If you’ve been consistent with your workouts for years but suddenly feel slower, softer, more fatigued, and stuck despite doing “all the right things,” you’re not failing.
Your hormones are changing.
For many women in their 40s and 50s, the transition into perimenopause and menopause can feel like hitting a wall. Your recovery takes longer. Your metabolism feels sluggish. The scale creeps up. Your strength drops. And the strategies that once worked stop delivering results.
That frustration is exactly why Next Level: Your Guide to Kicking Ass, Feeling Great, and Crushing Goals Through Menopause and Beyond by Dr. Stacy Sims and Selene Yeager has become such an important resource for active midlife women.
This book doesn’t sugarcoat menopause. It doesn’t tell you to “slow down.” And it definitely doesn’t recommend tiny dumbbells and endless cardio.
Instead, it offers a bold, science-backed roadmap to help women train smarter, build muscle, protect their bones, and feel strong and energized again.
In this in-depth review, we’ll break down the core principles of Next Level, explore its training and nutrition strategies, evaluate its strengths and limitations, and help you decide whether it belongs on your glow-up reading list.
At the heart of Next Level is a powerful truth:
For decades, most exercise and nutrition research has been based on male physiology. Training plans, calorie formulas, and recovery protocols were designed around male hormone profiles, then simply handed to women and labeled “unisex.”
Dr. Stacy T. Sims is an international exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who has spent her career changing that.
With research experience at institutions like Stanford, she is one of the leading voices in female performance science. Her work focuses on understanding how women’s hormones affect metabolism, recovery, strength, endurance, and body composition across the lifespan.
Her mission is simple and revolutionary:
Women deserve training and nutrition strategies designed for their bodies.
That mission becomes even more critical during menopause, when hormonal changes fundamentally shift how the body responds to exercise, stress, and food.
Menopause is not just a milestone. It’s a full metabolic reset.
The transition is marked by declining levels of two key hormones: estradiol (estrogen) and progesterone. Estradiol is one of the most powerful anabolic hormones in the female body. Before menopause, it supports:
As estradiol declines, the body experiences a cascade of changes:
Lower estrogen reduces insulin sensitivity, making it easier to store fat, especially around the abdomen. Cortisol sensitivity increases, meaning stress now has a bigger impact on fat storage and muscle loss.
Without estrogen’s anabolic support, muscle loss accelerates and bone density declines. Some women lose up to 20 percent of their bone mass within the first 5–7 years after menopause.
Inflammation rises, joints feel stiffer, and recovery from workouts takes longer. Fatigue becomes more persistent.
Hot flashes, night sweats, and sleep disturbances become common as the brain’s temperature regulation system is affected.
Brain fog, mood swings, and increased anxiety often appear during this transition.
In short, your body is operating under a new rulebook.
And Next Level exists to help you learn it.
One of the most empowering messages in Next Level is this:
Menopause is not a time to slow down.
It’s a time to train smarter and stronger.
Dr. Sims argues that because estrogen is no longer providing an anabolic signal, we must replace that signal through training. The goal is to tell the body:
“We still need muscle. We still need strong bones. We still need metabolic power.”
The program is built on three core pillars.
This is the foundation of the entire system.
Lifting heavy means using weights that challenge you for 3–6 reps per set with excellent form. These are not tiny dumbbells or endless circuits. This is real strength training.
Why it matters:
Heavy lifting creates a powerful survival signal in the body. It tells your brain and muscles that strength is still required.
That signal becomes essential once estrogen declines.
HIIT and sprint interval training involve short bursts of near-maximal effort followed by recovery periods. These workouts should be performed no more than twice per week.
Benefits include:
These workouts retrain your metabolism to use glucose efficiently and protect against fat gain.
Explosive movements such as:
These movements generate high force in a short time, which is exactly what bones need to stay strong.
Power training:
Together, these three pillars form a complete system for menopausal fitness.
Heavy lifting builds muscle.
HIIT protects metabolism.
Plyometrics strengthen bones.
This is not random exercise. It’s strategic training for longevity.
Training is only half the equation. Without proper fueling, intense workouts become catabolic, breaking the body down instead of building it up.
Dr. Sims is very clear on one thing:
The book recommends a protein intake of 1.4–2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day.
That’s roughly:
Why so much?
Because aging muscle becomes less sensitive to protein. You need more of it to trigger muscle protein synthesis and preserve lean tissue.
Protein supports:
Fasted workouts may work for younger bodies, but for menopausal women they can spike cortisol and encourage muscle breakdown and abdominal fat storage.
Instead:
This keeps your body in a building state instead of a breaking state.
Empowering and Proactive
The book reframes menopause as a powerful new chapter, not a decline.
Science-Based and Educational
It breaks down complex physiology into practical, actionable guidance.
Fills a Massive Gap
There are very few resources that address menopause and athletic performance with this level of detail.
Results-Focused
This is not vague wellness advice. It’s a system.
Designed for Active Women
The training templates are intense and best suited for women already exercising consistently.
Performance-Driven Language
Some readers may feel the body composition focus is too narrow.
Leading-Edge Research
Some recommendations push ahead of long-term clinical research, although they align with current performance science.
Who This Book Is For
This book is ideal for:
Even if you don’t follow the program exactly, the education alone is priceless.
Absolutely.
Next Level is one of the most important fitness books written for midlife women.
It gives you the science behind your changing body.
It teaches you how to train for longevity.
It empowers you to reclaim your strength, metabolism, and confidence.
The biggest takeaway?
Menopause is not the end of your athletic life.
It’s the beginning of your strongest, smartest, most intentional chapter yet.
And with the right training, the right fuel, and the right mindset, your best years of strength and vitality are still ahead.
If you’re building your midlife glow-up around muscle, movement, metabolic health, and longevity, Next Level belongs on your bookshelf.
