Empowering Fitness Journey for Women Over 50: Unleash Your Strength!

Why Exercise is a Game-Changer for Women Over 50

Exercise is the ultimate power move for maintaining stellar health. If your body came with a user manual, exercise would be highlighted, underlined, and bolded! But here’s the thing: exercise for women over 50 is a whole different ball game compared to men or younger women. Why? Unique hormones, metabolism, and body composition. So, it’s time to tailor your exercise routine to reflect these differences.

Bridging the Exercise Research Gap

Did you know that only 39% of exercise research focuses on women? That’s right! Women experience up to seven unique phases of hormonal changes, each benefiting from specific exercise tweaks. This means that a tiny fraction of research is actually tailored to your needs. Blindly following an exercise program not designed for your life stage might leave you feeling worse instead of better.

Your Go-To Guide for Exercise After 50

This guide covers various aspects of exercise for women over 50, including but not limited to:

Hormonal changes during menopause
Joint issues or mobility changes due to injury, activity, or age
Body composition changes that occur with aging, unless specific strategies are implemented

The Pillars of Fitness

Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardiovascular fitness is all about how efficiently your heart, lungs, and vascular system deliver oxygen to your working muscles. It’s inversely tied to fatigue and heart disease, the leading cause of death among women. Exercise for women over 50 should include various types of cardiovascular exercises that might not be recognized by governmental guidelines.

The U.S. Surgeon General suggests being active at a lower level for longer (150 minutes) or at a higher level for less time (75 minutes) per week. However, recent studies on women in perimenopause and beyond indicate that:

High-intensity interval training is most effective for losing visceral belly fat, which often increases post-menopause and is linked to heart risks.
Quick movements that stimulate fast-twitch muscle fibers help maintain or regain reaction and agility, reducing fall risk.
Slow and low-impact movement, known as Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), is more closely associated with a lower risk of obesity than formal exercise.

Optimal cardiovascular fitness and reduction of stubborn visceral fat deposits depend on shifting away from moderate exercise intensity to a moderate amount of high-intensity and increased amounts of lower-intensity movement.

Surprising Exercise Saboteurs for Women Over 50

Endurance exercise lasting more than an hour can negatively affect cortisol levels. More optimal are frequent, short-duration cardiovascular exercises of all levels. This lesson can be particularly challenging for those who were aerobic enthusiasts in the 80s and 90s, as those hour-long cardio marathons are not beneficial.

Choose weight-bearing cardiovascular options frequently if you are able. For example, running, jumping, and walking can help reduce bone-density loss. If weight-bearing exercises are not suitable due to orthopedic conditions, prioritize weight lifting.

Weight-Bearing vs. Non-Weight-Bearing Cardio Activities

Weight-Bearing Cardio Activities:

Running
Walking
Jump rope
Tennis
Pickleball

Non-Weight-Bearing Cardio Activities:

Swimming
Biking
Elliptical trainer

For bone benefits, you need ground forces that include a heel-strike. With elliptical trainers or other minimum-impact cardio equipment, the lack of heel strike makes these non-weight-bearing activities where bone density is the focus.

Recommended Cardio Activities

Perform high-intensity interval training 1-3 times a week (not exceeding 45 minutes total per week of interval time to avoid injury).
Engage in frequent fast-twitch reaction drills of a few minutes at a time (tennis, racquetball, or pickleball count).
Participate regularly in low to moderate-level activities such as walking, gardening, golfing, hiking, and biking.
If appropriate, choose weight-bearing exercise over non-weight-bearing exercise most of the time, though a variety of activities is best to avoid overuse.

Muscular Strength

According to Dr. Gabrielle Lyons, an expert in muscle-centric medicine, ‘Muscle is the organ of longevity.’ This powerful quote hints at what you might regret when you’re 90 if you aren’t lifting weights now. Traditionally, muscular endurance was considered one of the five components of fitness. However, it’s not included here since most of us do not lose the ability to do a task repeatedly in the same way we deteriorate in maximum strength.

Strength is not just for its own sake; it’s about being able to pull a door closed against a stiff wind, pick up a 40-pound bag of dog food, or enjoy a 3-year-old jumping into your arms. A woman who can do these things will struggle less to get herself out of a chair, do her own laundry, or bathe herself decades later.

Signs Your Body Needs Proper Weight Lifting

The first signs of muscle loss occur when you’re doing the same exercise you’ve always done but start getting fewer results. You have less muscle tone even when you’re consistent. You might try different exercises and wonder if it’s worth it at all. Estrogen drops following menopause, affecting your ability to reap rewards from your exercise. Strategic changes in exercise will positively affect your muscle. It’s counterintuitive for many women that you need to both exercise less and exercise with adequate intensity.

To overcome muscle loss that starts around age 30, strength training exercise for women over 50 is a must. However, not just any strength training will do. You need volume and must balance it with the need for more recovery.

How to Add Volume to Your Strength Training

Instead of 1 set, do 3 or 4.
Instead of 1 exercise for each muscle group, do 3 to 5 exercises for the same muscle group.
Instead of 2 days of strength training, do 3 (this strategy is best for beginners who would start with one set of each exercise. Once you progress to multiple sets and multiple exercises, reduce to two times a week or allow 72 hours between strength sessions for optimal recovery).

Strength training must be done to fatigue to provide enough stimulus to the muscle to change it. You may reach fatigue with fewer repetitions and more weight (best for bone density) or more repetitions and lighter weight. Safe higher repetition ranges generally include 25-28 reps, moderate 15 +/- 3 repetitions, and lower repetition ranges is less than 10 repetitions. Where weight becomes a limiting factor, tempo changes can also provide additional impetus to reach fatigue with lighter weight.

Implementing Tempo Changes

Instead of lifting in 1-2 seconds and lowering in 4-6 seconds (most recommended), lift in 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, lower in 4 seconds, and hold for 2 seconds.
Instead of lifting in 1-2 seconds and lowering in 4-6 seconds, lift as quickly as possible and lower in 4-6 seconds.