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Understanding the Female Athlete
0 Playsin 13 hours
In this special International Women's Month episode, host Chantelle Robitaille sits down with coach Alexa Hasman to explore what it truly means to train as a female mountain athlete. Together they walk through the physiological realities of each major life phase — from the menstrual cycle and pregnancy to postpartum recovery and menopause — not as limitations, but as distinct training phases requiring smart adaptation. Anchored by the guiding principle that "ability is the measure of permission," they challenge women to reject the noise of external opinion and cultivate a deep, data-informed understanding of their own bodies.
The conversation covers practical strategies at every stage: cycle-tracking tools and red flags to watch for; trimester-by-trimester training modifications during pregnancy; the often-overlooked realities of diastasis recti and pelvic floor recovery postpartum; and why strength training becomes non-negotiable during perimenopause and beyond. Alexa and Chantelle make a compelling case that women's athletic identity is not fixed to any single phase — it evolves — and that with the right coaching, community, and self-advocacy, female athletes can pursue big mountain goals at every age.
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Transcript
Inclusion in Medical Research
00:00:00
Speaker
ah Women are not small men that I think really hit home for a lot of women that, you know, a lot of a lot of training, guidance, and even a lot of medical studies were not on women, were not about women. And, you know, women were not included in in medical studies until the 90s. That was not long ago, right? So there's a lot of stuff that we didn't know and and things that we are learning about our bodies.
Training Plans and Female Athletes
00:00:32
Speaker
If you're enjoying the show and want to take the next step in your training, join our newsletter and receive a free four-week sample training plan. Head on over to UphillAthlete.com slash Let's Go, and once you sign up, you'll instantly get a link to try out some of our most popular training plans.
00:00:49
Speaker
It's a great way to get a feel for how we train our athletes for big mountain goals. Check it out at UphillAthlete.com slash Let's Go. UphillAthlete.com slash L-E-T-S-G-O.
00:01:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Uphill Athlete Podcast. I'm Chantelle Robitonai and this month we're doing something special. With International Women's Day coming up on March the 8th, we're dedicating the entire month of March to female athletes. I'm really excited to have my favorite...
00:01:21
Speaker
ah one of my favorite ah female athletes on the podcast with me here today ah for not one, but just two conversations. And we'll be talking with Coach Alexa Hassman about what it means to train as a female mountain athlete.
00:01:34
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Permission and Autonomy in Sports
00:01:38
Speaker
We are building these episodes around an incredible quote from a recent Voice of the Mountains podcast guest, Dr. Christine Theodorovic's And some of you may have heard her podcast with Steve. If you haven't, I recommend that you go and check it out.
00:01:53
Speaker
um Among many of the great things and inspiring things that she had to say, one quote really so stood out to us, and that was, ability is the measure of permission. Alexa, what does that quote bring up for you?
00:02:08
Speaker
So what it brings up for me as we talk about women and athletes is that we often, our world, it
00:02:17
Speaker
So societally expect to get permission to do the things that we want to do, especially in athletics. ah And we don't need to do that. Right. We need to. Our ability is based off of what we give ourselves permission for, not what our world, our mother-in-law, our brothers, all of those people are giving permission to do. So step away from that societal pressure of like the permission to do stuff and and do it.
00:02:42
Speaker
That's awesome. I love that. I think the timing to talk about this is is really great too with just coming on the the heels of the Olympics, said the closing ceremonies yesterday at the time that we are ah recording this.
00:02:54
Speaker
And some of the really interesting themes that came across with all the incredible female athletes from around the world. We saw female competitors from all different ages.
00:03:05
Speaker
We saw female competitors who've been in their sport for a really long time. We saw some who were new. We saw some who were who were mothers. We saw some that were pretty early and in their postpartum stage.
00:03:18
Speaker
And we saw some athletes that were at different stages of their careers where they maybe stepped aside for various reasons and come back to sport. And one of the big themes that came around was exactly that on permission and doing things their way, um not listening to the all the chatter from the outside about what they should do, but doing things the way that they wanted to do in a way that meant something for them.
00:03:43
Speaker
So to me, that's what
Adapting Training to Life Phases
00:03:45
Speaker
I think about. I think about um how our Our capacity can, we can think about it as opening doors or closing doors. And I think it's something that that we have to really stand up for and think about what do we want to do. Because certainly there are going to be phases of our lives, and we go through quite a few, ah where our our bodies change, our mindsets change.
00:04:08
Speaker
And instead of fighting these things, it's best for us to learn about them and learn about ourselves and take the opportunity to work with our bodies and with our minds no matter where we're we're at. instead of waiting for someone to tell us what we can and should be doing.
00:04:25
Speaker
So we will be talking about the menstrual cycle. We'll be talking about pregnancy, postpartum recovery, menopause, all the real things that happen in our bodies that can affect our training.
00:04:37
Speaker
And not to present these things as limitations for us, but to talk about just what it just the facts. What does it mean? How does it impact things? And how might our training need to look different at certain times ah in our lives too respect to respect those natural changes that are happening?
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really excited about this topic because it's where I've centered my ah coaching career for the majority of it. I started in postpartum and pregnancy fitness and have evolved into being menopause ah certified and ah have gone through a lot of those phases myself. And the biggest thing that I like to tell my athletes is each of these life cycles is a training phase. It's not that...
00:05:20
Speaker
your you're not able to do things. It's that we adapt to how we're able to do things in these training phases, just like when we're training for anything in life, right? So this is just another version of trainings.
00:05:35
Speaker
Alexa, I love how you frame that in terms of thinking about it as ah as a training phase. Because when we think about training, typically we're thinking about training in cycles or training in years. And we're always thinking about, you know, training for training for life ultimately, right? Training for longevity. And so I think that's a a great way to frame it for people to think about the different phases in life just like that.
00:05:59
Speaker
phases of training, how you naturally know that the next phase of training is going to be different because maybe the goal is different. ah Maybe the objective is different. maybe the Maybe the objective is completely new.
00:06:11
Speaker
And that really represents a lot of the changes that happen in our bodies. we get We get used to being in a certain phase and all of a sudden, all the things that used to work don't. Same thing goes for training, right? Like you've been training this way for so long and then you suddenly feel that it doesn't work.
00:06:27
Speaker
Absolutely. So I think this will be a fun conversation.
Understanding Women's Body Changes
00:06:30
Speaker
i want to think, you know, maybe there are some male athletes in our audience ah that you think maybe this isn't for you, but I bet you have some women in your lives. I bet you have, you for sure have mothers.
00:06:43
Speaker
ah You might have sisters. You might have some female cousins. One day you may have daughters. I think it's really important that we also understand that these are changes that naturally happen in our bodies and they're not things that we should find difficult to talk about or shameful to talk about in any way. So for my generation, these are things that you would hide and wouldn't talk about. And I'm really happy to see finally now as a 50-something-year-old woman um that we can talk about these things and that there are male coaches out there that do and should feel also comfortable talking to female athletes about these natural things that happen as well.
00:07:23
Speaker
Absolutely. to kick off, oh, so go ahead, Alexa. I always say if you know a female athlete, then you should be listening to these things. If you know a female at all, you should be listening to these things so that you can understand what is going on with 50% of the population around you. so Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's that's a great way to put it So let's start with something that affects so many of our athletes on a monthly basis. We're going to start with ah talking about the menstrual cycle.
00:07:53
Speaker
Alexa, I know there's a lot of um information out there about whether or not we should be adjusting our training based on where we're at in our cycle. So to just kind of set the playing field, let's can you talk first about the basics?
00:08:09
Speaker
What is actually happening on this monthly cycle for women? Yeah. So I'm going to break it down into the different phases of the menstrual cycle. So we start with during our period that's called the early follicular phase. And that's when our estrogen declines. And so does our progesterone. So, ah you know lower energy, cramping. um And we might just feel sort of so sort of flat or not have like a ton of energy. So that's the first phase. Then we go into the late follicular stage, which is right after the period. And that's when our estrogen increases, but our progesterone stays low. So this is when we have typically a higher pain tolerance and
00:08:53
Speaker
What some people would say ah is better for like the higher intensity training, which we'll get into sort of the opinions on that in a second. And then we have ovulation, which is around like day 14, like mid cycle. And this is our estrogen peak and our progesterone is rising.
00:09:10
Speaker
ah So this is when we're sort of feeling more motivation and energy. ah But we also have a little bit more ligament laxity. So it does um give us a little bit more potential to injury.
00:09:23
Speaker
Right. A little bit more. And then we have the luteal phase, which is right before the period. So we're back to the to the end of it. ah Progesterone is up and we're at moderate estrogen. um Our core temperature is higher. Our ventilation is higher. Our heat tolerance is lower. We might have some issues with like sleep, mood, bloating, and things feel a little bit harder in this phase.
00:09:47
Speaker
So I serve the basics.
00:09:50
Speaker
That's awesome. That's a really great overview. So maybe for some of you that are listening to some of these things that are changing where there's even changes in terms of just our body temperature, I'm sure there are some people listening that never even thought about that, that body temperature changes or that ligament laxity changes. So with all of these changes that are happening at different times in the cycle,
00:10:12
Speaker
Are there any performance implications that ah women should be thinking about or training, changes to training that they should be thinking about during these times? What is your typical recommendation for athletes?
Tracking Menstrual Cycle Effects
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, so we just came out of a big phase of people wanting to do training around their menstrual cycle and where they were. Because like I said, there are some training implications, like that phase where it's like, okay, I have more energy. Maybe this is a better time to do high or more anaerobic stuff. Or like now I'm in a phase where I have a little bit more laxity. So maybe I don't want to be doing lateral movements or like bounding or anything like that. But the biggest thing that I tell my athletes is every...
00:10:55
Speaker
Female is different. All of your symptoms are different. And these changes that are happening in your body can be so minuscule that you do not even notice them or they could be major, right? And so you've got to listen to how your body is is adapting and how it works with your cycle. And what i always say is keep track of it.
00:11:14
Speaker
Write down like, okay, I'm in the ovulation phase. This is how I feel. right So sometimes there's people that do not feel more energetic during the ovulation phase. They feel worse. So keep track of that. I think we can't go off of this basic window of like, well, during the this phase, you're going to feel this way. right Everybody is different. And so that's my takeaway from that.
00:11:37
Speaker
I think that's great. I think um one of the great works, I think, that came out was probably by Dr. Stacey Sims, right? Women are not small men, that I think really hit home for a lot of women that, you know, a lot of a lot of training, guidance, and even a lot of medical studies were we're not on women. We're not about women. And, you know, women were not included in in medical studies until the 90s.
00:12:02
Speaker
It was not long ago, right? So there's a lot of stuff that we didn't know and and things that we are learning about our bodies, even though we're now in our 40s and 50s, right, that we wish we would have learned when we were younger. And still a lot more we need to learn. However, i think it's very easy for people to say like, oh, wow, okay, maybe I need to do this differently.
00:12:23
Speaker
So tell me what to do. There must be one way. And I feel like, in fact, women are not small men and we're not the same. We're not all the same. We're all very different. So, you know, reading that book where maybe someone read that book and thought where that there's some information in the book that say like women tend to feel better when they are having their period. Many women were reading that going,
00:12:46
Speaker
Well, that I should just be doing harder stuff then. I should be feeling better. What's wrong with me that I don't feel better? so there's nothing wrong with you. it's There's nothing good or bad. It's just different. And I think the the biggest takeaway here is to find a way to track your cycle, track your symptoms, track your sleep.
00:13:08
Speaker
Figure out if there are, you know, some patterns that you can identify in that. And then try to play around with your workouts a little bit to see if you feel a little bit better doing things a little bit differently. See if you find things to be a little bit better if you, um you know, think about your nutrition and supporting yourself differently. Be aware of, you know, your your body temperature and your resting heart rate, let's say, when you wake up.
00:13:34
Speaker
Be aware of that on that given day. Check in with yourself and then maybe see if there is something that you might want to adjust and how does that feel to to track that. And there's lots of great resources out there. not They don't always ah need to cost money. So, for example, on ah Garmin Watch has that. Training Peak, certainly you can track that. There's a great app and many different apps out there, but I think one that is particularly great for active women, it's called Fitter Woman.
00:14:04
Speaker
And not only do you are you able to track your cycle, you can also it also gives you um things to learn about that phase of your cycle. So it will give you guidance on, you know, here are some of the foods that might help you if you're feeling these types of symptoms in this phase.
00:14:21
Speaker
these are some of the foods that might help you. Or remember that your body temperature could be elevated here. So if you're not feeling particularly great, maybe back off on the intensity today.
00:14:31
Speaker
Maybe get a little bit of extra rest. So I think it's a great idea to check out some of those things if you're not currently tracking to see what might work well for you and your body.
00:14:45
Speaker
Thinking about some other things, because there's a lot of there's a lot of noise out there and a lot of information, and you know we always try to want to try and keep things really practical. So I think that's a practical way of learning about your body and your own cycles.
00:15:00
Speaker
Alexa, what do you think are some, you know if we're thinking about evaluating on a day-to-day basis, you know should I keep my training the same? Should I change my training? Yeah. What are some red flags that athletes should be looking for or being concerned about um with respect to their cycle and their training?
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah, so there's definitely a few things. ah For me, the number one thing that stands out is energy level and fatigue. If you're feeling especially fatigued, and I'm saying like you could fall asleep throughout the day, kind of fatigue. ah That's something that's a red flag.
00:15:36
Speaker
ah Missing periods is definitely a red flag. um You know, those would be the top two ones that I see the most. So yeah, those would be my top two red flags. Yeah, that's ah that's a great thing. I mean, having a period, and and I mean, obviously, we'll get into this a little bit later. There's times where maybe your body is going through a new phase.
00:15:57
Speaker
um So having a period that is regularly ah coming around 28 or 30 days every month, that should be how things are normally. You know, up until the age of about 35, that should run on a regular schedule. And if it's not, that's definitely something that you want to talk to your doctor about.
00:16:17
Speaker
ah There could be a variety of reasons that that's happening, but that's like your body's signal that maybe something is out of sync. It could be um it could be that you are going through a a really stressful time. That can certainly affect it.
00:16:33
Speaker
It could be that you're fueling isn't ah adequate for the amount that you're training. So definitely chat with a doctor if you are noticing any of those ah types of symptoms or, you know, a sudden change in bleeding. So if if suddenly, you know, if things have been regular and suddenly it's um bleeding is irregular or it's ah really, you're experiencing really heavy flow, um so you know, a lot of pain and that hasn't been there before. So when changes happen, you know, it's always good to check in with your doctor and see if there's something going on.
Health Monitoring Before Training
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah. And with the fatigue, well we got to think about not only not only fueling could be an issue, but ah like iron levels could be a, that's a big issue that women deal with. So like getting blood work done is also something that I encourage my athletes to do just so we can not just presume that we're anemic or something like that, but we can actually see if there is something that's showing up in the blood work.
00:17:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good one. And I think also important to note that it can be kind of dangerous if you start supplementing with iron and you're not aware of where your iron levels are at. um So it's it's really important to do that and to have those have that testing done a couple times a year. um I think it can be particularly helpful for women um to think about getting a good sense of where your different blood markers are at before you are going into a competition period, before you're going into a heavy training period, or certainly if you're planning to go to altitude. Because if there is something that's out of balance that needs to be corrected, it can take a good four to six weeks to with supplementation to
00:18:24
Speaker
get that back on track. So that's a really, you know, pretty easy thing to be able to do to just check in on how your body's doing. And sometimes by the time you start noticing the symptoms, the problem has been going on for a long time.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:18:43
Speaker
All Alexa, there are a lot of athletes probably listening to this who fit this phase and they are on hormonal birth control of some
Impact of Hormonal Birth Control
00:18:53
Speaker
kind. So that could be an oral contraceptive pill, that could be an IUD, whether it is a hormonal IUD or a copper one.
00:19:01
Speaker
Does that change anything for women who might be using these types of things? Oh, sure. Yeah. It changes things. it It means that they're not going to have like a true ovulation and there's no natural estrogen peak. So you might not get as extreme of those hormonal shifts that compared to if you were not on hormonal break control.
00:19:25
Speaker
Awesome. So yeah, that may make it tricky sometimes for women who might be going through you know some kind of change in the background that they are not aware of. So I think that's why it's really important that that women of every age keep up to date with their annual physicals, with their doctors, that they get blood work at least once a year. But you know if if it's within your means... to do it more than once a year, I think that's particularly helpful because that um that one piece may not always be there to to share how your, you know, a fundamental part of your health is going. Particularly women who might be on a hormonal IUD, they may actually lose their menstrual period completely.
00:20:13
Speaker
Um, so they might not have one for years. So they may not know if something's going on. They may not know if they have, uh, if they are going through perimenopause, they may not even be aware if they've moved from perimenopause to postmenopause.
00:20:27
Speaker
I fell into that category. So I think it's really important to keep on top of those things and have, have a, you know, have really good, important discussions with your physician. Don't be a, don't be sitting in the back seat, you know?
00:20:41
Speaker
come on up into the front seat and and ask the ask the questions to be aware of your health. And advocate for yourself. Unfortunately, have to advocate for ourselves, especially as females and as female athletes. And so don't just take the status quo of being brushed off by um doctors or anything like that. Just advocate for your health and how you're feeling and symptoms that you may be experiencing.
00:21:08
Speaker
And I think that's really important if you do feel brushed off, because I feel like a lot of women are in that category, um find someone else. I think we're in ah we're in a really great place where women's, there are a lot of really wonderful clinics that are operating around the world, not just in North America, but there are a lot of clinics that are even online. So you could potentially have a consultation with another doctor And then, you know, take that information to your your physician if if it's something that maybe your physician is not the most up to date with. I mean, there's so much information that it's difficult to be on top of absolutely everything. But there are a lot of wonderful practitioners. Some of them are female practitioners and some of them are male practitioners. But they're really paying attention to the the new information that's coming to light in this space and our
00:22:02
Speaker
ri what the ready and willing to help. And don't let them tell you that you shouldn't be doing your
Finding Knowledgeable Coaches
00:22:11
Speaker
sport anymore. I think that's another thing that we hear a lot, unless there's like a really good medical reason why.
00:22:16
Speaker
a lot of doctors tend to be like, well, especially in like the sports that we do as uphill athletes, it's a lot more than what they see on a normal basis. And so they tend to be like, well, you're doing too much. if If a doctor is telling you to stop being your athletic self, get a second opinion, right?
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah. On the other side, if you are working with someone in the training space, whether it's a coach, a personal trainer or whatever, and they tell you suck it up and do it anyway,
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. That's not particularly good either, right? So think about, you know, for those of you who are um looking to, you know, if if you are finding that you're in a tricky space around this and you can't nail it down on your own, know that there are great coaches and physical training you know physical therapists out there. There are great personal trainers out there. So ask them those types of questions and, you know, learn about their their backgrounds. You know, there are a lot of coaches who have taken extra training and qualifications and to help them understand women's bodies better. And so you deserve better. um you You deserve to understand about your body and and you ah need to be working with someone who also wants to respect and help you learn to work with your body rather than constantly fighting against it. This is not a place where we need to go all David Goggins.
00:23:44
Speaker
No, please don't.
00:23:49
Speaker
um Another thing I wanted to think about, Alexa, are there any, since we're thinking about, you know, practical suggestions for our listeners, are there any metrics beyond just tracking hormones that athletes can use? Like, are there are there other metrics that we should be paying attention to um and to help us make decisions about our training? Yeah.
00:24:13
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, I think HRV and resting heart rate are really good variables to look at. um They don't paint a whole picture, but they can be something that you can track and see like, oh, is my HRV dropping? And that's your heart rate variability. um And you can track things like that through different devices like Oura Rings, Whoop, all that stuff. um And then resting heart rate. Is my resting heart rate rising? And what can we attribute that to? um Oftentimes, you know, it's a lack of sleep or something that is in your lifestyle that may be causing you extra stress. Or if I notice with myself when I drink, my HRV crashes and my resting heart rate increases significantly. Same thing can happen with hormonal shifts. We can see that in the HRV and the resting heart rate, too.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah, and it can be pretty complicated, right, to think about. I mean, the great thing about where we're at in this day and age is we have still lots of data and lots of information. Sometimes it can feel too much. And sometimes people say, like, I just missed the days where i could just roll out of bed and run. and it doesn't mean that you you can't do those things. It's really a matter of like use the information that you have in the in the right way. So these things are not like a, you know, necessarily red light, green light.
00:25:31
Speaker
But if you do see, for instance, that your HRV is much lower than it typically is, Ask yourself a couple questions, you know, did I sleep well last night? To your point, Alexa, for some people, ah suddenly they get to a phase in life where alcohol really impacts their sleep and recovery in a drastic way.
00:25:50
Speaker
Did you have a small child ah in your bed all night? Or in Alexa's case, did you have two small children and two dogs in your bed all night and it interrupted your sleep? Are there reasons for these numbers? And then also, like, don't forget to ask yourself,
00:26:07
Speaker
You know, how do I actually feel? You might feel like dirt. You might feel completely fine. And so, and if you do feel badly, you know, it's not necessarily that you can't do anything. Maybe start by having a good breakfast, get some calories in, maybe also make sure that you get some good hydration in.
00:26:25
Speaker
um to start with, reassess how do you feel. And if you do decide to head out the door for your workout, maybe start a little bit slower, you know, give yourself a little bit longer warmup. And maybe if you had intervals that day, um back off the intervals and just make it a recovery run or even just an endurance effort.
00:26:43
Speaker
um and so And then, you know, do all the things you can in that day to support yourself so that the next day, you're recovered and you're ready to go again. And, you know, changing your training for one day or even a week in the grand scheme of things is not going to matter. But if you, you know, if you make the wrong decisions, um you can very easily and pretty quickly dig yourself into a hole. And that's definitely something we want to avoid.
00:27:11
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:27:14
Speaker
um Any last things you want to cover on this topic, Alexa, before we move on to a different phase?
Balancing Data and Intuition
00:27:22
Speaker
I think with that, with the monitoring, like you said, there's a lot of data points.
00:27:26
Speaker
And for me, I found that to be too much. So i I really lean into like how I'm feeling. So it's really either way. There's some people that really like all the data, and that's great. Lean into that, but read it for what it is.
00:27:38
Speaker
And then there's some of us are like, you know what? I don't need to be told every morning. you slept terrible last night. Like, I know, I got it. hey So for this wasn't a good fit. um And then to your point, yeah, like if you're if you're not feeling good, if you didn't sleep well and you're seeing these markers and you choose to step back from your training that day, that is always a better choice than pushing harder through and potentially burning yourself out or getting injured, right? So that's, you're spot on with that.
00:28:12
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks, Alexa. So let's shift to one of the, no pun intended, biggest transitions many of our athletes face, pregnancy and then the subsequent return to training after having a baby. So not one that I have personal experience with. So Alexa, I'm going to lean very heavily on your experience and training in this area.
00:28:34
Speaker
I know there's and there's a lot of misinformation about this timeframe as well. And I think this is something where that we've also seen over time, a lot of changes to recommendations going from, you know, once upon a time where women were told they could not exercise to people being horrified, seeing a woman out running in the wild ah to, you know, some people may be still holding that that with them and maybe having people around them judging them ah for their choices.
00:29:04
Speaker
This is a really big topic. And so, you know, we're only going to brush upon this in our conversation today.
Training During Pregnancy
00:29:10
Speaker
ah But just a little teaser, Alexa has written a really great article um that is completely focused on pregnancy and how it doesn't halt your training, but it does change your training.
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It changes your training. um And I want to point out that with with the expectations, not only from, ah you know, even when I, my first pregnancy, I was told not to work out at all, even though I had a totally healthy pregnancy and that was only, what, like less than 12 years ago. um Luckily, we're starting to see that change, but you're going to have a lot of people commenting on your body and what you're doing with your body when you're pregnant. um And that's going to be that was one of the hardest things for me. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about what you're doing and what you're not doing. um So try to get rid of that noise is going to be my first piece of advice when going through pregnancy as an athlete.
00:30:08
Speaker
That's a really important one. And I think this comes back to our earlier guidance before, right, is a really big area where you have to be an advocate for yourself, where I think a lot of, I hear a lot of women say they feel like their body doesn't belong to them anymore. Not only because there's a a little human ah growing inside of their body, but Everyone around them seems to have an opinion and that could be really difficult. And their body's going through all these wild changes. So again, these things that used to work for them, you know, maybe someone who never had a problem with sleep suddenly struggles to sleep or be comfortable. Certain foods that you used to really love and enjoy, all of a sudden you can't even stand the smell of, um you know,
00:30:52
Speaker
feeling, you know, feeling physically ill and feeling unable to do things while watching your friend sail right through everything and, you know, look cute, look glowy. And, you know, you might feel like you have elephant feet.
00:31:11
Speaker
I think that's really hard. And again, like, you know, it's how different are the experiences that women have while they're going through pregnancy, but also their postpartum times?
00:31:25
Speaker
Dramatically different. Absolutely dramatically different for everybody. And it's important to, again, learn with the phases that we go through. And I break it down with pregnancy into three phases, three trimesters. And typically what you're seeing is like in that first trimester,
00:31:41
Speaker
you might feel really sick or you might feel totally fine, right? It's very, very amongst women. um And the training implications are based around how you feel during that phase. If you are feeling sick, probably not a good time to be doing burpees or something like that. um Then you move into the second trimester where you're going to feel significantly better. But now we change into We don't want to be on our back for any of our training, right? Because of the blood flow to the baby and the mom. um
00:32:13
Speaker
Of course, we don't want to be putting pressure on the abdomen either. And through this, all our weight is shifting forward, right? We're carrying our our weight more in the front, obviously. um And so ah the implications on our posterior chain are a lot heavier. So then you move into the third trimester where...
00:32:32
Speaker
all of that's exacerbated. you're You're definitely your stability, all that stuff is totally different. um You have ligament laxity due to relaxin hormone in your body that makes your ligaments looser so that you can give birth. Your abdomen is expanding.
00:32:48
Speaker
Typically, our gait changes because of the weight in the front. And so our glutes aren't working quite the same as they should be. And so these are all things that we want to keep in mind for the postpartum phase, but also know that that doesn't stop you from training necessarily. Unless there's a medical reason and your doctors are telling you not to um train, you can absolutely still, and you are encouraged to still strength train and b do aerobic workouts, but we're going to adapt to them. We're going to do a little bit more posterior work,
00:33:17
Speaker
We're going to probably well wear a pelvic band, especially in that third trimester, to pull that weight of that baby up off of the pelvic floor. And we're going to be doing different core exercises. Now's definitely not the time to be doing crunches or any of that stuff or even planks.
00:33:32
Speaker
We don't want intra-abdominal pressure at this time. So those are sort of that we're just changing. We're adapting, right? This is a training phase in our life.
00:33:44
Speaker
that makes That makes a lot of sense. And I can imagine it's probably, you know, especially for women who are maybe having their, for experiencing their first pregnancy, there's a lot of things that they don't they don't know, they haven't experienced before.
00:33:58
Speaker
And um I think that that must be a little bit scary. How do... how do women know where to go for good advice if they are not sure, Alexa, about some of these things, about what are some of the things they, you know, can safely be doing and what are some of the things they should stay away from?
00:34:18
Speaker
I think that the best recommendation I have is get a coach that is knowledgeable, hopefully certified in those things, because that makes a big difference, especially in the sports that we're doing, especially when you're adding in altitude potentially for our sports um or endurance ah adventures, stuff that's taking a little bit more ah glycogen depletion.
00:34:41
Speaker
Get a coach that understands these things and that can help you along the way and can help you with the different symptoms and the different things that you're experiencing and advise you like, you know what, like this is what we're going to do when we go to altitude.
00:34:54
Speaker
um And then also make sure that you're checking. I mean you already are checking with your doctor. There's, you you're regularly scheduled visits, but make sure that you're telling them what you're up to and make sure that you get the clearance from them, too.
00:35:07
Speaker
That's awesome. That's great advice. And there definitely are some certifications um out there that coaches can work towards. Can you name a few, Alexa, that maybe our listeners could be looking out for?
00:35:19
Speaker
Oh, gosh. For pregnancy ones, I i got my pregnancy ones a long time ago, but there's Girls Gone Strong is a good one for all the phases of ah women's health and fitness. It's a really good one. That's where I got my menopause and perimenopause certification through. um Yeah, I think that most certifying companies like ACE and NASM have some sort of pregnancy training program, too.
00:35:45
Speaker
Great. So that's definitely something people can look for, right? When they're when they're looking for some some good guidance to make sure that someone has the appropriate level of knowledge to guide them.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah. And experience with pregnant athletes is also really important um because, all' again, you can any coach can read all the textbooks and do all the stuff. But experience with pregnant athletes is hugely important because you see the wide range of stuff um going on.
00:36:17
Speaker
That's awesome. So that's a ah good little um bit of information on that phase. um Then comes the next phase, which is another one that has an interesting amount of information out there about it. And I don't know, I think about it as this sort of a bounce-back culture that I see discussed amongst women that can be really difficult. And, you know, we've talked about this a lot, Alexa, whether it's an influencer or a sport sports figure talking about just fitting back into their pre-pregnancy clothes a couple weeks after having a baby, or it's someone running a big race while they're feeding their baby, breastfeeding their baby at the aid stations, um
00:37:01
Speaker
You can have all kinds of things that we see out there in the media and on social media. And that could be really difficult for women because they might feel just like with ah pregnancy experience or even menstrual symptoms. Someone might be watching that and saying like, wow, I barely have the energy to walk around the block after having this baby.
00:37:22
Speaker
Can we address how these situations might be reasonable and perfectly healthy for some women, but it can feel it can be really damaging to some women who are not having that same experience?
Postpartum Recovery and Training
00:37:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, first you have the psychological aspect of that. And I think that there's a first we have to consider the that there's a there's a high amount of postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety that comes in this phase. And and watching people in this bounce back culture can be really detrimental.
00:37:55
Speaker
It stresses me out a lot when people are like really bragging about like, oh, I i ran a marathon four weeks after I gave birth. Holy cow, that scares me. One, that might be perfectly fine for that person.
00:38:06
Speaker
um But for the the majority people, let's not do that, right? A big aspect of this is going to be also how your birth journey went, right? Was it a C-section? Was it a vaginal birth? With the vaginal birth and with the C-section, what was that trauma? What was the labor like?
00:38:24
Speaker
All of those things are going to play a role in how you recover postpartum. And they're all so drastically different, just like pregnancy, just with menstrual phases, all of those things. So... The really big things we want to look out for in postpartum is, one, our core is almost always completely different um afterwards. ah And this is due to, ah as our abdomen expands, it separates the walls of our abdomen.
00:38:49
Speaker
And there's ah this tissue that holds our abdomen walls together called the linea alba. And that tears oftentimes when we're pregnant. And so when we are postpartum, we often have ah have a gap in our abdomen. And i have checked hundreds of women for ah this gap, which is called diastasis recti.
00:39:11
Speaker
And i would say 90 to 95% of the athletes I've checked have some form up of ah abdominal gap. And we measure it by fingers. And I've seen, um you know, some that have none. And I've had one where I can put 10 fingers in that gap.
00:39:27
Speaker
Right. So the biggest thing I hear is and saying, oh, well, my doctor didn't say I have I have diastasis recti, so I'm fine. Typically, your doctor is not checking for that, first of all.
00:39:38
Speaker
So just be aware of that and just know that our training changes because of that abdominal split postpartum. ah And our pelvic floor. We do not want to do sit-ups. We do not want to do crunches. Planks we want to avoid until we get to at least below a two-finger abdominal ah separation. And that's because of that intra-abdominal pressure again.
00:39:59
Speaker
What can happen, like in my case, demonstrating planks too much of what not to do postpartum, you get ah you can get abdominal hernias, right? Yeah. So we won't be aware of that stuff. ah We want to make ah really calculated, intelligent core decisions ah with ro building back that core and that pelvic floor. Glue bridges, key, bird dogs, dead bugs. Really, what it's going to be like, not the fun, sexy stuff to do, but it's really important. um And then we want to make sure that we're working on that posterior chain again. We're still going to be hunched for it, oftentimes, especially if breastfeeding. um Our posterior chain is going to work differently postpartum.
00:40:36
Speaker
These are all things that we need to take into consideration. I could go on for hours about the postpartum phase, so I'll leave it to that. Yeah, I mean, I feel like each phase deserves its own series, really. I mean, there's so so many different things that we could cover. But I think that's a good, you know, so summary of things for people to be thinking about. um Once someone is thinking about coming back to training, and let's say they've, you know, they've they've had their baby, everything is good, they have clearance from their doctor to get back to their training, what are some of the things that
00:41:11
Speaker
Like, realistically, what does that first year back to training look like? And what are the signs that someone might be, you know, crossing the line between challenging themselves and overdoing it?
00:41:25
Speaker
Yeah. So one of the things is you want to work with your body and you want to build into it slowly. And that means starting with maybe not running right away, walking first, um because we want to see how your pelvic floor is going to do. We want to see ah is there any leakage happening? That's going to be the number one thing. And building into it from fatigue level, too, because oftentimes we're not getting a ton of sleep in the first ah year.
00:41:49
Speaker
So and and then right when you think that you are about to get good sleep, they go through a developmental phase and then you suddenly don't get sleep again. So really listening to our bodies and what we have the capacity for. The number one red flag in postpartum training is pain. If we have pain at any point, um you know, if we have pubic bone pain is a big thing, um ah abdominal pain, any of those things, hard stop.
00:42:15
Speaker
Right. Hard. Let's adjust what we're doing. Right. That's going to be the first thing. It's really listening to our body's cues. And again, really is going to have to do with how the birth went, too, because if you are recovering from stitches or major surgery, which C-section is, that's also going to change how that year looks. And some people were ah recover a lot faster from that than other people do.
00:42:38
Speaker
So we're going to ease into it nice and slow. ah The day you get clearance, don't go run a 10K. ah Start by walking um and then see how your body feels. See how that pelvic floor is responding.
00:42:52
Speaker
The other thing is right when you get clearance, a good thing to do is build in some of those core exercises to help fix that diastasis recti. And so there's some ah really good ways to do that. And and that's really important right away in building that pelvic floor strength.
00:43:08
Speaker
That's awesome. That's really good good to think about. And also just remembering that every person's journey is individual. And, you know, it's so easy to compare yourself. Even, you know, I think even, Alexa, I'm curious about your, even comparing to your own self.
00:43:25
Speaker
Like you have two kids, you know, yeah was it the same coming back after your first versus your second? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. My first one was 36 hours vaginal birth, very traumatic. And I was in a lot of pain. And also I had a lot of ah postpartum depression after my first one because I didn't feel like myself. And that was really hard. And I was used to being um super fit. And I followed all these athletes on Instagram. And I had to go through and mute so I couldn't see them for a long time because I was really... um
00:44:03
Speaker
You know, your body doesn't you don't and you don't look the same afterwards. And that's OK. That's totally normal and expected. You just gave birth to a child. um But we're really hard on ourselves and society is really hard on us. ah So it was that was really hard. And then my son was.
00:44:20
Speaker
a C-section, an emergency C-section. And so then I had to recover from a major surgery. But the recovery from him was a lot easier than the vaginal birth. So it's very different. and um And also, I think that who we surround ourselves with during these times is really important. In my first ah birth, I didn't have a lot of friends that had kids. And I didn't have really a community that understood what it was like. and the second time I did, and that makes a world of difference.
00:44:47
Speaker
So I always say like... really great point. Yeah. Surround yourself with people that know what you're going through. ah you'll Find a coach that knows what you're going through. Find ah friends or a support system or a ah stroller walking group. I taught stroller fitness classes for like five years, and that was so important to the mental health of a lot of parents.
00:45:09
Speaker
Yeah. And probably, I can imagine, probably pretty helpful for you too, after you what you had all gone through to realize, like, all the things that that you had gone through were, in fact, normal.
00:45:21
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's good for every athlete to think about, you know, we're all a product of the people we surround ourselves with. So, you know, especially at a time where you have a lot of people that may have opinions about what you're choosing to do, whether that's while you're pregnant or after you, uh, have given birth to that baby to make sure that you are, you know, putting people around you that, you know, of course care about you, but are also knowledgeable and have some experience in that area so that you are getting good advice. And I think, again, we're in a space where there's ah a lot more information out there for women to understand what, uh,
00:46:01
Speaker
you know, what kind of things they may be going through physically and mentally during pregnancy and postpartum. There are a lot of coaches out there that have this experience. There's a lot of really wonderful pelvic floor specialists out there.
00:46:13
Speaker
So women do not have to suffer with, you know, incontinence and um other things that are happening in their body that maybe in past women have just been told they had to suck it up and deal with.
00:46:26
Speaker
oo Yep. Which is pretty awful. Yeah. It's horrible. Yeah. Well, speaking about um other things that maybe were we were always told were horrible, is um another stage that we get to all go through. um And these days, I think, again, we're getting quite a bit of information about perimenopause and menopause.
00:46:49
Speaker
um This is one where I have had plenty of ah experience with. I got to skip the the prior one, but I did not get to skip this one. um And now sitting at age 52 and I have been ah post-menopausal for, let's see, three, almost four years now.
00:47:10
Speaker
ah It's been quite a journey. And again, another one that is really varied and very different different for all um for all women. And again, another phase of life that a lot of people seem to have a lot of opinions about. So we want to be able to share a little bit about what this means and what are some things to be thinking about.
00:47:31
Speaker
So first of all, Alexa, um since you're quite good at explaining very quickly about the physiological side of things, can you share a little bit about what fun things are happening from a hormonal perspective during the perimenopausal transition and then after?
Managing Menopause Symptoms
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, so perimenopause can last for a while, first of all, four to 10 years. And what happens is your estrogen is all over the board. It's high, it's low. um Your progesterone is declining. um It often is showing up in weird symptoms like disturbed sleep. ah you're You're starting to get irregular periods. For me, joint pain was really the first sign. ah But everybody's so different with that, too. And that's where it comes into like really advocating for yourself with ah your health care providers. um Your energy can feel inconsistent. um
00:48:30
Speaker
Like I said, your sleep patterns, that's a big thing. You can start to get little hot flashes. um That was another thing that a lot of my athletes and myself experience as some of the first symptoms, too, is like, I don't I'm always freezing.
00:48:43
Speaker
And I would go through these phases where i was like, oh, my I'm really hot. um But it doesn't quite feel like a hot flash. You know what mean? um But it's just like these little changes that are coming. And that's because our hormones are fluctuating. Right. To be expected when that happens. Right.
00:48:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think now there are what I saw in a most most recent um article from the Menopause Society is that there are now 63 different symptoms perimenopausal symptoms that have been documented. So those are the common ones that we think about. Maybe some of us have memories of our own mothers struggling, you know, like, oh, my God, I'm so hot. Turn down the heat. Oh, give me sweater.
00:49:22
Speaker
And, uh, I will say I can remember kind of giggling at my mom like, what is wrong with you? um you know But, you know, when when the hormones, when women are going through that shift, and it can start to happen as early as the 30s for some women, and then carry on to until they're 50 or maybe even a little bit later, it's a long time.
00:49:42
Speaker
And the symptoms can be changing in that time. And when the estrogen and progesterone is fluctuating like that, it can honestly feel like you're waking up in a different body every day.
00:49:54
Speaker
You know, you might wake up one day and you feel completely normal. And then the next day you wake up and you feel like achy, creaky, maybe joint pain. For some women, they might feel dizzy.
00:50:06
Speaker
There's the changes that are happening ah within your vestibular system, and so your balance is off. For some women, it's itchy ears, ringing ears, um itchy skin, um histamine reactions, all kinds of Wild things. And so oftentimes women are sharing to their doctors, like, I don't feel quite right, um but I'm not sure what it is. They might ah report feeling pretty moody, you know, like really strong mood swings where sometimes they might be just find themselves feeling overly sensitive or overly angry
00:50:39
Speaker
um You know, when sleep is disrupted, that's certainly going to impact your mood. And for a lot of women, when they go to their doctor, the doctor might say, here's a sleeping pill or here's a, here's some anti-inflammatories. They may recommend them to take an antidepressant or something like that.
00:50:58
Speaker
And, you know, although these things may help some of the symptoms, the underlying issue is that our hormones are going through changes. Thankfully, ah there are a lot of wonderful practitioners that are getting more information and more knowledge and getting better educated about how to support women through this. So um hormone replacement therapy is not some evil thing.
00:51:23
Speaker
it's not It's not something that's dangerous. Of course, there could be some women that may be ah may better off not taking it. I'm thinking particularly of women who've gone through certain types of cancer, particularly breast cancer. Those are women that ah perhaps are not ah good candidates for this kind of treatment. supportive therapy, but don't be afraid to ask your doctor about it. And if your doctor doesn't know about it or, again, shoos you away, look for someone else.
00:51:49
Speaker
um Look up ah the practitioners that are listed in the menopause society where you live, whether that's country-based or state-based, province-based, or wherever. And again, lots of wonderful practitioners online who can give some guidance. to help give you some knowledge about your body, to help maybe give you some language to talk to your practitioner about.
00:52:15
Speaker
And this is not just about, you know, thinking about hormones that we're talking about, like estrogen and progesterone and and even testosterone. This is not just about your reproductive health. It's not like, oh, well, we don't need those things because we're not planning to reproduce.
00:52:30
Speaker
It goes far beyond reproductive health. It's your mental health. It's your endocrine health. It's your bone health. It's your brain health. All of these things are impacted. And so we do want to think about, you know, how to support these things um for health reasons. But also we want to think about how are these things impacted with our training.
00:52:53
Speaker
So with that in mind, Alexa, what are some dots that you feel we should sort of connect for our listeners today? Yeah. So well we're still in the perimenopause phase, so really working with our symptoms, right? So if your sleep is affected, um recovery becomes more critical. you know You might need more recovery time. um Heat tolerance may decrease, right? like ah We might need to adjust like the temperature that we're training in. Your energy can feel...
00:53:23
Speaker
harder to deal with. So like really leaning into that stuff, inky for me, achy joints is I had to really like learn like when I could do stuff around my joints. Um, but this is also a really good time again. Like it sounds like, okay, well now we need to stop training. Absolutely not. Now is a good time to increase strength training. It's always really important, but like now's the time, like let's get really into strength training. Uh, that's going to be really good for not only our mental health, but our bone health, um,
00:53:52
Speaker
are we're consistently losing muscle mass at this point in our lives. So we really need to keep that up. ah So really, really important to get on the strength training. I think that's, you know, maybe for for, I don't know, I feel like men and in a lot of male-dominated sports, strength training is not something that is, you know, a side note, right, for a lot of male athletes. But for a lot of athletes female athletes, I feel like strength training has always been kind of ah a side thing or a side mission.
00:54:23
Speaker
Maybe some women did it, some women didn't. ah Some women are afraid of getting too big, you you know, their muscles getting too big, which certainly isn't going to happen.
00:54:34
Speaker
But when we think about this time in life where our our um hormones are changing, particularly we think about estrogen. It has a really important role in bone density.
00:54:45
Speaker
And so that's one of the reasons why women have a higher risk of osteoporosis, osteopenia, um things like that. So that's why it's really important to think about the things that are going to, you know, the, if these changes are happening in your body naturally, what are the things that we can do to support the changes, but also prevent some of these negative changes. So as estrogen is declining in our bodies, whether or not you choose to replace estrogen, it's important to be considering strength training to keep your bones healthy.
00:55:20
Speaker
It's important to do some kind of Impact training or jump training also is important, right, in in bone density. um Increasing protein intake is also shown to be important, not just for female athletes, but also for male athletes over the age of 40 because of the same types of things that are naturally declining.
00:55:41
Speaker
So we sometimes, some people will need up to one and a half times what they needed in terms of protein in their younger years. So strength training definitely should be a non-negotiable during this time to keep ourselves strong, to help us, um,
00:56:01
Speaker
help us to manage inflammation. I think that's also something that's happening with these changes in our hormones going all over the place, like a roller coaster, having more inflammation in our bodies is also going to happen. And by training in a sustainable way and being careful to manage our training volume and intensity well, that's going to help with managing inflammation so that we can continue to do the things that we like to do.
00:56:27
Speaker
Although it might start to look a little bit differently. Yeah. And you said, um you know, the power and dynamic movements of like jumping stuff. This also comes into the postpartum because if we didn't work on our pelvic floor health in that postpartum phase or pregnancy phase, this is where the jumping movements may not something that we can participate in. Right. So um leakage on all ends. So we got to make sure that we are are are not doing that. Right. Pelvic floor health is really important.
00:56:59
Speaker
um But yeah, absolutely. I think strength training is critical in this phase of life. Yeah, really important to do that. And also, you know, thinking about recovery needs. Again, all these things can be quite individual. There are some women who are going to sail through these periods and some one time recognize like, oh, you know,
00:57:22
Speaker
think I've had a period in a little while. And then they start tracking and realize maybe three months go by without a period. And then, you know, they start tracking and then get to, you know, the 12 months without a period where we finally say you're gone from perimenopausal too postmenopausal. Uh, and otherwise there are women who are going to suffer with a variety and varying degree of symptoms for many years.
00:57:47
Speaker
And that, and that can be really difficult because, you know, maybe you become unsure of how to train, you become unsure of how to eat. Um, yeah you might find a lot of, you have a lot of anxiety, um, that's propping up that you've never experienced before.
00:58:04
Speaker
You could, you know, also the the sleep disruption because of um body temperature and things like and other things that are happening could be more difficult, waking up constantly at 3 or 4 in the morning.
00:58:16
Speaker
It could be just waking up and having a busy brain. It could be waking up because you feel really hot. It could be waking up because you have to pee a lot through the night. So if you find yourself dealing with a lot of these different symptoms,
00:58:32
Speaker
that seem unrelated, but you're somewhere between the ages of 35 and 50, start tracking these things and noticing them and talk to your doctor about it because it could be that you're, you know, there there could be some changes that you could be making to support your body better. um And then working with a good coach who also understands these things and has gone through it themselves um can be really helpful to help you understand what's going on and to help to understand how to, you know, find a good way to maybe shift some of your workouts, giving yourself more recovery, looking for patterns. And when there are no patterns, accepting that we're just going to have to see like
00:59:14
Speaker
What kind of body are you waking up in today? Doing a good assessment and being able to communicate that information and having a coach that's willing to work with you to to manage these things from from day to day. So you still have, you know, you you maybe still have your your big goals that you're going to want to do, but the way that you approach those goals might be different.
00:59:35
Speaker
And um the, you know, some certain goals you may have to think about just, you changing the timeline on certain goals sometimes because, you know, overall we have to be concerned about our our health and our longevity in the sport. And if again, if we don't listen and we don't pay attention, we have a ah high danger risk of not being able to do these things, right? And we certainly don't want to get that.
Resilience in Midlife Athletics
01:00:06
Speaker
Well, and contrary to popular belief, our life does not end at midlife, um especially our athletic careers. In fact, in a lot of ways, it can get significantly better, too. So this does not mean because you're in perimenopause or menopause that, oh, no, now my athletic career is over.
01:00:23
Speaker
Absolutely not. there is a We have special strengths during and after perimenopause. So remember that. We are incredible creatures.
01:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think one of the things that comes out of all of all of these things, you think about, um you know, these phases that we've talked about. Women, because of that, women have good pain thresholds.
01:00:48
Speaker
um You know, women have good pain threshold thresholds. Women are resilient. ah We are crafty, right? We learn how to work with things. We learn how to shift and change. We learn how to adapt. And all of these things are really helpful when we go about doing hard things because,
01:01:05
Speaker
we've been doing hard things ah while not necessarily feeling our best all the time for many, many years. So I think there's like, you know, so instead of thinking about our bodies as being like our enemy or being challenging, in some ways I think we can find um some superpowers, right, within within this too.
01:01:27
Speaker
Super resilient. I always tell myself, if I'm running 100 miler, it'll it will take me way less time than my the birth of my first child. So, um walls and that was that was pretty awful. So, nothing could be as bad as that.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, no kidding. My goodness. i can't even I can't even imagine, but I'm sure that's a reframe that a lot of our listeners can relate to, Alexa. And anytime we're going through any of these, you know, any of these phases, you know, that we've talked about that can be sometimes kind of challenging, how do we help our athletes distinguish between um this is normal for the phase that I'm in versus this is under recovery or this is maybe alarming because
01:02:17
Speaker
How do we know the the difference between something getting harder because of what our bodies are going through or something that's getting harder because maybe something isn't quite right?
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, I always go back to those key red flags of fatigue level. Again, that's going to be one of our biggest indicators. If you're having trouble functioning throughout the day because of fatigue, that is a big clue to us that something is going on and pain.
01:02:45
Speaker
Again, pain. ah especially when we consider bone health and stuff like that, it becomes something that we want to consider at this ah age range. That's something that we want to be aware of. Is there something going on ah fractures or anything like that that we need to be aware of? ah Joint issues, ah ligament changes, all of that stuff. If there's pain because we're going through these shifts, that's something that is a big red flag.
01:03:10
Speaker
And I think that's such a hard one for women because we are used to working through pain and we do tend to have a pretty high pain tolerance. So this is where, um you know, if you have training buddies or if you have a partner in your life or you have a woman in your life that may be going through some of these things and may not be fully listening to the signs, you know, that's where, you know, having good people around you is important.
01:03:36
Speaker
being able to ask them some questions. And, you know, it's not that you're going to interrogate someone about it, but maybe think about some questions that you can ask them to, you know, if you feel like someone might not make be making the best decisions for themselves, encourage them to talk to their doctor about some things that they've experienced, or maybe encourage them to get a coach or to work with a personal trainer on these things if you feel um that that that's happening. So You know, I think that's what's really difficult because for some women they might feel, you know, they might feel unhappy to recognize that they're going through a different change um yeah because it might not feel fun and they might be scared actually about, they might be scared about becoming pregnant. They might be scared about going through menopause. There's a lot of stuff physically and mentally that goes on here. So let's try our best be good allies to each other, to be kind to each other and to, you know,
01:04:34
Speaker
have awareness of things and maybe, you know, sharing an article, sharing a podcast that you listen to with a friend. Sometimes that's all it takes, right, is is just to know that someone is sharing information with you.
01:04:46
Speaker
um It's not a judgment call. Yeah. Thinking about these different stages that we go through, is it, you know, that one of the things or one of the threads that I think is in all of these is identity. And maybe some people feel like their identity is being challenged because they are going through a new phase. And it can be kind of scary, even if some parts of it are exciting.
01:05:12
Speaker
How can we stay connected two being an athlete while our bodies are changing in such significant ways? Yeah, I think what I try to remind my athletes is that we cannot always look backwards and we have to look forwards. Our athletic identity is not based off of who we used to be. It's who we are now. And so our athletic identity is constantly changing. So that may mean that um in some phases we're
01:05:43
Speaker
we're not our fastest version of ourselves. And in other versions, we are. Or we're not our strongest. And then in other ones, we are. But we cannot constantly be comparing ourselves to the past. And I think that that's the most detrimental thing that we do is saying like, well, I used to be able to do this.
01:06:00
Speaker
Great. Well, guess what? You used to not be able to do this that you are doing now. And so we need to look at what we're able to accomplish now through all these phases rather than seeing what we're not able to do.
01:06:13
Speaker
that's a real I think that's a really good message. I think it's also, you know, something to think about that maybe this is similar to athletes when they're injured, right? When they suddenly can't do something that they like to do. And that can, that can, you know, feel like a loss of identity. And so something that's helpful is that even though you can't do something maybe in the same way that you did previously, there might be new things that you decide to try to do. So for instance, if, you know, if you are not, you know, if thinking about postpartum time, if someone is not able to run for a little while,
01:06:51
Speaker
They maybe can walk. Maybe they get interested in hiking. Maybe they meet some new friends through a stroller walking group. And that's pretty awesome.
01:07:02
Speaker
You know, it's a new experience that you wouldn't have otherwise. um And maybe that new friend encourages you to do something down the line that you never thought of doing. So that's pretty cool. You can still stay involved with your sport in many different ways. You can volunteer. If you're, let's say you're in the running space, you can volunteer at an aid station.
01:07:22
Speaker
You can um be part of it in different ways um in all of these sports. So think about these opportunities where you still can be part of your athletic community, even if that has to look different for a little while.
01:07:37
Speaker
Um, you can still learn to do new things regardless of what age you're at. I think it's, I think it's really cool. Like being an uphill athlete coach that we see a lot of people trying something new well into their fifties, sixties, seventies. We have one of our athletes who's turning 70 and planning to complete all seven summits.
01:08:00
Speaker
Um, you know, it's, there's, there's no, you know, end date on when you can try something new. So, you know, be open to the idea of evolving um into something else and think about what are the things that you can do and focus on those rather than being focused on what you can't do right now, I think is always very helpful to reframe.
01:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. And I'll add to that of, again, find that, go ahead. Oh, sorry. ah Find that community that is like-minded with you, right? um In all of these phases that you're going through. um I'll be the first one to laugh at that. I'm the strangest mom at pickup because I'm covered in mud and dirt.
01:08:44
Speaker
But I know that I have a community around me that understands and supports me. Or I'll be running laps at my kids' baseball practice. And that's just who I am. I'm that annoying mom that does that. But I also know that my kids are watching me and learning and are motivated and inspired by it. And so are their friends. um Although their parents get annoyed when their kids are like, oh, you're only doing a Ari's mom ran 200 miles. So I'll
01:09:13
Speaker
embrace it though like it's okay to be that outlier in these uh society circles that we've built And you never know who you're going to inspire.
01:09:24
Speaker
You know, there might be that you might maybe even though that mom is running her first 5K, maybe you inspired her to to think that. And she might think like, well, if Alexa can run 200 miles, surely I can train for this 5K. So you never know who you're you're inspiring.
Embracing Change and New Challenges
01:09:41
Speaker
And coming back to that theme that we started with, ability is the measure measure of permission. You know, give yourself permission to try new things. Give yourself permission to change your mind.
01:09:54
Speaker
Give yourself permission to talk about the things that are hard. You never know who is listening and you never know who is is watching. So, you know, just to think about it for yourself as you're listening to our podcast, wood what is something that you're waiting for permission on?
01:10:15
Speaker
And what's, you know, what's, what's stopping you? Because I think that there are many things that we can do and many things that we will do in our lives that at some point, you know, I'm sure maybe 10 year old Alexa never dreamed of the things that current age Alexa is currently doing.
01:10:35
Speaker
um And I think that's kind of a fun thought for us to think about.
01:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
01:10:45
Speaker
Alexa, if our listeners are just to take away just a few things from us, um from this conversation, what would you like them to hang on to? Don't wait for permission.
01:10:57
Speaker
Don't conform to societal expectations of you as a female athlete. um And three, find the people around you that are going to build you up. I love that.
01:11:09
Speaker
um For me, I hope that people walk away understanding that being a female athlete means working with your body through all its stages and not fighting against it. And that making changes, making adaptations, trying new stuff because something else um doesn't fit anymore, it doesn't make you any less of an athlete.
01:11:30
Speaker
It just makes you a more informed and empowered one.
01:11:35
Speaker
In our next episode, we're going to dial into some more technical sides of this. So we did talk a little bit about ru training in this podcast. Our next podcast is going to focus on why and how to build ah strength training into your training as a female mountain athlete and why it's important.
01:11:56
Speaker
So we'll get into some nitty gritty about programming and movement patterns and um what sustainable training can look like. But before we go, um i just want to state this from, I think, from both of us. Wherever you're at in your athletic journey, whatever stage of life you're in, you're an athlete.
01:12:18
Speaker
Full stop. um And we are here to help let you know that you're not alone, no matter what stage you're on. um We have lots of different ways that we can help if you need help, so don't be afraid to reach out.
01:12:33
Speaker
um Alexa, thank you so much for joining today and sharing all of your incredible knowledge and wisdom. Thank you for me. thank you everyone for listening and joining us today.
01:12:46
Speaker
And if you enjoyed this type of topic and you'd like to see more of it, please feel free to reach out to us on social media and let us know. Alexa, any last words? Keep grinding.
01:12:58
Speaker
Keep getting after it.
01:13:02
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks, everybody.
01:13:17
Speaker
One of the most common questions I get is, how should I get started with training? Well, they say the first step is the hardest, so let's make that easy. We are offering three four-week samples of our most popular training plans for mountaineering, trail running, climbing,
01:13:33
Speaker
and more. Go to UphillAthlete.com slash let's go to sign up for our newsletter and you will not only get monthly insights on training for uphill athletes, but you'll also get a sample training plan.
01:13:45
Speaker
It's totally free, so why wait? That's UphillAthlete.com slash L-E-T-S-G-O.