Why lifting weights after menopause is the kindest thing you can do for your bones

I’ll be honest: bones were not what got me into training. Nobody stands in a gym at thirty thinking about their skeleton. It took working with women in their fifties and sixties, week in, week out at Horizon in Guildford, to understand that bones are quietly at the centre of everything we do.

Here is the part nobody tells you. Your bones are not fixed, like the frame of a house. They are living tissue, and they respond to what you ask of them. Ask nothing, and they slowly get lighter. Ask something, and they hold on to what they have, and can even rebuild.

What happens after menopause

The hormones that protected your bones step back, and bone density starts to drift downwards. You cannot feel it happening. There is no ache, no warning. For most women the first sign is a fracture from a fall that shouldn’t have caused one.

That sounds frightening, and I don’t say it to frighten you. I say it because this is one of the few parts of ageing where what you do genuinely changes the outcome. Your skeleton adapts to what you ask of it.

What lifting actually does

When you lift a weight, your muscles pull on your bones, and your bones respond by holding on to their strength. Walking is good, and swimming is lovely, but neither asks enough of your bones to make them adapt. Lifting does. Properly taught, starting light, starting from wherever you are.

And the same training that protects your bones gives you everything else: the strength to carry your own shopping from the car in one trip, the balance that makes an icy pavement less of a worry, the legs that get you up from the floor without a hand from anyone.

I watch this happen every week. Women who arrive telling me they are “not gym people” are, a few months later, deadlifting with a straight face and walking out taller. Not one of them came to me about her bones. But every one of them is quietly building a skeleton that will carry her through the next thirty years.

If you have been told you have osteoporosis or osteopenia, this is not a reason to avoid strength training. It is usually the reason to start, carefully and with proper coaching. Talk to your GP, then come and talk to me.

“Am I too old to start?”

No. Strength can be built in your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond, and the research backs this up again and again. The only way to be too late is never to start. If you can get to Guildford, I can work with you.

Where to start

A free taster session is a good place to start. It’s relaxed and friendly: we talk about your body’s history, try some movement together, and there’s no obligation either way. Sessions are one-to-one at Horizon Guildford, and you don’t need to be a member.

Book your free taster session here and let’s have that conversation.