Understanding the Female Athlete

Chantelle: 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 not on women, were not about women. And you know, women were not included in clinical medical studies until the nineties. 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. CTA: 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/letsgo, and once you sign up, you’ll instantly get a link to try out some of our most popular training plans. 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/letsgo. That’s uphillathlete.com/letsgo. Chantelle: Hello, and welcome back to the Uphill Athlete Podcast. I’m Chantelle Robitaille, and this month we’re doing something special with International Women’s Day. Coming up on March the eighth, we’re dedicating the entire month of March to female athletes. I’m really excited to have my favorite. One of my favorite, uh, female athletes on the podcast with me here today, uh, for not one, but just two conversations. And we’ll be talking with Coach Alexa Hasman about what it means to train as a female mountain athlete. Alexa: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Chantelle: We are building these episodes around an incredible quote from a recent Voice of the Mountains podcast guest, Dr. Christine Theodorovics. And some of you may have heard her podcast, um, with Steve. If you haven’t, I recommend that you go and check it out. Um, among many of the great things and inspiring things that she had to say, one quote really stood out to us, and that was ability is the measure of permission. Alexa, what does that quote, um, bring up for you? Alexa: So what it brings up for me as we talk about women and athletes is that we often, um, in our world. Society expects us to get permission to do the things we wanna do, especially in athletics. Uh, 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. Chantelle: That’s awesome. I love that. I think the timing to talk about this is really great too with just coming, um, the heels of the Olympics set the closing ceremonies yesterday at the time that we are, uh, recording this 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. 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. Uh, we saw some that were pretty early in, in their postpartum stage. And we saw, um, some athletes that were at different stages of their careers where they’d 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 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. So to me, that’s what 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 gonna be phases of our lives and we go through quite a few. Where our bodies change, our mindsets change. 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. So we will be talking about the menstrual cycle. We’ll be talking about pregnancy, postpartum recovery, menopause, and all the real things that happen in our bodies that can affect our training. 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 of in our lives to respect those natural changes that are happening. Alexa: Yeah, I’m really excited about this topic because it’s where I’ve centered my, uh, coaching career for the majority of it. I started in postpartum and pregnancy fitness and have evolved into being menopause certified and, and, uh, 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 you are, 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 training. Chantelle: Alexa. I love how you frame that in terms of thinking about it as a, 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, uh, a great way to frame it for people to think about the different phases in life, just like phases of training, how you naturally know that the next phase of training’s going to be different because maybe the goal is different. Uh, maybe the objectives are different. Maybe the, maybe the objective is completely new. And that really represents a lot of the changes that happen in our bodies. 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. Alexa: Absolutely. Chantelle: I think, uh, this will be a fun conversation. I want to think, you know, maybe there are some male athletes in our audience. Uh, 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. Uh, 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 were 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. Alexa: Absolutely. Chantelle: So, to kick us off, oh, go ahead, Alexa. 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. Chantelle: Yeah. 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 gonna start with, uh, talking about the menstrual cycle. 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 talk. Can you talk first about the basics? What is actually happening on this monthly cycle for women? Alexa: Yeah, so I’m gonna break it down into the different phases of the menstrual cycle. So we start with during our period, that’s called the early fo follicular phase, and that’s when our estrogen declines and so does our progesterone. So, uh, you know, lower energy cramping, um. And we might just feel sort of, 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 what some people would say, uh, 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, uh, and our progesterone is rising. Uh, so this is when we’re sort of feeling more motivation and energy, uh, but we also have a little bit more ligament laxity. So it does, um, give us a little bit more potential to injury. Right 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. Uh, 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. So I serve the basics. Chantelle: 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. Are there any performance implications that, uh, 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? Alexa: 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 applications 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 wanna be doing lateral movements or like bounding or anything like that. But the biggest thing that I tell my athletes is every 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 gotta 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. 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, right? 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 gonna feel this way, right? Everybody is different. And so that’s my takeaway from that. Chantelle: I think that’s great. I think, um, one of the great. Works. I think that came out, uh, was probably by Dr. Stacy 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 not on women, were not about women. And you know, women were not included in, in medical studies until the nineties. 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, even though we’re now in our forties and fifties, right? That we wish we would’ve 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. So tell me what to do. There must be one way, and I feel like. 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 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, 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, 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, uh, need to cost money. So, for example, on a Garmin watch, there is that training peak. Certainly you can track that. Uh, 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. 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. 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, 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, thinking about some other things. ’cause 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. 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? What are some red flags that athletes should be looking for or being concerned about, um, with respect to their cycle and their training? Alexa: Yeah, so there’s definitely a few things. For me, the number one thing that stands out is energy level and fatigue. If you’re feeling especially fatigued, uh, and I’m saying like you could fall asleep throughout the day, kind of fatigue, uh, that’s something that’s a red flag. Uh, 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. Chantelle: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great thing. I mean, having a period, and I mean obviously we’ll get into this a little bit later, there are times where maybe your body is going through a new phase. Um, so having a period that is regularly, uh, coming around 28 or 30 days every month, um, that’s 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 wanna talk to. Your doctor about, uh, there could be a variety of reasons that that’s happening, but that’s like your, 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. It could be that your fueling isn’t, uh, adequate for the amount that you’re training. So definitely chat with a doctor if you are noticing any of those, uh, 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, uh, really you’re experiencing really heavy flow, um, sudden, 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. Alexa: Yeah. And with the fatigue, we gotta think about not only, not only fueling could be an issue, but uh, like iron levels could be a, that’s a big issue that women deal with. So, 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. Chantelle: 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 outta balance that needs to be corrected, it can take a good four to six weeks to with supplementation to 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’s been going on for a long time. Alexa: Absolutely. Chantelle: All right, Alexa, there are a lot of athletes probably listening to this who fit this phase, um, and they are on hormonal birth control of some kind. So that could be an oral contraceptive pill, that could be an IUD, whether it is a hormonal IUD or a copper one. Does that change anything for. Women who might be using these types of things. Alexa: Oh, sure. Yeah. It changes things. It means that they’re not gonna have a true ovulation and there’s no natural estrogen peak, so you might not get as extreme of those hormonal shifts as compared to if you were not on hormonal birth control. Chantelle: 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’re 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. 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 post menopause. I fell into that category. So I think it’s really important to keep on top of those things and have good, have a, you know, have really good, important discussions with your physician. Don’t be a, don’t be sitting in the backseat. You know, come on up into the front seat and, and ask the, ask the questions to be aware of your health. Alexa: And advocate for yourself. Unfortunately We have to add for ourselves, uh, especially as females and as female athletes, and so don’t just take the status quo of, um, 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. Chantelle: 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 a, 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 physician if it’s something that maybe your physician is not the most up to date with. I mean, there’s so much information that, uh, 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 in new information that’s coming to light in this space and, um, and are re ready and willing to help. Um. Alexa: let tell you that you shouldn’t be doing your sport anymore. I think that’s another thing that we hear a lot, unless there’s like a really good medical reason why 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? Chantelle: 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, um, that’s not particularly good either, right? So think about, you know, for those of you who are, um, looking to, you know, 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 tra, 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 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 need to be working with someone who also wants to, um, 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. Alexa: No, please don’t. Chantelle: 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, um, we should be paying attention to, um, and to help us make decisions about our training? Alexa: 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 oral 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, uh, a lack of sleep or something that is in your lifestyle that may be causing you extra stress or if I, I notice with myself when I drink my HRV crashes and my resting heart rate increases significantly. Uh, same thing can happen with hormonal shifts. We can see that in the HRV of the resting heart rate too. Chantelle: 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 just 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 outta 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. 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, uh, suddenly they get to a phase in life where alcohol really impacts their. Sleep and recovery in a drastic way. Did you have a small child, uh, in your bed all night? Or in Alexis 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, 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. 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. Um, and, and then, you know, do all the things you can in that day to support yourself so that the next day you are 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 gonna 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 wanna avoid. Alexa: Absolutely. Chantelle: Um, any last things you wanna cover on this topic, Alexa, before we move on to a different phase? Alexa: I think with that, with the monitoring, like you said, there’s a lot of data points 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. 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. Like, so for me, 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. Chantelle: Awesome. Thanks, Alexa. So let’s shift to one of the, no pun intended, biggest transitions many of our athletes face, uh, 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. I know there’s an, 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, uh, running in the wild, uh, to, you know, some people may be still holding that, that with them and maybe having people around them, judging them, uh, for their choices. This is a really big topic and so, you know, we’re only gonna brush upon this in our conversation today, uh, 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. Alexa: Yeah, absolutely. It changes your training. Um, and I wanna point out that with, with the expectations, not only from, uh, 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 there you’re gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna be my first piece of advice when going through pregnancy as an athlete. Chantelle: That’s a really important one, and I think this comes back to our earlier guidance before, right? 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, uh, 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 this smell of, um, you know, 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. 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, their postpartum times? Alexa: 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, you might feel really sick, or you might feel totally fine, right? It’s very varied amongst women. Um, and the training implications are based around how you feel during that phase. If you are feeling sick, it’s probably not a good time to be doing burpees or something like that, um, then you move into the second trimester, where you’re gonna feel significantly better. But now we change into, we don’t wanna be on our back for any of our training, right? Because of the blood flow to the baby and the mom. Um, of course, we don’t wanna 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, uh, the implications on our posterior chain are a lot heavier. So then you move into the third trimester, where 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 relaxing a hormone in your body that makes your ligaments looser so that you can give birth. Your abdomen is expanding. 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 wanna 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 be do aerobic workouts, but we’re gonna adapt to them. We’re gonna do a little bit more posterior work. We’re going to probably wear a pelvic band, especially in that third trimester, to pull that weight of that baby up off the pelvic floor, and we’re gonna be doing different core exercises. Now’s definitely not the time to be doing crunches or any of that stuff, or even planks. We don’t want intra-abdominal pressure at this time. So those are sort of the, we’re just changing, we’re adapting. Right? This is a training phase in our life. Chantelle: 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 fir experiencing their first pregnancy, there’s a lot of things that they don’t, they don’t know, um, they haven’t experienced before. 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’re 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? Alexa: 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, uh, adventures. Stuff that’s taking a little bit more, uh, glycogen depletion. 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 gonna do when we go to altitude. Um, and then also make sure that you’re checking, I mean, you already are checking in with your doctor. There’s, you know, if your regular 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. Chantelle: 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? Alexa: Oh gosh. For pregnancy ones, I don’t, I got my pregnancy ones a long time ago, but there’s Girls Gone Strong is a good one for all the phases of, uh, 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. Chantelle: Great. So that’s definitely something people can look for, right when they’re looking for some good guidance to make sure that someone has the appropriate level of knowledge to guide them. Alexa: 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. Chantelle: That’s awesome. So that’s a, a good little, um, bit of information on that phase. Um, then comes the next phase, which is another one that has an interesting, uh, amount of information out there about it. And I don’t know, I think about it as this sort of about bounce back culture that, uh, 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, a sports figure, talking about just fitting back into their pre-pregnancy clothes a couple of weeks after having a baby. It’s someone running a big race while they’re feeding their baby, uh, breastfeeding their baby at the aid stations. Um, 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, uh, 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. Can we address how these situations might be reasonable and perfectly healthy for some women? But it can feel, it could be really damaging to some women who are not having that same experience. Alexa: 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, um, in this phase. And, and watching people in this bounce back culture can be really detrimental. It stresses me out a lot when people are like really braggy 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. Ugh. Um, but for the, the majority of people, let’s not do that. Right. A big aspect of this is gonna 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? All of those things are gonna 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 wanna look out for in postpartum is one, our core is almost always completely different, um, afterwards, uh, and this is due to, uh, as our abdomen expands, it separates the walls of our abdomen. And there’s, uh, this. The tissue that holds our abdominal walls together is called the linea alba. And that’s that tears oftentimes when we’re pregnant. And so when we are postpartum, we often has a, have a gap in our abdomen. And I have checked hundreds of women for, uh, this gap, which is called diastasis recti. Um, and I would say 90 to 95% of the athletes that I’ve checked have some form of an 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. Right? So the biggest thing I hear is saying. Oh, well my doctor didn’t say I have, I have diastasis recite, so I’m fine. Typically, your doctor is not checking for that, first of all. So just be aware of that and just know that our training changes because of that abdominal split postpartum. Uh, and our pelvic, uh, we do not wanna do sit-ups. We do not wanna do crunches or planks. We wanna avoid till we get to at least below a two-finger abdominal, uh, separation. And that’s because of that intra-abdominal pressure. Again, what can happen, like in my case, demonstrating planks too much of what not to do postpartum, you get, uh, you can get abdominal hernias, right? So we won’t be aware of that stuff. Uh, we wanna make, uh, really calculated intelligent core decisions, uh, with role. Building back that core and that pelvic floor glue bridges, key bird dogs, dead bugs, really what it’s gonna be like. Not the fun, sexy stuff to do, but it’s really important. Um, and then we wanna make sure that we’re working on that posterior chain again. We’re still gonna be hunched for it oftentimes, especially for breastfeeding. Um, our posterior chain is gonna work differently, postpartum. 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. Chantelle: 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. Um, but I think that’s a good, you know, 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, they, everything is good. They have clearance from their doctor to get back to their training. What are some of the things that, 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? Alexa: Yeah, so one of the things is you wanna work with your body, and you wanna build into it slowly, and that means starting with. Maybe not running right away, walking first, um, because we wanna see how your pelvic floor is gonna do. We wanna see, uh, is there any leakage happening? That’s gonna be the number one thing. Uh, and building into it from fatigue level too, because oftentimes we’re not getting a ton of sleep in the first, uh, year. So, 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, um, post-farm training is pain. If we have pain at any point, um, you know, if we have, uh, pubic bone pain is a big thing. Um, uh, abdominal pain, any of those things, hard stop, right hard. Let’s adjust what we’re doing. Um. That’s gonna be the first thing. It’s really listening to our body’s cues, and again, it’s really gonna have to do with how the birth went, too, because if you are recovering from stitches or, um, major surgery, which a c-section is, that’s also gonna change how that year looks. Um, and some people re uh, recover a lot faster from that than other people do. So we’re gonna ease into it nice and slow. Uh, the day you get clearance, don’t go run a 10 k. Uh, start by walking, um, and then see how your body feels. See how that pelvic floor is responding. 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, uh, really good ways to do that and, and that’s really important right away. And building that pelvic floor strength. Chantelle: 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. Like you have two kids, you know, was it the same coming back after your first versus your second? Alexa: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. My first one was, um, 36 hours vaginal birth. Very traumatic, and I was in a lot of pain. And also there I had a lot of, uh, postpartum depression after my first one because I didn’t feel like myself. Um, and that was really hard. Um, and I was used to being, um, super fit. And I followed all these, uh, 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, you know, your body doesn’t, you don’t, you don’t look the same afterwards, and that’s okay. That’s totally normal and expected. You just gave birth to a child. Um, but we’re really hard on ourselves, and society’s really hard on us. Uh, so it was, that was really hard. And then my son was 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, 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, uh, 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. So I always Chantelle: A really great point. Alexa: Surround yourself with people that know what you’re going through. Uh, you find a coach that knows what you’re going through, find, um, friends or a support system or a, uh, 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. Chantelle: Yeah, and probably, I can imagine probably pretty helpful for you too. You know, after you, what you had all gone through to realize, like all the things that you had gone through were. In fact, normal. Um, I think that’s good for every athlete to think about. You know, you, 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 a, a lot more information out there for women to understand what, uh, 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, so women do not have to suffer with. Incontinence and, um, other things that are happening in their body that maybe in the past women have just been told they had to suck it up and deal with, Alexa: Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s horrible. Chantelle: 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 are getting quite a bit of information about perimenopause and menopause. Um, this is one where I have had plenty of, uh, 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, uh, postmenopausal for. Let’s see, three, almost four years now. Uh, it’s been quite a journey. And again, another one that is really varied and very diff 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. Um, so we wanna be able to share a little bit about what this means and what are some things to be thinking about. 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. Alexa: Yeah. So per menopause can last for a while, first of all, four to 10 years. Um, and what happens is your estrogen is all over the board. It’s high, it’s low. Um, your progesterone is declining. Um. You, it often is showing up in weird symptoms like disturbed sleep. Uh, you’re starting to get your regular periods. For me, joint pain was really the first sign. Uh, but everybody’s so different with that too. And that’s where it comes into like really advocating for yourself with, uh, your healthcare providers. Um, your energy can feel inconsistent. Um, 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, uh, a lot of my athletes and myself experienced as some of the first symptoms too, is like, I don’t, I’m always freezing and I would go through these phases where I was like, oh my God, I’m really hot. Um, but it doesn’t quite feel like a hot flash, you know what I 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. Chantelle: Yeah, I think now there are, what I saw in a mo most recent, um, article from the Menopause Society is that there are now 63 different symp 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 you a sweater. And, uh, I will say, I can remember kind of giggling at my mom, like, what is wrong with you? Um, but you know, when, when the hormones, when women are going through that shift, and it can start to happen as early as the thirties for some women, and then carry on to until they’re 50 or maybe even a little bit later. It’s a long time 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. 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. Um, for some women they might feel dizzy. There’s the changes that are happening, uh, 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, uh, report feeling pretty moody. Like really strong mood swings where sometimes they might be just find themselves feeling overly sensitive or overly angry. Um, you know, when sleep is disrupted, that’s certainly gonna 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, there’s some anti-inflammatories. They may recommend them to take an antidepressant or something like that. And, you know, although these things may help some of the symptoms, the underlying issue is that our hormones are going through changes. Thankfully, uh, 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. It’s not, it’s not something that’s dangerous. Of course, there could be some women that may be, uh, maybe 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 perhaps are not, uh, good candidates for this kind of supportive therapy. But don’t be afraid to ask your doctor about it. And if your doctor doesn’t know about it, or again, shoes you away, look for someone else. Um, look up, uh, the practitioners that are listed in the, in the, uh, menopause society where you live, whether that’s country-based or state-based, province-based or, 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. And this is not just about, you know, thinking about. Hormones that we’re talking about, like estrogen, progesterone, 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. 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 wanna think about, you know, how to support these things, um, for health reasons, but also we wanna think about how are these things impacted with our training. So, with that in mind, Alexa, what are some dots that you feel we should sort of connect for our listeners today? Alexa: Yeah, so we’ll, we’re still in the periman pause 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, uh, we might need to adjust, like the temperature that we’re training in your energy can feel 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 joint. 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. Um, that’s gonna be really good for not only our mental health, but our bone health. Um, are, we’re consistently losing muscle mass at this point in our lives, so we really need to keep that up. Uh, so really, really important to get on the strength training. Chantelle: 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 athlete female athletes, I feel like strengths training’s always been kind of a, a side thing or a side mission. Maybe some women did it, some women didn’t. Uh, some women are afraid of getting too big, you know, their muscles getting too big, which certainly isn’t gonna happen. 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. 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. 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. 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 same types of things that are naturally declining. 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, 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 rollercoaster. 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 gonna help with managing inflammation so that we can continue to do the things that we like to do. Although it might start to look a little bit differently. Alexa: Yeah. And you said, um, you know, the power 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 maybe not something that we can participate in. Right? So, um, leakage on all ends, so we gotta make sure that we are, are, are not doing that right. Pelvic floor health is really important. Um, but yeah, absolutely. I think strength training is critical in this phase of life. Chantelle: 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 gonna sail through these periods and some one-time recognition like, oh, you know, I don’t 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 to postmenopausal. Uh, and otherwise, there are women who are gonna suffer with a variety. Varying degree of symptoms for many years. 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, you might find a lot of, you have a lot of anxiety, um, that’s propping up that you’ve never experienced before. You could, you know, also the sleep disruption because of, um, body temperature and things like that, and other things that are happening could be more difficult. Waking up constantly at three or four in the morning. 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 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 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 gonna have to see like, what kind of body are we 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 gonna wanna do, but the way that you approach those goals might be different. And, um, the, you know, some certain goals you may have to think about just 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 great danger risk of not being able to do these things right. And we certainly don’t wanna get that. Alexa: Well, in contrary to popular belief, our life does not end at midlife, um, especially our athletic. 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. Absolutely not. There is a, we have special strengths, uh, during and after peri and menopause. So, uh, remember that we are incredible creatures. Chantelle: 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. Um, you know, women have good pain threshold thresholds. Women are resilient. Uh, 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 we’ve been doing hard things. While not necessarily feeling our best, uh, all the time for many, many years. So I think there’s like, you know, 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. Alexa: Super resilient. I always tell myself, If I’m running a hundred miler, it’ll take me way less time than the birth of my first child. So, uh, and that was, that was pretty awful. So nothing could be as bad as that. Chantelle: 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. How do we know 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? Alexa: Yeah, I always go back to those key red flags of fatigue level. Again, that’s gonna be one of our biggest indicators if you are having trouble functioning throughout the day because of fatigue. That is a big clue to us that something is going on. And pain, again, pain, uh, especially when we consider bone health and stuff like that, it becomes something that we wanna consider at this, uh, age range. That’s something that we wanna be aware of. Is there something going on, uh, fractures or anything like that that we need to be aware of? Uh, joint issues, uh, 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. Chantelle: 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 maybe going through some of these things. May not be fully listening to the signs. You know, that’s where, you know, having good people around you is important. Being able to ask them some questions, and you know, it’s not that you’re gonna interrogate someone about it, but maybe think about some questions that you can ask them, you know, if you feel like someone might not 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, ’cause 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 to be good. Allies to each other, to be kind to each other and to, you know, 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. Um, it’s not a judgment call. Uh, 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. How can we stay connected to being an athlete while our bodies are changing in such significant ways? Alexa: 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, we’re not our fastest version of ourselves. Uh, 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. 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 are able to accomplish now through all these phases rather than seeing what we’re not able to do. Chantelle: 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, they maybe can walk, maybe they get interested in hiking, maybe they meet some new friends through a stroller walking. Group. Um, and that’s pretty awesome. 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. 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, um, you can still learn to do new things regardless of what age you’re at. 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. 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. Alexa: Yeah. And I’ll add to that of, again, find that, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Uh, 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, 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 5K. Ari’s mom ran 200 miles. So embrace it, though, like it’s okay to be that outlier in these, uh, society circles that we’ve built. Chantelle: And you never know who you’re gonna inspire. 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. And coming back to that theme that we started with, ability is the me measure of permission. You know, give yourself permission to try new things. Give yourself permission to change your mind. Give yourself permission to talk about the things that are hard. You never know who is listening and you never know who is watching. So, you know, just to think about it for yourself as you’re listening to our podcast, what are, what is something that you’re waiting for permission on? What’s, you know, what’s, what’s stopping you? ’cause 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. Um, and I think that’s kind of a fun thought for us to think about. Alexa: Yeah, absolutely. Chantelle: 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? I. Alexa: Don’t wait for permission. 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. Chantelle: I love that. 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. It just makes you a more informed and empowered one. In our next episode, we’re gonna dial into some more technical sides of this. So we did talk a little bit about training in this podcast. Um, our next podcast is gonna focus on why and how to build, uh, strength training into your training as a female mountain athlete and why it’s important. So we’ll get into some nitty gritty about programming and movement patterns and, um, what sustainable training. It can look like. But before we go, um, I just wanna 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. 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. Um, Alexa, thank you so much for joining today and sharing all of your incredible knowledge and wisdom. Alexa: Thank Chantelle: And thank you to, for listening, um, and joining us today. Be sure to tune into our next follow-up conversation about strength training and female athletes. And if you enjoyed this type of topic and you’d like to see more of it, um, please feel free to reach out to us on social media and let us know. Alexa, any last words? Alexa: Keep grinding, keep getting after it. Chantelle: Awesome. Thanks everybody. CTA: 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 free four week samples of our most popular training plans for mountaineering, trail, running, climbing, and more. Go to uphillathlete.com/letsgo 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. It’s totally free, so why wait? That’s uphillathlete.com/letsgo.