Speaking recently on Sarah Grynberg\u2019s A Life of Greatness podcast<\/a>, Simms explained the different movements she advises (peri)menopausal women to do regularly. \u2018We, by the very nature of our biomechanics, are more quad-dominant,\u2019 she says. <\/p>\n What to Read Next<\/p>\n What she means by that is your quads<\/a> (front-thigh muscles) overwork compared to your hamstrings and glutes<\/a>, which can lead to muscle tightness and feeling like effort is concentrated in the front of your body. <\/p>\n \u2018So, I really try to get women to focus on the posterior because it\u2019s going to help align our bodies, give us better posture and take the load off the knees<\/a> and the hips,\u2019 adds Simms. Your posterior chain encompasses the group of muscles on the backside of your body, extending from the neck to the heels, including the calves, hamstrings, glutes and back muscles.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important for daily functional movements and activities, including standing and lifting, as well as athletic movements like running and jumping<\/a>, as it provides power, stability and support for the spine and hips. <\/p>\n Maintaining a strong posterior chain should help you maintain good posture<\/a> and reduce injury risk, particularly in the back. <\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n It\u2019s why Simms advises women to start doing functional, compound movements. Explaining her approach to personal trainer Doug Bopst on his podcast<\/a>, The Adversity Advantage Podcast, she says: \u2018When we\u2019re looking at how women build muscle, it\u2019s a combination of oestrogen and the central nervous system, and oestrogen is a driver for lean mass development, as well as how strong a muscle contraction is and how fast it actually contracts.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s why, as women get older, focusing on more specific movements becomes important. \u2018If you\u2019re in your twenties and thirties, you can get away with trying a lot of different things, but when you start getting into your late thirties, early forties onwards, we have to be a bit more specific, where we\u2019re not looking at working to failure because that\u2019s more of a metabolic stress,\u2019 explains Simms. \u2018We\u2019re looking at lifting heavier loads to work on power and strength because we lose that rapidly when we start having a flux in our hormones<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s important, she adds, to phase in gently and to do some mobility<\/a> work first to ensure you don\u2019t get injured. Building a foundation using gym machines and doing lighter dumbbell work first is also a good idea, and will help you develop the neural pathways required for heavier lifting.<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re comfortable and have built that base, Simms says it\u2019s then about focusing on compound movements \u2013 which use multiple muscle groups \u2013 that replicate daily functional movements, for example, sit-to-stand. <\/p>\n With that in mind, speaking on A Life of Greatness, Simms highlights six specific example moves: squats<\/a>, deadlifts<\/a>, hip thrusts<\/a>, Bulgarian split squats<\/a>, push-ups<\/a> and pull-ups<\/a>. \u2018If you\u2019re doing a heavy deadlift, it\u2019s a total body movement and it\u2019s a mental challenge to lift something heavy, so you\u2019re actually engaging the central nervous system as well as all the muscles that are stabilising,\u2019 she explains. <\/p>\n Along with push or pull movements like bent-over rows, bench press and overhead press, Simms highlights that these compound movements focus on \u2018the stability action \u2013 so we really have to use our deep abdominal and our back muscles for that stability.\u2019<\/p>\n If you\u2019re doing a heavy compound movement session, adds Simms, you should feel fatigued but not \u2018wasted\u2019, like social media might have led you to believe.<\/p>\n In the simplest terms, it\u2019s all about building a stable base for your body \u2013 and compound movements are key to this. \u2018You want to be like a bamboo straw, not a bendy one, because if you\u2019re a bendy straw, this is how we end up with injuries because we\u2019re not able to brace properly,\u2019 explains Simms. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not about how much you can put on the bar, she adds, but rather, it\u2019s about recognising and getting to grips with all of the small elements involved with these types of movements. <\/p>\n And, if you want some reassurance, Simms says it took her 11 whole years to master one pull-up. <\/p>\n Related Stories Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women\u2019s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. \u00a0She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner\u2019s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. \u00a0A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She\u2019s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to start strength training but have no idea where to start, you\u2019re not alone. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[499,103,61,60,3716],"class_list":{"0":"post-84290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-perimenopause"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n