Knowing how to train and fuel yourself appropriately, especially as a female athlete, goes way beyond just lifting weights. Whatever other pursuits you enjoy also require the knowledge and understanding necessary to train for your body's unique needs.
If You Want to Improve Your Cycling, You Should:
Badass Bosses on Bikes With Marissa Axell
Marissa Axell is a cyclist and cyclist coach who has dedicated her work to teaching women cyclists how to be badass bosses on their bikes. She helps women understand not just the skill but also the nutrition, recovery, and training that works well for female cyclists at every age. Disappointed by the lack of information and representation in the female cycling work, Marissa took her years of experience and created a space and program that, frankly, I wish I had known 20 years ago when I first got onto a bike.
Chasing Quality, Not Fatigue
We have been conditioned for years that we have to be on every adventure and embody the all-or-nothing mentality. While Marissa is an advocate for high-intensity interval training, she has framed it in a way that does not set your body to chase fatigue but instead chase quality.
Focusing on your exercise quality and intensity will do more for your fitness, physiology, weight, and long slow distance effects than going above your threshold ever will. As we age, we have to remember to change our mindsets and training practices to best serve our here and now bodies in a way that still delivers the results we expect.
Changing the Mindset of Women Athletes
It has only been in the last five or so years that we have started to understand how women of different ages need to train. We are cyclical beings which means that we need to match our training to the cycles of our bodies and our lives to see improvement.
Fueling, recovery, and intensity are some of the most important factors for making long-term and sustainable fitness goals. While it is natural to want to see rapid change and be told what to do, it is not always the most effective. Finding the mix that works for you while having a constant conversation around fueling practices and rest is the key.
Are you ready to reevaluate your training and nutrition practices when it comes to cycling or other exercises outside of strength training? Share which activities you enjoy doing the most with me in the comments section of the episode page.
Quotes
“It is really important to sit down with your client or athlete and just allow them to dream about what the best scenario ever would be. And then I kind of reverse engineer how we can make that happen, and rest is by and large a big part of that.” (11:47)
“Cycling, that sport, is so stuck in traditions a lot of times. And we didn't really know until about five years ago that women really needed to train a little bit differently once they are over the age of 40. So we are still fighting this ingrained traditional sense of training, and we are still fighting a little bit of the patriarchy and misogyny.” (17:14)
“I want you to think more about how to keep that muscle on your skeleton; that is what is going to help you stay comfortable and keep you peddling for a longer duration. It's not the hours in the saddle.” (21:49)
“Would you take your sports car to the gas station and fill it up with 2 gallons of gas and then go for a 4-hour drive through the mountains? Probably not, because you would be worried about running out of gas. And that is literally the same thing you are doing when controlling or restricting your intake, and then trying to train on top of that.” (32:09)
“It's hard to distinguish the correct information from the noise. And so that is where we come in, and we talk about fueling your body for the tasks at hand.” (34:22)
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AXN Fitness and Coaching Website
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LTYB 353: Fueling Best Practices for Active People with Jamie Scott
LTYB 350: Are You Eating Enough? Low Energy Availability in Sport
When consistency is working, it's great. But what do you do when consistency gets in the way? It can be hard to find a way to frame your goals and your training to move forward when consistency seems to go out the window. However, with a few mindset shifts, you can find some solid ground to stand on and stop being so hard on yourself when it comes to your consistency in the gym.
If You Want to Stay More Consistent With Your Workouts, You Should:
Main Point #1
A lot of the conversations I have been having with my clients lately have been focused around the idea of consistency, and what to do when your perceived lack of consistency seems to be mocking you. This mindset is rooted in the perfectionist, all-or-nothing camp, which can negatively affect your motivation and consistency towards your goals.
Many of us have a perception that in order to be consistent with something, we need to do it more than we are. But what if you took a minute to stop judging ourselves and stop using consistency as a metric in which we compare ourselves to past versions of ourselves and others?
Main Point #2
A great way to make your consistency feel more real is to plan for every aspect of what your practice is going to take and be realistic about its necessity of it. By understanding that there is value in moving, even if you are not 100% perfect or consistent, you can define your own personal version of consistency in the here and now.
Redefining what consistency means for you and separating the idea that consistency means perfection will help you train smarter, not harder. I want you to get the most out of your training, and when we can only focus on what we aren't doing, we tend to forget about all of the great things we are doing.
Are you ready to shift your mindset around what consistency, success, and progress look like to you? Share your thoughts and struggles with consistency with me in the comments section of the episode page.
Quotes
“When things are going well, and you feel like you are hitting your stride, the idea of consistency in your habits, in your training, in whatever practices you are trying to implement, can really feel amazing, until it is not.” (2:43)
“Let's figure out what is going to help you move forward, build strength, get results, work efficiently, make the most out the time you do have, and that is your consistency level, and that is fine.” (9:16)
“We can go hard, but we have to be wise about how hard we go, and also take into consideration some of the variables that go into how hard we personally can go.” (13:31)
“Sometimes life happens. We have to be forgiving and compassionate about that, and we have to be understanding.” (18:57)
“You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to make consistency yet another thing that you feel is so heavy in your life, another thing that you are not doing good enough. You are doing good enough.” (25:34)
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One of the most common questions I get is about returning to lifting and modifying your training after an injury. While it can feel scary to get back into lifting after an injury, the good news is that with the right program, your body can overcome more than you believe it can.
If You Want to Return To Lifting After an Injury, You Should:
Getting Back to What You Love with Dr. Leada Malek
Dr. Leada Malek is a licensed physical therapist, board-certified sports specialist, and one of the 9% of therapists in the US who specialize in sports therapy. She has treated everyone from professional dancers to athletes, weekend warriors, and young adults. Dr. Malek uses a combined approach of manual therapy and therapeutic exercise to help her patients move better, perform better, and compete again. She believes in retraining the body as a whole and assisting people in preventing or recovering from injury so that they can continue to do what they love.
Treating the Whole Person
You may not think of yourself as an athlete, but Dr. Malek believes that you are one if you are doing something that you love. When an injury happens, it can prevent us from doing these activities; and it can profoundly impact our mental health, immune system, hormones, sleep, and mood.
Dr. Malek likes to get to know and treat a person as a whole being. Knowing what drives you, your fears, and your strengths can help identify an injury and prevent any future injuries. Addressing your thoughts and beliefs around your injury can actually help you resolve your pain and give you the confidence to get back into lifting again.
Get Past Your Fear and Back Into the Gym
Sometimes an injury or simply getting older can make us question our ability to build strong muscles and strong bones. But Dr. Malek is here to tell you that your body is incredibly resilient, and with the right dosage and right rate of exercise, your body can adapt, and you can take baby steps towards doing what you love again.
Pain is not always a sign of injury, but it does need to be listened to. By paying attention to what your body is trying to tell you, and focusing on the exercises and movement patterns that make you feel the best, you can address all the things that go into making you a functioning human, and move past your injury in the best way possible.
Are you ready to address your fears around rehabbing your injury and get back to lifting? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section of the episode page.
Quotes
“Once I got in and really started to appreciate how you could use exercise to help someone continue to exercise despite their ability to not exercise, that was really cool to me.” (7:14)
“It may not show up in hormonal levels, or maybe it is, and you just can't see it, but it can show up in your mood, in sleep disturbances, in immune function.” (20:24)
“Not every question that you ask the person may be about the injury, but every question you ask should be about them. What they think, what they believe, how they view their injury, what scares them or what excites them, and what they want to be able to do. Because if you have all that information, and they are having an off day because of something else, you might catch something at a very early stage that could save them from a future injury.” (23:11)
“You should be able to complete everything you want to do without the looming fear of ‘this is going to injure me again’. Because your body is super resilient.” (27:24)
“There is someone out there that is dedicated to making sure that you understand your body in the sense that is going to offer the way of exercising for longevity, and that doesn't hinder your progress.” (29:39)
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LTYB 358: Hypermobility, Pain, and Strength Training with Nikki Naab-Levy
LTYB 351: Strength Training Risk vs Benefit
LTYB 350: Are You Eating Enough? Low Energy Availability in Sport
Have you ever wished that you started your strength training journey earlier, maybe even in high school? The benefits of teaching girls how to lift properly at a young age go beyond the physical body and can impact their confidence, mental health, and body image.
If You Want to Help Girls Get Stronger, You Should:
The Benefits of Strength Training With Tiffany Ragozzino
Tiffany Ragozzino took her loves of fitness and education and combined them to help young girls get stronger and love their bodies. She is currently the Physical Education and Health teacher at an all-girls middle and high school in Los Angeles. Her mission is to empower girls and women to lift a barbell, be strong, show that muscles can be feminine, challenge them to see what their body is capable of, and gain confidence in themselves.
Getting Stronger in School and Life
As adults, we are expected to know how to move properly, but we were never taught how at a foundational level. Tiffany helps girls learn how to work through the functional movement patterns so that they can enter any space and feel confident in their ability and knowledge. She has seen firsthand the empowerment that these young girls experience when they learn how to move their bodies and build strength.
Not everybody grows up being a track athlete or a soccer star. Tiffany's program offers something different that has a total body and mind impact. Her program includes mental health support, teaching girls to be critical consumers when it comes to social media, how to do deal with body image issues, and a range of other topics meant to help girls love and accept their bodies.
Making Life Better for the Next Generation
Growing up in our modern world, where social media is everywhere, isn’t easy. Today, girls need the skills that Tiffany teaches them to build strength and confidence. These skills can be taken with them throughout their whole lives and can have a positive impact on the generations to follow.
As adults, we must take a look at the language and mindset that we are projecting onto younger generations. Kids soak up everything around them, which is why it is so important to consider your language and intention around body image and fitness when it comes to any young people you influence on. Creating a healthier environment starts with us and can make a huge difference.
Do you wish you had a program like Tiffany’s when you grew up? I sure do! Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page.
Quotes
“Learning how to do Olympic lifting, strength training, pushing my body to do things I never thought it could do, it just made me think ‘how cool would this have been if I had learned this at an earlier age? Where would I have been if I learned this in high school?’.” (12:42)
“My responsibility is to teach them how to be critical consumers and to make them aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.” (17:13)
“It is so rewarding to see a group of teen girls add a squat rep, coaching each other, giving each other cues. And I'm like ‘I wish I got to do this when I was a teenager!’.” (23:23)
“Giving students alternatives, maybe they are not the track star, maybe they are not on the soccer team, but they found something else that they can excel in, and feel good and feel confident, that's probably been my favorite piece about it.” (25:05)
“As parents, our responsibility is not only to support whatever your kid wants to do but also unpack why you are thinking otherwise.” (33:58)
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The Pretty Little Lifters Website
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I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes!
Podcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative
LTYB 334: How Strong Women Can Lift Each Other Up with Molly Galbraith