Strength Training Is Vital For Heart Health After Menopause

When it comes to exercise, we often divide our workouts into neat little categories. We lift weights to protect our muscles and bones, and we do cardio for our hearts. But recent science shows that this division is far too simple.

A major review of 60 studies found that resistance training does much more than build muscle. It actually lowers resting heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and improves overall heart health in postmenopausal women.

This is a game-changer. During perimenopause and menopause, estrogen drops, which often leads to rising blood pressure and a decline in bone density and muscle mass. Strength training tackles all of these issues at once.

What the Research Shows

The studies reviewed looked at women between the ages of 52 and 78 who lifted weights two to three times a week for 8 to 24 weeks. The workouts were traditional training, as with all studies (using free weights or machines for two to three sets of 8 to 15 repetitions, taking about 40 to 60 minutes per session). Note: every X Gym workout is equivalent to about 3 hours of traditional training, so it’s easy to see the increased results beyond what was reported in this study!

Compared to women who didn’t exercise, the women who did experienced:

  • Lower resting heart rates (dropping by about 2 beats per minute on average, with some seeing drops up to 10 beats).

  • Lower systolic blood pressure (dropping by about 6 mmHg on average).

  • Lower diastolic blood pressure (dropping by about 2 mmHg).

  • Better overall blood vessel function, reduced arterial stiffness, and improved heart-rate variability.

Do Women Need to Train Differently After Menopause?

The short answer is no. While menopause changes your physiological environment—making bone loss faster and recovery trickier—it does not change the fundamental rules of building muscle.

Postmenopausal muscle remains extremely responsive to training. Women experience the exact same proportional increases in strength and muscle size as younger women and even men following the same programs. The core principles remain the same: progressive overload, adequate effort, weekly volume, and proper recovery.

How to Combine Lifting and Cardio

You do not have to choose between muscle and cardio, and doing cardio will not cancel out your hard work in the weight room. However, managing fatigue is key.

  • Sequence matters: If you are doing cardio and lifting on the same day, do strength training first. Note: This is easy at X Gym, with our class schedule for group training, whether or not someone is a group member or a one-on-one member, because all our one-on-one members get free access to group training classes.

  • Space out HIIT: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) creates a lot of systemic fatigue. Try to do hard intervals on different days than your heavy leg workouts, or at least separate them by several hours. Note: because of the nature of our 21-minute methodology, the systemic fatigue is drastically reduced, and recovery is much faster.

  • Watch your recovery: If your sleep, joints, or overall soreness start to suffer, scale back your volume so you can keep progressing. Note: this is much less of an issue with X Gym workouts because of our controlled motion and light weights necessary for proper time under tension.

Protein Strategies for Postmenopausal Women

Menopause doesn’t suddenly create a brand-new daily protein requirement, but aging does bring on “anabolic resistance,” meaning your muscles don’t respond to protein as efficiently as they used to.

  • The Sweet Spot: Aim for 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

  • When to lean higher: If you are actively trying to lose weight or maximize muscle growth, aim for the upper end of that range (around 1.5 to 1.6 g/kg) to protect your lean mass.

The Power of Creatine

Once your protein intake is locked in, creatine monohydrate is the most effective supplement you can add. It helps regenerate cellular energy quickly during forceful muscle contractions, allowing you to get more out of your workouts.

  • The Protocol: Take 5 grams of creatine monohydrate every day. You don’t need a loading phase, special timing, or expensive formulas.

  • The Results: Research shows that combining daily creatine with resistance training yields an average additional gain of nearly a pound of lean mass and about 17 pounds of lower-body strength compared to lifting alone.

  • Note on the Scale: Any initial weight gain on the scale is simply water being pulled safely inside your muscle cells, not body fat. Note: This is why we have a $12,000 scale: we can use bioelectrical impedance to segment the body into distinct areas that provide specific, accurate muscle and fat measurements for each, including intracellular and extracellular body water ratios.

The Bottom Line

Cardiovascular fitness is important, but running and cycling alone aren’t enough to protect your strength, power, and bone density as you age. Adding resistance training two to three times a week is even more important for a stronger heart, stronger bones, and a resilient, healthy metabolism.

References

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