In the authors' words
“Resistance training significantly improved muscular strength in both premenopausal (standardized mean difference = 1.50 [95% confidence interval: 1.28-1.73]) and postmenopausal women (standardized mean difference = 1.46 [95% confidence interval: 1.26-1.67]), with no subgroup difference (p = 0.520).”
What was measured
- Muscle strength Reported an improvement
- Muscle mass Reported an improvement
- Body fat and weight Reported an improvement
About the study
- Type
- Meta-analysis
- Who took part
- Midlife women
- How many
- 4,019
- Exercise
- Resistance training
- Cited
- 1 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 41963141
How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.
Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.
Similar studies
- A meta-analysis of 101 trials with 5,697 postmenopausal women found aerobic training reduced fat mass and resistance training increased muscle mass, with combined training offering both benefits.
- A meta-analysis of 129 trials in postmenopausal women found aerobic, resistance and combined training increased cardiorespiratory fitness and lower-body strength, while only resistance training increased upper-body strength.
- A meta-analysis of resistance training in postmenopausal and elderly women, averaging 16 weeks, found small to moderate increases in lean body mass but no significant change in fat mass.
- A meta-analysis of 17 trials in breast cancer survivors, including postmenopausal women, found exercise training, especially resistance training, increased lean body mass compared with usual care.