The Method Women through menopause
Does lifting help bone density after menopause?
In the strongest trial we have, heavy supervised lifting raised it. The gentle program lost it.
StrongGood evidence, with a caveat worth knowing.
Updated . The Vanguard coaching team.
What most people miss
The usual advice for women with low bone mass is to go gentle. The LIFTMOR trial tested that directly, on the reasoning that bone adapts to heavy, fast loading. It put 101 women averaging 65, all with low bone mass, on either supervised lifting and impact work, five sets of five above 85% of their max, twice a week for eight months, or a low-intensity home program.1
The gentle program was the comparison group, and its spine density fell 1.2%. The heavy group's rose 2.9%. The heavy group held its hip density while the gentle group's fell, and it improved more on every test of everyday function. The authors report no adverse events from the training under close supervision.1
What it does not show: it is one trial, eight months long, in a small, screened group, closely supervised. It measured bone density and function, not fractures.
The research
The papers behind the answer
Each one checked against the paper itself. The grade describes the strength of the evidence, never anyone's results.
Watson, Weeks, Weis et al., 2018 · J Bone Miner Res
Randomised trial, LIFTMOR · n = 101 women after menopause with low bone mass · 8 months
Supervised lifting and impact work twice a week, five sets of five above 85% of a max, raised lumbar spine density 2.9%, against a 1.2% fall on a low-intensity home program. Femoral neck density held (+0.3% against −1.9%) and every function test improved more. The authors report no adverse events from the training under close supervision.
Read the paper by Watson, Weeks, Weis et al., 2018 (opens in a new tab)
Research describes groups of people. Your coach will tell you how it applies to you.
From the floor
Loading and impact work chosen for bone, built up week by week from your own logged sets. Bone density itself is your doctor's to test and to treat.
The Vanguard coaching team