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STRENGTH TRAIN WITH US IN LIFT CLUB (TUES/THURS/SUN)
Weekly structured upper/lower/full body programming with instructor guidance throughout.
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Somewhere in your forties, sometimes earlier, things start to shift and your body starts playing by a different set of rules; the sleep that used to come easily, now feels restless, energy levels fluctuate, hunger cues change and workouts might suddenly leave you aching for days. It’s easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do, and like you’re just meant to put up with it.
The good news is, you’re not. And this can actually be one of the strongest, most capable chapters of your whole life. Your body still responds. The research shows it. And it requires far less than you’d think. So let’s talk about what’s really going on, and how you can take control back take so that you can feel good, move well and feel strong through the decades ahead.
As oestrogen winds down through perimenopause, your body shifts how it builds and holds muscle and bone. Oestrogen has a hand in muscle repair and connective tissue, so as it drops away, muscle can slip away faster too. Research suggests muscle mass falls by roughly 0.6% a year after menopause, and can drop 5–10% per decade after 50. Bone tells a similar story: in the first decade after menopause, bone density can fall around 1.5–2.5% a year.
On top of this, additional symptoms due to decreased Oestrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone may include:
Which, when piled together can really feel like you are ‘up against it’ when trying to mange your health and wellbeing on a daily basis.
Confronting? Maybe. But the good news is, none of it is set in stone, your metabolism doesn’t ‘shut down’ and your hormones, whilst certainly influencing the above, are not ‘broken’. Whilst the rules of the game may have changed, it just means you need to play it in a different way!
Even after oestrogen drops, lifting still works. When you load your muscles through resistance training, you switch on the exact processes hormonal change slows down. You’re telling your body it is still requored to hold onto its strength, and build muscle.
And those processes have so many downstream effects:
The Australasian Menopause Society says it simply: strength work at least twice a week belongs in your routine at this stage. The return on bones, muscle, heart and steadiness is that good.
Short on time? The research says you don’t need much. Experts call it the minimum effective dose, the smallest amount of training that still delivers real results. Here’s how it breaks down:
A trial out of Griffith University (LIFTMOR) had postmenopausal women lifting heavy just twice a week, 30 minutes a session, and saw real improvements in bone density and strength. Start light, build gradually, and if you’re brand new to lifting or managing your bone density, have a coach or your health professional guide your form and loading.
Whilst strength is the headline in this phase, it doesn’t mean you need to give up your favourite cardio routine. Getting your heart rate up still does plenty, it looks after your heart, helps with blood pressure and cholesterol, and gives you a solid hit of feel-good hormones on the days energy and sleep are all over the shop. The research loves the two together, because each does something the other can’t.
If you are the type of person who isn’t motivated to lift weights in the gym on your own, or doesn’t want the hassle of thinking about the program, weights to use, exercises and progressions to ensure you are hitting the right intensity to see the response.
The good news is. You don’t have to work this out alone, and you don’t have to throw yourself in the deep end.
Start with Lift Club. It’s all about the weights — weekly progressive programming, no-nonsense strength working through a variety of different intensities to build and hold muscle, which is exactly what your body’s asking for right now. You lift at your own pace, guided the whole way, with no guesswork and nobody peering over your shoulder. If you take one thing from this, make it this.
Want to mix up your strength in your week? Connect Strong is our mat-based, music-led strength class — same purpose, different feel, building strength to the beat, more time under tension on the muscle groups, a different feel. And if you fancy a bit of cardio and strength in the one go, RunLift brings them together.
Whichever you pick, you’re in a supportive room full of people at every stage and starting point, with caring instructors guiding you every step of the way. Twice a week is a brilliant, doable place to begin — and it’s exactly what the research points to.
Something easily missed: as oestrogen shifts, recovery can take a little longer too. So include rest into your plan, your body will thank you for it.
This is where the softer side of Therapy comes in. Connect Yin — our hot stretch and yoga fusion, gives your body warmth, space and time to release, looking after the flexibility and ease that strength builds on. And our breathwork and sound healing class, is proper nervous-system care: a chance to slow right down, breathe, and let the week empty out. On the nights sleep won’t come and the mind won’t quiet, that kind of down-regulation does a lot.
A simple rhythm to aim for: strength a couple of times a week, add in the cardio (Cycle or Run Club) or hot pilates (Connect Yang) classes you enjoy, and a recovery session to round it off. Strong body, settled mind.
Perimenopause is personal. If you’re managing symptoms, on medication, or weighing up something like HRT, your GP or a menopause-informed health professional is the one to guide the medical side. We look after the movement and the mind.
If this is your season, take it as your sign. You’ve got far more say over how this next chapter feels than you might think — and strength is one of the clearest, best-backed ways to claim it.
New to Therapy? Our intro offer is the easy way in:
Book yourself into a Lift Club, find stability in Hot Pilates, Recover in Yin/Breathwork and lift your mood in Cycle.
At Therapy we have it all under one roof so you can start building something that’ll back you for the long run.