The Anti-Mainstream Approach: Five Ways the Fitness Industry Fails Women in Mid-Life
Not on My Watch
As a fitness industry veteran, these five approaches to training women or women in mid-life are doing a disservice to women.
Treating Menopause as fragility.
Bodies in post-menopause “gain the same strength, build the same muscle mass, and lose the same fat from resistance training as premenopausal women.” PMID: 41963141
Narratives that take control away from women (cortisol, glucose, weight gain, etc.).
It’s not about the inputs (cortisol or glucose); it’s about how a body is conditioned to tolerate them. Boring
No significant weight gain is attributed to menopause transition. PMID: 22978257.
Changes in body composition are due to decreased physical activity, inadequate protein intake, and reduced muscle mass. PMID ______
Go Hard culture, optimization strategies, moralizing food, chronic over-correcting/coaching.
AKA Instagram.
Making exercise & nutrition complex for very little benefit in exchange.
AKA our cultural upbringing under capitalistic values.
Focusing on symptoms instead of capacity/over-pathologizing pain.
Fear of hurting oneself should never keep someone stuck.
What’s Actually Happening
Physically:
Most of us are under-fueled and don’t have enough organic opportunities to move.
In women who are currently training, their bodies are likely under-recovered, over-volumed and under-intensitied.
Tight muscles are asking for movement & load, not more stretching.
You don't need motivation first; you need real + grounded experiences of competence & progress.
Culturally:
Following the approach & standards that "works" for the majority of people (which may not longer work in peri-menopause and beyond).
There is a mismatch for many women who now understand themselves & their needs, and can't 'go along with' or be complicit in agreeing to the globally-accepted approach.
They know they can take up space and belong in a weight room; they were just never invited to learn the code/methods.
