The Jenga Effect : Why Women's Muscle Is Crumbling Under Modern Pressures – And How to Rebuild It Stronger
posted on: January 28, 2026. posted in: Health
Visualise a strong, sturdy, stable jenga tower for me...
A jenga tower with all its pieces, and all those pieces are optimally aligned, creating the most stable and resilient structure possible.
Then one day, dieting comes along. Maybe starting in your teens, then continuing through your twenties and thirties, and every diet you try gives your jenga tower a really good shake, dislodging a couple of pieces.
As you move into your 40s, now ageing is playing its role. Your jenga tower, already weakened and unbalanced by a couple of decades of dieting, is now losing a block here and a block there from the natural ageing process. Your tower is beginning to look and feel weaker, more unstable, with lots of blocks missing.
Just when you think things can't get much worse, perimenopause arrives, often in your mid-40s, sometimes earlier. The drop in estrogen not only accelerates the loss of more blocks from the periphery, but it also starts to wear down the central blocks, the most important blocks, that act as the support column for the whole structure.
Battered, worn down, destabilised, and with a significant portion of the blocks you once had in your teens and twenties now missing, your jenga tower now looks like the smallest of gusts could cause it to topple. In your desperation to regain the strong, stable, healthy, pain-free jenga tower you had in your youth, you decide to go on a GLP-1. Medication that can be life saving for many and hugely beneficial, but which comes with more block loss (studies show 15–40% of the weight lost can come from lean mass in the absence of strength training), more destabilisation, and a greater risk of the tower collapsing further down the line.
The Outcome
The jenga tower, of course, represents your musculoskeletal system. Your muscle, bone density and structural strength, that is devastated by dieting, eroded by ageing, punished by perimenopause, and in millions of women now, weakened by prolonged GLP-1 use.
- "Muscle catabolism" is the technical name for the muscle loss that occurs with dieting and prolonged GLP-1 use.
- "Sarcopenia" is the technical name for the muscle loss that occurs with ageing, and is accelerated by perimenopause.
- "Osteopenia" is the technical name for the bone density loss that occurs with all of the above, and a precursor to osteoporosis.
The short version? Chronic dieting, ageing, perimenopause and GLP-1 use are the Four Horsewomen of weakness, frailty and poor quality of life in old age.
The Solution
If someone presented you with that weak, destabilised, at risk of collapsing jenga tower, how might you go to work correcting it?
Firstly, you might look at the blocks you've got, and although they're limited in number, you can start re-aligning them, to create the strongest possible structure. This is "postural training" and "core conditioning".
Secondly, you might look around and see if there are any blocks you can add back into the structure. Adding a block back here, and a block back there is rebuilding the lost muscle, a process known as "hypertrophy".
Thirdly, you might see if you can add back in those crucial central blocks, that act like the spine of the structure, giving the structure the most possible stabilisation and support. This is "bone remodeling" and especially important for the spine.
The question on your mind right now is obvious...
"How can I achieve this postural training, core conditioning, hypertrophy and bone remodeling ASAP, to reverse the damage and secure my future healthy, mobility and longevity???"
And the answer is STRENGTH TRAINING.
Strength training is the phrase that captures all of the above. It is the process of adding load (resistance) to your jenga tower, in a way that realigns it, rebuilds it and ultimately makes it stronger, hence the "strength" bit. And the really good news is that you can learn how to do it at home, in just 5 to 10 minutes a day.
Ready to Rebuild Your Tower?
If this is hitting home.
If you're done watching blocks disappear.
If you are ready to feel strong, capable, and unshakable again, start today.
Join Rebel Physique Club™ for daily strength training workouts, video coaching, expert support, and a private community of women doing exactly the same thing... rewriting their story from fragile to unbreakable.
No judgement.
No pressure.
Just strength.
Click below to get started.
Your tower is waiting to stand taller than ever.
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