Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Why Women Over 50 NEED To Lift Heavy Weights in Menopause | Ep 252

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Why Women Over 50 NEED To Lift Heavy Weights in Menopause | Ep 252 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: I want you to pay close attention to this story.
• 0:02
  Philip Pape: You're going to hear advice that sounds reasonable, professional, even caring, but hidden within it are three dangerous myths about menopause and lifting weights, Myths that are literally stealing women's strength, health and independence.
• 0:16
  Philip Pape: These myths are so common, so accepted, that most people, even fitness professionals, never question them.
• 0:24
  Philip Pape: Today we're not just going to question them, we are going to shatter them with science.
• 0:29
  Philip Pape: As you listen to Marlene's journey, see if you can spot these myths, Because once you recognize them, you'll never look at menopause and strength training the same way again.
• 0:38
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.
• 0:57
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, Philip Pape, and today's story, the first of its kind we are doing a dramatized, myth-busting story, was inspired by a text message from a listener in Edmonton, Alberta, up in Canada, but it could be the story of millions of women facing the same challenge.
• 1:12
  Philip Pape: Listen carefully, because the myths you'll hear aren't just wrong.
• 1:16
  Philip Pape: They're actively harmful, and spotting them could change everything about how you approach strength training after 50.
• 1:24
  Philip Pape: And as I go through the story, I really want you to pay attention to the myths and try to spot them yourself.
• 1:29
  Philip Pape: And then I'm going to do a breakdown at the end of the story.
• 1:32
  Philip Pape: It's January 1st, New Year's, 6 am.
• 1:35
  Philip Pape: Marlene stands in front of Elevation Fitness, gripping her coffee like a lifeline.
• 1:40
  Philip Pape: At 54, the retired accountant has spent her entire career analyzing numbers, finding patterns, solving problems.
• 1:47
  Philip Pape: But the figures she's seen lately don't add up Declining bone density, creeping weight gain, loss of strength.
• 1:55
  Philip Pape: Even her posture, once perfect from years of track and field in her youth, is starting to slouch.
• 2:01
  Philip Pape: Time to solve this equation, she mutters, is starting to slouch.
• 2:02
  Philip Pape: Time to solve this equation, she mutters, pushing open the door.
• 2:05
  Philip Pape: 25 years of working with spreadsheets taught her one thing when the numbers go wrong, you have to take action.
• 2:12
  Philip Pape: The gym's window displays the usual New Year's promises Transform your body, Get fit, Feel strong.
• 2:22
  Philip Pape: But there's also a sign that catches her analytical eye Silver fitness specialist, safe training for seniors.
• 2:25
  Philip Pape: Inside, everything gleams with newness.
• 2:29
  Philip Pape: The front desk staff are impossibly cheerful for this hour and Mike, the trainer doing her consultation, seems to know exactly what she needs.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: I used to run track, Marlene tells him, watching younger members grunt under heavy barbells in the distance.
• 2:43
  Philip Pape: High school record in the 400 meters.
• 2:45
  Philip Pape: Now I can barely climb stairs without getting winded.
• 2:48
  Philip Pape: I need to get strong again.
• 2:50
  Philip Pape: Mike's smile is reassuring.
• 2:52
  Philip Pape: Professional, Of course, but at our age we have to be smart about this, especially with menopause.
• 2:58
  Philip Pape: We see it all the time.
• 2:59
  Philip Pape: Women come in wanting to lift heavy, but that's just asking for injury.
• 3:02
  Philip Pape: He leads her to a rack of colorful resistance bands and tiny dumbbells.
• 3:06
  Philip Pape: This is where we'll start Nice and safe, Low impact.
• 3:09
  Philip Pape: The key is high reps with very light weights.
• 3:11
  Philip Pape: Heavy lifting is for the young folks.
• 3:13
  Philip Pape: We'll focus on what works for women your age.
• 3:15
  Philip Pape: Marlene nods, running the numbers in her head.
• 3:18
  Philip Pape: The logic seems sound.
• 3:19
  Philip Pape: After all, he's the expert.
• 3:22
  Philip Pape: Three months pass.
• 3:22
  Philip Pape: Marlene tracks everything in her training journal Weights, reps, measurements just like she used to track business expenses.
• 3:29
  Philip Pape: The numbers don't lie.
• 3:30
  Philip Pape: After 12 weeks of resistance bands and two-pound dumbbells, her strength hasn't improved, Her bone density numbers are still declining and her posture even worse.
• 3:40
  Philip Pape: One morning, everything changes.
• 3:43
  Philip Pape: Marlene arrives early, planning to review her progress charts before her usual session.
• 3:46
  Philip Pape: The gym is quiet, except for the rhythmic sound of heavy weight hitting the floor.
• 3:50
  Philip Pape: Her accountant's curiosity gets the better of her.
• 3:53
  Philip Pape: What's making that sound?
• 3:54
  Philip Pape: Peering around the corner to the weight room, she sees a woman she'd noticed before but never spoken to Silver hair and a neat French braid, probably early 60s, setting up for another deadlift.
• 4:04
  Philip Pape: The bar is loaded with what looks like serious weight.
• 4:07
  Philip Pape: Each rep is controlled powerful.
• 4:09
  Philip Pape: Between sets she catches Marlene watching and smiles.
• 4:13
  Philip Pape: Let me guess they gave you the seniors program speech?
• 4:16
  Philip Pape: No-transcript.
• 4:21
  Philip Pape: Her name is Stephanie, former physical therapist turned strength coach at 62.
• 4:25
  Philip Pape: She left her PT practice after growing frustrated with seeing too many women limited by overcautious advice.
• 4:31
  Philip Pape: 20 years in physical therapy taught me one thing, Stephanie says, chalking her hands for another set we're far more capable than most people think, especially after menopause.
• 4:42
  Philip Pape: Marlene glances at her resistance bands, then back at Stephanie.
• 4:45
  Philip Pape: The accountant in her needs more data.
• 4:47
  Philip Pape: But what about injury risk Safety?
• 4:49
  Philip Pape: Stephanie's laugh is warm but determined.
• 4:52
  Philip Pape: You're an accountant, right?
• 4:53
  Philip Pape: Let's talk numbers.
• 4:54
  Philip Pape: When I started lifting heavy at 55, my doctor said I was crazy.
• 4:59
  Philip Pape: Seven years later, my bone density is higher than it was at 45.
• 5:03
  Philip Pape: My functional strength test put me in the top percentile for women in their 30s.
• 5:07
  Philip Pape: She adds more plates to the bar.
• 5:10
  Philip Pape: Want to know what's really risky?
• 5:11
  Philip Pape: Getting weaker every year because someone told you you're too fragile to build strength that's what's dangerous.
• 5:18
  Philip Pape: Later that morning Marlene cancels her session with Mike.
• 5:20
  Philip Pape: She has research to do.
• 5:22
  Philip Pape: Numbers don't lie, and Stephanie's numbers tell a compelling story.
• 5:26
  Philip Pape: All right, so that's my attempt at a little bit of a dramatic story, and what I wanna do now is break down the three myths that we just heard in Marlene's story, because each one sounds reasonable on the surface.
• 5:38
  Philip Pape: Each one gets repeated all the time In the industry.
• 5:41
  Philip Pape: I hear it all the time and I get questions about it all the time, and each one is completely wrong.
• 5:47
  Philip Pape: So myth number one let me know if you got this Heavy weights are dangerous for postmenopausal women.
• 5:53
  Philip Pape: Now you could even change this to heavy weights are dangerous, period as the myth.
• 5:56
  Philip Pape: But this is the myth that the trainer Mike used to steer Marlene away from the weight room, and it's based on an outdated view of women's bodies as somehow fragile or delicate, especially after menopause or really in general folks as they get older.
• 6:10
  Philip Pape: And here's what the science actually shows Postmenopausal women, of course they don't just tolerate heavy resistance training, they actually thrive on it, just like all humans thrive on loading up our skeletal muscular system.
• 6:22
  Philip Pape: And studies show that women in their 50s, 60s and beyond can safely handle the same relative training intensities as younger women.
• 6:30
  Philip Pape: And I'm going to put some numbers to this.
• 6:32
  Philip Pape: There's a 2021 study that followed postmenopausal women doing heavy compound lifts at 75 to 85% of their one rep max.
• 6:43
  Philip Pape: So we're talking pretty heavy weights and the results zero injuries, significant gains in strength and improved bone density.
• 6:50
  Philip Pape: Now Stephanie, the woman that Marlene met in the weight room, is the perfect example of what is completely possible.
• 6:56
  Philip Pape: She's not an outlier.
• 6:57
  Philip Pape: She's just doing what the human body is designed to do at any age, and that is to adapt to adapt to progressive overload.
• 7:05
  Philip Pape: So myth number one that heavy weights are dangerous, busted.
• 7:08
  Philip Pape: Myth number two, that light weights and high reps are safer and more effective Now, this was the recommendation by the trainer.
• 7:14
  Philip Pape: The tiny pink dumbbells, the endless reps, maybe using machines, maybe doing body weight exercises, and not that.
• 7:23
  Philip Pape: None of those things are effective for a short period, but it's for a very short period before you outgrow them and need more load, Because the problem is it's not enough stimulus to create meaningful change over time, which is really what you need as you're getting older.
• 7:36
  Philip Pape: Now remember how Marlene followed this advice for three months.
• 7:40
  Philip Pape: She didn't have any results.
• 7:42
  Philip Pape: And, granted, if you've been completely sedentary your whole life and then you do something, you're probably going to feel a little fitter, a little more active, maybe even a little stronger, but it's going to plateau very quickly.
• 7:50
  Philip Pape: And that's really the point I'm trying to make.
• 7:52
  Philip Pape: And there's a reason for that because, you know, as we age and after menopause, especially for women, women need more stimulus, not less, to maintain and build muscle.
• 8:02
  Philip Pape: And that's for a few reasons.
• 8:04
  Philip Pape: First is the estrogen level that drops and it actually makes it harder to maintain muscle mass, just naturally, if you don't do anything about it.
• 8:10
  Philip Pape: The second is that protein synthesis efficiency goes down right, which is also why I recommend women eat more protein the older they get.
• 8:18
  Philip Pape: And then, number three, your metabolic rate is naturally declining and just to be clear on that, it's only declining primarily because of your loss of muscle mass and your worsening body composition.
• 8:28
  Philip Pape: That's it, Not because of menopause, hormones or anything else Now I mean, other than the estrogen levels drop, which make it harder to maintain muscle mass.
• 8:37
  Philip Pape: But if you, that doesn't mean you can't.
• 8:38
  Philip Pape: As long as you focus on your body composition, these things don't have to happen.
• 8:41
  Philip Pape: And lighter weights you know the circuit machines in the gym where you're just hitting the same weight on the stack week after week forever.
• 8:50
  Philip Pape: That's not going to provide you the stimulus to overcome these changes.
• 8:54
  Philip Pape: It's like trying to fill a bucket with a dropper right when what you need is a hose, just to put an analogy on it.
• 9:01
  Philip Pape: And then the third myth in the story is that getting weaker is just part of aging and menopause, and I really I hate this one.
• 9:08
  Philip Pape: I have to be honest, and you know, men say the same thing.
• 9:11
  Philip Pape: Right, it's probably the most dangerous myth of all the idea that it's inevitable you're going to lose strength and muscle.
• 9:17
  Philip Pape: It is not aging that makes us weak, it is the lack of using our bodies and using our strength that makes us weak, and the research is crystal clear on this.
• 9:28
  Philip Pape: The rate of muscle loss during and after menopause is dramatically influenced by whether and how you train.
• 9:36
  Philip Pape: That's it, Strength training.
• 9:38
  Philip Pape: Women who actually engage in strength training can maintain and gain new muscle mass.
• 9:43
  Philip Pape: They can increase their bone density.
• 9:45
  Philip Pape: They have improved metabolic health.
• 9:46
  Philip Pape: They have improved functional strength right, and I mean functional in a more colloquial sense, not giving it any sort of special meaning just to be able to do things in the world.
• 9:57
  Philip Pape: Now you remember how Stephanie mentioned that her bone scan, you know, shocking her doctor afterward after it went up, and that's because heavy resistance training actually can reverse bone loss.
• 10:07
  Philip Pape: And I've heard many stories like this, where you go to the doctor and like, oh my goodness, what are you doing?
• 10:12
  Philip Pape: I'd never seen this before.
• 10:13
  Philip Pape: The bone density is actually going up.
• 10:14
  Philip Pape: That is how few people are actually lifting weights.
• 10:17
  Philip Pape: I mean, it's very sad, but it's also very empowering for you when you know that that's the thing that's going to work.
• 10:21
  Philip Pape: So what should Marlene and you do instead?
• 10:25
  Philip Pape: Here's the action plan Number one focus on compound movements in the gym when you train, you know, two or three days a week, ideally three, maybe even four, using squats, deadlifts, pressing rows.
• 10:37
  Philip Pape: Okay, and you can reach out to me.
• 10:38
  Philip Pape: I've got all sorts of programs that I can recommend.
• 10:41
  Philip Pape: I'm not going to charge you for it.
• 10:42
  Philip Pape: I'm going to give you a free resource.
• 10:43
  Philip Pape: If you need it, Reach out for a.
• 10:45
  Philip Pape: That can be in a wide rep range, all right, Anywhere from three or four reps all the way to 15 to 20 reps.
• 10:57
  Philip Pape: It's really gonna depend on the lift and on the programming and whether you're actually pushing hard, where you're a few reps shy of failure, and what I find is that going up for 20 or 25 reps and keeping the weight really light doesn't usually do that, because people tend to just stop before they get to that point.
• 11:14
  Philip Pape: So that's another reason I like a heavier rep range, especially for women, especially post-menopause.
• 11:19
  Philip Pape: Number three progressive overload is the critical piece here.
• 11:22
  Philip Pape: We have to increase your work over time.
• 11:25
  Philip Pape: Your work, meaning your sets, reps, load over time.
• 11:29
  Philip Pape: All right, Primarily the weight.
• 11:30
  Philip Pape: That's the most basic variable to change for most people, but then eventually it gets a little more nuanced than that.
• 11:38
  Philip Pape: Number four is again, training enough with enough frequency.
• 11:40
  Philip Pape: So I'm going to say three times a week If you're, let's say, in your seventies or eighties and you're listening to this, and if you never trained before, I would start with one or two and then add to that and you have recovery in between your sessions.
• 11:50
  Philip Pape: And then, number five, you've got to support your training with plenty of protein and calories, and so protein is going to be somewhere around 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of your target body weight.
• 12:02
  Philip Pape: But then having enough calories is important as well, and that's a whole separate topic.
• 12:06
  Philip Pape: When it comes to nutrition, here's something else that the research has revealed which I think is really amazing, and it validates what Stephanie discovered in the story.
• 12:15
  Philip Pape: Post-menopausal women can gain strength and muscle at the same rate as younger women when training properly.
• 12:24
  Philip Pape: And I'll add the shock value.
• 12:26
  Philip Pape: I'll make the shock value even higher at the same rate as men.
• 12:29
  Philip Pape: So don't think that you have any disadvantage.
• 12:32
  Philip Pape: Now, yes, women start with less muscle mass.
• 12:34
  Philip Pape: They have more body fat when they're younger, so the actual quantity of muscle might be different, but who cares?
• 12:41
  Philip Pape: The rate that you can gain is the same, right, and this isn't just an opinion or conjecture.
• 12:45
  Philip Pape: This is documented again in many studies that show women in their 50s and 60s achieving similar relative strength gains to women in their 20s and 30s when following proper resistance training programs.
• 12:56
  Philip Pape: I mean, think about that for a moment.
• 12:58
  Philip Pape: Right, the very time when most women are being told to back off from training or to just act.
• 13:03
  Philip Pape: Your age or this is inevitable is actually when they can make incredible progress, not despite their age, but regardless of it.
• 13:11
  Philip Pape: Right, Like it doesn't factor in.
• 13:14
  Philip Pape: So let's end by returning to Marlene's story.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: Remember how it began standing outside that gym on New Year's Eve I mean on New Year's day, right, New Year's resolution clutching her coffee and her spreadsheets, trying to solve the equation of aging.
• 13:26
  Philip Pape: And this is actually the exact story of so many clients who I work with who eventually find their way to the weight room, hopefully sooner than later, with who eventually find their way to the weight room, hopefully sooner than later, and from day one.
• 13:41
  Philip Pape: If you reach out to me for a rapid fitness assessment or need help with coaching, we are not going to avoid the weight room.
• 13:44
  Philip Pape: We are going to get you on a proper training program if you're not doing it already, or we're going to make adjustments to what you're doing to make sure it's effective.
• 13:50
  Philip Pape: That is number one for me when it comes to having a good nutrition plan.
• 13:53
  Philip Pape: You're like what Nutrition?
• 13:54
  Philip Pape: That is number one for me.
• 13:54
  Philip Pape: When it comes to having a good nutrition plan, You're like what Nutrition?
• 13:56
  Philip Pape: Yes, Number one for me in having a good nutrition plan is that you're training, training properly, right, that you're deadlifting, that you're squatting, that you're doing all these wonderful things.
• 14:04
  Philip Pape: Now, if you're not interested in that, that's your choice.
• 14:07
  Philip Pape: But the truth is your body is not fragile, it's not weak, it's not past its prime.
• 14:16
  Philip Pape: It's waiting for the right stimulus to show just how strong you can be.
• 14:18
  Philip Pape: So today's episode resonated with you and you want to talk to other people, like Marlene in the story, who are looking to get stronger regardless of their age.
• 14:26
  Philip Pape: Get strong at any age.
• 14:28
  Philip Pape: They want to know what to do.
• 14:28
  Philip Pape: They want to inspire each other.
• 14:30
  Philip Pape: Join our Facebook group.
• 14:31
  Philip Pape: It's totally free.
• 14:32
  Philip Pape: Go to Facebook and just search Wits and Weights or click the link in the show notes.
• 14:36
  Philip Pape: That is also where I often test out some of these ideas, like today's dramatized, myth-busting story.
• 14:42
  Philip Pape: Again, just click the link in the show notes or go to Facebook and search Wits and Weights and join our group and you'll hear about episodes like this.
• 14:51
  Philip Pape: But you can also interact with others and we do a bi-weekly live Q&A where you could have your questions answered.
• 14:58
  Philip Pape: All sorts of other fun stuff.
• 14:59
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember strength has nothing to do with age.
• 15:05
  Philip Pape: It's about smart training and consistency.
• 15:07
  Philip Pape: This is Philip Pape and you've been listening to Wits and Weights.
• 15:09
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time.