two full body sessions. Maybe you split it up: a circuit one day, legs another day, upper body another. However you can figure it out in your schedule, get it in there. And if you’re someone who struggles to make this happen, I encourage you to hire somebody to help you — whether it’s somebody to set up a plan, or online coaching (I do that with clients). There are many different ways to get support. Maybe you just need somebody for a month to get you going.
But you want to focus on these movements: squats, deadlifts, presses (a bench press, a pushup, a shoulder press), and a row — a bent over row where you’re pulling. So: squat, push, pull. Carries — like carrying two heavy weights and just walking, holding the weights — work your core, stability, and mobility, and those can be really simple to fit in. But consistency, really building a program and staying consistent with it, is very effective for building muscle and preserving it.
2. Don’t Neglect Bone Health
It’s super important. I just had my first DEXA scan and I’ve got some osteoporosis due to some genetics and a couple other factors. So I am doubling down on my strength training, because we can build bone back. But in menopause and postmenopause, losing estrogen and those declining hormones means our bones take a hit. Being postmenopausal, and for me having a genetic predisposition to osteoporosis on my mother’s side, means I’m at risk — so I’m being super careful. And unfortunately, weight loss can contribute to additional bone loss if we’re not careful.
The most effective exercises for bone health are resistance training and impact activities when appropriate — jump training, even just a light bounce, split lunge hops, skipping, jumping side to side. That light impact is really good. Running and jogging, if that’s something you do. And weight bearing exercises, which includes walking — maybe walking with a rucksack, which can be really helpful for preserving muscle and bone. But really, lifting weights sends the most effective signal to your bones, and our bones need that signal, especially at this time in life and especially if you’re on a GLP1, thinking about going on one, coming off of one, or simply want to preserve muscle and bone mass in menopause.
3. Build an Aerobic Base
Strength training is non-negotiable and essential, but so is cardiovascular fitness. One of my favorite tools for women after menopause is zone 2 training. Personally, I love it myself — it feels amazing, it’s one of those feel-good endorphin cardio workouts where you could go and go. It helps improve mitochondrial health, aerobic capacity, metabolic flexibility, recovery, and endurance.
This could be things like brisk walking, cycling, jogging, hiking, swimming, or pickleball, which is great for this. Think of a scale of 1 to 10: 10 is going as fast as you possibly can, and one is just starting to move. You want to be somewhere between a seven and an eight, where you could hold a conversation but don’t really feel like it — a purposeful effort, not huffing and puffing, but not meandering either. It should feel sustainable, not like you’ve got to stop after 2 minutes. For most women, two to four sessions a week is a great place to start. If you’re starting from zero, go for two times, maybe 30 minutes each, and build from there. Same with strength training — if you’re starting from zero, go with two times a week, maybe 20 minutes. But you’re starting, you’re committing, and you’re going to time block your schedule to make sure you’re committing to a time that works for your life.
4. Train Your VO2 Max
Don’t forget about this — it’s one of the best longevity predictors that we have. VO2 max measures how effectively your body uses oxygen during exercise. Research consistently shows that higher cardiovascular fitness is associated with better health outcomes and lower mortality risk, period. That’s big. So it gives us some incentive for a little bit of pain, lots of gain. Not that we want it to be painful, but it’s going to be hard. This kind of workout is harder — not the consistent, steady, low zone 2 effort. It’s an up and then a down. It’s interval training.
It doesn’t mean you have to suffer through intense workouts every day, but occasionally challenging your cardiovascular system is super valuable. The gold standard of VO2 max training is the Norwegian 4×4: you work for four minutes and recover for three minutes, repeated four times. Your effort progressively increases over those four minutes — starting around a 7, moving through an 8 and up to an 8.5, then 9 to 9.5 by the end, very challenging — followed by 3 minutes of recovery, then repeat. That’s just one example. There are lots of ways to do interval training: hill work, different efforts on a cycle, indoor or outdoor, or shorter, higher-intensity workouts like HIIT or a Tabata (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, repeated through a four-minute cycle, with a minute of rest, then repeat). See how you do with that, and as you get fitter, gradually add on, maybe taking a break in between sets.
Think of VO2 max training as maintaining your body’s reserve capacity — that strong ability to stress and then de-stress. We want the body to know how to do that as we age. We lose that capacity, but not if we’re doing this kind of training. It doesn’t have to be frequent — once every two weeks, once a week, or start even less often and build up. Twice a week is a lot, but it can work if well spread out with lots of recovery, depending on your goals.
5. Respect Recovery
This is a biggie, right up there with strength training, and it’s the piece many women miss. I can fall victim to this one myself — I like to work out daily, get out there, do something. But unfortunately, if we go and go and go at this stage in life, it can backfire. We don’t have the same recovery reserves on hand, and especially if you’re trying to lose weight and eating fewer calories, your body may have fewer resources available for recovery. So it’s important to realize recovery is a piece of the puzzle for overall health and well-being. Needing to recover isn’t a weakness — it’s an important piece, just as important as strength training. Recovery is actually where the benefits happen, where the adaptation happens.
So with recovery, we want to prioritize sleep, protein (really important), hydration, rest days, and stress management. For me, that often looks like walking in the woods, just breathing — no phone, leave it at home. Just breathe and move, not a workout, but just movement. Or if you like to meditate, sit in a comfy chair, feet on the ground, and do a 5 to 10 minute meditation, maybe looking out at nature while you do it. Or some breath work — I love the 2x breath, where you breathe in for a certain count and exhale for double that count, longer exhales. Because the goal isn’t training harder at this stage in life — there was a time that was what I did — but now it’s really about recovering better. That’s what we want.
Training for the Life You Want to Live
The way to look at this exercise strategy is training for the life you want to live. People say, “Oh, are you training for anything?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I’m training to live a long, healthy life. I’ve already had some hiccups along the way.” For me, I don’t have the greatest genetics, so I think about the epigenetics — what can I do to live my best life and enjoy this phase we’re in?
When I ask women what they’re training for, I rarely hear them say they want to see a smaller number on the scale. Nobody says that. I hear: I want more energy. I want to travel. I want to hike. I want to be able to keep up with my grandchildren. I want to stay independent. That’s what we’re really training for.
Do you want to feel good in your body? Yes, and there is nothing wrong with that either. But when that becomes the end-all-be-all, we lose sight of what we really want, which is to enjoy this time in our life moving forward. So I think it’s worth reminding ourselves, when we do get focused on the number on the scale — which we all can — to step back and look at the bigger picture and think about what we want for our life from this point on.
Whether you’re taking a GLP1, considering one, coming off of one, or not taking one at all, the principles remain the same. Protect your muscle, support your bones, build your aerobic fitness, challenge your body, and respect recovery, because weight loss is not the same as health. The goal isn’t simply to become smaller. The goal is to become stronger, more resilient, more capable, and healthier for the long term.
