LADIES! MUSCLE MASS IS YOUR LIFEJACKET

THE WOMEN’S HEALTH CONVERSATION WE ARE NOT HAVING

Every woman will go through this, and yet no one is talking about it enough.

The other day, I met a lady who told me her friendship group often ends up talking about menopause over lunch. Not because they planned it. Because so many of them are going through it, feeling confused by it, and wondering why there is still so little practical support.

The sleep. The body changes. The brain fog. The anxiety. The confidence dips. The weight gain. The feeling that your body is suddenly playing by a different set of rules.

And underneath all of it is the same question: Why did nobody tell us this sooner?

Women should not be reaching their 50s or 60s before they are properly educated on muscle loss, bone density, menopause, osteoporosis, strength training, recovery, and what they can actually do to support their body.

This conversation needs to start earlier.

YOU MIGHT START TRAING FOR YOUR AESTHETICS. YOU CONTINUE BECAUSE IT CHANGES YOUR LIFE.

And it is so true. Most people walk into a gym at first because they want to change their physical appearance.

There is nothing wrong with that! But the longer you train, the more you realise the aesthetic part is only a fraction of it.

What keeps you coming back is the way strength training changes your life.

You carry yourself differently. You have more energy. You feel more capable. You handle stress better. You sleep better. You feel more confident. You stop seeing your body as something to fight and start seeing it as something that can support you.

That is the shift.

And for women, that shift really matters.

For years, women have been conditioned to train like smaller men, while also being told to become smaller women. Burn more. Eat less. Shrink.

And it is not just training. It is dieting too.

Women have been sold every fad under the sun. Juice cleanses. Cabbage soup. No carbs. Low fat. Fasting windows. Tiny portions. Whatever the next “quick fix” happens to be.

I remember my mum trying the grapefruit diet, which is ridiculous when you think about it. But that is the point. Generations of women have been taught to restrict, shrink, and control their bodies.

Not fuel, strengthen, or support them.

Women are not small men. And women do not need training that makes them tired. They need training that makes them strong.

MUSCLE MASS IS YOUR LIFEJACKET

From around your mid-30s, muscle mass and strength can begin to decline gradually.

That does not mean you suddenly fall apart at 35. It means women need to think differently about training earlier than most of us are taught to.

Muscle is not just aesthetic. It is metabolically active tissue. It helps support your metabolism, joints, confidence, independence, and ability to keep doing the things you love.

This is why so many women say, “I feel like my body is slowing down,” or, “I have not changed what I am doing, but my body has changed.”

Often, it has. As hormones shift through perimenopause and menopause, oestrogen declines. Oestrogen is linked to insulin sensitivity - essentially, how well your body processes carbohydrates. As oestrogen drops, that sensitivity can decline too.

One of the most powerful ways to support insulin sensitivity is to build and maintain muscle mass.

That is why muscle really is your lifejacket. Not just because it helps you feel stronger, but because it gives your body more metabolically active tissue to work with as your hormonal profile changes.

When life asks more of your body - pregnancy, birth, parenting, stress, menopause, illness, injury, ageing - you want to have something to draw from.

Strength gives you options.

FROM BUMP TO BARBELL AND BACK AGAIN

Training through different female life stages matters.

We have seen women at The Clubhouse train before conceiving, continue appropriately through pregnancy, and return after giving birth with confidence, patience, and proper support.

Training never guarantees an easy birth or a simple recovery - every body, pregnancy, and birth is different. But there is something powerful about feeling physically prepared.

Strong legs. A strong core. Better breathing mechanics.

Pregnancy is physical. Birth is physical. Postnatal recovery is physical. Parenting is physical.

So no, strength training is not just about looking a certain way before or after a baby. It is about building a body that can support you through the process, then rebuilding with patience afterwards.

Not bouncing back. Rebuilding.

AFTER 35, THE CONVERSATION CHANGES

This is where we need more education.

From around 35 onwards, women should be thinking more deliberately about muscle mass, strength, power, recovery, and bone density.

Not because ageing is something to fear. Because preparation is powerful. You would not walk into an exam without knowing the topic. So why are so many women walking into later life without being taught what happens to their muscle, bones, hormones, and strength?

Even writing this, I had a bit of a realisation: I am now in this category too. I am 32 this year. I have trained since my early 20s, but even then, I do not think I truly understood the importance of it until recently. For years, training was just something I did for aesthetics. Now I see it differently. It is not just about feeling fit now. It is about building the body I want to have in 10, 20, 30 years' time.

That is the education gap. So many women are training, but they have not necessarily been told why strength matters beyond the way their body looks.

Bone density can begin to decline with age, and women have a much higher lifetime risk of osteoporosis than men. As women move through perimenopause and menopause, falling oestrogen levels can accelerate bone loss, increasing the risk of osteopenia, osteoporosis, fractures, falls, and loss of independence.

And this is where the domino effect becomes very real. A hip fracture is not just a broken bone. In older adults, research has shown that around one in four women die within 12 months of a hip fracture, with one national analysis reporting 12-month mortality of 26.4% in women after hip fracture. That is why strength, balance, muscle mass, and bone density matter so much. A fall can change everything.

Source: PubMed - Excess mortality following hip fracture

And yet, so many women are only told about bone density when there is already a problem. So they're already on the back foot.

I’ve never understood why we wait until women are in their 50s, 60s, or beyond before we properly explain this.

Why are women still being sold the idea that the goal is to be lighter, when one of the most important things they can do is become stronger?

MENOPAUSE IS NOT THE END OF STRENGTH

Menopause is a huge part of this conversation, and it is still not spoken about in a way that feels clear, practical, or useful.

Women are already talking about it privately. Over lunch. In WhatsApp groups. After school drop-off. In changing rooms. Sleep, energy, mood, body composition, anxiety, recovery, confidence - all suddenly feeling different.

The problem is not that women are not interested. The problem is that too many women feel unsupported.

Strength training will not “fix” menopause. It is not a cure-all, and it should never be sold that way.

But it can be one of the most powerful tools to support this phase of life. It helps preserve muscle, load bones, build confidence, create structure, and give women something practical to do when their body feels less predictable.

MOVEMENT IS GREAT. BUT IT IS NOT ALL STRENGTH TRAINING.

Pilates, spinning, tennis, running, and yoga all have value. But they are not the same as strength training.

As women age, the body needs the right stimulus to keep adapting. Cardio, yoga, and spin can support fitness, mobility, and mental health, but they do not create the same muscle-building signal as strength training.

When we talk about resistance, overload, and compound movement, what we really mean is this: your body needs to be challenged enough to respond.

Resistance is something your muscles work against - dumbbells, barbells, machines, cables, bodyweight, or bands. Sadly, a tennis racket or a spin bike just won’t cut it.

Overload means gradually asking your body to do a little more over time. More weight, more control, more range, more power. Not destroying yourself. Progressing with purpose.

Compound movements use more than one joint and muscle group at once. Squats, lunges, deadlifts. These are the movements that carry over into real life.

Women need periodised strength training, which simply means training that is planned in phases. You build, progress, recover, and adapt instead of doing the same thing every week forever.

That might include lifting heavy at the right times, jumps or impact-based exercises to support power and bone density, and higher-intensity intervals to create a stronger stimulus than steady cardio alone.

Bones respond to load. Muscles respond to resistance. The body adapts to what you ask of it.

Movement matters. But movement alone is not enough. Strength training is preparation for life.

THE SCALE IS NOT THE SCORECARD

For years, women have been taught to chase numbers.

A number on the scales. A dress size. A waist measurement. A version of their body from 10 or 20 years ago.

But trying to weigh what you weighed before two children, a demanding career, years of stress, and menopause is not always realistic. More importantly, it is not always the right goal.

Skinny does not automatically mean strong. Smaller does not automatically mean healthier. Lighter does not automatically mean better. A body can look small and still be frail.

As you get older, the number on the scales becomes far less interesting than what your body can do. Can you get up from the floor? Can you lift your kids? Can you move without pain?

That is the stuff that matters.

And if you are worried about getting bulky, remember this: building muscle is hard. Women are not going to accidentally wake up huge because they started lifting weights twice a week.

What is far more likely is that they become stronger, more confident, more capable, and more resilient.

BUILT FOR LIFE

At The Clubhouse, Built for Life means building a body that can support the life you actually want to live.

Not for a six-week shred, a number on the scales or the size of a dress.

But for pregnancy and recovery. For menopause and bone health. For energy, confidence, independence, and the ordinary moments that make up a life.

Muscle mass is your lifejacket. And strength training is how you build it.