In this Huddle, Bob and Dina chat with Dr. Stacy Sims to discuss sex differences as it relates to nutrition, health, training and aging. We also dive into nuances of the perimenopausal and postmenopausal athlete and how hormonal shifts warrant adjustments in our fueling around training and recovery, and a rework of the training programming paradigm. You’ll walk away from this episode with a newfound appreciation for the phrase “Women are not small men” and so much more!
We cover:
· Some early stories of Dr. Sims’ pioneering work and bringing to light the needs of female athletes
· A highlight of sex differences from birth through puberty to postmenopause
· Issues with research and generalizing findings to women
· How estrogen and progesterone fluctuations in perimenopause affect women athletes
· The differences between oral contraceptives and IUDs as it relates to nutrition and training programming
· What female athletes in perimenopause need to know about long slow distance, resistance and plyometric training
· The use of adaptogens to promote sleep quality
· Issues with the Ketogenic Diet for women athletes
· Dr. Sims’ Top 3 recommendations for peri/postmeno athletes
“The one positive about the pandemic and COVID is that it’s made the entire medical community sit up and say, wait a second, there are sex differences in drug and disease uptake because women are fairing better. They’re faring better with the vaccine, they’re faring better with getting out of the hospital, with surviving COVID.” –Dr. Stacy Sims
Order the new book to be released in May 2022 by Dr. Sims and Selene Yeager, “Next Level: Your Guide to Kicking Ass, Feeling Great, and Crushing Goals through Menopause” on Amazon.
Find Dr. Sims at www.drstacysims.com and on Insta @drstacysims
More about our guest:
Stacy T. Sims, Ph.D., is an applied researcher, innovator, author, and entrepreneur in
human performance, specifically sex differences in training, nutrition, and environmental
conditions. Currently she is the Director of the Female Athlete Performance and Health
research program at Auckland's University of Technology where she continues to push
the dogma for research on female athletes across the lifespan and is a regularly featured
speaker at professional and academic conferences, including those hosted by the IOC,
the USOC, and High-Performance Sport NZ.