Strength training is a low-cost exercise intervention that has a powerful impact on women’s health. It maintains function and independence as women age, improves mood and sleep, maintains muscle and bone strength, and helps maintain a healthy weight.

This collaborative project with Westfield Health, will create an accessible, co-designed app that helps to democratise the health benefits of strength training and meet the specific exercise needs of women in midlife.

The goal is to address a gap in existing wellbeing offers for women at work, by co-designing an app that will make it easier for women in midlife to improve their wellbeing by engaging in a personalised exercise programme. It will integrate behaviour change and exercise science to address major barriers and help women arrive at the ‘start line’ of later life in better health and with greater physical reserves.

Falls in later in life are a major threat to healthy ageing and can lead to pain, injury, and loss of independence. Falls also have a significant impact on health services, both immediate hospital care and long-term aftercare. The 60+ age group is growing faster than any other age group; therefore it is anticipated that problems related to falls will increase. Research has found that women express more of fear of falling than men, and sustain more hip fractures from falls, but current approaches focus on older people who have had a fall or are at risk of falling.

This project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Healthy Ageing Challenge.