Resistance training alters body composition in middle-aged women depending on menopause
20-week controlled trial
Main caveat: n=41 (31 completed), 10-week intervention — short-term; long-term hypertrophy in postmenopausal women at high volume was not tested
Participants & Protocol
n=41 healthy women (52.0±3.6 years); 31 completed; no injuries during the intervention
10-week control phase (no RT) → 10-week free-weight RT (2×/week, 6-8 sets/muscle/week)
Randomization: low (50% 1-RM) or moderate (75% 1-RM) intensity; pre- vs post-menopause split by hormonal profile
Measures: FFM, muscle mass, fat mass, muscle thickness (VL, RF, TB), grip strength, 1-RM squat and bench press; linear mixed model
Protocol
20-week controlled trial: forty-one healthy women (52.0 ± 3.6 years); a 10-week control phase without resistance training (T0-T1) followed by a 10-week intervention phase (T1-T2) (from the abstract).
Intervention: free-weight resistance training twice a week, 6-8 sets of each muscle per week; random assignment to low-intensity (50% 1-RM) or moderate-intensity (75% 1-RM); division into pre- and post-menopausal by hormone profile.
Measures before and after each phase: fat-free mass, muscle mass, fat mass, muscle thickness (vastus lateralis, rectus femoris, triceps brachii), grip strength, 1-RM squat and bench press; linear mixed model with time and group as fixed and individual as random effects.
Key Results
1-RM squat and bench press increased significantly in ALL groups — no interaction effect for strength (menopause does not impede strength gains)
Hypertrophy (FFM, muscle mass, RF thickness) occurred ONLY in premenopausal women; VL showed a trend
Postmenopausal women showed NO hypertrophy — regardless of RT intensity (both 50% and 75% 1-RM)
Authors' conclusion: free-weight RT is safe and effective for 1-RM in middle-aged women; for hypertrophy/body-composition change in postmenopausal women, larger volumes (>6-8 sets/muscle/week) are likely required
Practical Application
In 41 women aged 52±4 (31 completing), 10 weeks of free-weight training twice a week at 6-8 sets per muscle raised 1-RM squat and bench press in every group, but fat-free mass, muscle mass and rectus femoris thickness grew only in premenopausal women — postmenopausal women gained no muscle at either 50% or 75% 1-RM. Strength grows normally after menopause; muscle mass at this volume did not.
Masters woman after menopause: to gain/preserve muscle mass, the authors' inference is more VOLUME (>6-8 sets/muscle/week; REF-513 carries the volume dose-response); intensity between 50 and 75% 1-RM made no difference here
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: combine with adequate protein (REF-348 PROT-AGE) and an osteogenic stimulus for bone (REF-522)
Inference, not tested here: estrogen deficiency is the presumed reason for the blunted anabolic response; hormone therapy is a medical question outside this entry
Limitations
n=41 (31 completed), 10-week intervention — short-term; long-term hypertrophy in postmenopausal women at high volume was not tested
Healthy middle-aged women, not high-level masters athletes
Body composition by bioelectrical impedance and muscle thickness by ultrasound (full text, checked 2026-09-27) — the authors call their BIA device a valid alternative to DXA; not from this paper, the base's own caution: BIA estimates FFM less precisely than DXA
Not endurance-specific (a strength protocol); transfer to endurance masters women is indirect
The menopause comparison is a non-randomised subgroup split
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from A−: 41 enrolled / 31 completing; the menopause comparison is a non-randomised subgroup contrast, the randomised factor (intensity) is a parallel arm with <20 per group
Content correction 2026-09-27
Level A− -> B+ per KB-LEVEL-RUBRIC (41 enrolled/31 completing; menopause contrast non-randomised; <20 per randomised arm).
Lead bullet now carries the trial's numbers and both results (strength in all groups, hypertrophy only premenopausal); ">6-8 sets" kept as the authors' stated inference, "estrogen deficiency mediates" labelled as inference.
"1-RM squat/press" -> bench press; "REF-337 female physiology (if present)" -> REF-337 is the sex/menstrual-cycle methodology paper, relabelled.
Cross-reference descriptions checked against the cited entries' current content; wrong years, wrong entries and claims the cited entry does not make were corrected.
Lines labelled "full text; not checked" were read against the open-access full text (PMC10559623): 1 corrected to what the paper says.
2026-09-28: added Protocol from the abstract (Europe PMC, DOI 10.1186/s12905-023-02671-y, PMID 37803287).
Full text (checked 2026-10-12)
Only post-menopausal women were split by intensity: the completing groups were PreMeno MI-RT (n = 12, 47.4 ± 5.3 years), PostMeno MI-RT (n = 10, 54.3 ± 4.7 years) and PostMeno LI-RT (n = 9, 55.6 ± 2.9 years), with no pre-menopausal low-intensity group (full text).
Training ran in two cycles of five weeks each (weeks 1–4 loading, week 5 deload), twice weekly 48–72 h apart and supervised: MI-RT did 4 sets (3 × 10 + 1x to failure) at 75% 1-RM with deload 3 sets of 3 × 10 at 53.3%, and LI-RT did 3 sets (2 × 20 + 1x to failure) at 50% with deload 2 sets of 2 × 20 at 40%; tempo 2:0:1 and rest 120 s (full text, Table 1).
Sessions were barbell box squats, barbell bench press, seated cable row (lat pull-down in session 2), dumbbell side bend and prone plank, with volume loads approximately similar between groups (full text).
1-RM squat rose from T1 to T2 from 40.85 ± 14.83 to 65.80 ± 18.76 kg (PreMeno MI-RT), 36.83 ± 21.45 to 60.71 ± 18.91 kg (PostMeno MI-RT) and 35.49 ± 9.20 to 62.77 ± 15.87 kg (PostMeno LI-RT) (full text, Table 3).
Fat-free mass went from 50.08 ± 5.41 to 51.97 ± 6.99 kg in PreMeno MI-RT, 48.07 ± 3.89 to 46.99 ± 4.41 kg in PostMeno MI-RT and 49.20 ± 4.61 to 48.46 ± 4.00 kg in PostMeno LI-RT (full text, Table 3).
Table 3 also marks a significant time effect at T2 for rectus femoris thickness in both post-menopausal groups (2.07 ± 0.68 to 2.23 ± 0.66 cm in MI-RT; 1.77 ± 0.49 to 1.95 ± 0.47 cm in LI-RT) (full text, Table 3).
Grip strength rose during the no-training control phase (e.g. right hand 23.95 ± 4.28 to 31.45 ± 5.72 kg in PreMeno MI-RT) and not during RT, which the authors attribute to learning effects (full text, Table 3).
Of the 10 excluded women, 5 missed T1 testing and 5 missed more than three sessions, for non-study injury or illness (n = 4) or personal reasons (n = 6); diet was standardized only by a carbohydrate-protein meal right after sessions (full text).