Blogging with Dr. Stacy Sims

Training and Racing Through PMS period pms

By working with your premenstrual physiology, you can make progress (and yes, podiums) despite the challenges of premenstrual syndrome.

By now, you’ve heard me talk all about “period power”—that your menstrual cycle is when your body is more resilient to stress and a great...

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Female Athletes Are Redefining Active Pregnancy pregnancy

Elite women are training, competing, and yes, winning, during and after pregnancy, rewriting the playbook for moms in sport.

It wasn’t that long ago that active women were discouraged from continuing their exercise routine when they got pregnant. Sure, they were supposed to meet the bare...

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How to Beat Jet Lag jetlag recovery sleep

Whether you’re crossing time zones or working shift work, circadian rhythm disruption takes a toll, and is worse for women. Here’s what to know.

Anyone who’s been in an airport lately knows that travel is back. Airports and planes are packed as people take long overdue...

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Should Women Take Collagen Supplements? nutrition supplements

Collagen is the current darling of the wellness industry. It can benefit a lot of women, but not all supplements work the same.

More women (and men for that matter) are interested in collagen supplements than ever before. Weightlifters believe they can enhance muscle mass. Athletes want them to...

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Case Study on Kerry Litka menopause menstrual cycle

Kerry Litka talks about her change of perspective as a post-menopausal woman

For a change of pace, I thought that a case study of a woman in our community might be of interest to my readers, and it ties in nicely with the sale of my Menopause 2.0 course (the last time it goes on sale until...

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Why Menopausal Women Need Polarized Training menopause perimenopause training

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...

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Can (and Should) Women Carb Load? carbohydrate fueling nutrition

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....

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Why Women Need to Prioritize Protein fueling protein supplements

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,...

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Women, Concussions, and Long Covid: Science Shows We’re More Susceptible concussion covid nutrition supplements

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...

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Women-Specific Strategies to Train and Compete in the Heat cold heat hydration recovery

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...

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Nail a PR at Every Phase of Your Menstrual Cycle menstrual cycle training

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...

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Want to Burn Belly Fat? Lift Weights. strength

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...

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How to Power Your Way Through Menopause menopause perimenopause

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...

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How Your Female Sex Hormones Affect HRV hrv

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...

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Why Women Need More Strength and Less Cardio Training strength

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,...

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Harness the Perimenopause “Power Window” perimenopause

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...

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Female Athletes & Carbohydrates | Dr. Stacy Sims carbohydrate nutrition

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...

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The Power of Plant-Centered Eating fueling intermittent fasting ketogenic diet microbiome vegetarian

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...

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What We’re Learning About Covid-19 Vaccination and the Menstrual Cycle covid menstrual cycle

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...

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You’re Not a Small Man, But You May Need to Eat Like One! fueling

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...

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Holiday Stress Cranking Up Your Anxiety? Turn Up the Intensity! anxiety intensity

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...

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Nail Your Golden Recovery Window for Optimum Health and Performance recovery

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...

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Hydration is Power. Harness Yours hydration

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...

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Sports Supplements: What Works for Women supplements

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...

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