Menopause myths – sarcopenia and osteoporosis

Are you ready for us to drop some serious facts about why everywhere we women turn, we're being yelled at to pick up some weights...?

If not, stop reading now and see ya next time!

If you're staying, read on...

There is a lot of fearmongering going on right now, and we quite honestly detest that sh*t, BUT if we are to understand WHY midlife women everywhere are being commanded to go 'lift heavy' then it's useful to look into the science.

Let us lay it out for you. There are two serious conditions we want to avoid as we age: sarcopenia (loss of strength and muscle mass) and osteoporosis (loss of bone tissue).

Both of these conditions will impact the sh*t out of any women who's hit by them, but the point here isn't to scare anyone, it's simply to share why awareness of them matters for YOU and why lifting some heavy stuff is a good strategy to hone in on.

Let's start with sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia is the gradual loss of muscle over time. Muscle peaks through our 20s, which is why many of us feel like we could eat anything and expend very little effort to stay slim back then. It wasn’t simply the magic of youth, it was partly down to having more muscle mass and a more efficient metabolism.

Then, from around 30, we begin to lose muscle. The decline can be 3–8% per year. For women who have stayed active and strength-trained during this time, this isn't a big issue. It’s more of a problem for those who don't do much...or anything.

Some studies suggest this decline speeds up during the menopausal years. It’s not clear whether that’s due to hormones, aging, or both but, in our 40s and 50s the drop-off seems to be steeper.

This is why it’s so important to start or maintain resistance training in these years. Muscle isn’t just about looking buff (although we love seeing our FitBtches' muscle pops), it impacts how we function in everyday life. Getting up from the sofa without unleashing a zombie groan, climbing stairs, or carrying shopping/kids/life's clutter. Once those abilities are lost, they have a huge psychological and physical effect on quality of life.

Who remembers their nan needing you to literally pull her up off the sofa because she was stuck and couldn't find the strength to move her own body? Well it's that, but it just declines further from there. Put simply: more muscle means better odds for a longer, healthier, easier life and who doesn't want that?

Next, osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is the end result of bones becoming weaker and more brittle. About one in three women over 50 will suffer a fall that results in a fracture. There’s also a small but frankly scary statistic that within a year of a major fracture, around 7% of women will die. (Thank you Kelly for this cheery fact!). A fall and a broken bone later in life can set back independence dramatically... and sometimes permanently.

And hormones play a role, of course. As oestrogen declines, bone breakdown starts to outpace the bone building our bodies naturally work on in the background, which accelerates loss of bone density.

The best way to counter this is both strength training AND impact training. That means lifting weights, using resistance, and also doing movements where the body makes impact with the floor. So things like jumping, running or plyometric drills.

Our recommendations are to non-consecutive days per week of full body strength training AND 3-5 times per week for training bones (eg. 10 mins of jumping, running). ORRRR you could do our menopause specific SCULPT course, which contains all these kinds of moves in one handy programme. (Also available in the membership FYI)

I think you'll agree with us, that the above is an important driver of getting that bum moving and why our midlife and menopausal years are NOT the time to slow down... NOT ON YOUR NELLY, MATE!