Can exercise help moms after menopause, even if they had breast cancer?
Skeletal muscle mass, strength, and physical performance gains are similar between healthy postmenopausal women and postmenopausal breast cancer survivors after 12 weeks of resistance exercise training
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Breast cancer survivors responded just as well as healthy women to strength training.
Prior reviews suggested RET improves strength but not muscle mass in cancer survivors, especially older ones. This study contradicts that, showing clear muscle growth (5–8%) and no gap between groups.
Practical Takeaways
Start a supervised strength training program 3x/week if you're a postmenopausal woman, regardless of cancer history.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Breast cancer survivors responded just as well as healthy women to strength training.
Prior reviews suggested RET improves strength but not muscle mass in cancer survivors, especially older ones. This study contradicts that, showing clear muscle growth (5–8%) and no gap between groups.
Practical Takeaways
Start a supervised strength training program 3x/week if you're a postmenopausal woman, regardless of cancer history.
Publication
Journal
Supportive Care in Cancer
Year
2024
Authors
Macarena Artigas-Arias, Andrea Alegría-Molina, Nicolás Vidal-Seguel, Rodrigo Muñoz-Cofré, Juan Carranza-Leiva, Alexis Sepúlveda-Lara, K. Vitzel, Nolberto Huard, Jorge Sapunar, Luis A Salazar, R. Curi, Gabriel Marzuca-Nassr
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Claims (5)
Everyone can build muscle with consistent strength training over time — if you didn’t gain muscle once, it’s probably not your genes, just that specific training phase didn’t work for you.
If postmenopausal women do strength training three times a week for three months, their thigh muscles get about 5 to 8% thicker — whether or not they’ve had breast cancer.
Doing strength training for 12 weeks may help postmenopausal women — both healthy ones and breast cancer survivors — move better, walk farther, and get up and go faster.
Doing strength training three times a week for three months helps both healthy postmenopausal women and breast cancer survivors gain muscle and get stronger — and both groups benefit about the same.
Doing strength training for 12 weeks can boost muscle strength by about a quarter to nearly half in women after menopause — whether they're healthy or have survived breast cancer.