Throughout his years in bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger has come across multiple incidents of perimenopausal and menopausal women feeling underconfident during training sessions, and he advices them to be the opposite.

A recent publication from Arnold's Pump Club, revealed the 7x Mr. Olympia's answer for his common question from women, "I want to know how I do it [train] when I am a (peri/post) menopausal woman." However, Schwarzenegger answered this question almost 40 years back, during his appearance in a November 1979 episode of Johnny Carson

Schwarzenegger urged women to become stronger with lifting back then. The 7-time Mr. Olympia re-iterated himself in the publication, saying, "So when you tell me that you are someone with menopause or perimenopause, I see you starting to define yourself as someone with limits, and that’s what I want to avoid."

Schwarzenegger also highlighted how many "peri and post menopausal" women doubt their capability saying things like "I probably can’t," and "I’ll never be able to" while training.

As a remedy he mentioned, "Menopause is real. All the hot flashes, terrible sleep cycle, and the uninvited belly fat are real. The phrase of one’s biology must not become one's identity, and hormonal changes must not become a life sentence.

According to the Austrian Oak, women started to diminish themselves, because an entire industry figured out they could make money off of their fear. He said, "They sold you special menopause workouts. Special menopause diets. Special menopause supplements”.

But these are the basic things that Schwarzenegger thinks women need to be strong, regardless of their peri or post-menopausal phase.

• A vision
• A plan
• Consistency
• People who believe in you.

Apart from that, he also broke the myth that women would become muscular like men if they did weight training.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Women Who Lift Weights

Golden Era Bookworm shared a clip from one of Schwarzenegger's 1977 interviews, in which the female host asked the legend, “Is it the kind of thing [lifting weights] that I could do?”. In response, the former professional bodybuilder said, “Any person can do it”.

He continued by breaking the myth that women who lift develop muscles like a man, “a woman does not get muscles like a man because they have not the male hormones. Therefore, their body will get firm but not the muscle”.

Even during his appearance on Johnny Carson, he answered the same question by saying, "Each woman is built differently in a way that they carry 25 more fat cells than men and 25 percent less muscle than men."

So, if you are a peri or post-menopausal woman, will you try lifting weights and strength training the next time you train?

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Souvik Roy