Feisty Women's Performance

Imagine a world where we leverage AI to solve problems in human health, propel human performance, and close the gender gap in research. Thanks to Dr. Silvia Blemker, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia, and her team at Springbok Analytics , that is happening at a rapid pace. Dr. Blemker and her team are changing our understanding of muscle repair and how to stop mus...

Are you feeling some post-race or post-season blues? Perhaps you've come off of a big event or a long season and you feel...well...sad, a little lost, rutterless. Feisty Media has teamed up with the Vinfast IRONMAN for this education session on how to handle the post-race blues, a normal occurrence among endurance athletes.  Host Sara Gross welcomes an expert panel to discuss: Signs of the po...

Caroline Shannon and Ali Brauer were experiencing national success in triathlon and were on a rapid upward trajectory in the pro ranks. They sought out an elite-level coaching program to foster their athletic growth. This new program included a full-time training environment (or DTE) where athletes live and train together on a daily basis. It sounds exhilarating, doesn’t it? Eat, sleep, and train...

Can you believe it? We discussed tampons and periods LIVE from the Main Stage at the Vinfast IRONMAN World Championships!! Yes, that's right. In conjunction with the historic all-womens IRONMAN World Championship race in Kona, Feisty Media hosted three different panels relating to female athletic performance. In this session, Feisty Media host, Selene Yeager, welcomed a panel of experts on harness...

This week, during a special educational session at the Vinfast IRONMAN World Championship, Feisty Media hosted a panel discussion on the main expo stage on Mental Strategies for Race Day. The panelists did reference the World Championship; however, these mental strategies are applicable to any major race or endeavor. How to handle race day nerves How to stop "self-sabotaging" What to do when thing...

Athletes understand they need to incorporate strength training into their endurance programs, but are often at an impasse on how to execute. Is sport-specific strength like swimming with paddles, and doing big gear work and hill repeats enough to “check the box”? Or, should an athlete carve out time for gym-specific work like deadlifts and squats? If so, when and how much? To piece together the pu...

“Learning new things is probably the most important thing anyone with confidence issues should do.” This is a quote from today’s guest, Michèle Letendre, six-time CrossFit games athlete and coach of some of the fittest people on earth.  Michele owns Deka Comp where she coaches amateur and elite athletes alike, including Patrick Vellner , who was recently crowned the 2nd "Fittest Man on Earth"...

We’ve been told for years that 120-150 minutes a week of moderate exercise is not only good for our physical health, but also our mental health.  So, more exercise must provide more mental health benefits, yes? No , says the research. Here to dig into this topic is Jill Colangelo , a writer and researcher who studies the relationship between mental health and ultra endurance sport. Jill is cu...

A lot of female athletes suffer from low energy availability and RED-S which stands for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. In fact, one study showed that 41 to 47% of female athletes have problematic low energy availability. That means almost half of us are not performing at our best because we aren’t eating enough. And, yes, eating disorders and disordered eating play into this equation, but we...

This episode originally debuted in May 2023. Since Title IX passed in 1972, there has been extraordinary growth in women’s sports and performance.  However, for decades, athletic research primarily conducted on males has simply been applied to women, and as we’ve discovered, when the standard of performance is based on that one type of person, it skews our understanding of what is considered...

Can the method of birth control you choose affect your physical and sports performance? Turns out the answer is not totally straightforward...yet. But Sara Gross chats today with Allison Campbell who is on a mission to get those answers for active women. Allison Campbell is a PhD candidate studying female athletes' cardiac structure and function, and athletic performance through different hormonal...

At Feisty Media, our goal is to help our community understand the benefits of strength training for women at all phases of life because we believe, that once you truly understand the "why," you’ll set that habit and routine for the rest of your life. That’s exactly what Sara discusses today with Dr. Carla DiGirolamo. Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD, is a Double Board Certified Reproductive Endocrin...

We’ve all heard that, as women, we need to start strength training. We need to “lift heavy shit,” as it were, and we need to start as soon as possible. The problem is, up until now, no one has defined what that even means. Gyms are intimidating spaces that haven’t traditionally been welcome spaces for women, and for decades we’ve been sold a bunch of BS to lift light so that we don’t “bulk up.” So...

Sarah Spain is a self-proclaimed Feisty advocate for Women’s sports. As a lifelong athlete and sports journalist at Fox Sports, ESPN, and ESPNW for several years, she’s had to figure out how to succeed in a heavily male-dominated space.   Not surprisingly, that has come with difficult moments and plenty of trolls. She’s been sexually harassed, she’s had to wear sexy outfits with ext...

What do athletic performance and entrepreneurship have in common? Turns out, a LOT. Sara Gross welcomes athlete and business founder, Carina Hamel to discuss the parallels between high performance and running a business. Carina has been a lifelong athlete, achieving national success as an NCAA Nordic skier at the University of Vermont and as a member of the US World Junior Ski Team. As a business...

Direct from France, Sara Gross catches up with two females affecting change at the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Kate Veronneau (Zwift) and Cassondra Spring (Liv Cycling). The 2nd Annual Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift took place Sun, Jul 23, 2023 – Sun, Jul 30, 2023, an eight-day event that has rapidly become the biggest stage race in women's cycling history and, while there have been i...

Sara welcomes Dr. Emma Ross to the Women’s Performance Podcast. Dr. Ross is an exercise physiologist and the Head of Physiology at the English Institute for Sport where she leads a team of sports scientists in their support of British Olympic and Paralympic athletes.  Through her leadership, Great Britain was described as a “sporting superpower” after the 2016 Rio games, winning more med...

*Note: This episode originally dropped on March 20, 2023* Lauren Fleshman has many titles - from being one of the most decorated American distance runners ever to recently releasing her book, Good for a Girl - a New York Times best-seller. But all of this accomplishment doesn't come without difficulty. This week, Lauren gets real with us and shares her experience of disordered eating, motherhood,...

*Note: This Episode originally dropped on November 21, 2022* Intimacy and sexual satisfaction are important factors when discussing women's performance. That's why this week we bring you North America's top sex and relationship expert, Dr. Jess O'Reilly. Sara and Jess discuss all things sex, and how satisfying sex can enhance performance in your daily life. Jess gives us an outline for how we can...

In mid-June, Feisty Media was proud to be a sponsor of the 2023 Female Athlete Conference in Boston, which is the epicenter of academia and research as it relates to women’s performance.  The self-described goal of the FAC is to close the disparity in research and treatment of female athletes and promote the understanding of female athletes' unique and understudied physiology and lived experi...

Louise Green envisions a world where everyone can achieve their athletic potential regardless of size and, for 17 years, she’s been creating that world for people in larger bodies through her coaching, programming, and education at bigfitgirl.com  and the Size Inclusive Academy . She joins Sara Gross to discuss athleticism in a larger body. Weight bias is still so rampant in our culture that...

Are sports the last bastion of the patriarchy? Our guest, Macaela MacKenzie thinks so. Her new book, Money Power Respect: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism explores how the role of sports is shaping cultural attitudes towards women and their value, and how sports can promote and encourage women's equality - both in changing external policies and institutions and internally emp...

An integral part of the Feisty Women's Performance brand is education and Feisty focuses their education on the four pillars of: physiology, nutrition, social/cultural influences, and mental health. In the Spring of 2023, Feisty successfully launched its first online course entitled FUELED: A Comprehensive Nutrition Course for Active Women . Today, CEO Sara Gross talks with Feisty Business of Fitn...

As much as she loves running, Jessica Michalofsky wishes her purpose was different.  Jessica runs in memory of her son, Aubrey, who died in August of 2022 of toxic fentanyl poisoning and her mission is clear - we need the drug supply to be safe in order for people to stop dying.  Toxic drugs are now the leading cause of death in British Columbia in people ages 10-59 and the problem is th...

Creatine is having a moment and, as today’s guest, Shannon O’Grady says, “Creatine has been waiting for its moment for decades.” Shannon has her PhD in Nutritional Physiology and is the COO and Chief Product Officer of Gnarly Nutrition, where she leads product research and innovation across their entire line of products. Today, she and Sara focus their conversation on creatine. Creatine is the mos...