The Ideal Workout Split for Women over 40 (Bookmark & Share This!)

Woman running up stadium stairs

Let's get right to it -- I'll start with the ideal training/workout split for women in perimenopause and post-menopause, and then I'll explain the science behind it and what the terms mean!

The Ideal Training Split for Women Over 40:

Day 1: Strength Training (Lower body)

Day 2: High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)/Sprint Interval Training (SIT) + Core (midsection) exercise

Day 3: Strength Training (Upper body)

Day 4: HIIT/SIT + Core exercise

Day 5: Total body Hypertrophy (muscle-building) exercise

Day 6: Low-Intensity/Steady-State (LISS) and/or deep stretching (yoga or other)

Day 7: Rest; nothing more intense than LISS and/or stretching

Ladies, this workout split address multiple needs that most of you have during peri- and post-menopause. The split ensures you: build lean muscle, reduce the size of your midsection, improve your flexibility/mobility, improve your bone mineral density (BMD), lose excess body fat, and improve your overall mood, your heart health and your cardiovascular capacity. Each one of those things leads to improved quality of life and a body that you can actually enjoy into old age.

Strength Training: This one is hugely important for strengthening your bones and contributes to new, functional muscle. Women in your stage are at increased risk of sarcopenia, osteopenia and osteoporosis; in other words, there's a higher likelihood that you will gradually lose useful muscle and lose bone mineral density every single year after 40. Many of you (unfortunately) probably know a woman in this stage who has fractured a hip or broken her wrist. Those are indicators of poor BMD, and among the nearly 300,000 women who wind up hospitalized from those fractures, some of them never get to go back home.

For a conventional strength training program, you want to do heavy compound lifts like squats and deadlifts to improve the BMD in your hips and spine, and do lifts like barbell rows and bench presses to improve the BMD in your arms and shoulders. After doing a warmup set, aim for 4 challenging repetitions for 4 sets, resting for at least 90 seconds between the sets. Select a slightly heavier weight for the same exercise each time you do your strength training. Do not allow fear to keep you lifting the same weight 3 weeks in a row. Challenge yourself-- that's when your bones and muscles grow.

HIIT/SIT training + Core: Start with 4 minutes of true Tabata training. The standard protocol is 20 seconds of sprint work at your top speed, like literal sprinting, cycling, or high knees in-place, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 8 rounds. A more reasonable protocol for beginners and intermediates is 15 seconds of work followed by 45 seconds of rest. Start with 4 rounds, then progress to 8 rounds within 1 to 2 weeks. This improves your cardiovascular function and your VO2 max, a key marker for indicating your overall mortality. After completing your HIIT/SIT, cool down for 1 to 2 minutes, and begin 16 total minutes of core training. Russian twists, bicycle crunches, mountain climbers-- select core exercises that force you to rotate your midsection. Aim to do sets lasting 1 to 4 minutes, resting for 1 to 2 minutes between the sets, until you've completed 16 total minutes of core work. This is a little-known cheat code for targeting fat loss around your midsection. Researchers still don't fully understand the "why", or the mechanism behind why this works, but it's shown to be about 30% more effective at slimming your waistline than cardio alone.

Hypertrophy: This is resistance training to build lean new muscle and force your body to use more of her stored fat as fuel-- it's a win-win. The difference between doing hypertrophy training and strength training comes down to the number of repetitions per set and your intensity level. You should aim to be in the neighborhood of muscular failure at 12 repetitions per exercise, for 4 sets, within 1 to 2 minutes of rest between sets. The exercises themselves should target every major muscle group in your body (e.g., glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, triceps, shoulders). For example, you choose to do goblet squats to train your quadriceps and glutes. After completing 12 repetitions, it should feel like you could do no more than 4 additional repetitions. Be honest with yourself. If you know you probably could have done 5 or more repetitions of at that weight, you need to select a heavier weight for your next set. This will take some guesswork-- nobody ever selects the ideal weight on their first attempt, so don't let fear prevent you from picking up a heavier weight, even if it's a weight that you've never lifted before.

LISS/Stretching: As an active recovery day, aim to do 40 minutes of casual walking at a moderate pace without taking a break. Alternatively take a deep-stretch yoga class for 30-50 minutes or spend that same amount of time stretching your muscles on your own. Aim to stretch your muscle bellies in a static hold for at least 30 to 45 seconds (e.g., standing toe reach to stretch your hamstrings and glutes).

These are general guidelines. If you aren't familiar with any of these forms of training, please work with a fitness professional before venturing out on your own. This protocol also assumes that the trainee is getting 0.8 grams of protein per pound of her body weight every day.

Crush your goals and reclaim your bodies, ladies! - John

References:

1. Sex Differences in Association of Physical Activity With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality; Hongwei Ji MD ^{a ∗}, Martha Gulati MD, MS ^{b ∗}, Tzu Yu Huang MSc ^b, Alan C. Kwan MD ^b, David Ouyang MD ^b, Joseph E. Ebinger MD, MS ^b, Kaitlin Casaletto PhD ^c, Kerrie L. Moreau PhD ^{d e}, Hicham Skali MD, MSc ^f, Susan Cheng MD, MMSc, MPH ^b

2. Influence of exercise on mood in postmenopausal women; Carmen Villaverde Gutiérrez ¹, Gema Torres Luque, Gracia M Ábalos Medina, Maria J Argente del Castillo, Isabel M Guisado, Rafael Guisado Barrilao, Jesús Ramírez Rodrigo

3. The impact of physical activity and exercise interventions on symptoms for women experiencing menopause: overview of reviews; Annemarie Money ^1,2,✉, Aylish MacKenzie ^1,2, Gill Norman ⁴, Charlotte Eost-Telling ^1,2, Danielle Harris ^1,2, Jane McDermott ², Chris Todd ^1,2,3