It's been three years since Leka Fineman last joined the show — and in that time she won the CrossFit Games at 56, retired from competition, took up surfing for the first time in her 50s, started menopause hormone therapy (including testosterone), and lost her partner to cancer just seven months ago. Leka pulls back the curtain on the “identity grief” she experienced after working so hard to meet her goals and so hard to take care of her partner that she no longer knew who she was when it was all over. Physically and emotionally drained, Leka looked past her usual pursuits and turned to yoga, equine therapy, and a community of surfer women to pull her through. She shares what her hormone therapy journey has looked like, how she fuels and trains now compared to her competitive days, and how turning 60 this October is inspiring her to quiet her mind, connect with her inner self, and embrace what comes next.

Leka Fineman is a health, wellness, and mindset coach, CrossFit Games champion, and lifelong athlete based in Southern California. A three-time CrossFit competitor turned five-time CrossFit Games athlete, she won the world title at age 56 before retiring from competition to focus on coaching, surfing, and yoga. Leka works with clients on strength, nutrition, and mindset — building personalized plans that help people identify their motivation and values, and using meditation, visualization, and breathwork to help them show up from a strong, calm center in any part of life. Since stepping away from competitive CrossFit, she's become an avid surfer, a certified yoga teacher, and an equine-therapy volunteer, and she continues to coach women on strength training, hormone health, and midlife reinvention. Learn more about Leka and her coaching at lekafineman.com.

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When people go on GLP-1 medications, part of the treatment plan is to encourage them to exercise. But what about all the already active–even athletic–women who are layering them onto serious training? That’s less clear…and far less researched. Performance nutritionist Heidi Skolnik, author of the new book Your GLP-1 Game Plan, returns to break down how these medications really work, the side effects you may be prepared for (as well as some important ones nobody warns you about), and how to protect your muscles and bones and build a fueling strategy that actually works. We also get into hydration, supplements, eating-disorder red flags, and whether serious performance and GLP-1s can coexist. This one is filled with real talk, no shame, and no easy answers.

Considered a thought leader in nutrition, Heidi Skolnik, MS, CDN, is a NY Times best-selling co author, part of The Women’s Sports Medicine Center at Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC and oversees the Performance Nutrition program at The Juilliard School. She started the Performance Nutrition program at the School of American Ballet and worked as team nutritionist for the WNBA NY Liberty, NBA Knicks, NFL Giants and MLB Mets. Heidi sits on the medical advisory board of the National Menopause Foundation and The NYRR (New York Road Runners) and sat on the board of The National Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation for 10 years. Heidi has earned two Master’s degrees (exercise physiology and human nutrition) and is a Fellow with the American College of Sports Medicine. Heidi began her career in corporate fitness and wellness at Morgan Stanley for the Sports Training Institute. As a realist, Heidi believes M&M’s can fit into a healthy eating style along with red peppers, red meat, broccoli, and fresh fruit. You can learn more about her work and get the book at www.heidiskolnik.com

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Today's menopause conversation is dominated by hormone therapy, which leaves many women who can't use it feeling left out and worried about their current and future health and well-being. This week's guests, Drs. Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su and Amy Voedisch — co-authors of Estrogen, Interrupted and hosts of the OvaryActive podcast — are here to bring some evidence-backed hope. Because no HT doesn't mean "sorry, you'll just have to suffer." Together we map out who actually shouldn't use hormone therapy versus outdated "rules" that no longer apply. The doctors break down the new NK3/NK1 "candy neuron" blockers Veozah and Lynkuet, the underrated combo drug Duavee, why vaginal estrogen is nearly contraindication-free, and how CBT, clinical hypnosis, and old-school options like gabapentin fit into the non-hormonal toolbox. Plus: bone health, DEXA scan timing, and why perimenopause — not menopause — is often the hardest stretch. Check out their book Estrogen, Interrupted and their podcast OvaryActive to learn more.

Dr. Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su is a board-certified OB-GYN and Menopause Society-certified practitioner. She is the chief medical officer at Gennev, a telemedicine platform specializing in perimenopause and menopause, medical director at Seattle Clinical Research Center, and an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington State University. She holds a Masters of Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Amy Voedisch is a board certified OB-GYN and certified menopause practitioner through The Menopause Society. She is an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University and board-certified in Complex Family Planning. She holds a Masters of Epidemiology and Clinical Research from Stanford University.

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Anxiety, rage, depression, 3am wake-ups, fear that freezes you in your tracks — psychiatrist Dr. Allie Sharma joins us this week to explain why perimenopause is a real window of mental health risk. We unpack how shifting and declining estrogen and progesterone levels drive mood, sleep, and anxiety changes (and why anxiety is often the first symptom, even before hot flashes), plus how hormone therapy, medication, testosterone, acupuncture, and CBT can help, often in combination. We close with a guided breathing and full body-scan exercise to help calm the nerves during this often emotionally-fraught time.

Dr. Allie Sharma (Sonali Sharma, MD) is a Cornell-trained, board-certified adult psychiatrist who ran a private Manhattan practice for over a decade. She's currently Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Being Health, a Women's Health Advisor for menopause care startup Evernow, and an advisor to Kenneth Cole's Mental Health Coalition, following a role as Associate Medical Director at Cityblock Health. Her background spans emergency and student psychiatry at Columbia, mental health work with NYC's homeless population, and global public health leadership, including advising post-conflict countries and the World Health Organization (Libya, Ethiopia, mhGAP guidelines) and directing a ThriveNYC workforce initiative. She earned her MD from Weill Cornell, trained at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and UCSF, and holds a master's from the London School of Economics. She is a mother of two and lives in Brooklyn, NY. You can learn more about her and her work at sonalisharmamd.com and Beinghealth.co.

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Anyone who's played a full 18 holes of golf knows you need to reset, refuel, and refocus before heading into the back nine. Well, midlife works the same way, says this week's guest, OG Peloton instructor Jenn Sherman, who calls this stage of life her "Back Nine Era." Jenn opens up about her perimenopause-to-menopause journey and what it was like navigating it on camera, in front of a Peloton community that's watched her age in real time. We also dig into how her training has shifted — ditching calorie counting, embracing strength training, taking plenty of daily walks, and leaving the BS behind. Jenn also explains why she's not on hormone therapy but encourages every woman to talk to her doctor about it, and why joy, connection, and recovery matter just as much as any training plan at this stage of life.

Jenn Sherman is Peloton’s original cycling instructor and a trusted voice for women navigating midlife. A former stay-at-home mom who didn’t become a spin instructor until her early 40s, and didn’t join Peloton until age 45, Jenn’s career is a testament to reinvention at every stage of life. As Jenn began sharing more openly about the physical, mental, and emotional changes she experienced in her 50s, she recognized a growing need for honest conversations about this stage of life. That led to the creation of The Back Nine Era, a lifestyle platform and mindset shift focused on longevity, strength, cognitive health, fueling the body in midlife, and the power of human connection. Jenn continues to teach at Peloton while building The Back Nine Era as a space for women who want to live fully, move confidently, and approach the next decades of life with intention, strength, and clarity. You can follow her on Instagram at pelotonjenn and her collaboration with her best friend Sunny at sunnyandjenn.

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Recent research shows that between 40 and 60% of women either change or quit their sport due to bladder leaks. That’s 100% too many in our book. So this week we sat down with Dr. Lauren Siff, a double board-certified urogynecologist to demystify one of women's health's most under-discussed issues: urinary leakage. We break down the differences between stress and urge incontinence, why athletes and active women are prone to leaking, and how the menopausal transition can worsen the situation through declining estrogen, shifting vaginal pH, and rising UTI risk. Dr. Siff walks us through the full range of solutions, from pelvic floor exercises and support devices to Botox, bladder stimulators, and the game-changing role of vaginal estrogen, plus how to know when it's time to seek care. Her message is loud and clear in this one: no matter how small or severe the symptoms, there's help available — and you never have to stop doing what you love.

Dr. Siff is a double board-certified urogynecologist and Chief of Gynecology and Urogynecology for the Central Virginia VA Health Care System and Associate Professor at VCU School of Medicine and VCU Institute of Engineering. A dedicated innovator and surgical educator — with a Distinguished Educator certificate from the Cleveland Clinic and founder of SurgicalEd VR, which uses VR and haptic technology to improve the quality, safety, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility of surgical training. She also serves board and committee roles with the Society for Gynecologic Surgeons, American Urogynecologic Society, and American Association of GYN Laparoscopists. She is Central Virginia Site Lead for the National VA Women's Health Research Network, and chairman of the U.S. National Surgery Office's Surgical Advisory Board for GYN. Philanthropically, she directs surgeon training for Global Surgical Expedition, driven by a mission to democratize access to surgical training and vital surgical procedures worldwide.

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People often think of weight loss drugs like GLP-1 and related agonists (e.g., Wegovy and Mounjaro) as “medications”--which they are, but they work because they mimic our own natural gut hormones to lower blood sugar, slow digestion, blunt appetite, and ultimately reduce weight. In that way, they’re weight health hormone replacement therapies much like estrogen and progesterone are sex hormone replacement therapies, says this week’s guest best-selling dietitian Ashley Koff, RD. We dig into weight-health hormones (GLP-1, GIP, PYY, CCK) that regulate appetite and metabolism, why digestion and hydration have to be optimized before nutrition even enters the picture, and how GLP-1 medications and hormone replacement therapy can work together in perimenopause and menopause. Plus: Ashley's own story of Everesting Mount Rainier at 52.

Ashley Koff, RD, is the USA Today bestselling author of Your Best Shot (HarperOne). With more than 25 years as a practitioner and educator, she's helped redefine the conversation from weight loss to weight health — a science-based framework focused on metabolic function and hormonal regulation. She's been named one of CNN's Top 100 Health Makers and "Hollywood's Leading Dietitian" by InStyle. You can learn more about her and her work at her practice, The Better Nutrition Program.

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Can’t lift heavy loads but still want the benefits of heavy lifting? Blood flow restriction (BFR) training—using cuffs to partially restrict venous blood flow so you can get heavy‑lifting‑like gains with much lighter loads—could be just what you need, says this week’s guest, veteran strength coach Ashley Selman, CSCS. In this episode, we dig into what BFR training is, how it’s done in real‑world workouts, who it’s for, and why it can be a powerful option for midlife athletes who can’t tolerate traditional heavy lifting but still want to build and maintain muscle, strength, bone health, and even VO₂ max.

Ashley Selman, MA, CSCS, is a veteran strength coach with 30+ years’ experience working with elite athletes, collegiate programs at Stanford and the University of Oregon, and clients at every level. She was named one of the Top 100 Trainers in the U.S. by Men's Journal and founded Evolution Trainers in Mountain View, California, voted the number one health club in Silicon Valley. After a difficult hip replacement and early menopause at 43 left her losing muscle despite “doing everything right,” discovering blood flow restriction (BFR) training allowed her to rapidly regain strength she hadn’t felt in over 15 years, which inspired her to create Seli Strength, a virtual BFR program now serving hundreds of midlife women. She recently developed "Coaching Blood Flow Restriction Training: The Future of Fitness" with the American Council on Exercise (ACE), for fitness professionals who want to bring BFR training to their clients. You can learn more about her and her work at www.selistrength.com

Resources

Get $50 off BFR bands with the code Feisty50 at Selistrength.com/bfr-bands

Blood Flow Restriction Training for Athletes: A Systematic Review here

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of blood flow restriction training on bone health in older adults here

Vascular occlusion for optimising the functional improvement in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled trial here

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We’ve all heard jumping can help build our bones. But here’s the catch: the gains don’t come from the jumps; they come from how you land. This week we break down the mechanics of bone-building and how to make your skeleton stronger no matter what your age with bone health researcher Tracey Clissold, PhD. Tracey explains what it really takes to turn bone “on” with impact—and why just walking, running, or weight-bearing exercise is not enough for midlife women who want stronger skeletons. We unpack why bones respond to how you land, not just that you jump; what “bone-jarring” stiff, flat-footed landings are, and why they need to happen quickly to stimulate bone remodeling. You’ll also hear success stories, including one woman who went from a hip/spine T-score of –3.8 at age 65 to out of the osteoporotic range at 70 using impact, food, and vitamin D—without medications.

Tracey Clissold, PhD has over 30 years of academic experience as a lecturer and researcher in Exercise Science, Sports Nutrition and Women’s Health. She is currently a lecturer at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in New Zealand and is a nutrition consultant for national and international athletes and coaches. Tracey completed a PhD at Auckland University of Technology on ‘The effects of an osteogenic jump-landing programme on bone health in premenopausal women,’ and her research is ongoing. She and the OSTEO-GAINS team have created a Women’s Bone Health Phone App which is receiving incredible attention in NZ and worldwide. Tracey is the mother of two and has previously represented New Zealand in distance running, winning several national and international marathon titles, including winning the Auckland Marathon four times. For more information about the OSTEO-GAINS Bone Health Program, please visit osteo-gains.com and on Instagram.

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Trail runner, writer, and BRCA1 gene carrier Sara Aranda grew up watching breast and ovarian cancer devastate the women in her family and ultimately lost her mom while she was in college. This week, she brings us her story–what it was like choosing prophylactic mastectomy and bilateral salpingo‑oophorectomy in her mid‑30s, going from FKT‑strong to surgical menopause overnight, and the collision of relief and grief that follows. Sara shares how she used a massive “lowest to highest” FKT and a prayer run for missing and murdered Indigenous women as both metaphor and preparation, how she’s navigating hormone therapy, sleep, body composition, bone worries, and shin splints, and why she wants other medically and/or surgically menopausal athletes to know they are not alone.

Sara Aranda is a creative writer, trail runner, and coach who is passionate about craft, community, and challenging perceived notions of language and body, notably what it now means for her to be an athlete in surgical menopause. From adventure storytelling to posting too much on Strava to sweeping run club runs to attempting FKTs, she is both young and menopausal, and still very much full of dreams. Past accomplishments include receiving a Notable Mention in the Best American Essays 2019 anthology, placing 1st Female at the Colossal Vail 50/50 55K, setting 22 FKTs, and receiving the Spirit of No Man's Land Award at No Man's Land Film Festival for her 2025 film, Ofrenda.

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Wahoo: Use the code FEISTY2026 to get a free Headwind Smart Fan (value $300) with the purchase of a Wahoo KICKR RUN at https://shorturl.at/WVhdr