, Columnist
The Most Valuable Menopause Fitness Hack
Middle-aged women aiming to build muscle should be skeptical of "fitfluencers," many of whom promote junk science and grifts.
Feel the burn.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this year, I glommed onto a trend that is sweeping women of a certain age in the US: I became a woman who lifts.
Admittedly, describing myself as such feels like an overstatement of my fitness level. Seven months in, and I still can’t do a pull-up, while my dumbbell incline press tops out at 40 lbs. But I am a regular at a women-inclusive gym that has nary a stair stepper or treadmill and is purely focused on helping women get strong.