By Beatriz IR de Oliveira, Séverine Lamon & Yvonne Learmonth
Every January, ‘exercising more’ tops lists of New Year Resolutions. Gyms fill up, fitness apps spike in downloads, and motivation feels abundant. As health professionals, we genuinely welcome this moment because everyone benefits from physical activity: any movement that uses energy such as walking, cleaning, or riding a bike.
Exercise is a form of physical activity, aimed at improving health and may include brisk walk, running or structured workouts. Exercising regularly across our lives helps us stay healthy, strong, and independent for longer. But sustaining motivation is harder than starting, and this challenge isn’t experienced equally by women.
For women, particularly in midlife (their 40s and 50s), staying physically active is vital to offset muscle decline related to hormonal changes during menopause and to sustain long-term well-being. For women with disabilities, including conditions like multiple sclerosis, which disproportionately affects women and is becoming increasingly common, exercise is a critical self-management strategy. Staying active can be a game-changer.
Prioritising physical activity in midlife
Women tend to drop physical activity as they enter midlife, when staying physically active becomes particularly important for their health and well-being. On average, men already report doing more regular exercise than women. Women also tend to do less moderate or vigorous physical activity and are less likely to take part in organised sports.
Many women say that family and work responsibilities make it hard to exercise. This is notably common in midlife, when ongoing work commitments often overlap with caring for children and/or ageing parents. Time shrinks, confidence and energy levels dip and not knowing where to begin can make exercise feel out of reach.
As people age, their muscles naturally get smaller and weaker, with strength peaking around 25 years of age before slowly declining. In men, this decline tends to be gradual over time. In women, research shows a different pattern. After a steady decline, many measures of muscle health drop sharply between the ages of 40 and 50. This rapid loss is linked to menopause, which is a normal stage of life when the ovaries produce much lower levels of the female sex hormones oestrogens and progesterone.
Exercise is one of the most effective ways to slow this muscle loss. Resistance exercise—where muscles work against an external load, such as lifting weights or using resistance bands—is especially good for building and maintaining strength. Stronger muscles also help reduce the risk of many diseases, lower the chance of falls, support independence in older age, and are linked to living longer.
Because women lose muscle mass and strength faster than men, increasing physical activity during midlife rather than putting it off is crucial for their long-term health. And because the benefits can still apply later in life, it is never too late for women to start exercising.
Barriers to physical activity for women in midlife and with a disability
While circumstances vary, many women living with disabilities face similar barriers to staying active, which are further compounded by symptoms. Multiple sclerosis (MS), one such disability that affects mainly women during their most productive years in life, illustrates how health, gender and life-stage pressures can intersect to make staying active even harder.
MS is a neurological condition that affects women about three times more often than men. Symptoms vary, but many women diagnosed with MS experience fatigue, reduced balance, muscle weakness and changes in walking ability. Most are diagnosed in their 20s or 30s. While there is no cure, treatments have improved greatly in recent decades. There is now strong evidence that exercise can play a major role in improving health and daily function for people with MS.
Research shows that aerobic, strength, and balance training can improve fatigue, mobility and strength, and support better mental health outcomes. Yet, alongside MS‑specific barriers—such as tiredness, heat sensitivity, or difficulty accessing safe and suitable exercise spaces—many experience broader social barriers related to cost, limited transport, caring responsibilities and lack of support. For some, experiences of stigma or gender‑based violence can further restrict participation.
The good news is that exercise is safe for people with MS, and clear guidelines exist for getting started. Women who can still walk, even slowly or with a stick, can begin with short, manageable bouts of activity and gradually build to four or five weekly sessions that combine aerobic and resistance training. Balance and flexibility exercises are helpful for everyone. Physiotherapists and exercise physiologists can tailor programmes and teach strategies such as pacing, cooling and planning activity for times of higher energy.
Not long ago, people with MS were told to rest. Today, the evidence is clear: regular physical activity is one of the most important lifestyle steps women with MS can take to improve their symptoms and enhance quality of life.
Promoting physical activity locally
Recent studies highlight that women of all abilities are far more likely to stay active when they feel supported by family, peers or their broader community. When nearby community-based fitness programmes are safe, accessible and affordable, women are more likely to overcome barriers linked to confidence, motivation and depressive symptoms.
From our work among people with spinal cord injuries, some additional recommendations apply to people with disabilities more broadly.
First, to ensure that fitness staff receive proper training and mentoring to work with people with disabilities, which has been shown to improve participation and well-being dramatically.
Second, to co‑design programs so people can shape their own goals. Feeling in control and supported makes it easier to stay active.
Third, to expand policy and funding support to cover gym memberships and training the trainers, reducing these major barriers.
Together, these changes would make community fitness spaces more accessible and supportive, so women in midlife have better chances of exercising regularly.
Beatriz IR de Oliveira is a senior researcher and educator within Swinburne University of Technology, School of Health Sciences, Department of Allied Health, Discipline of Physiotherapy. She is an adjunct academic within the Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University. She currently receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
Séverine Lamon is a Professor within Deakin University’s School and Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, and the Deputy Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health. She currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Yvonne C Learmonth is a research physiotherapist and Associate Professor within the University of New South Wales’ School of Health Science, Discipline of Physiotherapy. She is an adjunct researcher in the School of Allied Health at Murdoch University and the Perron Institute. She currently receives funding from MS Australia.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™
