The Body Pod

This week on The Body Pod, we sit down with Terri Cole, licensed psychotherapist and bestselling author of Boundary Boss, to unpack why so many women between 40 and 70 grew up without the boundaries they need now. Terri explains that most of us were raised and praised to be self-abandoning people pleasers, told to be a good girl and turn that frown around, and never taught the language of preferences, limits, and deal breakers that make up healthy boundaries. She breaks down why boundary setting has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with training, and why fear of conflict, rejection, and disappointing the people we love keeps so many capable, accomplished women stuck saying yes when they mean no.

Terri walks through her resentment inventory exercise, a simple tool for pinpointing exactly where a boundary is missing in your life, and shares the story of setting a boundary with her own sister over borrowed clothes to show how small, unspoken frustrations pile up into years of resentment. She also breaks down the difference between boundary first timers, repeat offenders, and boundary destroyers, and explains why the people who react the angriest to a new boundary are often the ones who had the most to lose from your silence. Expect specific scripts you can use the next time someone shows up late, oversteps, or asks for more than you have to give.

The conversation closes with a preview of Terri's forthcoming book, Father Wound, and her three questions for clarity technique for spotting the repeating relationship patterns that trace back to childhood: who does this person remind me of, where have I felt this before, and how is this dynamic familiar. It's a practical framework for turning frustration into self understanding instead of judgment. Listen to the full episode for Terri's boundary scripts, her insight on people pleasing in midlife women, and how to preorder Father Wound at www.fatherwoundbook.com before it releases in October. Learn more about Terri at https://www.terricole.com/




Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you've ever been told to stretch more, foam roll more, or simply "move better" to fix your pain, this episode may completely change how you think about injury recovery and long-term movement health. We sit down with physical therapist and movement expert Dr. Tom Walters to unpack the science behind mobility, strength training, injury prevention, pain management, tendon health, joint function, and healthy aging. From frozen shoulder and plantar fasciitis to ACL rehabilitation and chronic aches and pains, Dr. Walters explains why many common approaches to recovery fall short and what actually works to build a stronger, more resilient body.

In this evidence-based conversation, Dr. Walters breaks down the relationship between strength, mobility, flexibility, stability, and movement quality, helping listeners understand why pain isn't always caused by tight muscles and why mobility is about much more than stretching. We explore the latest research on tendon injuries, shoulder pain, knee pain, athletic performance, injury rehabilitation, muscle imbalances, asymmetries, and functional movement, while discussing practical strategies for improving movement capacity at any age. Whether you're an athlete, recreational exerciser, or simply trying to stay active as you age, you'll gain valuable insights into optimizing how your body moves and performs.

This episode is packed with actionable advice for anyone looking to reduce pain, prevent injuries, improve mobility, increase strength, maintain independence, and support longevity through exercise. Dr. Walters shares why strength training remains one of the most powerful tools for musculoskeletal health, how to build confidence after an injury, and what active adults need to know about staying mobile, capable, and pain-free for years to come. If you're interested in healthy aging, injury prevention, rehabilitation, movement science, functional fitness, physical therapy, strength and conditioning, and lifelong mobility, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

Bryn Panee Burkhart came to Hailey Happens Fitness a little over a year ago, right in the middle of what she calls a full-blown sandwich generation smackdown. After a cross-country move to Hawaii, she was raising two kids, managing her father's cancer care and her aunt's dementia diagnosis, and quietly falling apart from exhaustion no one had a name for. It was not until she read an article on how women have been misled about menopause that she realized what she was actually dealing with was perimenopause, and it sent her down a research rabbit hole that eventually led her to strength training, hormone replacement therapy, and Hailey Happens Fitness.

In this episode, Hailey and Laura sit down with Bryn to unpack that journey candidly, from the 12 pounds she gained in a year doing nothing different, to fighting through three doctors before finding one who would actually treat her. Since starting the Hailey Happens Fitness app in January 2025, Bryn has worked through eight programs, from Power Happens to Shred Happens, and watched her body fat drop from 28 percent to 24 percent on back-to-back DEXA scans, results she credits to simply trusting the plan and letting it do the work.
 
But this is more than a health story. Bryn is also an executive coach who trained at MIT's Sloan School of Management, where she spent 15 years overseeing alumni career services before launching her own practice, Bright Evolution Coach. She works primarily with midlife professionals who have hit an inflection point, people who built successful careers only to realize what got them there no longer fits who they are becoming. She brings that same clarity to midlife itself, explaining why this stage of life so often demands a full renegotiation of who we are, whether that shows up as a career, a marriage, or an identity we built years ago and quietly outgrew.

Hailey, Laura, and Bryn get honest about what it looks like to fall apart in front of someone and come out the other side stronger for it, and why growth and comfort were never meant to coexist. If you are a midlife woman feeling stretched between caregiving, hormones, and a nagging sense that something has to change, this conversation is a reminder that you are not falling apart. You are renegotiating, and that is exactly the work of this season of life.

Learn more about Bryn at https://brightevolutioncoach.com/

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

Why does midlife suddenly bring on insecurity, self-sabotage, and a loss of self-confidence you never struggled with before? In this episode of The Body Pod, Hailey and Laura sit down with cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Caroline Leaf, bestselling author of 19 books on the mind-brain connection, to unpack exactly what happens in the midlife brain. Dr. Leaf explains why women in midlife shift from processing life in broad concepts to sudden, sharp detail, why this cognitive shift can surface a "midlife crisis," and how decades of unmanaged toxic thoughts quietly shape self-sabotage, anxiety, and stress well into your 40s, 50s, and beyond. If you've ever wondered why midlife hits differently for women's mental health and confidence, this conversation breaks down the neuroscience behind it.

This episode dives deep into Dr. Leaf's signature framework on the mind vs. brain distinction, the difference between conscious and subconscious thought, and her practical, science-backed method for identifying, deconstructing, and reconstructing toxic thought patterns before they dominate your midlife years. Midlife women will learn why unresolved thoughts from every stage of life — childhood through adulthood — build into "tree-like" neural networks in the brain and body, why simply trying to ignore or suppress them doesn't work, and how neuroplasticity makes it possible to actually rewire long-held mental patterns at any age. Dr. Leaf also explains the difference between healthy and unhealthy thought structures and why midlife is uniquely positioned as a turning point for self-awareness and growth.

Whether you're navigating perimenopause, an empty nest, a career pivot, or simply that unshakeable feeling that midlife is asking you to look at your life differently, this episode offers real, actionable neuroscience for reclaiming your mental health, confidence, and mindset in midlife. Tune in to The Body Pod for this powerful conversation on midlife mental wellness, thought management, and the brain science every midlife woman needs to hear.  Because understanding your mind is the first step to changing your life.

Learn more about Dr. Leaf at www.drleaf.com

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you've ever leaked during a workout, felt pressure "down there," or been told to just do your Kegels, this episode is for you. We sit down with Kim Vopni, known as The Vagina Coach, a certified personal trainer and pelvic floor expert with over 20 years of experience helping women understand and optimize their pelvic health. Pelvic floor dysfunction affects millions of women and most don't even know they have it! This conversation covers everything you didn't know you needed to hear.

Kim breaks down the symptoms women silently live with for years, the difference between stress urinary incontinence and urgency incontinence, how pelvic organ prolapse is staged, what a pessary is and how it works, and whether women with prolapse can (and should) be lifting heavy weights. She also unpacks the eye-opening connection between lower back pain and pelvic floor dysfunction, why 50% of women who've given birth have some degree of prolapse without knowing it, and why vaginal estrogen is something every woman in perimenopause and beyond should be talking to her doctor about.

Kim explains why Kegels alone aren't enough, how breath and whole-body movement are key to true pelvic floor function, and why pelvic health is a lifelong practice not just a postpartum fix. She also shares how her BuffMuff app and 28-day challenge are giving women the tools to rebuild their foundation from the inside out, and why her membership community is helping women realize they are not alone in this.

Whether you're in your thirties and want to get ahead of it, deep in perimenopause, or post-menopausal and ready to stop accepting symptoms as normal, this is the women's health conversation your OBGYN should have been having with you all along.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

What if your body came with a maintenance manual and you've just been ignoring it? In this episode of The Body Pod, hosts Hailey and Laura sit down with Dr. Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett, the legendary movement and mobility experts behind Built to Move and The Ready State, for a conversation that will completely change how you think about your body in midlife. From hip extension to voodoo flossing, the Starretts break down why most women are unknowingly setting themselves up for injury, chronic pain, and lost function and exactly what to do about it.

The conversation dives deep into the most overlooked mobility issue affecting midlife women (hint: it's not your ankles), why sitting on the floor for 30 minutes a day might be the sneakiest and most effective mobility practice available, and how to audit your current strength and conditioning program to know if it's actually building the bone density and muscle mass you need. Kelly and Juliet also tackle the perfectionist mindset trap that causes so many women to push through pain and overtrain, the truth about "core work" and why you might want to ditch it, and why a quality strength and conditioning practice is a must.

Whether you're brand new to lifting or years into your fitness journey, this episode is your guide to training smarter, moving better, and staying injury-free for decades to come. Learn the key markers of a quality strength program, why hip extension is the single most common mobility deficit in women, how to use voodoo flossing to manage soreness and recover faster, and more. If you're a woman in midlife who wants to sprint on the beach, hike the Grand Canyon, and keep doing the things you love, this episode is essential listening.



Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

In this episode of The Body Pod, Hailey sits down with Dr. Alyssa Olenick - exercise physiologist, researcher, endurance athlete, and one a trusted voice in women's fitness science. Alyssa holds a PhD in exercise physiology with an emphasis in women's fitness and has dedicated her career to translating complex science into real, actionable guidance for everyday women.
 
Hailey and Alyssa dig into the strength training conversation that midlife women actually need, cutting through the conflicting online noise to talk about what a smart training year really looks like, why training multiple characteristics (strength, power, and cardio) across a year produces far better results than doing the same thing indefinitely, and why power training and plyometrics are the most overlooked piece of the puzzle for women over 40. They also break down the cardio and heart rate zone conversation with refreshing honesty, explaining when zones actually matter, how to build an aerobic base, and why most women are overthinking it entirely.

The episode closes on the topic every midlife woman is asking about: metabolism, body composition, and the real story behind the changes happening in perimenopause and beyond. Alyssa unpacks what the research actually says about metabolic rate, fat redistribution, muscle loss, and why so many women feel like everything changed even when nothing in their routine did. She leaves listeners with a simple, grounded framework to stop spinning their wheels and start building a body (and a relationship with fitness) that actually works for this season of life. Find more of her work at doclyssfit.com.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you're a woman in perimenopause, menopause, or beyond and you've heard that strength training is important but aren't sure where power training, jumping, and plyometrics fit in, this episode is a must-listen. We sit down with plyometrics expert and PhD researcher Matt McInnes Watson to explore why midlife women need more than just lifting weights to support bone density, balance, mobility, fall prevention, healthy aging, and long-term independence. Matt breaks down the science behind plyometric training, tendon health, force production, reaction time, and how explosive movement can help women stay strong, capable, and athletic for decades to come.

In this fascinating conversation, Matt explains why power is one of the first physical qualities we lose with age, how plyometrics improve bone health, muscle function, coordination, cognitive performance, and injury resilience, and why traditional exercise programs often miss this critical piece of the longevity puzzle. You'll learn the difference between strength and power, why learning new movement skills is so important for brain health, and how simple activities like skipping, hopping, bounding, and multidirectional movement can improve everything from athletic performance to everyday confidence.

Whether you're looking to build stronger bones during menopause, improve balance and stability, prevent falls, increase athleticism, boost cycling or running performance, or simply move through life with more energy and confidence, this episode provides practical, evidence-based strategies you can start using today. Matt shares beginner-friendly approaches to plyometric training, how to safely build tissue capacity, and why adding speed, power, and reactive movement to your fitness routine may be one of the most powerful investments you can make for healthy aging, longevity, osteoporosis prevention, and lifelong strength.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you're a midlife woman trying to build muscle, lose stubborn fat, and finally get straight answers about protein, this episode of The Body Pod is required listening. Host Hailey Babcock sits down with nutrition scientist Mikki Williden, PhD, and nutrition coach Brandon DaCruz to tackle the online protein controversy head-on: is there really a "ceiling" of 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or does that number change entirely once a midlife woman is strength training and eating in a calorie deficit? Drawing on a 2025 meta-regression on protein dosing, Bill Campbell's body recomposition research, and decades of clinical experience, Brandon and Mikki break down exactly how much protein women over 40 need to protect muscle mass, support bone density, and build a body recomposition: losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.

The conversation goes far beyond protein numbers, digging into the fat loss strategies every midlife woman should understand before trying them. Brandon explains protein-sparing modified fasts and rapid fat loss protocols — including who they're genuinely appropriate for and why chronic dieters and lean women trying to get leaner should approach them with real caution — while Mikki offers a more sustainable alternative using calorie cycling and diet breaks to create a deficit without the burnout. The two also unpack the real science behind spot reduction, walking through the physiology of fat loss (lipolysis, transport, and oxidation) to explain whether targeting fat loss in the abs, arms, or glutes is actually possible.

This episode also confronts the hidden hormonal risks of chronic dieting in midlife, including low energy availability, thyroid dysfunction, and declining bone mineral density, referencing the IOC's 2023 consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. Hailey, Mikki, and Brandon also touch on GLP-1 medications, muscle loss, and the pressure many women feel to be "rail thin," closing with Mikki's simple 3-day food journal exercise designed to reveal what's really stalling fat loss progress. Whether you're navigating perimenopause, menopause, or just tired of conflicting advice, this roundtable delivers the nuanced, evidence-based guidance midlife women need to build muscle, lose fat sustainably, and protect their long-term hormone health.

If you love what you learned in this podcast, Mikki Wlliden is one of the featured experts in our Fat Loss Happens Education course starting September 8th. Join now for our 7-week science-backed education program that teaches midlife women how to lose fat, build strength, and keep results, without extreme diets or endless cardio.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

This week's Best of The Body Pod episode was selected for a rerun because menopause education is something our community keeps asking for, and Dr. Louise Newson's insights are just as essential today as when we first released this conversation. If you missed it the first time, or need a refresher, this is a powerful conversation that every woman over 40 needs to hear. In this game-changing episode, Dr. Louise Newson, known as "the medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution," joins us to debunk menopause myths, explain hormone therapy (HRT), and redefine what healthy aging looks like. We discuss:

• Why too many women are wrongly prescribed antidepressants for perimenopause
• The essential roles of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in brain, bone, and heart health
• The real science behind HRT and who it's for
• Why individualized, evidence-based care matters
• The dangers of medical misinformation and outdated menopause narratives

Whether you're in perimenopause, postmenopause, or just starting to ask questions, this episode offers empowering, no-nonsense insights to help you make informed health decisions. Dr. Newson's message is clear: no woman should suffer through menopause without support, education, and choice.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →