Muscle, Menopause & My Future Prison Break

Somewhere along the way, women were taught that muscle was aesthetic.

Optional, a “nice-to-have” if you wanted toned arms on holiday photos. But the older I get, the more I realise muscle is essential infrastructure.

It’s not about looking good in a bikini at 45. It’s about being able to carry your own suitcase at 75. Get yourself off the floor at 82 and ideally, scale the wall of the care home at 85 if things get too bleak.

That’s the goal now: not skinny, not shrinking…capable.

Because during perimenopause and menopause, muscle becomes one of the most protective things we can build. It supports:

• Blood sugar regulation.

• Bone density.

• Metabolic health.

• Balance.

• Cognitive resilience.

• Energy.

• Confidence.

And perhaps most importantly, your independence.

The conversation around women’s bodies has been so focused on shrinking ourselves that many women are entering midlife under-muscled, under-fuelled and exhausted.

We’ve been conditioned to chase “lighter”, when actually, we should be training for stronger and the irony is that muscle isn’t masculine. It isn’t an aesthetic we need to fear, it’s biological intelligence.

It’s your body’s reserve tank, your insurance policy in old age. It’s literally your armour for the decades ahead. And no, this doesn’t mean you need to become a bodybuilder!

It means we need to work with resistance and weights as part of your workouts several times a week. You will need to progressively challenge your body in order to maintain muscle mass. I am a huge fan of working with just body weight and gravity, but I have also now seen for myself the way that progressive functional

You will also need to eat enough protein (and fibre please!).

Walking becomes the best way to get level-2 cardio and keep your system functioning optimally.

Sleep is ‘golden’, the body’s way to heal, build and recalibrate.

Recovery, rest, bodywork or just a simple 10 minutes with your legs up the wall.

It means treating your future self like someone worth preparing for because longevity isn’t really about living longer. It’s about staying functional while you do. If we want to thrive in later life we have to make the investment now in midlife.

I want to be the woman who can still hike, travel, dance, carry shopping bags and get herself back up after life knocks her sideways. And yes, if necessary, outrun authority figures in orthopaedic footwear.

So, these days, when I strength train, I’m not thinking about aesthetics. I’m investing in future freedom.

That feels far more interesting.

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