How Many Reps Should Women 40+ Lift? | Strength Training, Hormones & Recovery

Sims pushes back against the pervasive idea that women — especially aging women — need to do moderate-weight, high-rep training to 'tone' or avoid bulk. She reframes the goal: instead of chasing metabolic stress (the burn, the pump, the smashed feeling), women over 40 should pursue neuromuscular power and strength adaptations that produce a favorable hormonal environment. The reasoning is biological: with declining estrogen pulses, the post-exercise recovery landscape shifts, and the body leans heavily on testosterone and growth hormone. Heavy, low-rep work (5-8 reps) with a true load elicits a central nervous system response that stimulates these hormones, dropping cortisol and inducing relaxation. Higher rep sets (10-12) create metabolic stress but lack the same hormonal cascade, often leaving women exhausted, achy, and with elevated cortisol. By keeping reps under 8 and using RIR 2, she says you hit the sweet spot for strength and recovery every session. Moreover, she emphasizes that all the programming complexity people love — waves, clusters, de-loads — can and should be done inside this low-rep universe, so you never need to venture into the 10-12 range.

Sims explains that the problem is not high intensity itself, but execution. When women perform high-intensity work ‘properly’ — as true sprint intervals or heavy resistance — the body responds by releasing testosterone and growth hormone post-exercise. In peri and postmenopause, the absence of regular estrogen pulses means the body leans more on these anabolic hormones to counter the stress of exercise. Testosterone lowers cortisol, while growth hormone drives tissue repair. So, rather than being harmful, high-intensity work becomes a tool to stimulate the very hormones that aging women need. The key is doing it right: respecting the central nervous system demand and not conflating true high intensity with metabolically stressful moderate-intensity circuits. The quote 'it's because the carry-through isn't there' refers to the common misunderstanding that the hormonal follow-through is missing; Sims says it’s there when you do the right type of work.

Sims argues that the metabolic stress of 10-12 rep sets leaves women feeling 'smashed' and spikes cortisol without the compensatory anabolic surge that lower-rep, heavier loading provides. Staying at 5-8 reps (never exceeding 8) with two reps in reserve keeps training in the power/strength domain, which is driven by the central nervous system. That triggers a robust release of testosterone and growth hormone, followed by a parasympathetic (relaxation) response. The result is that you leave the gym feeling worked but clear-headed and energized, not exhausted. She emphasizes that this doesn't mean never periodizing — you can do 5-rep days, 3x2s, cluster sets, de-loads — all without ever touching the 10-12 zone. The 'two reps in reserve' method automatically adjusts load to your daily readiness, avoiding the need to calculate one-rep maxes. This approach maximizes strength, hormone health, and daily energy in a demographic that often struggles with recovery.