When you reach your 40s, that word, ageing, suddenly becomes a bit annoying. In your 20s you barely give it a second thought because your body seemed to cooperate with almost everything you ask of it. You certainly didn’t think that you needed to strengthen bones at this age. Then recovery started to take longer and little injuries start to appear and now everyone is telling you what you should or shouldn’t be doing.
Social media has made this even worse because every second video seems to promise the “best” workout for longevity, fat loss, toned arms, strong glutes, perfect abs, or injury prevention. One person says you should only lift light weights for high repetitions. Another insists women must lift heavy or they are wasting their time. One coach tells you running destroys your joints. Another says cardio is essential for longevity. Then come the endless arguments about squats, core exercises, mobility drills, supplements, recovery tools, cold plunges, hormones, fasting, protein intake. The problem is not lack of information anymore. The problem is information overload. We save all the videos, but do we ever give them a second glance. Another better one appears the next day and so it continues.
The good news is that we really can do a lot to keep ourselves fit, strong, healthy, and running well for many years to come. The less glamorous truth is that it does take some effort. It may not always feel easy, but keeping things simple makes it far more achievable.
In this post I want to talk about bone density, how it declines with age, why female runners need to pay attention to it earlier than most people realise, and why we do actually need to lift heavy to strengthen bones.
Declining Bone Density
Women reach peak bone mass around the age of 30, after which bone density begins to decline gradually as part of the normal ageing process. Then along comes menopause and our fluctuating hormone levels cause more issues. During the first five to ten years after menopause, bone loss accelerates rapidly, with some women losing up to 20% of their bone mass during that period alone.
This is why so many active women are surprised when they are diagnosed with osteopenia in their late 40s or 50s because they still feel fit, they still run regularly, and they may even appear athletic from the outside, but cardiovascular fitness does not necessarily reflect bone health underneath the surface. There are also risk factors that can accumulate over the years, a small frame, family history of osteoporosis, restrictive dieting, under-fuelling, smoking, excessive alcohol intake, gut absorption issues, thyroid conditions, breast cancer treatment, or simply decades of high running mileage without any meaningful resistance training.
Many female runners also spend years prioritising thinness over strength, which may leave both muscle and bone progressively under-supported as hormone levels begin to change.
Running for Bone Strength
For years we have been told that running is one of the best forms of exercise to strengthen bones, and compared to being inactive, it absolutely is beneficial. The problem is that bones need a specific type of stimulus if they are going to grow stronger or even maintain their density as we age. Bones respond best to impact and loading forces. Basically, they need to experience enough stress to signal the body that stronger, denser bone tissue is required. Research suggests that bone-building stimulus is greatest when the skeleton experiences forces of around 3 to 4 times bodyweight.
This is where things become more interesting for runners. Running is certainly better than walking when it comes to bone loading because each foot strike creates greater impact forces through the skeleton, but even running typically only loads the bones at around 2 to 3 times bodyweight, depending on speed, stride mechanics, and terrain.
That means running helps, but it may not be enough on its own, particularly for women moving through their 40s, 50s, and beyond when bone density naturally begins to decline more rapidly. Once menopause enters the equation, the body becomes less efficient at maintaining bone tissue because declining estrogen levels accelerate bone loss, while muscle mass and strength also begin to decrease. Over time, this combination can leave female runners more vulnerable to stress fractures, bone injuries, and osteoporosis, even if they continue running regularly.
This is why older female runners need to think beyond mileage alone. If we want to improve bone density, or at the very least slow down the rate of bone loss, we need to include other forms of loading that place greater force through the skeleton. This is where heavier strength training, impact exercises such as hopping or skipping, and progressive resistance work become incredibly important because they provide the type of stimulus bones actually respond to.
The Type of Exercise that Improves Bone Strength
Bone responds most effectively to two specific things: impact and heavy resistance.
This is where much of the confusion in women’s fitness begins because many women have spent years being told to use light dumbbells for high repetitions or steer clear of heavier weights to avoid becoming too bulky. Very light resistance training can improve muscular endurance, but it does not create enough mechanical force to stimulate bone growth or preserve bone density through the menopausal years.
Research consistently shows that progressive resistance training combined with impact loading is one of the most effective non-pharmacological strategies for improving or maintaining bone density and to strengthen bones in older women. This means that exercises such as squats, deadlifts, split squats, step-ups, loaded carries, hopping, skipping, and various forms of jumping are often far more beneficial for bone health than endless low-resistance circuits or light toning classes.
The key here is progressive overload, because bones adapt when they are challenged progressively over time. That does not mean anyone should immediately start lifting heavy weights or performing aggressive plyometrics because bones, tendons, and connective tissues need time to adapt gradually, especially if strength training is new.
Strengthening Bones not Body Building for Female Runners
The goal is not bodybuilding or spending endless hours in the gym. The goal is preserving a skeleton and muscular system capable of supporting decades of running while also maintaining independence, balance, and resilience later in life.
For most women over 40, the evidence strongly supports two strength sessions per week that includes progressive loading, lifting heavy weights with low reps.
The exercises themselves don’t need to be complicated. Highly effective programmes often include movements such as squats, deadlifts, split squats, calf raises, step-ups, loaded carries, skipping drills, and low-level jump progressions. The strength work should involve challenging weights with lower repetitions rather than endless rounds of light weights and high reps. This does not mean exhausting gym sessions or lifting maximal weights for hours. It may mean simply using a weight that genuinely challenges your body for a few repetitions, sometimes as little as three to five reps with good technique and proper recovery between sets.
Impact work should always be introduced gradually, especially for women with existing osteopenia, previous stress fractures, or long periods without strength training, but even relatively small doses of impact loading can begin stimulating positive bone adaptation over time.
Over 40: Build Bone Before Menopause Accelerates Loss
Your 40s represent an extremely important opportunity to build or preserve bone before menopause accelerates the rate of loss. It is an excellent time to learn proper lifting technique, progressively increase strength, introduce impact work gradually, and ensure adequate nutrition to support both hormonal health and bone maintenance.
Many female runners unknowingly spend years under-fuelling while maintaining relatively high mileage, which can negatively affect hormone levels and compromise bone health long before any symptoms appear.
Over 50: Protect Bone During and After Menopause
The 50s are often where bone loss accelerates most rapidly because of hormonal changes associated with menopause, which is why exercises to strengthen bones becomes less optional and far more essential during this decade.
Heavy resistance training, particularly exercises that load the hips and spine, becomes especially important because these are common fracture sites later in life and because maintaining muscle strength significantly improves force absorption during running.
This is also the decade where many women suddenly begin experiencing tendon problems such as plantar fasciitus, recurring stress reactions, or injuries that appear to come out of nowhere, although the underlying issue is often declining tissue resilience rather than training alone.
Over 60: Maintain Strength, Stability & Independence
By your 60s, the conversation expands beyond running performance because bone health now affects fall risk, fracture risk, mobility, independence, and overall quality of life.
Hip fractures in older adults can become life-changing events. Maintaining muscle strength and bone density dramatically improves long-term outcomes, confidence, and the ability to remain independent and active for much longer.
The encouraging part is that bone and muscle still respond positively to training later in life. Women in their 60s and beyond can continue to strengthen bones, improve balance, coordination, and movement with appropriately programmed resistance training.
It is never too late to begin loading the body to support healthier ageing.
Strength Training for Bones & Muscles
Although we are focusing on bone density here, muscle loss is another factor. From around the age of 40 onwards, women gradually lose muscle mass and muscle power, a process known as sarcopenia, and this decline accelerates after menopause.
Less muscle means less shock absorption, reduced running economy, poorer balance, slower reactions, and greater stress transferred directly into the skeleton during repetitive impact.
Strength training will help preserve both systems simultaneously, which is another reason why progressively heavier resistance is so important for older female runners.
Running is Ageless
One of the things I love most about running is that it is genuinely ageless. There is no reason we cannot continue running well as we get older, provided we look after ourselves properly, strengthen our bones and muscles, fuel ourselves well, prioritise recovery, and adapt our training intelligently rather than assuming ageing automatically means decline.
Running does not suddenly become off limits once you reach your 40s, 50s, or 60s. In many ways we become better runners, mentally stronger, more patient, and more resilient.
I was standing on the start line of a race recently, feeling slightly out of place as a 57-year-old female runner surrounded by very young, very fit-looking women and men. Everyone looked fast. I remember thinking that maybe I should just quietly tuck myself near the back because these runners clearly looked stronger and quicker than me. But then the race started. By the time I crossed the finish line, I had finished ahead of many of those younger runners I had initially been intimidated by.
That was a reminder to me that age is not what holds us back. Neglecting our health, losing strength, avoiding resistance training, under-fuelling, and assuming we are “too old” are far more limiting factors than our age.
Look after yourself, strengthen your body, and remember you are capable of far more than you probably realise. Sometimes it is the older runners who remind the younger ones exactly what resilience looks like.
At Achieve Running Club, we focus on building strong, resilient runners for the long term with sensible training, strength work, mobility, and support designed to help you keep running well at every age. Our plans include strength work to keep you running well no matter your age.
For more running advice check out our range of running books. Including Running Your First Marathon for Runners Over 40
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