Four Reasons Women Lose Strength After 50
Did you know that muscle strength and bone strength are intricately related? Osteoporosis and osteopenia go hand in hand with the loss of muscle strength.
Kettlebells and dumbbells are essential components of muscle and bone building
How much easier would life be for you if you were just a little bit stronger?
Most of us got weak by accident. We didn’t intentionally lose strength.
We usually figure it out once we find ourselves in a situation we didn't see coming. We realize what was once easy to do, without much thought, has now become difficult.
What happened? And what can you do to prevent this from getting any worse, right now?
Here are my top four big reasons you may be at risk of losing muscle strength after 50, or post-menopause.
#1. You have slowly stopped lifting heavy things and regularly allow other people to do the heavy lifting for you.
This has happened to me, and I have to be careful. Very kind people ask me if I need help bringing my groceries to the car, getting my luggage at the airport, picking up compost bags at the garden center, or offering to bring my pet food to my car. These little kindnesses add up to me not doing all of the strengthening I could be doing throughout the week.
#2. You are an avid walker and count this as your exercise.
I love walking, and I encourage everyone to get out and walk. But walking does NOT count as a strengthening exercise. If this is the only exercise you are doing, you WILL lose muscle mass. This is especially true for your upper body/arm strength.
#3. You are eating a healthy diet, but not getting enough protein.
Your protein needs increase after menopause. Your muscle strength can only be maintained and built if you eat enough protein. As women post-menopause, you have a decreased ability to digest protein the way you did before menopause (anabolic resistance), so you need to eat additional protein to make sure the building blocks of muscle are present.
#4. Aches and pains prevent you from doing what you need to do.
It can be frustrating to feel pain in your joints. I know the base of my thumb and my left hip can act up and make me feel like I have done something wrong. But what we know about exercise and aging is this: the more active we are, the less pain and less disease we will have.
The number one intervention recommendation for knee pain due to arthritis? Muscle strengthening. You can read more about this here: Knee Arthritis, Is Exercise Making it Worse? (Hint, no, exercise makes it better)!
Time and again, we see the strengthening of your muscles as the best and most proven intervention for the reduction of pain, increase in activity, and general all-cause mortality.
How is your strength training going?
I look forward to growing this community of Strong Women, I hope you join me.
Andrea Trombley PT, DPT
Reference:
Wang, H., Ma, B., Wang, G., Wang, P., Long, H., Niu, S., Dong, C., Zhang, H., Zhao, Z., Ma, Q., Hsu, C. W., Yang, Y., & Wei, J. (2023). Dose-Response Relationships of Resistance Training in Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of geriatric physical therapy (2001), 10.1519/JPT.0000000000000394. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1519/JPT.0000000000000394