Help & FAQ

GRACE is a movement framework for midlife, created by Mish Wright. It’s a set of stories that explain what’s changing in your body, and a lens for noticing where to put your effort. There are five elements: Grit, Regulate, Accumulate, Cardio and Endurance. The Wild Card is permission to rest or adjust the plan. It isn’t a workout program. It’s free, and written by a human for humans. Read the protocol.

Yes, your body needs all five, plus the Wild Card for the days that don’t go to plan. It’s less work than it sounds, because they overlap. A walk with a few hills and some slow breaths can be Endurance, Cardio and Regulate all at once. And the volume is yours. If you’re new to exercise, start with Regulate and Accumulate, and add Grit and Cardio as your capacity grows. A week with gaps isn’t a failed week. It shows you where to put your effort next.

Start with a reframe: movement doesn’t have to look like a workout. Regulate and Accumulate are a great way in: a few slow breaths, and a day with more movement in it. Add Grit and Cardio as your capacity grows, because they keep you mobile and independent for the next third of your life. A qualified fitness professional can help you get them right.

Heavy means something different for every woman. What’s heavy for you depends on your strength, your history and how your body feels right now. That’s why GRACE uses the term progressive overload: making something a little harder over time, at a pace that suits you. It might be a heavier weight. It might be more repetitions, a slower lower, or getting up from a chair without using your hands.

The other question is whether you can lift heavy safely. Heavy loads put pressure on the pelvic floor, and in midlife that matters. If you notice leaking, heaviness or pain, ease back and talk to a pelvic health physio or a fitness professional who understands women’s health. Building strength and looking after your pelvic floor belong together.

GRACE has no fixed session counts or durations. Much of it fits into the day you already have: hanging out the washing, a walk with a friend, two minutes of slow breathing. The elements overlap, so one walk can do the work of several. For most women the hard part is protecting the time, which is why saying no is part of Endurance.

Nobody falls off GRACE. A day that went sideways is a day you played your Wild Card, and tomorrow is a new day. Look at your week and notice which elements need more of you. That’s information, not failure.

No. A chair, a staircase, a hill, your kitchen and your breath cover all five elements. Bands, dumbbells and gym machines are options if you like them, not requirements, and a gym can be a great place to build strength.

Something shifts when you start to enjoy movement. “I should go to the gym” becomes “I wonder how else I could move today.” You get curious about moving more, and in more ways, because regular and varied movement shows up clearly in your body, your mind and how well you recover.

GRACE looks at capacity, not appearance. Notice things like getting up from the floor more easily, how you’re sleeping, how quickly you recover, how much energy you have and how much of what you do brings you joy. If you use Living with GRACE, the weekly view shows the shape of your week.

Anything that calms your nervous system. Start with the Long Exhale: two minutes, breathing out for longer than you breathe in. A walk outside, gentle yoga or tai chi all count. Call it whatever gets you breathing low and slow and back in the present moment.

Many women come to GRACE because their body has changed shape, and that’s a fair reason to be here. Some of the change is the hormone shift itself, which moves where the body stores fat. GRACE can’t promise a particular shape, and it doesn’t treat your body as something to fix. What it builds is what supports you through midlife: strength, steadier energy, better sleep and recovery. If you’re worried about changes you can’t explain, talk to a menopause-informed GP.

GRACE was written for them. Hot flushes, broken sleep, low energy and aching joints change what’s possible from one day to the next, so symptoms are part of the plan, not a reason to stop. That’s what the Wild Card is for, and why Regulate is one of the five elements. Start where your body is today. If symptoms are new, severe or worrying you, talk to a menopause-informed GP.

Hard is yours to define. Cardio in GRACE means getting breathless on purpose, and what that feels like is measured against you, not against anyone else. For one woman it’s a brisk walk up a hill. For another it’s a run, or intervals like the Norwegian 4×4 (four minutes hard, three easy, four rounds). Start where you are and build gradually. If you have a heart or blood pressure condition, or haven’t done anything like this in a while, check with your GP first.

GRACE is for the midlife years and the decades after. Perimenopause can start in your late thirties or forties, and what you build now carries into the next 30+ years. It’s never too late to start.

GRACE is written for women in midlife, because it’s built around what changes with perimenopause and menopause. The stories speak to that experience. Anyone is welcome to use the ideas, and the five elements are good movement for all bodies.

Leaking, heaviness and pain are information. They’re signs to ease the load or change the movement, not to push through. Leaking is common in midlife, but you don’t have to put up with it, and a pelvic health physio can help. Aching joints often improve with the right kind of movement. Pain that’s sharp, or that doesn’t settle, is worth getting checked.

No. GRACE is a movement framework, not medical advice. Talk to your GP before starting anything new, especially if perimenopause or menopause symptoms are in play, and stop if anything hurts or feels wrong.

F.I.T.T. (frequency, intensity, time and type) is how exercise has long been prescribed, and much of the research behind it was done on young, fit men. Lifting heavy is a good part of the story, but only a part. GRACE doesn’t replace either. It adds what they leave out: changing hormones, fluctuating energy, recovery and joy. Instead of numbers, it asks three questions. What should I do? How does it feel? Does it bring me joy, and does it fit my life?

There are some excellent programs for women in midlife, and some of them, like Dr Stacy Sims’s, treat every woman with a plan as an athlete. Many women don’t feel like athletes, and don’t want to. GRACE is a gentler approach. It starts with what you’re already doing, shows you where the gaps are, and helps you add to it in a way you can keep up. It’s not a new program to start. It’s a lens for the life you already have.

Mish Wright isn’t a researcher, and GRACE doesn’t pretend to be new research. She’s a translator. For more than 15 years she has taught fitness professionals, and she has built education on women’s health, including the Menopause Training Matrix™ and her course on training peri and menopausal women. Along the way she reads the research, and GRACE is how she makes the findings relatable: stories you can use in a real week. Each element draws on that work, and it was tested with the GRACE Advisory Panel.

Yes. Your body adapts when you recover, not only when you train. That’s why Regulate is one of the five elements and why the Wild Card exists. Rest is part of the plan, not what’s left over after it.

Yes, please do. Whether you’re a fitness professional or a coach, GRACE is a shared language for the conversation you’re already having about midlife. All we ask is that you credit it: “Based on GRACE by Mish Wright”.

Yes. GRACE is free for anyone who works with women in midlife, and it gives you a shared language for movement conversations with your clients. Use the free resources, credit GRACE (“Based on GRACE by Mish Wright”), and work within your own scope of practice. The Menopause Training Matrix™ is for fitness professionals, because its focus is exercise.

The GRACE Beginner Toolkit is a mini course for fitness professionals and coaches. It walks you through menopause and how to talk about hormones, and includes cheat sheets and client support documents for bringing GRACE into your work. It’s also included in the Menopause Training Matrix™ program. Find it at mishwright.com/courses/grace-beginner-toolkit.

Yes. GRACE is meant to be shared far and wide, whether you’re a fitness professional or a coach. There are free resources to help, including logos you can use. Build your program on it, give GRACE the credit, and make it your own.

No, you don’t need MTM. GRACE is a lens for movement in midlife, and it stands on its own. The Menopause Training Matrix is for fitness professionals and goes further: it’s training in how to work with clients through menopause, built around the five symptom categories. GRACE is where you start and MTM is where you go deeper.

An MTM Practitioner is a fitness professional with formal learning in the Menopause Training Matrix, specific to the five symptom categories. Their clients’ answers on the Menopause Symptom Sorter show which categories matter most, and the Practitioner knows what to do with them.

Gyms and studios can license the Menopause Training Matrix for their whole team with an MTM Organisation Licence. See how it works at menopausetrainingmatrix.com.

Soon. We’re polishing the last details. Living with GRACE is for iPhone, and there’s no Android version yet.

The protocol is the framework: the five elements and the stories behind them. Living with GRACE is the iPhone app for seeing your week through that lens.

Yes. There are two, one for trainers and one for everyday readers. You’ll find both on the Resources page.

The protocol is free for anyone to use. Living with GRACE is a one-off purchase with no subscription.

Living with GRACE is for iPhone, running iOS 18.5 or later. There isn’t an iPad, Apple Watch or Android version at the moment.

Your streak counts the days you log any GRACE activity. Miss a day? Nothing is lost forever. You simply begin again whenever you’re ready, and your total days still count. Streaks are there to encourage, never to pressure.

No. You don’t need a goal to use the app. If you’d like one, you can design a weekly rhythm and choose how forgiving it should be: Strict, Balanced or Gentle.

No. Notifications are optional gentle reminders and weekly reflections. You can turn them on or off any time in Settings → Notifications, and adjust the timing to suit your day.

If you choose to connect Apple Health, Living with GRACE can recognise workouts you’ve already recorded and credit them toward your GRACE elements. It reads workouts only (not heart rate, steps or anything else) and never writes to Health. Connecting is entirely optional, and you can switch it off any time.

Yes. Living with GRACE has no server and no account. Your name, activities and any health data never leave your iPhone. The one thing that travels is your personal goal’s name and weekly pattern, which sync through your own iCloud so the goal appears on your other devices. You can remove everything any time from Settings → Delete All Data. Read the privacy policy.

No. Nothing you log leaves your phone, so no one else can see it: not your trainer, not Mish, not us. If you’d like to show your trainer your week, you can share your weekly card yourself.

Rest, flexibility and permission. Log a Wild Card on a day you rested or adjusted the plan on purpose. It counts. There’s one per day, on a day with nothing else logged.