Testosterone is suddenly everywhere in menopause care.

It’s being pitched for libido, energy, brain fog, muscle, bone, mood, and that general feeling that your body has stopped cooperating.

I wanted to know what testosterone has actually earned.

In this episode, I get into the strongest evidence we have for testosterone in postmenopausal women, what HSDD actually means, and why a low testosterone result doesn’t automatically explain how you feel.

I also went looking for the muscle claim. Obviously.

Then there’s the stranger part of this story: there still isn’t an FDA-approved testosterone product for women in the U.S., some women are using a fraction of medication packaged for men, and the long-term breast and cardiovascular safety questions still aren’t settled.

We also get into pellets, dosing, monitoring, and what I’d want to know before anybody put testosterone under my skin.Join The Menopausal Meathead Community: https://menopausalmeathead.substack.com

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Creatine has survived decades of supplement shenanigans for one very good reason: it works.

But women still get warned it’ll make them bloated, wreck their kidneys, make their hair fall out or turn them into something resembling a waterlogged linebacker.

So I went through the evidence.

In this episode of Muscle Over Menopause, I get into what creatine can realistically do for muscle and strength, why five grams a day makes sense, what that early scale bump actually is, and what we know about kidneys and hair loss.

Then there’s the brain stuff.

The research there is interesting, especially as we age, but interesting and proven are not the same thing. I’ll tell you where I think the evidence earns some excitement and where people have gotten fourteen miles ahead of it.

And before I go, something different.

A personal coda about midlife, regret, relationships, careers, your body, and the spectacular amount of life we can waste with our foot on the gas while staring into the rearview mirror.

When you have effing idea what comes next, there’s one question worth asking:

What is the next best step?

In this episode

What creatine actually does when you lift

The new data in postmenopausal women

Muscle and strength gains

Why the scale may go up

Whether creatine causes bloating

The emerging brain and cognition research

Hair loss and DHT

Creatine, creatinine and your kidneys

Why I wouldn’t buy it for bone density

Why I use creatine monohydrate

Why five grams a day is plenty

Why you don’t need to load or cycle it

On agency, regret and starting from where you are

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Studies & sources

PubMed

Creatine monohydrate for lean mass, strength, and bone density in postmenopausal women

PubMed

Creatine and Cognition in Aging: A Systematic Review of Evidence in Older Adults

PubMed

CONCRET-MENOPA randomized controlled trial

PubMed

Systematic review of creatine supplementation and cognition

PubMed

Does creatine cause hair loss? A 12-week randomized controlled trial

PubMed

Creatine supplementation and kidney function: 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis

Red-light masks are everywhere, and some cost enough to require selling a vital organ.

So do they actually work for wrinkles?

I dug through the better trials, including a 2025 randomized sham-controlled home-mask study, and the answer is: yes, with a buyer-beware asterisk.

In this episode:

What changed in the strongest home-mask trial

Why the researchers saw an improvement that the people wearing the masks didn’t clearly see themselves

What industry funding does and doesn’t tell us

Why results from one red-light device don’t automatically apply to another

What FDA clearance actually means

Four questions to ask before spending several hundred dollars on something that makes you look like a relaxed homicidal maniac

Full article, studies and source links at Deep Kimchi.

Get inside The Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/p/training-lab

More at Deep Kimchi: deepkimchi.substack.com

Studies & sources

Park et al., 2025 randomized sham-controlled home-mask trial

Wunsch and Matuschka, 2014 controlled trial with randomized treatment arms and a nonrandomized control

Couturaud et al., 2023 uncontrolled mask study

Glass, 2021 clinical review

FDA explanation of the 510(k) clearance process

American Academy of Dermatology consumer guidance

WSJ Buy Side shopping guide that prompted the question — market context only, not scientific evidence

How do you know when it’s actually time to add weight?

I hit a 65-pound weighted pull-up for my 53rd birthday, but I didn’t get there by making every workout heavier. Sometimes I added weight. Sometimes I added a rep, used less assistance, cleaned up the movement or left the damn thing alone.

In this episode, I break down how to decide what to change in your next workout, including what to do when the next dumbbell is too big a jump, why more weight isn’t your only option, how hard a set needs to be, when another set makes sense and when your smartest move is to repeat the workout you already did.

The companion article includes the video of my 65-pound pull-up plus the written progression guide.

And if you’d rather not make these decisions yourself, Training Lab uses the sets, reps, load and feedback you log to adjust your progression from workout to workout.See the pull up: https://deepkimchi.substack.com

Get inside The Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/p/training-lab

More at Deep Kimchi: deepkimchi.substack.com

Studies & sources

ACSM: Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults. This is the source for the guideline to increase load roughly 2–10% when you can perform one or two reps beyond the target. PubMedRead on PubMed

ACSM 2026 Resistance Training Position Stand. An overview of 137 systematic reviews covering more than 30,000 participants. Relevant here for training volume, full range of motion, training to momentary fatigue, time under tension and resistance-training frequency. PubMedRead on PubMed

Resistance Training Load Effects on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain. This meta-analysis found similar hypertrophy across low, moderate and high loads, while heavier loads produced greater strength gains. PubMedRead on PubMed

STOP-EM trial. Forty peri- and early postmenopausal women were assigned to nine months of twice-weekly supervised heavy strength and impact training or a wait-list control. The intervention improved strength, lean mass, leg power and lumbar-spine bone density. PubMedRead on PubMed

Resistance training in middle-aged women before and after menopause. Women averaging about 52 completed a 10-week resistance-training phase. Both pre- and postmenopausal groups increased squat and bench-press strength, while the muscle-mass response differed by menopausal status. PubMedRead on PubMed

Women hear plenty about walking. I’m more interested in whether your legs will still get you off the toilet at 80.

This week: one five-rep chair test you can do at home, what to notice, and what to do if it’s harder than expected.

Try it: Use a regular chair, cross your arms, stand up and sit down five times. Time it. Use the same chair when you check again later.

Pain, dizziness, or feel unsafe doing it? Skip it.

Get inside The Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/p/training-lab

More at Deep Kimchi: deepkimchi.substack.com

Sources

Goldberg A, Chavis M, Watkins J, Wilson T. The Five Times Sit-to-Stand Test: validity, reliability and detectable change in older females. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2012. PubMed

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd ed. Adults should include muscle-strengthening work at least two days per week. Guidelines

American College of Sports Medicine. 2026 Resistance Training Position Stand. ACSM

Some days the dumbbells haven’t changed, but your access to strength has. Sleep loss and mental fatigue slow the lifts, raise perceived effort, and make an ordinary session cost more than it should.

I’m talking what grief, heartbreak, and four hours of sleep metabolically do inside a workout, and how to adjust the training without turning one bad week into a verdict on your body.

Get inside the Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode:

* What happened to ten resistance-trained women held to five hours in bed for nine nights

* Why lower-body lifts moved up to 15 percent slower while the logbook still looked normal

* Total training distress rose 84 percent on almost identical total work

* How mental fatigue cuts training volume, and which lifts take the bigger hit

* A scaled warm-up that tells you what kind of mood your muscles are in: 60 percent for ten, 80 for five, 90 for two

* When to drop the load, swap to the leg press, and go home after thirty useful minutes

* Why “easy, right, or too hard” needs an honest answer the week your life is on fire

* Why the mood benefit showed up without notable strength gains

* The way to get over somebody is to get under some iron

The warm-up is data, not character evidence.

Clinical depression deserves clinical care. Resistance training can support treatment. It cannot replace a qualified clinician, medication, therapy, or immediate help when you cannot care for yourself. A training plan is not crisis care.

If one woman came to mind while you were listening, send her this episode. She may not need a pep talk. She may need a place to put her body for a while.

Training Lab

The Lab asks how every set felt: easy, right, or too hard. Your program adjusts from that answer, which matters most on the weeks you can’t trust your own read on things. Six programs, autoregulated, built for bodies with mileage.

Get inside the Training Lab:

Resources:

Knowles O, et al. “Sustained Sleep Restriction Reduces Resistance Exercise Quality and Quantity in Females.” SportRxiv. https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.157

Solon-Júnior LJF, et al. “Mental Fatigue and Resistance Exercise: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Including GRADE Qualification.” European Journal of Sport Science, 2026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42168782/

Gordon BR, et al. “Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms.” JAMA Psychiatry, 2018. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29800984/

Agudelo LZ, et al. “Skeletal Muscle PGC-1α1 Modulates Kynurenine Metabolism and Mediates Resilience to Stress-Induced Depression.” Cell, 2014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25259918/

Every paid subscription supports Save Our Paws, the Romanian rescue pulling dogs and cats off the street and into warm laps. Strong women, saved animals. That’s the deal.

Stop Doing Math Mid-Lift

Two new programs are live in the Deep Kimchi Training Lab. The Complete Physique for your regular workout weeks, Anywhere Strong for everywhere else. Both adjust to you session by session, so you stop doing your own programming at 5:45 in the morning.

Get inside the Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/p/training-lab

In this episode:

The two leaks draining most women's training: guesswork at the rack, and travel weeks written off as a loss

Why slow results are a programming problem and not a character flaw

Autoregulation in plain English, and how rating a set easy, perfect, or too hard sets your next session's weights

Progressive overload as it actually gets applied: 2.5 lb jumps on smaller muscles, 5 lb on the big compound lifts

Why the week five deload is built in, and what tends to show up during it

The four training blocks, and why rotating them keeps your body from settling into complacency

What all of this means if you're on a GLP-1 and want to keep the muscle while you lose the fat

Anywhere Strong: bodyweight, bands, and hotel dumbbells that still progress week over week

Ask Michelle Anything: the coaching that ran over a thousand dollars a month, now inside a subscription

Resources:

The Deep Kimchi Training Lab: https://deepkimchi.substack.com/p/training-lab

Questions: [email protected]

Every paid subscription supports Save Our Paws, the Romanian rescue pulling dogs and cats off the street and into warm laps. Strong women, saved animals. That's the deal.

Michelle details how one of her private clients overcame a body recomposition plateau, achieving significant improvements in strength and biomarker numbers despite nothing else changing but this simple strategy.

Takeaways

- The importance of addressing plateaus in body recomposition.

- Strength gains can occur even with the same routine.

- Individualized training plans can lead to breakthroughs.

- Consistency in training is crucial for long-term success.

- Nutrition plays a vital role in muscle mass development.

- Tracking progress through biomarkers can provide motivation.

- Mindset shifts can help overcome mental barriers.

- Understanding the body's response to training is essential.

- Support from a coach who understands how women build muscle in midlife is critical

Resources

The Training Lab App

Michelle Burleson

--

body recomposition, muscle mass, strength training, fitness plateau, biomarker improvement, menopause, strength training for women, perimenopause

Michelle Burleson shares practical strategies for women to build muscle at any age, emphasizing progressive overload, proper technique, and consistency. This episode debunks myths about hormonal limits and provides actionable tips to enhance strength and muscle growth in perimenopause and beyond for women from all walks of life.

key topics

Progressive overload in strength training

Myth-busting about hormones and muscle growth

Importance of tracking weights and reps

Deep loaded stretches for muscle activation

Handling missed workouts and active rest

takeaways

Muscle grows when you ask it for more than last time and feed it.

Track your lifts and increase weights in small increments.

Deep, slow stretches stimulate more growth.

Missed workouts don't mean lost gains; recovery is key.

Consistency and proper progression are essential for muscle growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Muscle Growth Challenges

02:39 Understanding the Importance of Progressive Overload

05:00 Strategies for Effective Muscle Training

07:46 Overcoming Mental Barriers in Fitness

Resources

The Training Lab App

Michelle Burleson

--

muscle building, women over 40, strength training, progressive overload, fitness tips, menopause fitness, muscle growth, workout tips, strength training for women, fitness motivation

Your gin-soaked heart already knows the answer, but here it is anyway. In part two of the Q&A, Michelle gets into the stuff you actually live with day to day: booze, carb timing, sugar cravings, picking your starting weights, and where cardio fits around a lifting program (plus the real story on weight vests).

This episode:

∙ How bad is alcohol, really — for muscle, fat loss, and sleep

∙ When to eat carbs (and why sugar isn't the villain you think it is)

∙ Best advice for sugar addicts

∙ How to pick your starting weights in the Training Lab

∙ Cardio and sport timing around lifting, and the truth about weight vests

∙ The 4 non-negotiables that actually move the needle

➡️ Get the full FREE article + programs mentioned at Deep Kimchi➡️ Grow the muscle you've alway wanted with the Training Lab app>>

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