ROAR

In this section, we expand upon the cycle itself, describing what is “normal”, what missing periods mean, how to handle heavy menstrual bleeding, and how to track your cycle to understand how your hormone fluctuations may affect you. Not to neglect our sisters in arms, we also dive into hormonal contraception- the Pill, injectables, implants, and IUDs.

When ROAR was published in summer of 2016, devices like Whoop Strap and Apple Watches had barely emerged on the marketplace. Today, these trackers are everywhere…and yet, they’re still not finely tuned for female physiology. That’s important to understand if you’re relying on your recovery scores. We dive into what they’re good for and where they might fall short, along with an in depth look into other popular forms of biohacking.

We covered ice baths in the original ROAR, but people weren’t crazy about cold plunges as a means to trigger their parasympathetic drive, boost mood, lower cortisol, and improve various cardiometabolic factors for long term health benefits. Now, we cover cold-water immersion for both recovery and general health benefits and how women do not need as cold a plunge as men. (Naturally, we also cover sauna, another “hot” trend in this section as well.)

Serena Williams shut out her rival and won the 2017 Australian Open when she was 8 weeks into her pregnancy. In 2022, 33-year-old Chelsea Sodaro shocked the world by winning the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, just 18 months after giving birth. As she told the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) in a post-race interview, “We shouldn’t have to choose between being world-class athletes and being moms.”

Research is finally catching up with these modern moms and there is now research collected on elite runners before, during, and after their pregnancy. We cover all of that, which, as you might expect, shows that pregnancy and motherhood do not have to be the end of the line for performance. 

Eating enough and especially eating enough carbohydrates is critical for female athletes to support their training and hormonal health. Since ROAR came out, the evidence has been mounting on how damaging low energy availability (LEA) and relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) are for active females. We’re also getting disturbing insights into how common these conditions are, especially as keto and intermittent fasting regimens continue to permeate the athletic space. We devoted a section to helping active women avoid these all-too-common pitfalls.  

We’ve long known that sleep is when the body recovers and repairs, but the science of sleep has exploded during the past decade, including important insights into how to maximize your expression of human growth hormone and to optimize your circadian rhythms to get the 7 to 9 hours of shut eye you need to feel and perform your best. We include an expanded section on recovery, sleep, and nonsleep deep rest.

When we first wrote ROAR, gut microbiome research was in its infancy. But now, there is a plethora of literature to describe the interactions between those little gut bugs, brain health, immunity, mood, and the endocrine system. We dive into the most relevant research to reduce the ambiguity of terminology, what it means to have dysbiosis, and how the diversity of your gut microbiome is important for hormonal health.

Every single plan, program, and recommendation in the original ROAR has been reviewed and updated to reflect current scientific findings. There’s also fresh science throughout the book on all topics important to active females (not just elite athletes!), including hormonal contraceptives, macronutrient needs, hydration, heat and cold acclimation, and much, much more!