Lifting Heavy: A Common Sense Guide for Women in Perimenopause and Menopause

 "Lifting heavy" is one of the most talked-about topics in women's fitness right now — but what does it actually mean? In this episode of the Common Sense Series, we cut through the noise and break down what lifting heavy really is, why it matters (especially as estrogen declines), and how to work your way up to it safely and sustainably. No barbell required, no gym membership necessary — just practical, research-backed guidance you can actually apply to your life. 

Main points discussed: 

• The importance of remembering heavy is relative. 
• Why you need to "earn" your heavy. 
• Why fast-twitch muscle fibers are the key.
• Bone density benefits. 
• How the metabolic afterburn is real. 
• Why you don't need fancy equipment. 
• Knowing the difference between resistance training ≠ lifting heavy. 
• Thoughts on training 2–3x per week and recovery and listening to your body. 

Episode Links:

What Does Lifting Heavy Mean?

The Bone Battle No One is Talking About

Why You’re Sore All the Time (And What to Actually Do About it)

The only resistance bands I recommend

My latest recommended ways to nourish and move your body, mind and spirit: Nourished Notes Bi-Weekly Newsletter

30+ Non-Gym Ways to Improve Your Health (free download)

Connect with Amy:
GracedHealth.com
Instagram: @GracedHealth
YouTube: @AmyConnell

Transcript

Lifting Heavy — Common Sense Series

Graced Health Podcast

Amy Connell, Host

Hey there, and welcome back to our second installment of the Common Sense series. These are topics I get questions about all the time as a personal trainer and certified nutrition coach, and I'm trying to break them down, give you the high-level information, and just take a common sense approach — because the wellness industry is a lot right now. It's telling you to do so many things that implementing all of them is basically a full-time job. We don't even have time to do it all.

My hope and my goal is to give you research-backed information, and from there invite you to figure out how it applies to you — not to the influencer, not to your friend, but to you and your body and your schedule and what is actually accessible to you.

Today's topic is lifting heavy — or heavy lifting — because chances are you have seen the posts: you need to lift heavy, go heavy or go home, women need to lift heavy weights. And maybe your reaction is something like, "Okay, but what does that mean? What is lifting heavy?" If you're thinking that, you are not alone.

I've been thinking about this from the perspective of someone who is not a fitness professional. I have over 20 years of experience as a fitness professional. I'm a certified personal trainer. And honestly, there is so much noise out there that even I sometimes think, wait, is what I'm doing not good enough?

I never want you to feel like what you are doing is not good enough. I do want to give you information about what lifting heavy means so you can decide if it's something you want to include. It absolutely has benefits — but it won't have any benefits if you don't do it because you don't like it. And if you're doing something you enjoy that doesn't technically qualify as "lifting heavy" but you're still strength training? Keep doing that.

I am not here to tell you how to work out. I'm sharing one approach that is shown to have a lot of benefits, and then you get to choose whether it seems sustainable and realistic for you.

Heavy Is Relative

First, let's get this out of the way: heavy is relative. There is no single amount of weight — no specific number of pounds or kilograms — that counts as lifting heavy. It's about your challenge level relative to you, right now, today. Not where you used to be, and not where you want to be. Where you are today.

There is a helpful scale called the Rate of Perceived Exertion, which is basically a number scale from one to ten that asks: how hard are you working? One is like you're practically asleep. Ten is you cannot work any harder. When we talk about lifting heavy, we're looking for an RPE of about eight — meaning you're working pretty hard, but there's still a little left in the tank. You're at about 80% effort.

If you finish a set and think, "I could probably do about two more" — that's where you want to be. When I'm training a client in person and we've gone up in weight, I'll say, "Go until you have two left in the tank." That's a great starting point for lifting heavy once she's earned her way into it — which I'll talk about in a second. It's less about hitting a specific number of reps and more about reaching that RPE of eight.

Earn Your Heavy

The second thing I want to mention: I want you to earn your heavy.

That does not mean I don't want you lifting a lot. But NASM — my certifying organization, the National Academy of Sports Medicine — has what's called the OPT Model, which is basically a stair-step approach to building strength. I won't go deep into it here, but if you want the expanded version of this conversation, go listen to "What Does Lifting Heavy Mean?" in Season 24, Episode 2.

When I say I want you to earn your heavy, I mean: start at a lower weight if you're not used to lifting. Get your form right. Get comfortable with how your body feels during those movements. Learn how it feels to fatigue a small deltoid movement — your deltoids are your shoulders — because that is going to require a very different weight than a deadlift or a squat. Figure all of that out before you start trying to lift as heavy as you can.

Earning your heavy builds a solid foundation so you have something to add onto.

Why We're Hearing So Much About This Right Now

Here's the science. We have two types of muscle fibers.

Slow-twitch fibers are your endurance muscles. These are the ones you use for walking, holding a plank, or doing a barre class where you're repeating the same movement for a minute straight. They sustain effort over time.

Fast-twitch fibers are your power fibers. These contract quickly and forcefully — they're what you use when you're lifting something very heavy for just a few reps. They're also the fibers that catch you when you trip, that help you move quickly when you need to respond fast.

Here's why this matters: as estrogen declines — whether you're in perimenopause or postmenopause — we lose fast-twitch fibers at a faster rate than slow-twitch ones. We've talked about sarcopenia on this podcast before, which is the age-related loss of muscle that can be minimized with adequate strength training and protein. But our fast-twitch muscles are declining at a steeper rate than the slow-twitch ones, and lifting heavy is one of the very few ways to recruit and maintain them.

A few other things that help recruit fast-twitch fibers: plyometric training (especially barefoot, if that's safe for you), sprinting, or going all-out on a bike or treadmill or elliptical for 20 to 30 seconds — really not saving anything for after.

When we talk about lifting heavy, we're not talking about making our muscles as big as possible. We're talking about keeping the kind of muscle that will help keep you moving quickly, upright, mobile, and capable for the rest of your life. Falls — and especially hip fractures — are scary. Training our bodies to respond more quickly is a meaningful way to reduce that risk.

Bone density is another benefit. When you lift heavy, your muscles are pulling hard against your bones — contracting, pulling the tendons that attach muscle to bone, which signals the bones to stay strong. I went into more detail on this in Season 23, Episode 9, "The Bone Battle No One Is Talking About," if you want the fuller picture.

There's also a metabolic piece. Even though I'm intuitive eating-focused and weight-neutral, I also know that we care about our metabolism running as well as it can. When you recruit those fast-twitch fibers, your body continues burning at a slightly higher rate for hours after an intense session. These are benefits that show up in how you feel and function — not just how you look. Although I get it — I want to look good too. I just care more about how my body feels than how it looks at this point.

What Lifting Heavy Actually Looks Like

You do not need a barbell. You do not need a gym. We are not talking about Venice Beach.

The important things are: using movements your body already knows how to do, and using resistance that is genuinely challenging. Those movements are called functional movements, and there are six of them — push, pull, squat, hinge, single leg, and either a transverse (across-the-body) movement or a carry, depending on who you're talking to. These mimic the patterns of everyday life: carrying groceries, getting up off the floor, sitting down into a chair and standing back up.

My mom recently had her second knee replacement, and her physical therapist told her to practice standing up from a seated position without using her arms. That's a functional movement challenge right there — because her knees had been so bad for so long that pushing up with her arms had become habit. If we can take the arms out of that movement, that's exactly the kind of thing we're talking about.

For equipment, use what you have. Bodyweight works well for almost everything — except pulling movements are hard to get in without some kind of resistance. Pull-ups are an option if you can do them (I'm proud of you if you can — I think I got one and a half the last time I tried). Resistance bands are my favorite solution for pulling. I'll link the ones I recommend in the show notes — it's a pack of five or six bands with interchangeable handles, so you can combine them to increase resistance as you get stronger. I also prefer the kind with fabric around them because when they eventually wear out, they don't snap back at you. That has happened to clients of mine. At $35 to $40, they're also a great value.

Dumbbells, machines, barbells, kettlebells — all of these work. If you like machines, go for it. When you're choosing which machines to use, look for the ones that cover the larger muscle groups — your full back, your full chest — rather than isolation movements like just biceps or just triceps. You'll get more value for your time.

The bottom line: use something that gives you resistance, and make sure you can get your pulling movements in.

Getting Specific About "Heavy"

If you want to get specific: lifting heavy means doing somewhere between one and six reps at about 85 to 90% effort. That means you can only get a few reps out, and then you're done. You're reaching for a spotter. You've got nothing left.

Picking up weights and doing 15 reps is resistance training — it's strength training, and it's good for you. But it is not what is defined as lifting heavy in terms of the OPT Model's max strength phase. Max strength is one to six reps at very high intensity. That is lifting heavy, and that is specifically where you get those fast-twitch muscle fiber responses.

Do this two to three times a week, with real recovery time in between. If you're not sure what recovery looks like or you're sore all the time, go back and listen to the episode I did on soreness and recovery a few weeks ago.

A Few Final Reminders

You do not have to do max strength training to benefit from strength training. If you're newer to lifting or coming back after a break, start lighter. I do this with my clients all the time — if we've taken time off, we ease back in before continuing to push forward. We want to gradually increase challenge over time, not jump straight to heavy just because someone on the internet told us to.

Also keep in mind: your "heavy" will vary from session to session. How has your nutrition been? Your sleep? Your stress? All of it influences how your body responds. That is not failure — that is your body communicating. The question isn't what's the number? It's am I working hard enough that I'm close to my edge today? Take each session individually. If you want to track your weights, great — just build in a little buffer and give yourself grace when the number isn't what it was last week.

The bottom line: lifting heavy doesn't have to be extreme. It just means challenging your muscles enough to keep those fast-twitch fibers active, your bones strong, and your body capable of doing what you're called to do — now and decades from now. It doesn't have to be perfect. You just need to start somewhere, stay consistent, and keep the trend going.

That is the common sense approach to lifting heavy.

Okay, that is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day.