Donating blood is great. But you don’t need to give a pint to gain fitness as new research may suggest.

Women are not small men. It’s been my mantra for well over a decade. In recent years, the scientific community has been catching up and calling attention to sex differences in...

What you need to know about the pre-event pasta party.

Women perform best when they’re well-fueled. Anyone who follows me here is clear on that. Women should prioritize protein to make and maintain our muscles. We also need carbs, of course, to fuel our exercise, training, and competition....

The right amount of this essential macronutrient keeps your female physiology working its best.

Building and maintaining muscle is essential not just for performance but also for health and longevity. Lower muscle mass is associated with increases in metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease,...

Females appear more sensitive to brain tissue inflammation. Here’s what might help.

Scientists have recently reported that women are more likely than men to experience long COVID after an infection, and are significantly more likely to experience related complications in the brain and...

Race day temperatures are rising. Here’s what active women need to know.

As I write this, race season is underway in the Northern Hemisphere and temperatures are climbing as much as 20 degrees above average across a large swath of the U.S. As sweltering weather becomes the norm, it’s...

Your physiology changes as your hormones fluctuate, but there’s never a “bad day” to nail a personal best.

My life’s work is largely devoted to helping women work with their unique physiology to train and perform their best. That means adjusting training sessions to...

Resistance training triggers hormones that increase abdominal fat burning. 

When women come to me wanting to change their body composition, I direct them straight to the weight room. Contrary to the old “cardio to burn fat” “resistance training to build muscle” dogma...

Heavy lifting. Sprint training. Plyometrics. They all have one thing in common—they’re essential for menopausal health and performance.

Society has taught women to devalue their power. That’s especially true during menopause when we’re told it’s time to slow down and...

Why your recovery scores may not be what they seem depending on your cycle.

Many women tell me that they use heart rate variability (HRV)—the variance in time between beats of your heart—for tracking recovery. HRV is the metric that Whoop Strap, Oura Ring, and other recovery tracking...

Endurance sports have their place, but for long-term health and longevity, you need to hit the weights.

As a former Ironman triathlete and bike racer, I’m not about to tell anyone to hang up their racing flats or rack their bike. Endurance training can improve cardiorespiratory fitness,...

The science behind ice baths and sauna sessions.

Extreme temperature treatments have been a hot (pun intended) trend for the past few years. Long time athlete Gabby Reece famously swears by super hot (up to 220 degrees F!) sauna treatments followed by icy cold plunges and Lady Gaga’s...

Research shows the perimenopausal period is the best time to adapt your training to prevent unwanted menopausal metabolism and body composition changes.

I’ll say up front that it’s never too late (or too early!) to start lifting heavy sh*t  and upping intensity to improve...

Men do, too. Research shows another downside to low-carb training.

Women perform best in a fueled state. That means eating carbohydrates. That shouldn’t be a radical concept. Carbs are the preferred fuel source for our brain; they’re necessary to fuel high intensity efforts, and they...

Building the foundation of your diet on plants builds a strong foundation for health and performance, especially for women.

Since I spend so much time helping inform how other people should eat for optimal health and performance, many women ask me how I eat. I have been a plant-centered athlete...

If you thought it affected your cycle, you were right. Here’s what’s going on. 

I just got boosted. Aside from a sore arm (which I had to put a brave face on for, so my daughter wouldn’t be afraid to get her shot after me), I didn’t have too many side...

Research shows that female athletes have the same relative energy requirements as their male counterparts.

As anyone who’s been following me for more than 3 days knows, I’m all about women fueling properly, because the fact is that most active women do not eat enough to support their...

Your microbiome helps you turn food to fuel and a whole lot more.

Most of us don’t think too much about our gut…until our gut demands our attention with bloating, cramping, and other forms of GI distress. That’s a mistake because our gut microbiome is one of the most...

Study finds higher intensity exercise helps relieve anxiety.

I am a huge proponent of high-intensity exercise, especially short, sharp high-intensity training like sprint intervals of 30 seconds or less because it's like powerful medicine.

Sprint interval training (SIT) fires up your fast-twitch...

Post-workout fueling matters even more for women than men.

Low energy availability is extremely common in women athletes. A 2019 survey of 1,000 female athletes across more than 40 sports published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine estimated the risk of low energy availability in women...

Women heat up sooner, sweat less, and have hormonal fluctuations that impact how we keep our cool when we crank up our efforts. 

I have been studying hydration my entire adult life (the basis of my PhD was sex differences in hydration in the heat!), both as an athlete myself in endurance...

New study shows that iron deficiency and anemia take a toll on active women.

Iron is essential for energy. It helps your body deliver oxygen to your working muscles and the mineral participates in the energy making process in your mitochondria. It’s also a key player in cognitive function...

Surprise, surprise, some ergogenic aids work differently for us than they do for the guys.

Research on female college athletes shows that more than 65 percent of them use some type of supplement at least once a month. I don’t know what the percentage is among performance-minded women...

A new study links a mom’s physical activity to her offspring’s lung function.

For years, women have contacted me, fresh off a positive pregnancy test, wondering whether they need to stop working out for fear of doing harm. In fact, the opposite is true.  

For starters, it is safe...

Menstruation can be prime time for PRs. Here’s how to go with the flow (no matter how heavy your flow).

“What’s the matter, you on the rag?”

“Hey ‘ladies,’ are you going to get your heads in the game, or do you need some tampons?”

When I was coming...