Blogging with Dr. Stacy Sims
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Women struggle more than men to get a good night’s rest. Let’s fix that.
Women appear to have a predisposition to struggling with insomnia. Research meta-analysis has shown it. Surveys by the National Sleep Foundation have shown it. Up to 67 percent of women reported having trouble...
Working with your physiology to keep your cool is more important than ever as temperatures reach new heights.
Though the temps are cool and cloudy here in the Southern Hemisphere where I live, active women working out in the Northern Hemisphere are facing scorching temps, with many places hitting...
Research finds viewing #fitspiration posts can harm body image and make exercise feel harder.
As a female athlete performance physiologist, I work with women of all fitness and age levels to optimize their physiology and help them feel and perform their best. I know all too well how many barriers...
Research shows incontinence is common in active women. Don’t let stress incontinence keep you on the sidelines.
During a photo shoot for our upcoming book (out Spring 2022), my co-author Selene Yeager was surrounded by fierce, active women, who openly shared something they generally keep...
Is the pill blunting your training gains?
Chances are, if you’re on the pill, it’s to prevent pregnancy (or to help treat other conditions like PCOS), not to enhance your athletic performance. But I’m guessing you don’t want your contraception to be hindering your athletic...
Here’s how to make sure you’re eating enough!
When women come to me because they’re struggling with poor performance one of the simplest (though not always easiest) and most successful strategies I provide is getting them to eat more.
Many women athletes are chronically...
I sat down with 8x U.S. Champion Steeplechase runner and Olympic bronze medalist Emma Coburn for Episode 5 of Nuuness TV, a Nuun-sponsored YouTube series devoted to women in sports.
It didn’t take long before the topic turned to my scientific impressions of current diet trends. Of course, I...
