I Used to Exercise to Be Skinny. Now I Lift to Stay Strong.

For most of my twenties, I exercised to be smaller. Not stronger, not healthier, smaller. The metric was always the same: take up less space, burn more than you consumed, earn your weekend. I didn't think about what my body could do, only what it looked like, as one does when they live out their teen years in the early 2000s.

But somewhere in my thirties, that (thankfully) changed. After infertility, two high-risk pregnancies, and watching my body do things I genuinely didn't think it was capable of, I started moving differently, wanting to feel capable and strong instead of small. I started strength training and Pilates to build instead of shrink, and the difference in my joints, my energy, my general sense of stability has not been subtle.

What I didn't know when I made that shift was how much it mattered for my bones specifically. Women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the five to seven years following menopause, so the window to build bone mass that protects you later is right now, in your 30s and 40s, while estrogen is still doing its job. Strength training is one of the most evidence-backed ways to support bone density, and collagen, which makes up about 90% of your bone's organic structure, is the other piece most of us are missing entirely.

I used to exercise to look a certain way. Now I exercise because I want to be strong at 70 — a completely different relationship with my own body, and one I'd be proud to pass on to my daughter.

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