There鈥檚 this old where an alarm buzzes at an ungodly hour of the morning. A man opens his eyes and says, 鈥淭ime to make the donuts,鈥� before dragging himself out of bed and to work in a haze. Those 30 seconds perfectly encapsulate how I feel most days鈥攚ake up groggy, work all day, fall into bed for a restless night of sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Recently, sleep has been anything but refreshing. I鈥檓 anxious when I crawl into bed. When I鈥檓 not well-rested, I鈥檓 useless the next day, fighting brain fog and an unproductive malaise. My mind spirals as I worry that I won鈥檛 be able to string together a few consecutive hours of sleep, making it hard to relax and actually fall asleep. When I wake up, my muscles and joints are cranky in a way that鈥檚 different from the aftermath of a good workout or even age.

According to a , more than half of Americans say they need more sleep, especially women. Most people in the poll also said they were stressed, which creates a vicious cycle, making it harder to sleep.

What Is Sleepmaxxing?

For anyone who has experienced a bad night of sleep鈥攐r a series of them鈥攖here鈥檚 a desperate feeling when you just want some shuteye. These days, people are trading simple bedtime routines for 鈥�,鈥� the trend of that have taken over social media and promise to maximize and optimize sleep.

There鈥檚 mouth tape to promote breathing through the nose, white noise and blue light blockers to minimize sleep-disrupting stimulus, supplements to spur melatonin production, and sleep wearables to track your sleep. There鈥檚 specialized pillows, sheets, and mattresses to create a bedroom haven. There鈥檚 a 鈥�,鈥� tart cherry juice swirled with magnesium powder and topped off with a splash of prebiotic soda or seltzer. Some influencers swear by an elaborate beauty routine, too.

The idea behind sleepmaxxing鈥攇etting sufficient, good quality sleep鈥攊sn鈥檛 new, says , assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. 鈥淧eople are finally realizing the importance of a good night鈥檚 sleep. There are so many positive, downstream effects,鈥� she says, on physical health, mood, memory, cognitive function, and athletic performance.

Having covered health and fitness for over a decade, I knew a full night of sleep is crucial for my health and recovery from workouts. On average, I clocked seven hours of sleep, within the range recommended by the . But I always equated more sleep with good sleep, that the reason I didn鈥檛 feel refreshed in the morning was because I went to bed too late. Or, maybe my body just needed more zzzs now that I was older. Even though I knew I woke up more during the night than I used to鈥攁nd had a harder time falling back asleep once I did鈥擨 didn鈥檛 think about the quality of my sleep. I didn鈥檛 look forward to sleeping anymore because I anticipated a night of tossing and turning.

鈥淚f you wake up feeling tired鈥攏o matter how many hours of sleep you get鈥攖he problem is the quality of sleep. It鈥檚 analogous to leaving your favorite restaurant feeling hungry,鈥� says , clinical professor at Stanford University鈥檚 Sleep Medicine division and author of the book . 鈥淵ou want to optimize all of your sleep, the number of hours and quality. You want to go to bed feeling safe and comfortable.鈥�

Both Rao and Pelayo said that most of the practices鈥攍ike not eating or drinking close to bedtime, keeping the lights dim, using blackout curtains or an eye mask, keeping the room cool鈥攁re benign, but there鈥檚 no one-size-fits-all solution. 鈥淒oes everyone need melatonin or magnesium? I don鈥檛 think so,鈥� Rao says. And if your sleep doesn鈥檛 improve, see a board-certified sleep doctor.

I Tried Sleepmaxxing

Would sleepmaxxing help me finally get a restful night of sleep? I decided to go all-in on sleep for a month to find out. But first, I had to figure out what habits and conditions in my apartment might be interfering with my sleep.

The most obvious problem was my bedroom. It鈥檚 not necessarily a sanctuary conducive for sleep. I don鈥檛 have blackout or heavy curtains or blinds. Even in the dead of night, a good amount of light seeps in from the street. I also live off a busy street in New York City, and it鈥檚 not unusual to hear (and feel) the rumble of a truck nearby.

While I try to go to sleep at 10 P.M., when I actually kept track, I realized that my bedtime was all over the place. I partly blame my son, who鈥檚 a senior in high school and up late doing his homework, studying, or binging TV. Knowing that he鈥檚 leaving home soon, I want to stay up with him. When I do head to bed, I鈥檓 often on my phone, mindlessly scrolling social media or reading a book.

Caffeine doesn鈥檛 seem to be a problem. I drink coffee in the morning and sometimes black tea in the afternoon. I drink alcohol occasionally, but much less than I used to. But I do nap. I always have鈥攁 17-minute power nap when a bad headache makes it nearly impossible to work.

I knew that if I intended to stick with a sleepmaxxing routine for more than a week, I needed to keep it simple. To start, I committed to a consistent sleep-wake schedule鈥�10 P.M. to 6 A.M.鈥攖hat鈥檚 in line with my natural bedtime and rise time. While I could go to bed earlier in order to sleep more hours, my internal clock might not be ready, Rao says, and that could lead to lying in bed restless.

I cut out alcohol in the evenings, which have found to be associated with poor sleep quality. 鈥淎 lot of things can be sedating but they don鈥檛 promote a good night鈥檚 sleep,鈥� Pelayo says. 鈥淵ou may fall asleep faster initially after drinking alcohol, but you wake up more often during the night and don鈥檛 feel great the next day.鈥�

Instead, two hours before bed, I sipped on a sleepy girl mocktail. 鈥淭art cherries are a natural source of , a hormone that plays a critical role in regulating our sleep-wake cycle,鈥� says , a registered dietitian based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sulaver advises drinking the mocktail one to two hours before bed to allow time for melatonin levels to rise.

When it comes to magnesium, it promotes relaxation and is involved in the production of melatonin, according to Abby Chan, registered dietitian and co-owner of . has found a relationship between magnesium supplementation and sleep quality, but Chan warns that most studies are conducted with small populations and have mixed results.

An hour before bed, I closed my laptop and put away my phone, swapping scrolling for reading a physical book in bed with the lights dim.

Since I wasn’t going to install blackout curtains, the next best thing was an eye mask to block out the ambient light. While colder temperatures are technically better for sleeping, according to experts, winter in New York City has been chillier than usual this winter. I added a weighted blanket on top of a duvet, hoping that the extra warmth and weight would help me relax, let go, and snooze.

The first night, I couldn鈥檛 fall asleep. The combination of the eye mask and weighted blanket made me feel claustrophobic. Even after I got rid of both, I still woke up several times during the night. But by the third night, I started to settle into a routine. The mocktail was a nice replacement for an evening drink. I also noticed that my legs felt more relaxed instead of restless. 鈥淭he antioxidants in tart cherry juice can help with sore muscles and electrolytes help with a little extra hydration,鈥� Sulaver says.

The eye mask, however, was revelatory, once I got used to it. I fell asleep faster and didn鈥檛 wake up as often in the middle of the night. When I did, I fell back asleep easier because I wasn鈥檛 awakened by the light or tempted to check my phone.

When I woke up, I鈥檇 check my sleep stats in Apple Health and write down my sleep routine from the previous night and how I felt when I woke up. That鈥檚 when it got interesting.

In an effort to optimize my sleep, sleep became a problem I needed to fix. On mornings I woke up groggy, I began to overthink what I did 鈥渃orrectly鈥� and what I did 鈥渨rong.鈥� When I stayed up later than normal whether because I was catching up with a friend on the West Coast, had a glass of wine at dinner, or worked in the evening because of an impending deadline, I blamed myself for not following my sleep rules perfectly. When I realized that I 鈥渂roke the rules,鈥� I often said screw it and told myself that tonight didn鈥檛 count. I figured that I wasn鈥檛 going to sleep well anyways so why bother with the rest of my routine?

There鈥檚 a term for this obsession with perfect sleep: . In pursuit of perfection, people are over-relying on sleep wearables and data tracking, which in turn can cause more anxiety around sleep. A recent found that stressing about sleep before bedtime influenced total sleep time and insomnia symptoms.

But sleep isn鈥檛 a problem to be fixed or controlled. 鈥淪leeping is the ultimate in giving up control. It can鈥檛 be gamed,鈥� Pelayo says. Sleep isn鈥檛 always going to be perfect either. As humans, we have some flexibility in terms of our sleep needs. Sleep habits can also evolve as needed. Halfway through the month, some of the practices that worked well, like the eye mask, started to bother me.听 At first, I was nervous that sleeping without it would mean the return of multiple wakeups per night, but it didn鈥檛.

At the end of the month, my average nightly sleep increased about half an hour, but sleepmaxxing didn鈥檛 revolutionize my sleep. I still woke up many mornings not feeling 100 percent rested.

The experiment did make me think about sleep more purposefully. I don鈥檛 approach it haphazardly anymore, as something that just happens to me at the end of the day. Instead, intentionally preparing for sleep has created a buffer zone at the end of my day. I鈥檓 no longer rushing from work to dinner to helping my kids鈥� with homework straight to bed. It gives my body and mind time to unwind, and I鈥檝e noticed that I鈥檓 more relaxed and settled before bed.

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It鈥檚 January, which means we鈥檙e in peak 鈥渘ew year, new you鈥� territory and the wellness industrial complex is firing on all cylinders. Everywhere you turn, someone has a plan, supplement, or product that will miraculously cure you and make your aching, aging body feel better.

But writer, runner, and college professor Jacqueline Alnes wants to remind us that many of these promises are too good to be true. Her new book, , offers her own story as a cautionary tale.

In the spring of 2010, during her freshman year as a Division I collegiate runner, Alnes began experiencing a series of mysterious and debilitating neurological symptoms. Her vision blurred and she was prone to blackouts. At times, she was unable to run, walk, or speak. Her coach, peers, and medical professionals mostly dismissed her symptoms. She eventually quit the team, and spent two years searching for answers. Desperate, she turned to an online fruitarian community called 鈥�30 Bananas a Day.鈥� Its proponents claimed that the raw vegan and primarily fruit diet was a cure-all for almost every health condition, including symptoms that were similar to Alnes鈥�. (Alnes didn鈥檛 go fully fruitarian, but maintained a vegan diet.)

The Fruit Cure isn鈥檛 just a reckoning with Alnes鈥� own experience with extreme diets. The book also highlights the flaws in our healthcare system, and interrogates how wellness culture often embraces pseudoscience and preys on people鈥檚 vulnerabilities.

I caught up with Alnes to discuss her book鈥檚 larger themes: the intersection of illness and athlete identity, the shame many people feel about our never-perfect-enough bodies, and why wellness culture can be so seductive.

OUTSIDE: You write about your experience as a collegiate runner at a Division I school. Despite your debilitating symptoms, everyone鈥攄octors, athletic trainers鈥攌ept telling you you were fine, and you kept trying to run in part because you didn鈥檛 want to disappoint your coach. How do you think your experience as an athlete highlights bigger systemic issues in sports and athletics?
ALNES: One of the things I think a lot about is compliance. There鈥檚 a tenuous balance between wanting to push yourself and not going overboard but also not knowing how to get yourself out of it. When you鈥檙e 18 or 19 years old, saying no to your coach is hard. It affects the dynamics on the team, potentially your playing time, your ability to travel with the team.

The insularity of collegiate athletics was nice at times. Everything is there for you鈥攆riends, practice, social life. When I realized I was losing that, I realized I hadn鈥檛 ever really talked to someone who wasn鈥檛 on the team. There weren鈥檛 any adults around me who I could go to and who would tell me that it was OK to stop and there wouldn鈥檛 be any repercussions in the process.

Recently, one of my students was talking about how universities are obsessed with talking about mental health right now, but the actual lived experiences of students still go unaddressed. In my experience, those resources aren鈥檛 publicized. If they do exist, are they a real solution? Are they handing out stress balls? Is it a suggestion box that no one pays attention to? It happens in athletics too, where we have things like sports psychology but that doesn鈥檛 deal with the reality of the underlying issue.

You write: 鈥淢y entire self-worth hinged upon my ability to run well; I couldn鈥檛 conceive of myself in any other capacity.鈥� It鈥檚 an identity you cultivated since you were a young girl. Do you think that kept you from understanding or accepting that you were ill?
I had such an internalized sense of ableism as a young adult. As a runner, I was taught that if you wanted something badly enough, you could overcome any measure of physical or emotional pain. That messaging seeps into not just how you see yourself, but those around you. You start to think that if girls aren鈥檛 giving it their all, it means they aren鈥檛 strong enough. If they can鈥檛 get over a hip injury, they aren鈥檛 trying hard enough. It was like a game to see who could push through the most pain, and there were definitely some people who pushed too far. I remember feeling that I was weak for not being able to get over my symptoms and that it was a personal failing. We need to let athletes know that they can rest, they can falter, they can recover. We don鈥檛 hear those narratives as much as we do about the comeback, the win, the underdog.

Your book touches on people鈥檚 relationship with their bodies, especially as athletes鈥攈ow our bodies should look, perform, be controlled鈥攁nd how we often feel ashamed when our bodies aren鈥檛 鈥減erfect.鈥� What did you learn about this through writing the book and reflecting on your experience?
As an athlete, you have this acute awareness of your body, almost like a spidey sense. That also works in illness. I knew fundamentally that something wasn鈥檛 right and I couldn鈥檛 run through it. But because so many people I trusted鈥攁nd people who were in positions of authority鈥攖old me I was fine, I didn鈥檛 trust myself.

Developing a relationship with your body is complicated when you don鈥檛 have any external knowledge to validate what you鈥檙e going through. It can make you feel like you鈥檙e screwed in this sport and you don鈥檛 know what to do about it.听Seeing the books that are out now, like and your book, I wish I had those when I was younger. I had a male coach in high school. When I slowed down senior year, I didn鈥檛 understand why. It could have been easily explained by changes associated with puberty and hormones.

How has the way you view yourself as an athlete evolved since college?
I used to be single-mindedly devoted to this idea that I was a runner. My life was how fast I ran, whether I was better than the girl next to me, whether I sped up or slowed down year to year. Even during my PhD, I ran myself to injury because I would rip off miles as fast as I could every day to prove that I was a runner, that I was worthy.

Giving up running meant giving up my identity. I had to grapple with figuring out what this form of movement means to me outside of those numbers. I had to give up chasing the ghost of who I used to be and who I wanted to be. I learned that you can find real joy and meaning in your body, even if it鈥檚 not the perfect, young, acne-free endurance vessel鈥攂ecause none of us听are really that. I wish I鈥檇 learned to accept that earlier.

Something that used to frustrate me is how the narrative in sports movies often ends on a hopeful note. I鈥檓 healthy now. I run marathons and am faster than I was in college. But that grief of losing my old self never went away. The fear of living in a body that was so uncontrollable never left me. I didn鈥檛 overcome it.

In your search for answers, you came across a website鈥�30 Bananas a Day. What drew you to it?
During that time, what I craved most was for someone to listen to me. There were so many instances when I said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel well,鈥� and someone told me I was fine. I started to wonder if I will ever return to my body and feel safe in it the way I used to.

I鈥檓 laughing because it鈥檚 still so absurd, but I read a post on the site from 鈥淪hannana Banana.鈥� She also experienced a series of mysterious symptoms. No one could help her, and she lost her life as an athlete. When she found this diet, she got her life back.

I wasn鈥檛 ready to say that my symptoms were out of my control鈥攖hat would be like giving up. When you get sick, there鈥檚 some shame in that. People ask what you did or didn鈥檛 do to get sick. Did you eat well? Did you try yoga? How much are you sleeping? It may come from a place of love, but it makes the person feel like they aren鈥檛 doing enough.

I wanted something where I could say that I was trying my best to get better. This aligned with that narrative鈥攖hat you have the power to change if you find the right tool, the right drive, the right mentality.听With this diet, even if I wasn鈥檛 eating only fruit, I could control the toxins entering my body, or at least try to.

One thing that struck me is the isolation of living with illness, how that made you susceptible to the promises of the proponents of 鈥�30 Bananas a Day鈥� and how, in the end, it was a real community, not a virtual one, that saved you. Can you talk to me more about that?
On a baseline level, I am a very doubtful, careful person so it鈥檚 funny to me that I believed wholeheartedly in this. I think it came from that sense of isolation when you have nowhere left to turn. You will turn to the person who will give you the answer you want to hear.

During that time, it was hard for me to be known. It鈥檚 still hard to let people know me. There鈥檚 so much internalized shame about my body. I viewed it as bad. I didn鈥檛 want to be in it. I didn鈥檛 enjoy the way I was in it. What were other people going to think? My college teammates thought I was weird and strange. Would others think I was unlovable in the same way?

But life can be so much richer if you let people see those parts of you that are hard to open up about. There were people who showed up for me time and again, who reminded me that I am myself, with or without this condition.听[Editor鈥檚 note: Alnes has never received a firm medical diagnosis for her condition but some doctors refer to it as a migraine-seizure variant. She鈥檚 on a treatment plan that has successfully kept her episodes at bay.]

Your experience is a powerful critique of the failures of our medical system and how it leaves an opening for wellness culture and influencers to swoop in. Why do you think we are so willing to buy into whatever the wellness industrial complex is selling?
There鈥檚 that illusion that you know these people because there鈥檚 so much on video, on YouTube, and they use pseudoscientific rhetoric. It draws you in. For me, there was a certain allure that maybe they did know something more than the systems. Researching this book and being online鈥攑robably too much鈥擨 understand why people have qualms about Big Pharma. It鈥檚 that nasty underbelly where people want to make money off of sick people. I get why you want to think an essential oil will cure you of cancer.

Our attention spans are so short now that information has to be digestible and interesting.听If someone says, do this one thing and it can help you, it鈥檚 more appealing than your doctor telling you to do things in moderation. Instead, you can definitively know that you did something, you took action. It aligns with the idea of shame and this desire to be good.

What do you hope that people take away from your book?
I hope people come away listening to themselves. Even when what鈥檚 happening seems improbable or you鈥檙e losing a sense of reality, you have to trust that you know what鈥檚 going on with yourself and try to find an answer.

It can be really beautiful not to live in extremes, to live with imperfection, and to give yourself permission to change, to be flawed, to have seasons where you may not be as productive. It鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 still working on.

The post When Her Body Failed Her, She Reached for a Fruitarian Diet. It Wasn鈥檛 the Cure.听 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

If he鈥檚 being honest, Martinus Evans thinks running is boring.

That鈥檚 not what you鈥檇 expect to hear from a running-club founder who鈥檚 on a mission to inspire a million people to take up the sport. But Evans knows that if he wants more people to lace up their trainers, he needs to lean on more than just the sport鈥檚 health benefits or competitive side. He has to convey the joy of it. 鈥淚n the simplest terms, we鈥檙e all just running in a parade,鈥� he says of road races. It should be a celebration.

Evans, a 37-year-old Brooklyn resident, knows that the running world isn鈥檛 always the most welcoming place. He鈥檚 been heckled at races. He鈥檚 participated in events where aid stations and finish lines were broken down before back-of-the-pack runners made it through. Evans says that runners with larger bodies, slow runners, and others who don鈥檛 fit the traditional athletic mold can feel like it鈥檚 their fault they鈥檙e not faster. 鈥淭he system makes it seem like we鈥檙e the problem and we鈥檙e alone,鈥� he says.

Evans first picked up running 11 years ago, after his doctor told him that he needed to 鈥渓ose weight or die.鈥� He decided to run a marathon. For 18 months, he trained and documented his progress on his blog, . He finished his first marathon鈥攖he Detroit Free Press鈥攂ut the elation he experienced quickly dissipated. Later, sitting in an ice bath at home, he felt empty.

That familiar case of post-marathon blues led Evans to rethink his reasons for running. Objective measures like weight loss or pace didn鈥檛 resonate for him. He enjoyed talking to strangers during races and cheering on and supporting other runners. 鈥淭hat was the fun part. That鈥檚 what I enjoyed more than the need to get stronger, better, or faster,鈥� he says.

In 2019, Evans founded the Slow AF Run Club. What began as an online gathering place for people who wanted to run races together grew into a global community of more than 18,000 runners of all fitness levels, body sizes, and backgrounds. Evans is a certified coach, but his approach is far from usual.

鈥淢y goal is to meet people where they are and not necessarily give them black-and-white instructions,鈥� he says. Evans adjusts his runners鈥� training鈥攆rom mileage to intervals鈥攖o fit their individual lifestyles and commitment levels instead of expecting everyone to adopt a one-size-fits-all plan. (In the early 2010s, Evans worked as a Men鈥檚 Wearhouse sales associate, which helped shape his approach: he learned to fit customers based on the body they had, not the size they thought they were or wanted to be. It made them feel good.)

Evans rejects the idea that you have to run a certain pace or look a certain way to be a runner. 鈥淥ne of the things I learned early on is that we鈥檙e all just following rules that someone else made up. It鈥檚 up to us to figure out if we鈥檙e going to go along with those rules or not,鈥� he says.

In June, Evans published , to share his philosophy. The book is dedicated to 鈥渁nybody who has felt they are too fat, too slow, too old, or too (fill in the blank) to become a runner.鈥� Evans says that he 鈥渉ated writing,鈥� but members of his club urged him on.

Now Evans has his sights set on pushing the wider running industry: He posed nude for Men鈥檚 Health and appeared on the cover of Runner鈥檚 World. He works with race directors to create more equitable experiences for participants. He created Slow AF merchandise, with sizes up to 5X. 鈥淩unners are blamed for being fat, but when they go to the store to get clothes, there鈥檚 nothing that fits them,鈥� he says. He鈥檚 considering expanding the line into a sportswear brand. He鈥檚 also launching a nonprofit to help others start their own Slow AF Run Club chapters, and to provide resources to help 鈥渕ore individuals participate in and understand what running is about,鈥� particularly in low-income neighborhoods and marginalized communities.

鈥淭his is my baby, and now it鈥檚 getting so big that it鈥檚 no longer mine,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 for the people.鈥�

The post Don鈥檛 Feel Like a Runner? Join the Slow AF Club. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When I first started my journalism career, I wrote a lot of nutrition-related stories for women鈥檚 magazines. Most of these pieces were published under the guise of helping women make 鈥渂etter decisions鈥� about food, or 鈥渋mproving their health.鈥� But I always felt a little icky about them. I didn鈥檛 like to explicitly discuss weight loss, but then I鈥檇 cite studies that concluded that weight was a risk factor for certain health conditions. I didn鈥檛 want to promote dieting, but the story was framed as a round-up of low-carb breakfast ideas. I didn鈥檛 know how to push back on these assignments or how to talk about health without equating it to body size and weight.

Then I came across 鈥檚 work in 2018. Sole-Smith is a journalist who writes about food, parenting, and health for many publications and for her newsletter, . Discovering her writing was a revelation for me. Sole-Smith challenged mainstream assumptions about diet culture, anti-fat bias, and health standards, and she showed me that there was a way to cover these topics without buying into the belief that weight loss and thinner bodies were the solution. Her work has given me the courage to change the way I report on health and nutrition.

Her new book, , untangles the systems that keeps us tethered to a culture that fears fatness and offers practical, science-backed advice for how to raise resilient kids who can navigate the world in a way that decouples their worth from their bodies. Through it all, she interweaves research findings with cultural and social trends and the stories of parents and kids who are grappling with how to think about health, body size, and self-worth in their day-to-day lives.

I caught up with Sole-Smith to discuss her book鈥檚 big themes: how we鈥檝e conflated weight and health, why the obesity epidemic narrative is reductive, and how an obsession with body size can harm people of all ages.

OUTSIDE: This conversation about food, bodies, and health is so important, and so much of it comes down to anti-fat bias. How do you define that term?

SOLE-SMITH: Anti-fat bias is a whole set of knee-jerk assumptions that someone鈥檚 body size can tell us everything about them. When you see someone in a fat body, you assume you know things about their health, eating habits, and exercise habits. You may also think you know things about their intelligence, work ethic, and morality. Fundamentally, it鈥檚 the belief that a fat body is less healthy, less disciplined, less intelligent, less valuable compared to a thin body.

Our culture conflates weight and health. How and why has weight become the thing that symbolizes health?

The short answer is the diet and pharmaceutical industries. There鈥檚 a lot of money to be made by selling people medications, diets, and surgeries to shrink their bodies.

There鈥檚 a longer history about how the life insurance industry adopted BMI in the early 20th century as their way of deciding life insurance premiums, and this led us to conflate weight and health in a way where weight had a morality attached to it. Many studies about weight and health take it as a given that fatness is unhealthy, and that skews the research that gets done.

Even if weight is a root cause of health problems, we don鈥檛 have safe, sustainable, effective ways for most people to lose weight. By making it the sole focus, it narrows the conversation, reduces our understanding of health, and doesn鈥檛 serve people鈥檚 health. Not only does dieting not work, and increase your risk for disordered eating and eating disorders, but thin people also get heart disease and diabetes.

In your book, you mention Katherine Flegal, who led a study about BMI and mortality rates. Can you talk about her study, the backlash that she experienced, and how bias shapes how science is done and continues to be done?

Katherine Flegal published a in 2005. She later in 2013鈥攚e鈥檙e talking millions of data points鈥攁nd found that BMI is not as predictive of mortality as we thought. On the population level, people in the overweight and low-obese BMI category live longer than folks in the normal or underweight BMI range.

You may see a relationship with mortality at the extreme ends, but in the normal to overweight to low-obese range, weight isn鈥檛 predictive of much. It may suggest that there鈥檚 something protective about being in a larger body. It may suggest that we’ve been getting the relationship wrong.

But the was profound, and it came out of Harvard Medical School, one of our most elite institutions. They went so far as to hold a at Harvard with panels and papers devoted to discussing how bad Flegal鈥檚 research was, even though she was a CDC researcher following CDC epidemiological protocols.

It is no accident that around the same time, one of her detractors was shilling a diet book. It was also during a five- to ten-year period when the FDA approved a flurry of , several of which have since been .

It speaks to this built-in bias鈥攖hat making people thinner will make them healthier, a premise that鈥檚 never questioned. It keeps us focused on one small piece of the puzzle, and prevents us from making progress in other areas that are more likely to drive the relationships to health that we see, like access to healthcare, systemic experiences of oppression, and poverty. We could be working on all of that instead.

If these are the elite of the elite who are training students and setting the tone, it influences those students鈥� biases too.

Absolutely. And research funding dollars too. It was a whole chain reaction.

Now that she鈥檚 retired, Katherine Flegal published a a year or two ago. When it came out, there was a Twitter thread where people who had been students of obesity researchers at the time talked about the comments that their professors made in class [about Flegal] and how not to trust her analysis because she was 鈥渁 little plump.鈥�

In the sports and fitness worlds, we often hear that 鈥渇ood is fuel.鈥� I think it鈥檚 intended to take away some of the emotionality tied to food, to make it neutral. But in doing so, do we make it another input that can be optimized and controlled? How can we talk about food and nutrition within the realm of sports without making it this thing we obsess over?

That鈥檚 such a good question. I do think 鈥渇ood as fuel鈥� is a problematic concept. Food isn鈥檛 just fuel. Food is joy, connection, community, and family.

For people who鈥檝e been very restrictive, there is a benefit to understanding that they need to eat more to support their sport. We鈥檙e starting to see an understanding in women’s running that being small doesn鈥檛 make you faster if you鈥檙e starving, and eating more improves outcomes.

But if it comes at the expense of your ability to have dinner with your kids in a normal way, that’s problematic. Is your thinking about food-as-fuel so rigid because you鈥檙e only thinking in terms of what supports your sport or nutritional goals?

It鈥檚 a complicated thing, right? My husband is a big endurance athlete, so I get the passion and the community it builds. With men especially, we normalize and even revere this restrictive behavior as dedication, as opposed to trying to understand what鈥檚 underneath that. What鈥檚 driving you to feel like you measure your excellence by your performance?

We also hear the 鈥渋t鈥檚 just physics鈥� argument a lot, especially in sports like running, which perpetuates the idea that thinner bodies make better athletes. What do we miss with this line of thinking?听

Think about which athletes don鈥檛 get on the team, or don鈥檛 participate, because you鈥檝e decided there鈥檚 a right body type for the sport.

For the book, I focused on kids because there鈥檚 this stereotype of fat kids as lazy and unathletic. But what if they don鈥檛 have a jersey or dance uniform in your size? Even if they do have your size, you鈥檙e on the bench the whole time because the coach is focused on the athletes he thinks have the potential to win. You鈥檙e not getting that one-on-one attention. The fat kid probably doesn鈥檛 stay on the team.

I interviewed tons of people who absolutely loved dance, soccer, you name it. Then, when they were 11 or 12, they suddenly realized they didn鈥檛 have an acceptable body and dropped the sport from their lives.

We say it鈥檚 all about health, but it鈥檚 not true. If we want kids to be active, we need to make sports accessible, safe, and welcoming to all bodies. Sports need to be a place where their bodies are valued, not a place where their bodies are a problem.

With the 鈥渋t鈥檚 just physics鈥� argument, how can we know when we haven鈥檛 let fat people play these sports? We鈥檝e never tested the other theory.

One researcher talked about t, where the female figure skater needs to weigh 80 pounds less than her male partner so that he can lift her. They didn鈥檛 run a figure-skating trial. It鈥檚 just a rule of thumb. But there鈥檚 no talk of how the guy could get stronger. It鈥檚 only how the girl should shrink herself to be small and lift-able.

For parents, especially parents of girls, what can we do to help our kids navigate this minefield?听

We have to have an active dialogue with our kids. Home has to be a safe space to talk about these issues. Be straightforward: there shouldn鈥檛 be idealized body types in sports. That is not the way to make anyone healthier, happier. It can cause harm, and鈥�insert the most recent women鈥檚 sport abuse scandal.

Then ask: do you want to do this? Give them an out, even if it鈥檚 the middle of the season and you鈥檝e paid for it. One mom told a story of her daughter freezing on the pitcher鈥檚 mound in softball. They were a family where if you commit to the season, you stick with it. But seeing her child frozen in fear, she realized her daughter鈥檚 safety was more important than upholding a commitment. She let her quit.

If they want to keep playing, which most will want to do, strategize with them. Make sure you鈥檙e who they can talk to if the coach does say weird things about their body, or there鈥檚 pressure around dieting or cutting carbs. How are we going to make it clear you don’t want to participate in that? Do your due diligence by asking programs what they are doing to prevent eating disorders.

One expert in the book gave a ground rule for girls: We will not let you lose your period. We want your body to grow into its adult form. Anything that interferes with that is our hard line in the sand.

Anti-fat bias isn鈥檛 something that just affects those in larger bodies. What do you want thin people to take away from your book?

Parents of thin kids need to talk about this concept for two reasons. Number one, you don鈥檛 want your thin kids to perpetuate anti-fat bias. It鈥檚 just like how, as a white parent, I have to talk about racism with my white kids because we know that if I don鈥檛, they鈥檙e going to have more racist beliefs. If you are in the position of privilege, you have to do this work.

Number two: I was a thin kid who is a fat adult. Bodies change throughout our lives and that鈥檚 normal. It鈥檚 not failing, settling, or letting yourself go.

Thin kids, and particularly thin athletes, are told that their thinness is a superpower. It鈥檚 what makes them special and unique. Why would you want your child to attach their self worth to something that says nothing about who they really are and that they鈥檙e incapable of preserving?

I got a really angry email that said, 鈥淗ow dare you talk about thin privilege? I worked so hard to maintain this body.鈥� I just thought, you鈥檙e kind of proving the whole point. I don’t want you to have to work that hard to maintain your body. Anti-fat bias is harming you too because you think thinness is so essential. You鈥檙e torturing yourself.

We鈥檙e all just in the system, right? I don鈥檛 blame any individual person. The world is not built to support fat bodies. It validates and supports thin bodies. We鈥檙e all just responding to the same toxic messaging. But none of this will change until thin people start to recognize their own biases and where their thin privilege shows up, and work on changing it.

Why write this book now? Are people ready for this?

I have been both heartened and depressed. I hear from researchers who want to reconsider their research protocols. I hear from doctors saying: Thank you, I don鈥檛 know how to talk about weight with my patients. I know I鈥檓 causing harm. I want to do it differently. I hear from coaches and health teachers saying they want to do things differently. It鈥檚 super exciting.

We鈥檙e also in this moment of Ozempic and the American Academy of Pediatrics issuing. There鈥檚 a doubling down happening from the other side and that is unsettling.

But I do think there鈥檚 been progress. Just the fact that 国产吃瓜黑料 wants to think about this issue is great. I don鈥檛 think it would have happened five or ten years ago.

Now we just have to keep pushing, to get past the Ozempic of it all.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.听

The post We Need to Change How Kids (and Adults) Learn About Weight appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Humans have long kept track of who鈥檚 the best鈥攊n the world, on this course, in this pool, in this incredibly niche event. Those benchmarks largely reflect what men have accomplished in sports. Men鈥檚 achievements have become the de facto measuring stick and framework to organize and understand athletic performance and progression, and women are judged by this standard too. Women have never been given the space to test their potential and to set their own benchmarks without the weight of expectations that have been tainted by what men have accomplished or misconceptions about women鈥檚 bodies.

What could women achieve if they were given a blank slate and nothing to compare themselves to? What if women were given the freedom to launch an entirely different athletic trajectory than men?

In the early 1990s, physiology professors Brian Whipp and Susan Ward looked at the progression of men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 world records in running events ranging from the 200 meters through the marathon. They found that men lowered their times at a fairly predictable rate across all events. Yet the rate of improvement for women, particularly in the marathon, was much steeper. Based on the data, they predicted that the gap in times between women and men in the marathon would cease to exist by 1998.

It didn鈥檛 quite play out that way. In 1998, Ronaldo da Costa and Tegla Loroupe set new men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 marathon world records, but the gap between the record-鈥嬄璪reaking times was still more than fourteen minutes. And though the gap has edged slightly closer to twelve minutes between the current world records, there鈥檚 still a 9.7 percent difference today.

One reason for Whipp and Ward鈥檚 overconfidence was that they treated race results as purely a mathematical equation and assumed that velocity would increase at a consistent rate. They failed to account for women鈥檚 late entry to long-鈥嬄璬istance running; women weren鈥檛 allowed to compete in the marathon until the 1970s. It made sense that women鈥檚 performances improved by leaps and bounds, particularly in the first few decades of participation, before leveling off.

Whipp and Ward also ignored fundamental differences in anatomy and physiology between men and women that could influence athletic performance. Before puberty, girls and boys are more or less athletic equals. But once sex hormones, particularly testosterone, flood the bodies of adolescent boys, everything starts to grow鈥攈earts, lungs, muscles, and limbs. Their bodies lean out, which translates to more strength, power, and speed. Men also typically score higher on measures of aerobic capacity鈥攈ow much oxygen they鈥檙e able to take up and use during exercise. With bigger lungs, they can take in more oxygen. With bigger hearts and higher hemoglobin levels, they can pump a greater amount of oxygen-鈥嬄璻ich blood to their muscles. With bigger muscles, they can extract more oxygen from the blood.

While estrogen can influence factors related to training adaptation, performance, and strength, its influence is less potent. 鈥淭here are always going to be these fundamental differences between males and fe鈥� males where the best male, under the right conditions, will outdo the best female,鈥� says Sandra Hunter, director of the Athletic and Human Performance Research Center at Marquette University. On average, across athletic disciplines, women鈥檚 records are 9 to 12 percent lower than men鈥檚 records, whether it鈥檚 sprinting, jumping, throwing, or distance events.

However, that鈥檚 not the end of the story. As distances increase, some of the anatomical and physiological advantages enjoyed by men begin to wash out. Particularly in ultra-鈥嬄璬istance events鈥攖hose that exceed six hours or running events longer than 26.2 miles鈥攐utcomes are less dependent on physiology or cardiovascular capacity alone, says Nicholas Tiller, an exercise physiologist who studies how the body responds to extreme endurance exercise and an ultramarathon runner himself. As distances stretch out over 50, 100, or 200 miles, athletes must account for and manage many more variables. Weather, nutrition, gastrointestinal health, fatigue, pain, and psychology all start to carry more weight. 鈥淚f you start suffering from gastrointestinal distress and you start feeling nauseated, it doesn鈥檛 matter what your VO2 max is. It doesn鈥檛 matter how strong you are. It doesn鈥檛 matter how quickly you can run if you can鈥檛 even stand because you can鈥檛 get the calories in,鈥� Tiller told me.

And it seems like women may be better able to juggle the multiple factors that go hand in hand with long distances. In 2020, researchers examined more than five million results from nearly 15,500 ultrarunning events to determine the average pace and finishing time across all participants. They found that as distance increased, the gap between women and men narrowed. While women were, on average, 11.1 percent slower than men in the marathon, that percentage dropped to 3.7 percent for 50鈥憁ile races and just 0.25 percent for 100-鈥嬄璵ile races. At distances over 195 miles, women were 0.6 percent faster than men. In other words, the average woman was faster than the average man in superlong races.

As I sifted through the studies and anecdotes, I wanted to know if this trend reflected a true sex difference or if it could be sampling bias. Are the impressive performances by women ultra-鈥嬄璦thletes just a result of the best of the best lining up on the start line, or are they representative of what the larger population of women is capable of? Currently, it seems like it might be a case of sampling bias. Women constitute a small segment of entrants to ultra-鈥嬄璭vents (they make up only 23 percent of total ultramarathon participants). Those who choose to race long distances are likely well-鈥嬄璽rained athletes, skewing the average woman鈥檚 performance toward the top of the heap. On the men鈥檚 side, the larger number of competitors is more likely to represent a wider range of experience and abilities, contributing to the men鈥檚 lower overall average times. Still, at the 2021 Western States Endurance Run, the oldest and one of the most prestigious 100-鈥嬄璵ile trail races, brutal temperatures whittled the field down to its lowest finishing rate in more than ten years. Yet three women finished in the top ten overall鈥攁 first in race history鈥攁nd fifteen of the top thirty finishers were women. These numbers are hard to ignore.

Frankly, despite the curiosity, asking if and when women will outperform men isn鈥檛 the most salient question. Evaluating women鈥檚 results against the men鈥檚 standings continues to suggest that women are less than men and only worthy of accolades if they live up to standards set by and for men. It鈥檚 like saying they performed 鈥済ood for girls.鈥�

Instead, women鈥檚 achievements should be acknowledged as excellent on their own. This is not to say that we need to lower the bar when it comes to women鈥檚 sports. Rather, we need to shift the narrative to focus on women wholly rather than forcing them to measure up to a male paradigm. We need to recognize and celebrate women鈥檚 unique abilities and lived experiences. Then the question becomes, What makes women well suited to run, bike, hike, and swim long distances? And why do they tend to excel when events get longer and longer?

From Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes, by Christine Yu, to be published May 16, 2023, by Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright 漏 2023 by Christine Yu.

The post Can Women Outperform Men in Sports? That鈥檚 the Wrong Question to Ask. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

At the awards ceremony at the 2018 Wildflower Triathlon, professional triathlete听 wondered if she should quit her birth control pill. She was sitting with several other athletes and they couldn鈥檛 believe she was still on birth control. They claimed the pill was bad for performance. Didn鈥檛 she want to be fast?

It wasn鈥檛 the first time O鈥橫ara had heard this advice. This time around, it seemed like everyone was off birth control. She鈥檇 previously looked for research into the link between hormonal contraceptives and athletic performance and had come up empty-handed, but the anecdotal evidence was convincing. Aside from the pros around her, her coach knew people who improved when they ditched birth control, including some of her own athletes. One of O鈥橫ara鈥檚 friends, an athlete of a similar level, placed second at an Ironman after going off hormonal contraceptives.

O鈥橫ara describes herself as a solid middle-of-the-pack athlete. She says she felt like she was missing 鈥渟ome obvious breakthrough鈥� and dropping the pill seemed like the solution that was going to help her finish at the top. She thought, 鈥淭his is what鈥檚 holding me back. This is why I鈥檓 not on the podium.鈥�

Among athletes and the performance-driven set, the desire to be the best can often lead to a never-ending quest to find the elixir, superfood, or training method that will ultimately unleash one鈥檚 performance potential. 鈥淓very athlete has had days where you鈥檙e batting above your weight and everything feels easy,鈥� O鈥橫ara says. 鈥淎nd there are days where you can鈥檛 hit anything. Of course, you want to know why that is.鈥�

For female athletes, the menstrual cycle is the . In recent years, medical practitioners have acknowledged that the period is more than an indicator of fertility. Rather, it鈥檚 akin to a , like blood pressure and pulse rate, and can offer a check on your health and hormones. This has given rise to the practice of cycle syncing鈥攖ailoring your training to the phase of your menstrual cycle in order to take advantage of the body鈥檚 hormonal peaks and valleys.

In light of this shift, many people, particularly on social media, are positioning the menstrual cycle as a crystal ball that holds the secret to optimal health and athletic performance. Do this when you鈥檙e in a low-hormone phase. Don鈥檛 do this when you鈥檙e in a high-hormone phase. Scrolling through your feed, it can be easy to conclude that if you can鈥檛 track your natural听cycle, you鈥檙e at a disadvantage. It鈥檚 led many, like O鈥橫ara, to consider skipping hormonal contraceptives.

While more athletes and coaches are talking openly about the potential influence of hormones and birth control on training and performance, the science hasn鈥檛 quite caught up. , an associate professor of exercise and sport at Griffith University in Australia, says it鈥檚 a leap to conclude that athletes should swear off hormonal contraceptives entirely. 鈥淚 could cherry-pick papers from scientific journals to say you should get off hormonal contraception or you should get on hormonal contraception, but that鈥檚 not consensus,鈥� she says.

, the director of the Female Athlete Program at Boston Children鈥檚 Hospital, agrees. 鈥淢any people can safely be on hormonal contraceptives for years,鈥� she says. 鈥淓specially with the changes in legislation in the U.S. around abortion, even more patients are coming in and asking about safe ways to keep from getting pregnant while being healthy and performing well.鈥�

use some form of hormonal contraceptive. Oral birth control pills, arm implants, patches, vaginal rings, injections, and some IUDs introduce synthetic versions of female sex hormones into the body. These can be manufactured forms of estrogen, progesterone (the synthetic version is called progestin), or a combination of both. The exact dosage and potency depends on the type and brand of contraceptive.

Generally, these man-made hormones override the menstrual cycle and suppress ovulation, preventing pregnancy. That means that the body may not experience the same hormonal ups and downs as it would naturally.

Some types of hormonal birth control are designed to mimic the menstrual cycle. For example, the oral contraceptive pill generally includes 21 days of 鈥渁ctive鈥� pills followed by a series of placebo pills that don鈥檛 have hormones. Most people will experience some bleeding during the contraceptive鈥檚 placebo phase.

One common misconception is that the bleeding that occurs during this stage is equivalent to a period. Doctors and researchers call it 鈥渨ithdrawal bleed.鈥� Hormones in the contraceptive build up and maintain the uterine lining鈥攚ithout these hormones in your system during the placebo phase, the body sloughs off the lining, resulting in bleeding. That means a withdrawal bleed isn鈥檛 a good indicator of hormonal health, and it can mask signs of underfueling and menstrual dysfunction.

Of course, many people choose to take hormonal birth control for reasons other than contraception. 鈥淒octors may prescribe different types of progesterone and dosing of pills to address different concerns,鈥� Ackerman says. 鈥淪ome might be on the pill because they have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) or they want to treat their acne.鈥� Birth control might also help manage heavy menstrual bleeding, bloating, and other cycle-related symptoms.

The side effects of hormonal contraceptives can be debilitating for some athletes, influencing their mood, desire and ability to train, and athletic performance. Former collegiate runner Hannah Wohlenberg began taking the pill between her junior and senior years of high school because she started Accutane treatment for her acne. (Because Accutane may cause serious birth defects, those who choose to take it and could become pregnant are required to commit to using two forms of birth control as part of the Food and Drug Administration鈥檚 iPLEDGE program.) Almost immediately, she experienced asthma-like symptoms.

The timing wasn鈥檛 great. During Wohlenberg鈥檚 junior year, her team finished second at the California state cross-country championships and she finished seventeenth individually. Heading into senior year, she wanted to build on her success, especially with college on the horizon. Instead, her training tanked. 鈥淢y body wasn鈥檛 responding. It felt very different and heavier,鈥� she says. She couldn鈥檛 finish workouts and had to stop because she couldn鈥檛 breathe. She quit the pill and Accutane after a few months and 鈥渆verything cleared up.鈥� She had a great track season and went on to run for Loyola Marymount University.

Wohlenberg never got an explanation for what happened to her body. While there鈥檚 on the connection between the pill and symptoms like asthma, she was wary of hormonal contraceptives because of her personal experience. She wishes her doctor had prepared her for how the medication and its side effects might affect her performance. When she investigated birth control options again in college, she relied on the advice and experience of friends and teammates and opted for a copper intrauterine device (IUD), which doesn鈥檛 contain hormones.

Like Wohlenberg, professional track and field athlete Colleen Quigley opted for a copper IUD. She was concerned that hormonal birth control would disrupt her body鈥檚 pattern of hormonal fluctuations and influence her mood and athletic performance, something she experienced while on the pill in high school.

Quigley wanted contraception that would prevent pregnancy but allow her to get her natural period too. 鈥淚 use my monthly period as a signal that I鈥檓 doing a good job balancing my training and my fueling,鈥� she said in an email. It gives her the feedback she needs to stay healthy.

Quigley shared her experience on last year and the discussion was lively. In the comment section and Quigley鈥檚 DMs, people shared their own experiences with IUDs鈥攕ome positive, some negative鈥攁nd asked questions.

Experiences like Wohlenberg鈥檚 can be common, since doctors don鈥檛 often have a lot of information to go on. Overall, there isn鈥檛 much associated with hormonal contraceptives. There鈥檚 even less research on the connection between hormonal contraceptives, athletic training, and performance.

Of the sports science studies that do exist, the quality varies greatly. Many studies are small, involving only a handful of participants. Some combine participants on different types of contraceptives or include only those taking oral contraceptive pills. Others studied women on older formulations of birth control. Plus, researchers don鈥檛 always note the type and dose of hormones.

Taken together, it鈥檚 hard to draw conclusions across studies. A compared exercise performance of those on oral contraceptive pills against a control group of naturally menstruating people. They found that while pill users experienced slightly decreased performance, the effect was 鈥渢rivial鈥� at best.

For instance, research suggests that hormonal birth control decreases aerobic capacity: from the early 2000s found that VO2 max may be reduced by roughly five percent compared to those who are not on oral contraceptives. However, it鈥檚 unclear whether the findings still hold true. These studies haven鈥檛 been replicated, and birth control formulations have changed in the years since.

Still, some useful nuggets are beginning to emerge from the scientific literature. Compared to naturally cycling individuals, Minahan says, 鈥渢here鈥檚 quite conclusive evidence that women who take hormonal contraceptives are more likely to show of delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle damage鈥� after performing exercise that鈥檚 new to them or that focuses on the muscle lengthening phase, like lowering into a squat or downhill running. have also found , like C-reactive protein, in elite and recreational athletes taking oral contraceptive pills, which could affect training adaptation and recovery. According to Minahan, there鈥檚 some evidence that hormonal contraception may reduce the chance of teenage athletes reaching peak bone mass, and they may also be at risk for decreased adaptation to resistance training.

With the increased interest in this area of study, researchers are paying more attention to how the formulation of different contraceptives may affect how athletes adapt to training. Still, more high-quality research is needed to reach a consensus and better guidance for athletes and medical providers.

When discussing birth control options with patients, Ackerman says she considers the whole person: their concerns, priorities, and lived experience. While there may be some potential benefits to a natural cycle, those benefits may be negated if her patient experiences horrible cramping, heavy bleeding, or mood swings with her period. Plus, her patient may train more consistently while on the pill because she鈥檚 not worried about getting pregnant or experiencing heavy periods. 鈥淯ltimately, your performance will be better because you鈥檙e able to get more training days in,鈥� she says.

For O鈥橫ara鈥檚 part, her periods were 鈥渢errible鈥� before starting the pill during college in the mid-aughts. She鈥檇 be in so much pain that she鈥檇 vomit. The pill lessened her symptoms. When she quit the pill鈥攕he tried twice over the span of a few years鈥攈er performance didn鈥檛 improve.

The biggest concern among medical practitioners is that hormonal contraceptives may mask the loss of menstruation and the symptoms of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), a condition that develops when the body doesn鈥檛 have enough fuel to meet the demands of training and daily life. RED-S can lead to disrupted and absent menstrual cycles and can affect bone health, immunity, metabolism, cardiovascular health, and mental health, not to mention athletic performance. If an athlete is on birth control that suppresses her menstrual cycle or causes a withdrawal bleed, it鈥檚 hard to know if the underlying cycle is functioning normally.

鈥淭hose are the people I want to be careful with,鈥� says Ackerman. 鈥淚f I have a patient with RED-S and she doesn鈥檛 get her cycle, I don鈥檛 want to put her on the pill. I want to figure out why she doesn鈥檛 get her period.鈥�

Once an athlete鈥檚 nutrition and body composition are normalized and can sustain a regular menstrual cycle, Ackerman says she might be a candidate for hormonal birth control. However, if there鈥檚 a risk that her weight or body composition might fluctuate in a way that would put her at risk for RED-S or losing her cycle again, whether due to the demands of training or because of an underlying eating disorder, Ackerman might suggest something like the copper IUD instead.

For an athlete not at risk of RED-S who wants to stop the pill for performance reasons, , clinical assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and program director of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research program at Stanford University says, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have enough evidence to say, 鈥楪et off the pill.鈥欌�� Instead, she would try to understand the reasons the athlete started taking hormonal birth control and how long they鈥檝e been on it.

Kraus says athletes can feel empowered while on hormonal contraceptives, but it starts with understanding their own body and the formulation of birth control they鈥檙e taking. While there鈥檚 the perception among most women that hormone levels are flat while on contraceptives, there can be hormonal fluctuations, which can influence how the body feels and responds to training. Experts recommend tracking symptoms鈥攂oth positive and negative鈥攁nd any withdrawal bleeding while on hormonal contraceptives. Based on this information, you can adjust nutrition, training, or recovery strategies. Your physician may also adjust your birth control or suggest a different type to minimize side effects. 鈥淣ewer generations of contraceptives can have fewer side effects,鈥� she says.

Deciding whether to take听 hormonal birth control isn鈥檛 black and white. The effects of naturally occurring and synthetic hormones on the body can vary greatly from person to person, and when it comes to fitness and athletic performance, it鈥檚 only one part of the bigger picture. Consult a medical doctor, such as an OB/GYN or endocrinologist, and share both your reproductive and athletic goals with your provider.

But one thing is clear: 鈥淭his is something we absolutely need to talk about more,鈥� Quigley says.

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In January, my social media feeds were filled with the typical new year posts鈥攜ear-end recaps, reflections and resolutions, and hopes for the coming year. But one caught my eye.

Ultrarunner Camille Herron shared one reason why she thought she was 鈥渃rushing world records鈥� in her forties: She only does one or two long runs a month (nothing over 22 miles) and she never does back-to-back long runs. Case in point: she ran one easy 20-miler in the lead-up to the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival鈥檚 100-mile race last year, which she won outright. Instead, she focuses on cumulative volume and running frequency.

In her words, 鈥淟ong runs are overrated.鈥�

In the world of ultrarunning, where there鈥檚 a bravado around epic big-mileage days, Herron seems like an anomaly. Among the replies to her tweet, there was curiosity tinged with a side of skepticism. How could an ultra-distance athlete鈥攐ne who holds world records for 100 miles and for the longest distance covered in 24 hours鈥攔un no longer than what you鈥檇 typically do in a marathon build-up? Shouldn鈥檛 her training mirror what she鈥檇 need to do in an ultra?

Karen Troy saw Herron鈥檚 tweet too. But her first thought was, 鈥淲ow. Someone鈥檚 actually trying to do it.鈥� To Troy, who鈥檚 a professor of biomedical engineering and the director of the musculoskeletal mechanics lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Herron鈥檚 training philosophy reflected what she鈥檇 read in scientific journals and seen in the lab related to mechanical stress and bone adaptation. 鈥淭o me, it really aligned well with a lot of the theory,鈥� she says.

How Bone Adapts

Bone is a dynamic tissue. It changes, adapts, and gets stronger in the same way that muscles do. And in order for them to get stronger, you have to load them.

Bones have a 鈥渟et point鈥濃�攁kin to the thermostat in your house鈥攆or the optimal amount of mechanical stress it wants to experience. Depending on the amount and rate of force transmitted through the bone, bone cells respond by either adding or removing bone. Too much force and the cells build bone to temper the load. Too little force and the cells get rid of bone so that it can sense more load.

Scientists have long been interested in finding the sweet spot between the amount of physical activity that induces adaptation and strengthens bone and the amount that can lead to injury鈥攁 fine line that many runners are intimately familiar with. What they鈥檝e found in with animals like mice and rats is that, after back-to-back loading cycles, bone cells start to ignore the mechanical stress and stop adapting. Troy says it鈥檚 like when you walk into a smelly room. 鈥淚t smells pretty bad for 10 to 15 minutes, and then you adapt. If you stay in the room, it stops smelling,鈥� she says.

However, just like your nose can become re-sensitized if you leave the smelly room, bone cells do too. have found that bone cells start to pay attention to mechanical stress again after a four-to-eight-hour rest period. When you spread the load over multiple sessions rather than one sustained bout, you gain more bone. ( respond similarly.)

The evidence suggests that distance running has diminishing returns when it comes to bone health. Troy hypothesizes that bone may respond to the stress of running over the first half mile or so but then become desensitized to the monotonous, repetitive loading. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l get muscle and cardiovascular adaptations, but your bones aren鈥檛 paying attention anymore,鈥� Troy says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e just adding miles and potentially accumulating damage, but you鈥檙e not going to add adaptive stimulus that will help the bone become stronger.鈥�

A Case Study of One

There isn鈥檛 a lot of data in people, making Herron an interesting case study. 鈥淗umans are made to move frequently,鈥� Herron says. 鈥淭he body responds to change and dynamic stimuli, so you need to stress the body in different ways.鈥� It鈥檚 an approach she believes can work for runners at all levels and distances.

Her training is peppered with frequent, shorter bouts of running. Most days, Herron will run 10 to 15 miles and then doubles back for six or seven miles after a four-to-eight-hour rest period. Over a two-week period, she completes four main workouts鈥攕hort intervals like 400-meter repeats; long intervals like one-to-three-mile repeats; a progression run, usually incorporated into a long run; and a hill session where she stresses both the uphill and downhill components to load her body eccentrically.

In between workouts, she runs easy and incorporates strides and drills twice a week. She likes to race a marathon or 50K a couple of weeks before a big race as a way to practice her nutrition and stress her body 鈥渏ust enough.鈥�

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just look at a singular long run or back-to-back long runs. You have to look at the whole picture. Every run is like bricks that add up over time,鈥� she says. Over the years, Herron has played around with her training formula and has cut back on her long runs, emphasizing quality over quantity and running for time rather than just distance. 鈥淚鈥檓 totally fine doing two hours as my long run,鈥� she says.

It makes sense that Herron鈥檚 training is steeped in science. She was pre-med at the University of Tulsa before turning her focus to scientific research, studying the impact of strength training on bone and muscle. In graduate school at Oregon State, she investigated the relationship between mechanical stress and bone recovery for her master鈥檚 thesis. By studying bones, maybe she hoped to understand why she experienced multiple stress fractures in high school and college. What she learned shaped how she trains.

But she didn鈥檛 put the theory into practice right away. Early in her marathon career, she was still doing long runs up to 26 miles. It wasn鈥檛 until she started training at altitude that she began to split up her runs. Her coach (and husband) Conor Holt thought it would help her acclimate to the altitude, but she says, 鈥淚t was like a rocket to the moon.鈥� She recovered better and felt more spark in her legs.

Sabrina Little, ultrarunner and five-time U.S. National Champion, has also seen the benefits of this style of training. In college, she used to log big miles, a 30-mile run before doubling back for another 20 miles the next day. But once she graduated, she no longer had the luxury of dedicating endless hours to training. She expected to be less prepared for races but a funny thing happened鈥攕he performed better. It turns out that running multiple times a day may have other too.

鈥淲hen I set the American record in the 24-hour run, my longest run was maybe 16 or 17 miles,鈥� Little says. She would train in the morning and then come back for a faster session in the afternoon. 鈥淏reaking things into shorter blocks was beneficial. I was able to do higher integrity work instead of just long, slow distance,鈥� she says. She thinks it helped her body absorb her training.

Now, as a parent to two young kids, Little definitely doesn鈥檛 have long blocks of time, so she practices what she calls 鈥減repositional running鈥濃�攂efore things, between things, and after things.

However, both Herron and Little logged many miles before happening upon their current training strategy. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to say big days aren鈥檛 needed, but it鈥檚 hard to say what role they play,鈥� Little says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a way in which the big races are kind of grandfathered into your legs, like you鈥檙e never too far away from your last 50-miler.鈥�

Beyond Mechanical Stress

While Herron and Little鈥檚 training mirrors research findings, it can鈥檛 be considered in isolation.

There are other factors that influence bone health and adaptation aside from mechanical loading鈥攇enetics, nutrition, running gait, and how much bone you laid down during your peak bone-building years. Hormonal health matters, too, because bone cells have sex hormone receptors. If your hormone levels are low, Troy says it tips the balance toward bone removal, leaving the tissue more vulnerable to injury.

Whether or not eschewing long, sustained bouts of running is the key to success and injury prevention, there are benefits to fostering the idea that not everyone needs big days on the road or trails.

鈥淢ost people have responsibilities and can鈥檛 spend all that time outside,鈥� says Little. 鈥淧eople should know there are other possibilities. It could get a broader scope of people participating.鈥�

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Four weeks ago, a听 newsletter landed in my inbox. It was the morning after Jessie Diggins won a bronze medal in the women鈥檚 freestyle sprint at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, and I was excited to read more about her historic feat. Not only was Diggins the first American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in cross-country skiing, but听she also became the first American to win multiple Olympic medals in the sport. (She added a third medal to her tally later in the Games.)

鈥淚n a sport that has so many women with massive shoulders and thighs, Diggins looks like a sprite in her racing suit,鈥� wrote sports journalist Matthew Futterman. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not clear exactly where she gets her power.鈥�

Wait, what? In one sentence, the writer managed to undermine Diggins鈥檚 achievement and insult a large swath of women, both those who have 鈥渕assive shoulders and thighs鈥� and those who don鈥檛. The commentary about Diggins鈥檚 body was especially eyebrow raising because she has been outspoken about disordered eating in sport and her own experience with an eating disorder. The article sparked . were quick to categorize this as the latest example of an insidious double standard in which media outlets reporting on sports focus on the athletic achievements of men, yet persistently objectify the bodies of women. found the commentary simply boring鈥攃ould he not come up with a more interesting analysis of the race?

In a message to nordic-ski blog听, The New York Times responded to the criticism by saying,听鈥淲e aim in our sports coverage to cover male and female athletes accurately, equally and fairly. We believe sometimes their physiques are relevant to their performance. In this case, our description of cross country skier Jessie Diggins鈥檚 noticeably different physical attributes in contrast to others in her sport were an important and relevant detail.鈥�

Of course, Futterman isn鈥檛 the first to comment on the bodies of women athletes, and he won鈥檛 be the last. Ironically, after Diggins won a 10K race last year, a hypothesized that she skied faster because she was bigger and heavier than her competition. For two years running, commentators at the NCAA track and field championships called out steeplechase champion , dubbing her 鈥渢he baby-faced assassin鈥� one year and repeatedly announcing her height and weight (incorrectly, to boot) the following. Olympic champion and five-time world champion surfer听 was criticized by internet trolls for her figure, despite her progressive surfing and dominance in the lineup.

Athletes are public figures, and their bodies are foundational to their jobs. It鈥檚 easy to home in on aesthetics in order to make sense of how athletes do what they do. But while body composition certainly plays a role, it鈥檚 just one of many physical factors. Aerobic capacity, power, strength, muscular endurance, biomechanics, strategy, tenacity, and good genes鈥攏one of which are necessarily visible to the human eye鈥攁ll determine an athlete鈥檚 ability. And yet, especially with women athletes, appearance often becomes the sole focus, even when it has nothing to do with performance. This overemphasis on what athletes look like is damaging on both an individual and a cultural level, and it鈥檚 time to reconsider how we talk about their bodies.

When media outlets claim they are just reporting the facts when it comes to sports coverage, they ignore the reality that the body is never neutral ground. Speculating whether an athlete is too fat, too thin, or has a body appropriate for their sport betrays some of our worst societal tendencies鈥攍ike an overwhelming preference for bodies that are lean and white. By calling out someone鈥檚 body type and marking it as divergent, regardless of whether it鈥檚 a good or a bad difference, we鈥檙e constructing a proverbial 鈥渞ight body鈥� for activity. Within this environment, athletes chase specific silhouettes as if they鈥檙e the only determinant of success and future performance, making athletics a ripe setting for eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

In 2021, a in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that comments about an athlete鈥檚 body and diet, even seemingly innocuous ones, can lay the foundation for disordered eating and eating disorders. Up to of women athletes, primarily in , suffer from eating disorders and disordered eating, which have some of the among all mental illnesses. Not eating enough can lead to systemic health issues that can profoundly influence long-term health and well-being. Men aren鈥檛 immune: disordered eating behaviors are as common in men as in women, and of people with eating disorders are men. But since men tend to be diagnosed later than women, they may suffer worse .

Focusing on athletes鈥� appearance impacts more than the mental and physical health of one individual: it reinforces implicit gatekeeping. This narrow-mindedness has harmed, and continues to harm, generations of active and athletic people at all levels of sport. Weeding out those who don鈥檛 fit the perceived norm鈥攚hether that鈥檚 size, gender, skin color, or another signifier鈥攃reates a powerful confirmation bias. If you don鈥檛 see your body type represented in a sport or are told, implicitly or explicitly, that you鈥檙e not fit to play, odds are high that you鈥檒l doubt your abilities, choose to drop out, or not take up an activity in the first place. If you don鈥檛 fit into the definitive binary categories of sex and gender, and what those categories are supposed to look like, it calls into question your very existence and right to play.听Plus, whether a person has the 鈥渞ight body鈥� is heavily influenced by external circumstances, like opportunities to train and compete and access to quality facilities and staff, all of which are profoundly shaped by sociocultural factors.

But who decides what鈥檚 the norm? Who gets to decide what an athlete鈥檚 body should look like? Spectators and self-appointed social media experts will always have their opinions, but conversations about weight, body composition, and diet should be left to an athlete and qualified professionals.

When it comes to media, the tenets of require that journalists report fairly, accurately, and not cause additional harm. Seemingly offhand comments about appearances only serve to reinforce the same old narratives and devalue a woman鈥檚 skills, training, and years of hard work. We miss the bigger story. It鈥檚 why we need diverse voices in newsrooms and more coverage of women鈥檚 sports.

More than anything, these instances point out the need to rethink how all of us talk about women鈥檚 sports and women athletes. We need to stop distilling athletes鈥� potential and performance to their appearance. We need to commit to the idea that any body has the potential to achieve, full stop.

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When massage guns first appeared in 2016, they changed the game for recovery obsessives. The devices provide a com颅bination of vibration and 鈥減ercussion鈥濃�攔apid punching by a mechanical arm鈥攖hat can help relax muscles, reduce fatigue, and improve range of motion.

They work because the body responds to pressure, stretching, and force by increasing a function of the autonomic nervous system called parasympathetic activity, says Cameron Yuen, a physical therapist at in New York City. That in turn promotes blood flow and nutrient uptake. Plus, it feels good.

To use, let the head of the massager glide over your skin, kneading the targeted muscle for a minute or two. If you find a cranky spot, add pressure, but don鈥檛 go overboard鈥攖oo much force can cause the muscle to contract. And don鈥檛 forget to work the areas above and below, Yuen says.

After some rigorous (and relaxing) testing, here are the best new massage guns.

1. TimTam PowerMassager Pro ($500)

This tool rivals the Theragun Pro (below) for power, functionality, and effectiveness, but runs quieter. It has three speeds, plus modes for warm-up, lumbar, neck, and recovery massages. There are three attachments, including one that heats up, for deeper tissue relief, and a vibrating ball that boosts the shaking sensation. A few uses took care of lingering discomfort in my outer shin. It鈥檚 a bit hard to maneuver, in part because the power button (which also cycles through the speed settings) is located on the inner handle. Hitting it unintentionally can turn a soothing knead into an unexpected pummel.

2. NordicTrack 颅Percussion 颅Massager ($99)

This quiet, no-frills model is much more affordable than its counterparts. But there are trade-offs. Although it has three speed settings, it鈥檚 not as powerful as the others here. The massage felt a bit 颅superficial鈥攎ore vibration than percussion. While it may not be the best option for someone who trains intensely, it could work well on sensitive muscles or for those with a low pain threshold. Overall, the power-drill-shaped tool was comfortable to maneuver and easily reached pesky knots in my upper back.

3.听Hypervolt with Bluetooth ($349)

At ten inches long, this model packs a mighty massage into a compact design. It delivers good percussion at three speeds and is no louder than a set of hair clippers, making it the quietest here. While the 2.5-pound device initially felt heavy, the weight lent just the right amount of pressure to the massage without any extra effort. And like the Theragun, it syncs via Bluetooth with an app that, using data from Apple Health and Strava, delivers recommended warm-up, recovery, and body-maintenance routines. It gets smarter, too, with AI that learns your workout habits to deliver personalized massages.

4. Compex Fixx 1.0 Massager听($300)

Known for its muscle-stimulation devices, Compex entered the massage-gun game in 2019 with the Fixx 1.0. It鈥檚 a good lightweight option (1.7 pounds), with the power and percussion of more expensive models. The ergonomic handle is easy to hold, the device runs at three speeds, and it includes one attachment (two others are available for $30). The lowest setting primed my quads and calves, and the highest helped me avoid the dreaded next-day dead leg. But like the TimTam, the power button is on the handle, so it鈥檚 easy to switch off while using.

5.听Therabody Theragun Pro ($599)

The Theragun combines strong 颅percussion and a dizzying array of customization options. It鈥檚 a great tool for serious athletes鈥攋ust being free of those relentless calf knots could justify the price tag. The device was comfortable to hold and didn鈥檛 cause hand fatigue. The downside: it鈥檚 the loudest and heaviest of the group, at 2.9 pounds.

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Hannah Whetzel couldn鈥檛 sit down. When she did, pain radiated everywhere. So the then junior at the University of Arizona stood. She stood during the four-hour bus ride to Flagstaff for the team鈥檚 first cross-country meet of the 2017 season. She stood at breakfast. And she stood any time she wasn鈥檛 driving or in class.

The problem started in her hamstring while at preseason running camp. She notified her coaches during the first week of school, but she says they didn鈥檛 seem too concerned. At times听Whetzel broke down crying due to the intense pain鈥攕ometimes in front of her coaches, sometimes alone in her car. But she kept running and racing. Oddly, it didn鈥檛 hurt when she ran hard workouts. It was as if her body鈥檚 circuitry misfired, holding off the searing sensation until the endorphins faded. Since she was a non-scholarship member of the team, she felt like she had no wiggle room to disappoint her coaches. Finally, in February 2018, Whetzel got an MRI, which revealed a partially torn hamstring and tendinosis. After receiving two platelet-rich plasma-therapy injections, Whetzel was left to rehabilitate on her own with little direction from athletic trainers or support from her coaches. 鈥淚 felt incredibly alone and isolated,鈥� she says.

Whetzel used to love running鈥攖he sense of accomplishment after hard workouts, laughing with friends, and all the people she met through the sport鈥攁nd it was her dream to run for a Division I school. She also understood that sports and injury can go hand in hand. But over the course of her four-year collegiate running career, she began to associate running with one thing: pain. During the spring of her freshman year, the trainers thought she鈥檇 sustained a tendon injury and insisted she try running on an antigravity treadmill. But she could barely walk. How was she supposed to keep running? A week later, she saw an orthopedic doctor who diagnosed a stress fracture in her fibula. Then, her senior year, Whetzel developed another stress fracture, but she still raced every meet that cross-country season.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e competing at a Division I level, and you have to compete through some injuries,鈥� she says, voicing an unspoken belief held by many members of the team. 鈥淚t felt like you couldn鈥檛 say no, like you didn鈥檛 have much of a choice. If you complained, you鈥檙e being weak.鈥� Even when she reported an injury, she says the coaching staff didn鈥檛 always believe her. So she ran, mostly in fear鈥攖hat her leg was going to snap midrun, or that she wouldn鈥檛 meet her coaches鈥� exacting standards.

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