What Changed When I Started Lifting Weights
Lisa Lyons via
By Cheryl Wischhover
I’m a classic cardio junkie. I started working out in the early ‘90s when I was just out of college and in my first job as a nurse. It was the heyday of the step aerobics craze, and I took classes at least four days a week. The day my local gym added its first spinning studio was a watershed moment, leading to my longest-running (and still favorite) cardio exercise obsession. I did every single trendy thing that came along: slide classes, high intensity interval training, SoulCycle, choreographed kickboxing. I ran a marathon.
Now I’m 51, and after the emotional and physical tumult of seven years of perimenopausal symptoms, my body is settling into its next phase. And things are different, not in a good way. There are aches and pains and weight gain around my midsection. But as menopause has finally closed in on me, I’ve been feeling one new physical sensation that makes me truly scared: weakness.
I could no longer lug the 25-pound box of cat litter from the pet store on my corner or walk the 10 blocks home from Trader Joe’s with two packed grocery bags on my arms without having to put them down a few times. I could feel my lower back straining to lift things. It even felt like more of an effort to lift my legs up the stairs. There was unsteadiness and instability. I kept stressing my knees, and they ached when I went to bed and slowed me down while hiking.
I haven’t ignored weights in my fitness life. I’ve done plenty of so-called sculpt classes where you’re doing high reps with small to medium weights, and I’ve hired personal trainers occasionally. I know how to squat and deadlift properly. But I’ve never done a consistent strength-training program, the kind where you lift some heavy weights and wait a few minutes and lift some more and there’s not a constant river of sweat pouring into your bra while your heart races.
We lose almost 1% of our muscle mass per year after the age of 50, says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, the director of Mayo Clinic Women’s Health and of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). (Before that, you lose about 3 to 5% per decade starting at age 30, according to the Harvard Medical School.) Muscle helps to keep your metabolism stoked and it supports the bones and joints that you’ve been beating up for decades.
“Don't wait until you start to notice the changes. Make sure you maintain your fitness throughout your 30s and 40s,” says Dr. Faubion. In other words, don’t be me.
I knew I needed to do more strength training. I had no idea how to lift weights effectively, to actually get stronger. Then I read Casey Johnston’s (aka the Swole Woman) incredible essay on The Cut in February about her journey from cardio and dieting to strength training. It was exactly the push I needed. I bought her Liftoff: Couch to Barbell program e-book ($20) to use as a starting template and headed to the gym in the basement of my building in NYC, which is nicely stocked with the basics.
“Lifting those little three pound dumbbells is not going to do it. You actually have to lift heavier weight, heavier loads,” says Keli Roberts, 60, who taught group fitness classes in LA in the ‘90s and counted Cher as one of her personal training clients. She still teaches and trains and is a competitive cyclist.
If you’re absolutely new to weights, Roberts says to start low and build some muscle endurance first, doing sets of 12 to 15 reps. Then to start gaining strength, “you build gradually by increasing the load.” So do 6 reps with a weight that feels hard. Rest and then repeat that twice more. The next time you lift, try to do 8, then 10. When that seems easier, increase the weight and start at 6 again. That’s the gist, but there are a million plans and pathways depending on your goals. (Diet is a conversation for a whole other article, but eating enough protein and calories when you start a strength program is important.)
You’ll need access to dumbbells and maybe barbells if you really want to gain strength. Bands, both the shorter and longer ones (I have these and these) can also act as challenging resistance tools. They’re easy to store at home. If you’re an absolute beginner, I’d recommend getting a trainer for a few sessions to show you the basics. You can really hurt your back and knees if you don’t lift properly. A few tweaks makes all the difference.
After working on my form and getting used to weights again, doing the same squats, bench presses, and deadlifts in Johnston’s program got a bit boring. So I poked around on Reddit for program recommendations and decided to try Meg Gallgher’s (a trainer with a big YouTube and IG following) Stronger by the Day program ($9.99/month). It includes an app to track everything, and links to GIFs and videos that demonstrate the movements. You can also choose a gym or home version, depending on the equipment and access you have. She just launched a free 8-week program for beginners, Before the Barbell.
The Nike Training Club app is also a great free resource. It has many levels of strength workouts, some that stream like regular fitness classes and some that list the exercises and let you do them at your own pace with your own music in the background, with videos to link to for demos. You can choose bodyweight, basic equipment, or full gym workouts.
In two months of consistent and organized weight training, my knees have stopped aching so much, I feel stronger, I’m walking farther and faster, my core feels less mushy, and my hip has stopped making a weird annoying clicking sound. I still spin, but not as frequently — now it’s mostly for the endorphins. I love to hike and bike, and these activities have been crucial to my mental health. They feel easier since I’ve been lifting.
I didn’t want to focus on weight gain here, but after a lifetime of body image issues, I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say I don’t care about how my body has changed in perimenopause. But what I can say honestly is that this is the first time in my life that I’m exercising more for function rather than chasing thinness. And that alone makes me feel stronger.