3 Short Strength Training Session Strategies for Women in Menopause

Want to do a short strength training session but not compromise on your results? Coming right up! 

These tips are not something I would do every session. But something effective for those infrequent sessions when you feel you just don’t have the time but your muscles (or body composition) is crying out for the workout. 

In a follow up episode I’ll share how I organize workouts to get an efficient and effective volume of work done with both less mental stress and less time. 

Consistency is the key to better fitness. It is a challenge for women in midlife so some of the options you’ll find here are focused on time saving ways to make a workout effective without a huge investment in time.

That said, a certain amount of volume is really key for older women to get the stimulus that muscle needs for the Muscle Protein Synthesis that boosts muscle strength and mass. 

1. Tempo Training
2. Myo Reps or Cluster Sets 
3. Monster Sets 

 

Short Strength Training Session #1: Tempo Training

Tempo Training changes the traditional 2-3 second lift and 4-second lower  (an average of 6 seconds per repetition) by adding up to 4 unique variations: 

• The Lift
• The Pause at end range
• The Lower
• The Pause at the end of the lift, but the weight is still kept at tension

By changing these any number of ways the Time Under Tension (TUT) during the exercise changes significantly. For instance, lengthening the time in the eccentric contraction can result in a significant increase in difficulty. 

Who Benefits:

• Very effective for those who are limited in ability to go heavy but want to reach muscular fatigue or within 2 Reps in Reserve (RIR). 
• Great way to slow down and check whether you’ve just gotten in a hurry to do reps and aren’t even really optimizing muscle but instead using momentum. 

 

More Effective Short Strength Training Sessions for Women in Midlife

Short Strength Training Session #2: Myo Reps

Myo Reps, or Cluster Reps, is essentially just one large set broken into micro sets.

IDEAfit, a magazine for fitness professionals, highlighted how volume is important to women’s results especially as we age. However, one major issue is time constraints, or adding more days. 

Recently, I heard podcast episodes by 20s-30s with different hormones than midlife women. They often suggest 3-4 times split routine training.

Two issues: 

1. Lack Of Recovery Time. It’s not just your muscles that need rest. We need our endocrine system (adrenals, cortisol, all of it) to recover.
2. Lack Of Stimulus. 15-minute workouts are not enough for bone and muscle stimulus for post-menopause. These “workout snacks” won’t deliver the body composition or bone benefit.

If you’re new to weights or starting out, starting somewhere is better than nothing. But if your hope is to improve longevity with 15-minute workouts, I think it’s simply wrong information. 

Short Strength Training Session #3: Monster Sets

Monster Sets, or Drop Sets, is an efficient way to do all sets in one big set. Similar to Myo Reps but longer, fuller sets before reducing weight.

How It Works:

• Warm up.
• Start with your heaviest weight and aim for 15 reps to fatigue.
• Immediately reduce the weight and do another 15 reps.
• Repeat this process for at least 4 sets of 15 reps.

If you’ve reached fatigue in 15 repetitions, by the end of 4 consecutive sets, you should feel very accomplished. 

 

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