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Can 15 Weeks Really Build Muscle After Menopause? · My Sexy Menopause Body

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is MySexy Menopause Body with Kim Nicholson.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Real conversations about your health, your choices, and how you want to live after menopause.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever heard, well, you're getting older, so of course you're going to lose muscle.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear about a study that I'm so excited about that was published this year.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because this study is because researchers took a group of postmenopausal women who weren't particularly active and put some of them through 15 weeks of resistance training, and they actually measured what happened inside their muscles.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: A couple things that I really loved.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Postmenopausal women who weren't particularly active.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Those caught my eye.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, guess what?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Things did change.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is my sexy menopause body with Kim Nicholson.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this is quick conversations about what matters to your health and your life after menopause.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And okay, this is my first what the study actually found episode.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly why I want to do these.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we see these headlines all the time.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Lift weights after menopause.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have to build muscle.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Strength training is the secret to healthy aging.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I agree that strength really does matter enormously.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: But rather than just repeating, women need to lift weights, I want to ask better questions.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, what happens when postmenopausal women actually do it?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: This uh 2026 study, like I said, published in Maturitas, looked at this question.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this was actually a secondary analysis of a randomized control study trial involving 65 postmenopausal women who had hot flashes and had relatively low levels of physical activity.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The women were randomized either to be supervised resistance training three times a week for 15 weeks or to remain at their usual low level of activity.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now already I want you to notice something.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: These weren't 25-year-old men, they weren't elite athletes, they were postmenopausal women.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that matters when we're asking, does this research apply to me?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're scrolling through social media, I want you to always ask, does this research apply to me?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because the researchers used MRI scans before and after the intervention to look at muscle volume and fat infiltration within the muscle.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: 44 of the women had the MRI measurements available for this analysis.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: The women doing the resistance training increased muscle volume by 4% over just 15 weeks, while the control group did not show that increase at all.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Strength also increased significantly in women who trained.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So 4% may not sound dramatic when you say it quickly, but think about what the study is really telling us.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is where I like to get into it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: These women didn't spend three years of rebuilding their bodies.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, they didn't become bodybuilders, they weren't even on some extreme program.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: They trained for 15 weeks.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's less than four months.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about changes that supposedly just happen with age, I think studies like this are important because they remind us that aging and inactivity get tangled together in our minds.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what we may notice that we're weaker than we used to be and think, well, this is just what's happening this time of my life.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're just getting old.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: But how much of that, or how much of what we are seeing, is something we truly cannot change?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then how much of it is something that we haven't even challenged lately?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Those are very different questions.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So now here's another reason I like the study.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not everything changed.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The researchers also looked at fat infiltration within the muscle, and that did not significantly change over those 15 weeks, okay?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I actually love telling you that, because that's what I love about this series or want this series to be about.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to find one study and say, see, strength training fixes everything, because it doesn't.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Muscle volume changed, strength changed.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: The fat within the muscle did not significantly change during this particular study.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's how research works.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: One intervention can affect one outcome and not another.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever you hear someone say, This study proves you should do X, I want you to start asking, what exactly did they measure?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm using air quotes here, it worked isn't always meaningless until we know what it worked for.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there are the things that I want you to keep in mind here.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a huge study, okay?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: These women had hot flashes and were relatively inactive, so we shouldn't assume that their exact same result in every we shouldn't assume this is gonna happen to every postmenopausal woman.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this analysis involved 44 women with MRI measurements, not thousands of women followed for years.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I still think the finding is incredibly encouraging, not because it promises that every woman is going to gain exactly 4% muscle in 15 weeks, because it's not.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but what it is, what it tells me is something a lot more useful.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And here's here's what I gathered from this, and this is what my takeaway from this is post-menopausal muscle can respond to training.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again because I don't think a lot of people believe this, but postmenopausal muscle can respond to training.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Your muscles didn't just get a memo at menopause and say, okay, we're done adapting now.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that's where the coaching questions begin.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking, Am I too old to change this?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe ask, what am I currently giving my body a reason to adapt to?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I ask that to my clients often when I get that, you know, their belief that they're too old to do anything.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are you currently giving your body a reason to adapt to?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you aren't doing any resistance training now, that doesn't mean you don't, you you that doesn't mean you need to walk into a gym tomorrow and start lifting the heaviest weight you find.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your first step is learning good form.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's using dumbbells that you already have at home, or maybe it's working with a qualified trainer or a physical therapist.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an injury or if you're unsure of where to start, start smart.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe you've been strength training for years, and this is simply your reminder that you know what, progression does matter.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You have to keep giving your muscles an appropriate challenge.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want the takeaway from this study to be, all right, Kim, you you know, you told me exactly what I should do, I should exercise.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want the tech, I want your takeaway today to be maybe I shouldn't automatically label every physical change I notice as inevitable changing or inevitable part of my aging process.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes the most useful question is have I given this part of my body the right stimulus to change?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the study made me think about.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what the study actually found.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell my bit excited.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you started assuming that getting weaker is simply part of getting older, maybe don't close that case just yet.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Your muscles may be still waiting for that reason to adapt.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you know another woman who has quietly started believing that getting weaker is a part of getting older, please send her this episode.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know what?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: 15 weeks isn't forever.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes seeing what's still possible, what we are able, what our bodies are able to do, is worth giving it another shot, right?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So until next time, don't just read the headlines.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself what did the studies actually find.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: What the study actually found.