If you've noticed that your workouts feel different in your 40s than they did in your 20s or 30s, you're not imagining it. Maybe you're recovering more slowly, struggling to maintain muscle, noticing changes in body composition, or feeling like the workouts that once worked aren't producing the same results.
Perimenopause is a time of hormonal chaos, and it can influence sleep, recovery, body composition, and how you feel during exercise. This is not the time to exercise less. It's the time to train more intentionally.
Why Exercise Matters More During Perimenopause
As estrogen levels fluctuate and eventually decline, women experience changes that can affect muscle, bone, and metabolic health. Aging itself also contributes to changes in muscle mass and recovery.
Exercise becomes particularly important during this stage because it helps support:
Muscle preservation: Strength training helps maintain muscle mass and strength as we age.
Bone health: Resistance and weight-bearing exercise support bone health.
Metabolic health: Muscle plays an important role in glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity.
Cardiovascular health: Aerobic exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness and supports heart health.
Body composition: Maintaining muscle while managing fat mass becomes increasingly important.
Mental health: Exercise can improve mood, reduce stress, and support better sleep.
1. Make Strength Training a Priority
If there is one exercise habit I would encourage women to prioritize during perimenopause, it is strength training.
Resistance training helps preserve muscle, improve functional strength, support bone health, and maintain metabolic function.
Rather than focusing exclusively on burning calories, shift your attention toward building and maintaining strength.
Aim for two to three strength-training sessions per week, incorporating movements that challenge major muscle groups.
Examples include:
Squats or leg presses
Deadlifts or hip hinges
Rows and pulling movements
Chest presses or push-ups
Lunges and step-ups
Core stability exercises
The goal is progressive overload: gradually increasing resistance, repetitions, or training difficulty as your strength improves.
Don't Forget About Power
Strength is important, but power matters, too. As we age, we can lose the ability to generate force quickly, which affects everything from climbing stairs to catching ourselves when we stumble.
When appropriate for your fitness level and joint health, incorporate exercises that develop power, such as:
Box jumps
Medicine ball throws
Kettlebell swings
Sprints
Jump squats
2. Don't Abandon Cardio
Strength training is essential, but cardiovascular fitness deserves equal attention. Aerobic exercise supports heart health, endurance, metabolic function, and overall longevity. Walking, cycling, swimming, running, hiking, rowing, and other aerobic activities can all contribute to cardiovascular fitness.
A balanced approach includes:
Regular moderate-intensity aerobic exercise
Occasional higher-intensity intervals
Consistent movement throughout the day (Getting your steps in)
3. Rethink Recovery
Recovery may feel different during perimenopause, particularly when sleep is disrupted or symptoms such as night sweats and fatigue become more frequent. Instead of assuming you need to push harder every day, pay attention to how your body responds.
Consider:
Prioritizing consistent sleep
Allowing recovery between demanding strength sessions
Adjusting training intensity during periods of poor sleep
Maintaining adequate protein and overall nutrition
Avoiding excessive training volume without sufficient recovery
Recovery is part of the training process.
4. Stop Chasing the Same Body You Had at 25
One of the most frustrating experiences for women during midlife is feeling that their bodies no longer respond the way they used to. Changes in body composition can occur during the menopausal transition, including a tendency toward increased abdominal fat and reduced lean mass.
The answer isn't necessarily more cardio, more restrictive dieting, or exercising harder.
Instead, focus on:
Building and maintaining muscle
Eating adequate protein
Supporting metabolic health
Supporting healthy blood sugar, weight, and metabolism
Prioritizing sleep
Developing sustainable exercise habits
The goal is to become stronger, healthier, and more capable.
5. Fuel Your Muscles
Strength training provides the stimulus for muscle growth, but your body needs adequate nutrition to support that process. Protein becomes particularly important as we age because maintaining muscle mass requires consistent resistance training and sufficient protein intake.
Focus on:
Including protein with each meal.
Prioritizing high-quality protein sources.
Distributing protein intake throughout the day.
Avoiding overly restrictive diets that compromise muscle maintenance.
6. Track Progress Differently
Women often become discouraged because they measure progress exclusively by weight or clothing size. But those numbers don't tell the whole story.
Consider tracking:
Strength improvements
Resting heart rate
Cardiovascular endurance (You can run farther without stopping, you can climb the stairs without being winded)
VO2 max
Waist circumference and body composition trends
Energy, sleep, and recovery
Functional improvements in everyday activities
The scale is only one measure of health. It doesn't tell you how strong you are, how efficiently your heart works, or how well you are aging.
7. Train for the Next 30 Years
Perimenopause is not the end of your athletic potential. It is an opportunity to build the foundation for the decades ahead. Think about the woman you want to be at 60, 70, or 80 years old. Do you want to hike mountains, travel comfortably, lift your own luggage, maintain independence, and participate in the activities you love?
The strength, cardiovascular fitness, and movement habits you develop today can help support those goals.
You do not need to stop training during perimenopause. You simply need to train differently. Prioritize strength, maintain cardiovascular fitness, support recovery, and focus on long-term health rather than chasing short-term changes on the scale. Your body is changing, but your ability to build strength, improve fitness, and support your health is not over.