This Study Says Women In Their 50s Can Gain A LOT of Strength

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Sometimes I come across research that’s very specific but very interesting as well. This study is definitely one of them! It’s a study from 2023 where researchers from the women’s health group from the Boston Medical Center asked themselves the question: “How much strength and muscle can women gain just before and just after menopause?” (source).

The reason I’m sharing this today is because: 1) it’s interesting to have the question answered and 2) the results were quite surprising, at least for me. So, let’s read on!

Why Did The Researchers Want To Know This?

There are a couple of things that really stood out to me when reading why the researchers wanted to study this group of women.

First, they found that other studies measuring similar things were mainly aimed at men. Only 2-14% of research that was published in major publications was aimed at women, let alone pre- and postmenopausal women. This leaves a huge gap for information about women around the age of 50.

Second, they really wanted to get this question answered because women (and men) have lost a lot of strength at this point in their lives. After 30, we lose around 3-8% of our strength per decade, and 5-10% after 50. This impacts other areas of our lives as well, and reversing that is very important for life quality.

Third, menopausal women are at higher risk of developing osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal disorders (source, source). Strength training could reduce this risk a lot.

What Did The Study Measure

The study followed 31 women over a period of 20 weeks to find out how much muscle mass and strength they could gain in this period. The average age of the women was 52 years old, with about half of them before menopause and half after.

The actual training was a 10-week period where the women did strength training twice a week. Each muscle that was measured was trained with 6–8 sets per week.

What I think is great about this is that this is a very doable strength training program. Everybody can get 2 workouts per week in, and only 6–8 sets per muscle group means the intensity also isn’t that high. Great news for the average person!

The Results

The main things the study looked at were changes in body weight, fat mass, muscle mass and strength. They also measured different muscles, but I don’t think that’s very relevant to discuss right now.

Body Weight & Fat Mass

There were no real changes for any of the groups when looking at body weight. Now, for the post-menopausal women, this was because they did not gain any muscle or lose any fat. They just stayed exactly where they were.

However, for the pre-menopausal women, there was a difference. They did gain a bit of muscle and lost a bit of fat. Their body weight was therefore the same, but that was only because the muscle gain made up for the fat loss.

Muscle Mass

The same was true when the researchers looked at pure muscle mass (post-menopausal women, wait for the end, the results still get very surprising!).

During the 10-weeks of weight training, the pre-menopausal women gained an average of 2.7 kg (5.95 pounds) of muscle. That’s a lot of muscle in such a short time span! The post-menopausal women saw no significant increases in muscle mass.

In their study, the researchers also suggest that this is because, after menopause, you may need more strength training to stimulate muscle growth. Training 2 times a week, and doing 6–8 sets per body part may be enough for pre-menopausal women, but not if you’re already through menopause.

Strength

This is the part where things took a turn for the better for the post-menopausal group!

To measure strength, researchers measured the maximum squat and bench press the women could perform. These were the results for the pre-menopausal women:

• Squat: 90 lbs to 145 lbs
• Bench press: 65.6 lbs to 77.4 lbs

For the post-menopausal women, results were surprisingly largely similar. Do keep in mind that the post-menopause group was divided into two groups. One did low intensity strength training and the other moderate intensity strength training. These are the results for the low intensity group:

• Squat: 78.2 lbs to 138.4 lbs
• Bench press: 60.6 lbs to 73.6 lbs

And the moderate intensity group:

• Squat: 81.2 lbs to 133.8 lbs
• Bench press: 59.5 lbs to 72.9 lbs

What Did The Training Look Like?

If you’re interested in how these women achieved these strength gains, you’re in luck! They also included the strength training program these women were on during their 10-week period.

Some basic information here is that all exercises were performed with 4 sets of 10 in week 1-4 and week 6-9. Week 5 and week 10 were deloading weeks in which the women only did 3 sets of 10 per exercise. Finally, they had 2 minutes of rest between each set.

Session 1

• Barbell box squats
• Barbell bench press
• Seated, neutral grip cable rows
• Dumbbell side bend
• Prone plank

Session 2

• Barbell box squats
• Barbell bench press
• Lat, wide grip pulldown
• Dumbbell side bend
• Prone plank

Stefan K.

Stefan has been vegan since 2019 and has been regularly working on his strength since the beginning of 2023. He’s on a mission to help other vegans get stronger and have all of them achieve the quality of life they deserve.