Do Women Runners Need HIIT Strength Workouts? A Science-Based Answer to Consider

As recreational women runners, we face a wild west of recommendations when our hormones start to change age 35 & beyond. Here I break down where I see common mistakes & well-meaning yet poorly applied exercise advice. 

One thing I forgot to mention: You can build HIIT (or really, SIT, which is sprint interval training & is found to be more effective for active females & cortisol regulation) into any running training plan. Having one speed work session per week is usually my recommended approach. It can be as simple as 6 x 30 second bursts at the end of a shorter run or doing a track workout with 400m repeats. Remember less is more to mitigate running from draining our hormones too fast & making perimenopause symptoms worse! We discuss all such nuances in depth in our Academy. 

If your body is being hit hard with peri/menopause symptoms, a best first step is to restore your energy, hormones & metabolism first, which we coach you through in our 1:1 Academy here. Then, you can easily get back to short yet strategic HIIT training. Specific to active women age 35 & beyond, we recommend limiting HIIT workouts to no more than twice per week, with a strict upper limit of three times, usually with a focus on short SIT vs. HIIT.

My fellow recreational women runners, you got this! Stay tuned to Breaking Through Wellness as we empower you to rewrite your age 35+ story to strong, energized & injury-free running while you look & feel your absolute best!

Find this video helpful? Share Breaking Through Wellness with a friend & subscribe below to stay up-to-date with our newsletter tips, interviews & educational events.