Typically, muscle mass and strength peak at around 30 years of age and females will experience greater loss around the time of menopause. Muscle mass and strength are associated with performance and quality of life;​ thus, loss of muscle mass and strength negatively affect performance and quality of life in females during menopause. Exercise and more specifically heavy resistance training is an effective method to maintain muscle function;​ however, most clinical trials have excluded females during the early stages of menopause, known as peri- and early post-menopause. This has created a paucity of understanding regarding the effectiveness of exercise for preventing muscle mass and strength loss during menopause. Thus, this thesis first examined the current randomized controlled trial literature on the effects of exercise on muscle and bone health in peri- and early post-menopausal females through a systematic review. Six total articles were included in the review, two investigating peri-menopausal females, and four investigating early post-menopausal females. While no study investigated differences in response to exercise between menopausal status, overall results from the systematic review found resistance exercise, or strength training, to be effective for improving muscle mass, areal bone mineral density, and muscle strength during early post-menopause. The second component of this thesis examined the effectiveness of a 9-month high-intensity resistance and impact training (HiRIT) randomized controlled trial for preventing muscle mass, strength, and leg power output loss in peri- and early post-menopausal females. Findings include significant increases of 1.2% to 2.0% in lean mass, 2.2% to 2.9% in appendicular lean mass, and 3.7% to 4.5% in leg power output assessed during vertical countermovement jump (CMJ) testing in the intervention group compared to −0.8%, −0.9%, and −0.9% declines in lean mass, appendicular lean mass, and leg power output in the control group. There was a significant main effect of menopausal status on lean mass and appendicular lean mass, where peri-menopausal females experienced greater loss compared with early post-menopausal females. However, there was no significant difference in the response to the intervention between peri and early post-menopausal females. These findings suggest the potential of HiRIT as an effective preventative method to increase lean muscle mass and leg power output during the early stages of menopause.