Most of us, even if we’re very active, are not moving our bodies the way nature designed them to move. We exercise plenty. We also sit plenty. We wear shoes that don’t help keep our feet strong or our posture properly aligned. That can set the stage for aches, pains, and injuries, especially during this time of life when our joints are more vulnerable. This week we talk with movement coach Petra Fisher about the small daily adjustments we can make and exercises we can do to enhance mobility, decrease pain, and improve performance.

Petra is a movement coach, body nerd and recovering lawyer. She is certified in Restorative Exercise, MovNat and Functional Range Conditioning. Petra’s mission in life is to help women reconnect with their bodies so they have less pain, more joy & get to do more of what they love for the rest of their lives. You can learn more about her and her work at www.PetraFisherMovement.com

Resources from this podcast: 

Free Your Feet - free foot program to get started restoring healthy foot function - here

Step-by-step guide on how to transition safely and well to barefoot-style footwear - here

Joints For Life 2.0 - foundational CARs joint mobility program - here 



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Heavy lifting, HIIT training, and explosive exercises like plyometrics do a menopausal body good. So, CrossFit can be the perfect workout for women in this stage of life…provided they scale it to their needs. That’s because CrossFit also has elements that may not work with our physiology and can leave us feeling tired and beat down instead of strong and built up. That’s why this week’s guest, CrossFit coach Shawna Norton of Competitive Female Training created “Level M” CrossFit programming for women peri and post-menopause. We talk all about the benefits of CrossFit, how to scale workouts to work with your physiology, and how to fuel it all for the best results. 

Shawna is an L1 Certified Nutrition Coach through Precision Nutrition, with a B.S in Kinesiology. She holds her L1 with Crossfit and actively coaches athletes through her women’s only coaching program–Competitive Female Training. She loves helping women fuel their training and focus on what their bodies can do! You can find more about her and her work at competitivefemaletraining.com/level-m/

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What would happen if you tossed out all your premenopausal notions about how you are “supposed to” eat and train for your best performance and tried some new tricks to work with your changing physiology? If you’re like this week’s guest, you might just win a gold medal. Ashling Smith is a runner from Ireland who recently won a gold medal at the World Masters Athletics Championships in the 4 x 400 relay. She also ran to a career-high 4th place in the 1,500-meter race at the same event. She did both shortly after turning 50, recovering from Covid, and as she puts it being “smack bang in perimenopause”. How did she do it? Lifting, sprint training, plyometrics, and changing her relationship with food. We dive into all of that, her newfound love for being a menopausal woman, and more this week.

Along with being a competitive elite runner, Ashling is a personal trainer, a Pilates instructor, and a deep tissue massage therapist. She helps women pursue sustainable fitness for life and have fun with their body at every age. You can follow her here. You can read all about her gold medal run at the Independent.ie. The research on iron supplementation we discuss can be found here. 

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How do you know if menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) is for you? What should you expect if you start hormone therapy? How long does it take to work? What should you do if you don’t feel like it’s working? We dive into the ABCs of starting MHT this week with menopause doctor Heather Hirsch, MD. This is a good one for active menopausal women whether or not you are taking or plan to start MHT because we speak to all the things we should be doing, such as taking inventory of how we’re feeling and being proactive about our care, to feel and perform our best. 

Dr. Hirsch is board certified in internal medicine and completed advanced fellowship training in women’s health at the Cleveland Clinic. She performs menopause consultations at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston Massachusetts and is faculty at Harvard Medical School. Her practice has a focus on perimenopause and menopause symptom reduction, hormone therapy, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, sexual health, breast, and bone health. Her academic work centers on enhancing midlife women’s health education for fellows, residents, and medical students. Dr. Hirsch also teaches at the local, regional, and national level on various midlife topics. You can learn more about her and her work at www.heatherhirschmd.com/

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Register for the Outspoken Summit November 11-13th at https://www.womensperformance.com/outspoken

The only thing women tend to do better than men after having a heart attack is die. That’s a sobering mic drop. It’s also a fact and one that this week’s guest Dr. Martha Gulati is making her life’s work to change. We dive into the special heart disease risk factors women, especially menopausal women face, even if they’re active and fit, what you need to know about your cardiovascular health, and how to prioritize your heart health and cardiovascular care. 

Dr. Gulati is the President of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology and the author of the best-seller, “Saving Women’s Hearts”. She is the principal investigator of the St. James Women Take Heart Project, a study examining cardiac risk factors in women, which set standards for women’s fitness levels and heart rate response to exercise in women. She also is a co-investigator on the Women Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) and previously served as a co-investigator on the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). She has published articles in peer-reviewed publications, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  She has also been featured on Oprah. Her practice is exclusively women, including many active women and she is a runner herself. You can learn more about her and her work at https://drmarthagulati.com/ You can find the MHT and cardiovascular research referenced in the intro here. 

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From femtech apps to menopause telehealth, tracking rings to cooling bracelets, and even cryotech surgical services designed to prolong ovarian function, menopause is having a moment in innovation and enterprise. This week we dig into it with Alyssa Dweck, MD, FACOG, who is an avid runner as well as a consultant, key opinion leader (KOL), and medical advisor in the women’s health device, pharmaceutical, product, and medico-legal industry. 

Dr. Dweck is a practicing gynecologist in New York where she provides care to women of all ages and has special interest and expertise in female sexual health and medical sex therapy. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at New York Medical College, the co-author of three books, including the newest release The Complete A to Z for Your V, ​​and is the founding chief medical officer at Bonafide. You can learn more about her and her work at https://drdweck.com/

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One in eight women will have their ovaries removed before the natural age of menopause. Five percent of women naturally go through early menopause between the ages of 40 and 45, and 1 percent experience premature menopause before age 40. That’s a lot of women. And a large percentage of these women are not getting the counseling they need to optimize their well-being and long-term health, says menopause management specialist Corinne Menn, MD. This week she’s here to help as we dive into the unique challenges of surgical and early menopause and what women need to know.

Dr. Menn is a board certified OB/GYN with expertise and a special interest in menopause management and female cancer survivorship health. She is a 20-year survivor of breast cancer and has a passion for using her medical expertise and personal experience to help women navigate these complex health issues. She is an active contributor and volunteer with the Young Survival Coalition, serves on their Council of Advisors, and moderates the Healthcare Provider-Survivor Support Group. Dr. Menn is also an active member of the North American Menopause Society and a Certified Menopause Practitioner. She devotes her professional time to her female-focused telehealth practice and is working on a website and blog chronicling her experience as a doctor and survivor of breast cancer, premature menopause, and everything in between! You can learn more about her at https://linktr.ee/drmennobgyn

Resources:

Instant Help for Induced Menopause

NAMS 2022 HT Position Statement 

NAMS Patient Handout “Deciding about HT

POI: Beyond the Basics

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Women have traditionally been ignored in sleep medicine (shocking, we know). That means our sleep issues can be misunderstood and misdiagnosed, especially during menopause when sleep disruptions rise. This week we investigate how hormones and menopausal symptoms impact sleep, as well as dive into sleep issues like sleep apnea (which shows up differently in women), restless leg syndrome, hypervigilance, and more with Dr. Andrea Matsumura, a holistic sleep medicine physician and a partner at the Oregon Clinic in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine.

Dr. Matsumura’s personal passion is helping women and women athletes understand their sleep and its key role in personal health, wellness, and performance. She has been the guest speaker for The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, numerous podcasts, and has been quoted in myriad articles about sleep and wellness. You can learn more about her work at https://www.oregonclinic.com/our-team/andrea-matsumura

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Hit Play Not Pause is on a quick summer break during the weeks of July 18th and 25th, 2022. While we're out, we are excited to share two episodes from Feisty Media's excellent limited Title IX series.

Not to pick favorites, but here at Feisty - this is definitely a favorite. With almost 50 years of experience as an athletic director and inductions into seven different halls of fame, Joan Cronan has A LOT to say about Title IX and gender equity in sport. Graduating college in 1966, Joan was part of intercollegiate sports before women had the federal right to equally compete. This week, our co-host of Girls Gone Gravel, Kathryn Taylor, interviews Joan and asks her about what she calls "her journey."

Joan shares the story of her life so far, beginning at the age of twelve when she decided she was going to create change for women in athletics. To do so, in 1972 Joan made a cold call to the president of the College of Charleston and left his office as the women's basketball coach, volleyball coach, tennis coach and overall athletic director. From there, she made innumerable changes to women's athletics that will forever go down in history. If that isn't feisty, what is?

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