Hormones are powerful chemical messengers that affect almost everything in your body: from energy, mood, sleep, metabolism, muscle growth, and immunity. Did you know that one of the best-known natural ways to support hormone balance is through exercise? Even more specifically, strength training (also known as resistance training) is one of the most effective ways to exercise to help facilitate this balance.
How Strength Training Impacts Hormones
When it comes to exercise, we can categorise hormones into two different types:
- Anabolic hormones: build new muscle and promote metabolic activity.
- Catabolic hormones: break down cell protein and encourage fat retention.
Both processes occur naturally during exercise, but strength training helps us tilt the scale more favourably. Strength training stimulates the production of anabolic hormones like testosterone, human growth hormone (hGH), and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) while keeping catabolic hormones to a minimum.
When anabolic hormones are released, they don’t just build muscle, they also:
- Repair tissues
- Increase fat metabolism
- Help lift mood
- Assist metabolism
- Promote quality sleep
- Support immunity
Alternatively, excess catabolic hormones (like chronically high cortisol) can impair body composition by decreasing muscle and increasing body fat stores. This process creates inflammation throughout the body and ignites a hormonal chain reaction that worsens imbalances. By incorporating strength training into your routine, this helps shift your body into a more anabolic, hormone-friendly state.
Key Hormones Boosted by Strength Training
Here are the key hormones that benefit most from strength training:
- Testosterone – repairs muscle, builds strength, and supports energy and vitality in both men and women.
- Human Growth Hormone (hGH) – helps burn fat, rebuild tissue, support immunity, and boost recovery.
- Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) – partners with hGH to stimulate muscle and bone growth, repair tissue, and keep your metabolism firing.
For women, lifting weights also supports balance between estrogen and progesterone, especially during perimenopause and menopause when natural hormone shifts impact mood, energy, bone health, and body composition.
Strength Training for Women’s Hormone Health
Strength training doesn’t just build muscle it also helps women balance hormones in key ways:
1. Improves Insulin Sensitivity and Hormonal Balance
More muscle means better glucose control. Strength training increases the number of GLUT4 “gateways” in your muscle cells, pulling glucose from your blood more efficiently. This improves insulin sensitivity and stabilizes sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. From this you’ll see benefits such as lessened PMS symptoms, steadier energy, and reduced mood swings.
2. Boosts Metabolism and Thyroid Function
Your thyroid is the command center of metabolism. Strength training builds lean muscle, which helps raise your resting metabolic rate and helps improve thyroid hormone sensitivity. For women managing hypothyroidism, lifting weights can complement treatment and help ease fatigue, brain fog, and weight gain.
3. Builds Stress Resilience
Chronic stress raises cortisol, which disrupts sleep, appetite, and mood. Strength training helps regulate cortisol rhythms over time by stimulating the release of myokines (which release when muscle fibres contract) and neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. When these are released, they have positive impacts on mood and adaptability.
4. Supports Sleep and Melatonin Balance
Strength training improves sleep quality and duration by reducing anxiety and increasing sleep pressure. Better sleep restores melatonin cycles and helps regulate other hormones like cortisol and thyroid hormones. To further enhance the benefits of strength training on sleep, train earlier in the day or keep late-night sessions lighter to avoid disrupting melatonin release.
5. Protects Bone Health During and After Menopause
When estrogen declines after menopause, bone loss accelerates. Strength training is well known to be highly beneficial for preserving bone mass. Strength training provides the mechanical loading bones need to stay strong, while also preserving muscle mass for balance and joint support. Any compound or complex lift like barbell squats or lunges are highly effective exercises to perform.
Why Hormone Balance Through Strength Training Matters as You Age
Muscle mass naturally begins to decline in your 30s, a process called sarcopenia. Without strength training, this accelerates, leading to more fat storage, less muscle, reduced energy, and even changes in mood and brain function.
But strength training reverses much of this process. By building muscle, you create a healthier hormonal environment that supports:
- Stable metabolism
- Better energy
- Reduced inflammation
- Improved mood and sleep
- Long-term resilience and vitality
More strength = better hormone balance at every stage of life.
How to Strength Train for Hormonal Balance
So how can you receive these anabolic, hormone-friendly effects? Here’s the formula:
- Strength train 2–3 times per week
- Use high volume (multiple sets, enough reps to challenge your muscles)
- Train with moderate to high intensity (heavy enough to be challenging, yet safe)
- Focus on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, presses, rows)
- Allow adequate rest between sessions to maximise recovery and hormone benefits
- Pair your workouts with quality sleep, balanced nutrition, and stress management for the best results
More muscle recruitment = more hormone release.
Strength Training Is Hormone Training
Strength training is about so much more than building muscle. It’s one of the most powerful tools you have for supporting hormone balance, boosting metabolism, improving mood, and protecting long-term health.
If you’re not already lifting weights, now is the perfect time to start, you can follow these tips to learn the best way to strength train. Keep it simple, aim for 2–3 sessions per week, and focus on the big compound movements. Your body, and your hormones, will thank you.
