Exercise for women with osteoporosis: what is safe
Which exercise is safe with osteoporosis or osteopenia after menopause: strength, weight-bearing and balance work, the moves to adapt, and when to see a physio first.
For women aged 35 to 65 and beyond
Get stronger through menopause
Plain guides to strength training, muscle, bone and weight in perimenopause and menopause, each fact linked to the NHS or NIH page it comes from.
- 2 daysof strength work a week, NHS
- 150 minof moderate activity a week, NHS
- 7 to 9years of symptoms (NHS)
- 3 typesof exercise for bone health (NIH)
Find the guide for where you are
Start with the subject you are wondering about. Each topic page gathers its guides, the questions readers ask and the official sources behind them.
Latest articles
Every article, newest first
Home workout for women over 50: no equipment
A full-body bodyweight session for women over 50, built from the NHS strength and balance routines, with how often to do it and how to make it harder without weights.
Does menopause cause weight gain? Where muscle fits in
Menopause speeds up fat gain and muscle loss more than it raises the number on the scale. What a long-term NIH study found, how long it lasts, and why strength matters.
How to prevent menopause weight gain with strength work
Lift on two or three days a week, walk for 150 minutes, and eat regular meals with protein. What the trials show about stopping menopause weight gain, and how to start.
Protein after menopause: how much for muscle
How much protein women need after menopause to keep muscle, what the research behind 0.8 and 1.0 to 1.2 g per kg says, and how to spread it across meals and workouts.
Strength training during menopause: how to start
How often to lift, which muscles to work and a first-month plan you can follow at home, based on NHS and NIH guidance for women in perimenopause and menopause.
Why strength, why now
What changes in your forties
Somewhere in your forties your jeans fit differently, your knees complain on the stairs, and the advice you find online contradicts itself. The NHS lists weight gain around the stomach, muscle aches and joint pains, and weakening bones among the common changes of perimenopause and menopause (NHS).
Bone loss is the quiet one. The US National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases says osteoporosis often starts a year or two before menopause and is the major cause of fractures in postmenopausal women, and it recommends weight-bearing, resistance and balance exercise to protect bone (NIAMS).
What you will find here
Routines you can start this week
Our guides turn that guidance into something you can do: a first month of strength sessions at home, how to know when a weight is heavy enough, how to fit training around poor sleep, and what to eat so you have the energy to lift.
We write for beginners and for women coming back after years away, and we say when the evidence is thin. Start with our beginner's guide to strength training, or read our guides on muscle, bone and balance if bone density is what brought you here.
How we write about your health
We write from sources a reader can check (NHS, NIH, CDC, ACOG, The Menopause Society, NICE and peer-reviewed studies), link each health fact to the page we read it on, give no treatment advice, and correct what we get wrong.
Sources in the sentence
Each health fact links to the NHS, NIH, CDC or medical society page, or the study, where we found it.
No treatment advice
We do not advise on hormone therapy, medicines, doses or supplements. Talk those through with your doctor.
Corrections
Found an error? Our editorial policy explains how we fix pages, and you can write to us.