Everyone keeps saying I should lift?

[chowmeinz]

Any advice? Peri menopausal, almost 50, recently lost 6 stone on Mounjaro with a few stone left to go. I’m just at the stage now where I feel able to do something a bit more physical than walking and I keep reading how important weights are. Is this true?

My diet is really good, I don't take protein shakes etc or use supplements though I just get it all from food.

Absolutely! The thought terrified me so I do them at home! I bought weights and resistance bands and use an app called Fiton. Your muscles are your biggest fried, metabolically! It’s not just about burning calories.

Yes it’s very, very important. Especially when you’re in a calorie deficit.

I’d recommend booking a few PT sessions to give you an idea of what to do. You might be able to find a small local gym that does group PT, which is 4-5 people with 1 PT, works out cheaper but you still get help with form, etc

strength training has changed my life! I can’t life really heavy weights but I was in so much pain with sciatica and restless legs. I honestly can’t tell you how much better I feel. It’s really important for our bones as we get to this stage of life too. I would 100% recommend.

@hby9628 could you please briefly outline what sort of training session/ weights you do?

Interested as I have 2 x 3 kgs hand bells and not sure what I should be doing

I have found weights a surprisingly enjoyable fitness option. My favourite was when I had a friend who I went to the gym with - we chatted while we lifted so one would lift the other would be on their break. So we made really efficient use of the machines. It's still pretty good if I take a podcast or something, certainly vastly better than running.

I was really worried about it to begin with but I started with the machines in the gym where I felt like it would be hard to do myself too much of an injury. Added in weighted squats with kettlebells. Added in some bits with dumbbells. 5 years later and I've dared add in weighted squats and deadlifts using the bar. I'm not very regular at going but I'm substantially stronger than I was when I started lifting weights.

I find it really helpful for every day life - just from the point of view that if I need to shift a wardrobe or hefty a bag of compost about or anything it's all a lot easier and a much lower risk of injury.

Yes!!! I started lifting when I’d just turned 50 & was in early peri. It’s brilliant for strength, muscle, bone density & general confidence.

I was lucky enough to find a woman PT about my age at my local gym & she got me started.

It’s very, very worth it.

Strength training has been transformative for me too. I’ve done it alongside my diet and my chronic knee pain has gone and I feel and look so much better. I’ve lost more than 3 stone now and a big factor in that is the gym.

I’m currently focusing on improving flexibility along with strength and it’s an ongoing journey but I’ve come a long way from my starting point.

I enjoy it so much and working out keeps me eating good healthy choices as well.

I find it really helpful for every day life - just from the point of view that if I need to shift a wardrobe or hefty a bag of compost about or anything it's all a lot easier and a much lower risk of injury.

Yes! When I took my cat to the vet’s last month, I realised that her carrier felt a lot lighter than it used to. And as you say, bags of compost!

I don't have to bump my shopping trolley over the bricky carpark and back. I can now stick my week's shop into two IKEA bags over my shoulders, and carry them from the trolley park.

Muscle mass is important for metabolic health, maintaining healthy weights and staying mobile into older age.

People who yo-yo diet or loose a significant amount of weight loose muscle mass along with fat mass, especially if the diet didn't have enough protein and they didn't exercise to help sustain their previous muscle mass. This reduces metabolism and increases the odds of regaining fat mass.

Women have often been discouraged from gaining muscle mass because its higher density makes higher numbers on the scales but it's lean, looks good and helps manage weight and health long term.

Plus it feels really epic to squat lift with big plates

Weights are also great exercise for women who haven't liked the usual team, choreographed, cardio exercises that were traditionally pitched at females.

Everyone should lift weights IMO.

I teach two different types of weights class and they are full of women aged 40-80.

Lifting weights has so many benefits- obviously it increases strength which is very useful in day to day life- it’s incredibly gratifying when a delivery man delivers a heavy box and goes to carry it in your house but you say you’ll take it and he says ‘it’s heavy, are you sure you can manage?’ and you easily take the box 😂. It can improve bone density because resistance work places mechanical stress on bones, which triggers bone-forming cells to become active- for this reason alone it is particularly important for peri/menopausal women. It also aids fat loss because muscle is calorie hungry, and a good weight session speeds up the metabolism for 24 hours or so after the workout.

I have observed year after year in the women I coach, that a great many women who want to lose weight become less and less interested in the number on the scale as their bodies get stronger. When you grow muscle and lose fat, your body shape changes and most women really love the aesthetic. They look and feel stronger and fitter, so they don’t really care what they weigh anymore. Many women also find huge mental health benefits from this type of exercise- it improves self-esteem and makes women feel empowered.

So yeah. Do it!

Many women also find huge mental health benefits from this type of exercise- it improves self-esteem and makes women feel empowered.

Yes - I deadlifted 30kg for the first time last week & was smiling all day!

I’ve found weightlifting sessions & yoga classes are a really good combination for maintaining strength & flexibility.

Who is "everyone" telling you this, OP?
Is it personal advice to you or stuff you read after you put search phrases into Google like "what exercise should I do" ?
I only ever encounter such advice (love of lifting, lifting endorsements) on MN. Nowhere else in my life.

I get lots of exercise and I don't ask for exercise advice so maybe that's why I never get told such things.

Well I’m asking because I want advice. I’m not sure what’s wrong with either reading up and thinking ‘oh maybe I should consider this’ or thinking ‘I wonder what mumsnet think?’ If you haven’t got any advice to offer be it for or against weights I don’t really k ow why you posted on my thread

I of course take everything I read about cautiously and gather as much information as I can before making any decisions. I have read some absolute shite on here over the years but I have also read some really great bits of advice. I consider myself capable of working out the difference.

Yes if you care about your bones. It’s fun too seeing how much stronger you get over time

I started because of all the advice on MN. But then when I saw my GP about something else, she agreed enthusiastically that weightlifting was exactly what I ought to be doing.

so... the "everyone" that says to do this is in fact lots of websites that are copying each other and also their advice is generic not specific to OP?

A plagiaristic echo chambre, then.

Do as you please, I just wondered what the "everyone" meant. A load of strangers with opinions they publish digitally plus a large number of re-distributors, I guess.

Yes, probably. And also lots of people who do actually lift weights and have seen and felt the difference it has made to their body and want to spread the news 🤷🏼‍♀️ Some of us get a bit evangelical about it which is probably annoying, I admit, but it’s difficult not to enthuse about it when you know how beneficial it is.

A woman in my Strength Development class who I think is probably in her mid 60s, told me last week that she is in pain all the time and is being investigated for neuropathy. She says that her pain is 75% improved now that she regularly lifts weights and her GP is very pleased that she’s doing it.

But of course everyone is still free to make up their own mind. It makes no difference to me whether other people lift weights or not. But those who are interested in it can certainly ask questions and hear from others who have some experience to share.

I mean, I manage to never go running despite knowing that it has many health benefits- both physical and mental; and knowing dozens of people who love it, and have changed their lives through it.

But it’s not for me, so I don’t do it.

Yes, probably. And also lots of people who do actually lift weights and have seen and felt the difference it has made to their body and want to spread the news 🤷🏼‍♀️ Some of us get a bit evangelical about it which is probably annoying, I admit, but it’s difficult not to enthuse about it when you know how beneficial it is.

My ‘everyone’ was MNers like you & maybe you, @Waitingfordoggo.

Sally Gunnell the ex-Olympian who’s also in her 50s has done good simple intros for lifting weights & why it’s helpful to be stronger on her social media channel so you can live your life easier as you age. I too lost 3st last year and in my 50s. I started with a 10min Caroline Givan YouTube workout & 3kg weights I’m now doing 20-30mins with two 7.5kg dumbbells. I could barely do one full push up but can now do 12 full ones in 40secs. Set goals appropriate to you and it’s lovely to see progress. Good luck.

Yes, strength in aging people is important- not just in terms of maintaining bone density, but also just the mechanics of mobility when you’re old- being able to get up and down easily from a chair, bed, the loo or the floor! The longer you can hang on to that kind of strength, the more independent you can remain in older age. I do some ‘Home Help’ work with older people. My two male clients have those special loo seats which are higher up, because they can’t squat down far enough to sit on an ordinary loo. My female client (who is the oldest of the three by nearly ten years and who had a knee replacement about three months ago!) has a normal loo. She has kept herself fit all her life and has obviously retained some significant leg strength.

I hate gyms, cannot afford a pt and have very little enthusiasm for anything remotely related to exercise. Instead I have an 8kg kettlebell which I use at home. As well as walking a lot as I don’t have a car and live in London, it seems to keep me in shape and I even have a wee bit of muscle definition.

Weights are so important. In any weight loss, muscle is lost alongside fat, and if you don’t rebuilt you are potentially storing up problems - both metabolic (easier to gain the weight back) and also ongoing issues with sarcopenia.
Listen to Stacey Sims on this. You need to lift heavy (ie so heavy that when you can only manage 5-8 reps) but obviously as a beginner you need help or you’ll get injured.

I’m 50, i can bench press 55kg, deadlift 90kg, shoulder press 30kg and squat 80kg. I say this as whilst 2/3kg dumbells at home will get you started if you want to improve you will need bigger weights.

It's much better to be in an era when "everyone says to lift weights" than previous eras when "everyone" said "running is bad for your knees" and "weights will make you bulky" aka not thin, and risking being "not feminine"

After seeing DM spending the last 20+ years with osteoarthritis ruining her lifestyle (like her mother before her) anything that stands a chance of me getting further through 65-90 without chronic pain and broken bones is worth a try!

I want to be falling over doing fun stuff in my 60s and picking myself up laughing, not "having falls" and ending up in a cast for 6 weeks... actually, past 58. Her first broken limb was at 58, not even 60s.

You didn’t need to know who ‘everyone’ is though as you weren’t joining the discussion, other than to tell me you don’t ask so don’t get advice. Helpful to precisely no one but obviously made you feel good or clever or something, sadly it didn’t come across into the thread for you.