Running bras have come a long way since 1977, when Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith stitched together a pair of jockstraps to create the original Jogbra. Current models aren鈥檛 just comfortable and supportive; they鈥檙e performance-enhancing. Studies have found that more supportive bras 鈥攁 proxy for how much energy you鈥檙e burning at a given running pace鈥攂y 7 percent, perhaps by enabling .

But they鈥檙e not perfect. find that less than half of women choose to wear a sports bra during physical activity. The most common complaints are that the shoulder straps slip or chafe, and that the bands are so tight around the ribcage that they鈥檙e uncomfortable and restrict breathing. It鈥檚 this last concern that resonated with Shalaya Kipp, a former Olympic steeplechase runner and鈥攃onveniently鈥攁n exercise scientist at the University of British Columbia specializing in respiratory physiology. (She recently moved to a new position at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.)

, Kipp and her UBC colleagues share the results of a study testing whether tight sports bras hinder breathing in runners. A small sample of nine nationally or internationally competitive runners completed a series of treadmill tests while wearing a specially modified version of Lululemon鈥檚 Energy sports bra whose underband tightness around the ribcage could be increased or decreased with extra eye-and-hook attachments at the back. The bra was also modified so that a small balloon catheter could be inserted into the underband to measure exactly how much pressure was being exerted as the subjects inhaled and exhaled.

That鈥檚 not all. The subjects had another balloon catheter inserted through their nose and down into their esophagus to measure the internal pressures exerted with each breath by their lungs as they ran. This is no joke: Kipp posted showing her having this catheter inserted, and it鈥檚 definitely worth a watch if you want to appreciate what the subjects were willing to undergo in the name of science. The catheter enabled the researchers to calculate the 鈥渨ork of breathing鈥濃�攖hat鈥檚 the energy used by the respiratory muscles to inflate and deflate the lungs, which can consume of your total energy output during hard exercise.

The running tests were performed in three conditions: once with the subjects鈥� self-selected preferred bra size; once with the bra tightened; and once with it loosened. The pressure of the band in the tight condition was, on average, 16 percent greater than in the loose condition. Here鈥檚 what the oxygen consumption (VO2) during submaximal running looked like in those three conditions:

Going from self-selected to tight didn鈥檛 change anything. But going from self-selected to loose reduced oxygen (and energy) consumption. The overall difference between the tight and loose conditions was between one and two percent in most subjects, with an average of 1.3 percent and eight of the nine subjects seeing improvements in the loose condition. That鈥檚 not as big as the four percent change from supershoes, but it鈥檚 significant. Kipp estimates that a two-percent change in oxygen consumption translates to a three-minute change in marathon time for a three-hour runner.

The reason for the efficiency difference is presumably that the tight bra made the women breathe differently. While running at VO2 max in the tight bra, the women sucked in more oxygen overall by breathing more quickly (57 rather than 52 breaths per minute) but also more shallowly. That work of breathing took 16 percent more energy, which explains why overall whole-body oxygen consumption was higher. There may also be secondary effects: if the breathing muscles are working harder and consuming more oxygen, that could divert oxygen-rich blood away from the working muscles in the legs and elsewhere.

Is this a serious problem? That depends on how tight you wear your bra, and how much you care about a percent or two improvement in performance. If you鈥檙e happy with your bra, you can safely ignore these findings. But Kipp cites previous data suggesting that 70 percent of women choose sports bras that are too small for them compared to a professional fit. That figure probably varies widely depending on who you survey, but it鈥檚 consistent with the data in the current study, which sees an improvement going from the self-selected size to loose, and no change from self-selected to tight.

The subjects presumably choose tighter-than-optimal bras because they want adequate support鈥攂ut none of the women in the study reported that the loose condition was uncomfortable or provided inadequate support. One possible explanation, Kipp and her colleagues point out: most women pick their sports bras based on how they feel at rest. None of the breathing parameters that they measured in the new study were affected at rest. It鈥檚 only during hard exercise, when the women were breathing hard and inflating their lungs, that the problems emerged. So it probably makes sense to evaluate your sports bra based on how it feels at the end of a workout, rather than how it feels in the store.

Of course, there鈥檚 much more to sports bra design than how tight the underband is. The right design will depend on the shape of your body鈥攁ll the elite runners in this particular study, the researchers note, had small to medium breasts鈥攁nd what activity you鈥檙e doing. There are endless patents (and more than a few ) and numerous competing models that aim to help women thread the needle between insufficient support and excessive tightness. There鈥檚 unlikely to be a single perfect solution that fits everyone. But if your sports bra feels so tight that you wonder whether it might be interfering with your breathing, it probably is.

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It wasn鈥檛 crossing over into my forties that felt so unsettling,聽it was the physical signs鈥攕ubtle as they were鈥攖hat made aging bloom into something real and looming.

After my fortieth birthday, over the course of two years, my periods became heavier and more painful. Now, at 42, I sometimes spot between cycles. Sometimes my period comes early. Every month, days before I begin to bleed, my left breast becomes tender in one spot like the knotted growth of a burl budding from the trunk of a tree. When I asked the doctor if all of these things could be due to hormonal shifts that come with perimenopause, she shook her head. 鈥淔orty-two? You鈥檙e too young for that.鈥� But I wasn鈥檛 convinced. I feel my seasons changing, gray hairs streaking across my head and eyebrows like leaves surrendering to their fall colors.

This uneasiness around aging and my body changing settled within me, a low rumbling that I tried to ignore. I have two young kids to distract me, but the shifts whispered premonitions of what the near future brought鈥攊ncreasing signs of perimenopause, menopause, more folds of skin around my shoulder blades, more lines across my forehead and around my eyes like new grooves in the ground after heavy rains.

Both my husband and I were becoming increasingly aware of the passage of time. So when we saw the listing for a 1786 farmhouse in dire condition in Bridgewater, Vermont鈥攁 two and a half hour drive from our Boston home鈥攚e took a leap of faith. It wasn鈥檛 only the old house and its potential that made me fall in love. It was the land. The more I read about the natural world and edible plants, like wild raspberries and ramps, that surely thrived there, the more eager I became to get out into the wilderness and explore.

We closed on the house in December 2022, with plans to rehabilitate it over the next few years so that we could make an official move. At the first evidence of snow melt and new green, I set out on my mission. In the woods, my body seemingly betraying me with its own autumn during Vermont鈥檚 spring, I was eager to see what the land could offer. It was my first year of foraging. I came prepared, and maybe a bit overconfident. I had read the books, I had watched the YouTube videos. In unusual optimism, I bought a mesh bag and slung it over my shoulder to carry my bounty. In my coat pocket, a pocket knife was ready to assist in any find.

It was here in the Vermont wilderness, away from my role of mother, housewife, ringleader鈥攚hatever you want to call it鈥攖hat I tried to find myself again. I walked the woods, searching for wild treasures in order to stop myself from imagining I could walk backwards over the divide of 40. I knew that I had to stop focusing on what was behind me鈥攎y younger self鈥攐r I’d forget where I belonged, both in time and in my body.

And so, I turned my attention to聽 what I could find in the newness of spring鈥攕pecifically, ramps, that wild allium with a pungent onion and garlic flavor. Every few minutes I stopped, listened to the sounds of water dripping from bare branches, and scanned the land around me for anything green coming up from the ground. Every now and then my heart skipped at the sight of something that could be the new delicate growth of an Allium tricoccum. Falling to my knees, not caring whether my pants got brown and wet, I ripped a leaf and sniffed, desperate to smell onion and garlic. Each time I got excited, I found that I was putting all my hopes into lily-of-the-valley. Hours passed, days passed, my legs burned from the hills I climbed. Still, no ramps. There were only lookalikes, those lily-of-the-valley and then the abundant false hellebore that sat deceivingly beside streams.

Here I was, 42, cheeks red from the still-cold air, frustrated now with both my body and the land.

I鈥檇 like to say that days after my sense of defeat I found a patch of ramps, foraged them sustainably, brought them home, and cooked them for my husband and kids. But I never found the ramps. Instead, days later, I came across a large patch of fiddleheads. It wasn鈥檛 what I originally set out for, but I couldn鈥檛 help but grin as I cut them at their base and stuffed them into my pockets. Back home, I fried them in butter and salt and let my kids crunch curiously. Summer was fast approaching, and I began to research what I could find next.

Summer was full of its own surprises. The small three-leaved plants that I鈥檇 always thought were clovers turned out to be the heart-shaped wood sorrel that gifted us a tingle of lemon flavor. The hill that our farmhouse sits on bloomed with small, tart wild strawberries. My daughter and I found a large patch of chanterelles along a trail in the nearby woods. A surprise sprinkling of hedgehog mushrooms taught me that they are one of the better-tasting edible fungi. I enjoyed these finds, but carried with me the dread of autumn and winter. This, I believed, was when the bounty would diminish and I would need to prepare myself for the wait for spring. I expected the wilderness to act as our bodies do鈥攕pring and summer (youth) would provide, late autumn and winter (middle age and beyond) would deplete.

Soon I could feel the shift in the air and the plants around me. Again, the seasons changed, and I prepared for disappointment, waiting for the woods to offer only silence and snow in the late autumn freeze. On a farewell walk in the woods, the first flakes dusting the dirt and patches of moss, I found thick oyster mushrooms blooming at eye level from the side of a maple tree. I removed them, to make sure they smelled of licorice, and smiled at the surprise offering from the woods.

Shortly after my oyster mushroom discovery, I listened to a Vermont Public Radio interview with Bob Popp, Vermont鈥檚 newly retired state botanist of 33 years. Part of his job was to monitor the population growth or decline of Vermont鈥檚 plants. The interviewer asked him why people should care about the plants he often visits for these wellness checks.听He admits that he never really figured out how to get everyone interested in the natural world. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e driving down the highway going 70, you鈥檙e not really noticing anything.鈥� Paying attention to the plants around us requires slowing down. Popp adds that knowing how to identify plants can help people know where they are in the world. Foraging has certainly helped me find my place in my own seasons, my place in time.

Foraging with the ebb and flow of nature has helped me accept the ebb and flow of aging. Each month there are new things to look for in the woods; from ramps to wild strawberries in the spring and summer, to oyster mushrooms in the colder months. Sometimes there is abundance, and sometimes we have to accept the quiet lacking. Sometimes we look ahead and anticipate scarcity, emptiness, the loss of vitality. Aging, like those late autumn days in the woods, isn鈥檛 darkening and emptiness鈥攊t鈥檚 expansive and full of surprises. I finally feel grounded where I am.

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To keep fit, , women should try 鈥渢he imaginary motion of lifting a piano鈥� and the real-life challenge of pulling a cork from a bottle. 鈥淗old the bottle between your knees and pull and pull at the tightly driven cork,鈥� the writer advised. Sadly, she didn鈥檛 specify how many sets and reps of cork-pulling one should aspire to, but she did promise that it would firm up the abdominal muscles and reduce the hips.

It鈥檚 worth keeping this sort of patronizing and nonsensical advice in mind as we contemplate what exercise advice women need these days. After leaving the imaginary-piano period behind, researchers moved on to assuming that men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 training should be more or less the same, or at least that training for women could be extrapolated from studies conducted almost exclusively on men. More recently, the pendulum has swung back. Women, many experts now believe, need advice that takes into account menstrual cycles, menopause, pregnancy, body composition and hormonal profile, differing hydration needs, and so on. It鈥檚 not always clear, though, which differences matter or whether training advice really needs to be changed.

That鈥檚 the background for a new systematic review of research on resistance training in healthy young women, by scientists from Brazil, Portugal, Italy, and Australia. Their goal was to figure out how women respond to resistance training, and what training variables are most important for determining whether you gain strength and muscle mass.

In theory, this is a pretty basic and well-studied question. The American College of Sports Medicine, for example, a generic prescription of 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions at 70 to 85 percent of your one-rep max weight for novices hoping to gain strength and muscle. This is based on a huge pile of research: the ACSM position stand cites 280 references. The problem is that the subjects in these studies are mostly men, and where there are female subjects they鈥檙e simply mixed in with the male subjects, so it鈥檚 impossible to know if there are any systematic differences in response.

The authors of the new review were able to gather the results of 40 different studies including a total of 1,312 women between the ages of 18 and 35. Most of the participants were untrained or sedentary; a quarter of the studies included 鈥減hysically active鈥� participants, and just one had subjects with prior strength training experience. On average, the studies lasted for ten weeks, typically with two to three workouts per week. The median number of total sets per week was 72, with a typical weight of 80 percent of one-rep max.

The main outcome was that鈥攚ait for it鈥攕trength training worked. The improvements in both strength and muscle size (measured with a variety of techniques, including MRI, CT scans, ultrasound, and so on) were statistically significant. In order to compare between studies, the results were expressed as 鈥渟tandardized mean differences.鈥� An SMD of 1 means that the average increase in the outcome measure was equal to the standard deviation of values seen in the entire experimental group. Overall, muscle mass increased by 1.2 SMD, which means that the vast majority of subjects saw at least some increase. Strength, on the other hand, only increased by 0.4 SMD, meaning that roughly a third of subjects saw no improvement.

From a practical point of view, studies with more workouts per week produced bigger increases in muscle mass, and studies with a higher total number of weekly sets produced bigger increases in strength. Given that median number of 72 sets per week in the meta-analysis, it鈥檚 perhaps mildly surprising that the highest volumes seemed to produce the best results鈥攁fter all, 72 sets is already a lot! It works out to three sets each of eight different exercises, three times a week, significantly higher than the minimum thresholds for effective strength training. The authors note that prior research has hinted that women have higher fatigue tolerance (that is, their performance at a given relative intensity drops off more slowly) and faster recovery capacity than men. Perhaps that鈥檚 why women might benefit from higher volumes of training than men.

Or perhaps not. What鈥檚 missing, aside from simply having more data, are direct comparisons of men and women doing the same exercise routines under the same conditions. Only with apples-to-apples comparisons will we be able to determine whether men and women benefit from different strength training approaches. Even the vastly larger literature on men leaves open endless debates about very basic questions like, say, how many sets you should do of each exercise. For now, the new meta-analysis reaffirms that the generic strength training guidance offered up in documents like the ACSM position stand does work for women. Whether there are some subtle tweaks and adjustments that might work even better remains to be seen.

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At first, I was a little disappointed with a new review of guidelines for resuming training after giving birth, . The authors had screened 5,851 relevant studies, reviewed the full text of 602 of them, and extracted guidelines from 33 of them. Pooling all this information had produced the following definitive conclusion: 鈥淔ew guidelines in the scientific literature on RTA (return to activity) and RTS (return to sport) postpartum exist, and most are vague and inconsistent.鈥�

I鈥檇 been hoping for some simple numbers: a timeframe, or at least a roadmap with some key benchmarks. That鈥檚 the kind of guidance that could be really useful for women who have recently given birth or are planning to, I figured. But upon further reflection鈥攁nd after exchanging emails with the review鈥檚 lead author, Jenna Schulz of Western University in Canada鈥擨鈥檝e reconsidered. Returning to sport after becoming a mother can be a complex and highly individual process, with potential traps that can snare even the most knowledgeable and well-supported athletes. We don鈥檛 need simple numbers; we need a better understanding of that complexity.

For starters, it鈥檚 worth acknowledging that there are a few numbers in Schulz鈥檚 review. A common theme in the various postpartum exercise guidelines she surveyed is that women can aim to do about 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise (i.e. hit the standard exercise guidelines for adults) around six weeks after giving birth. But this timeframe doesn鈥檛 come from high-quality randomized trials. 鈥淚 think some of it is opinion, but a lot of it is likely based on general tissue healing time,鈥� Schulz says. If you break a bone or roll an ankle, the doctor will put you on the shelf for six to eight weeks; the guidelines seem to assume that recovering from childbirth will follow a similar trajectory.

But the experience of childbirth can vary dramatically between people, so even if that number turns out to be correct on average, it鈥檚 not necessarily a useful guide for individuals. In a 2018 国产吃瓜黑料 article, Megan Michelson recounted some of the varying experiences of elite athletes. Marathoner Paula Radcliffe started running 12 days after giving birth, and won the New York Marathon nine months later. Climber Beth Rodden, on the other hand, couldn鈥檛 tackle challenging routes for more than a year. 鈥淚 was under the assumption that since I was an elite professional athlete, I would get back to normal quickly after birth,鈥� Rodden said. 鈥淔or me, the first few weeks after birth, I couldn鈥檛 walk around without extreme pain and pressure and feeling like my insides were going to fall out.鈥�

Similarly, a study published last year (which I wrote about here) surveyed 42 elite distance runners about their experiences during and after pregnancy. On average, the women started cross training three weeks after giving birth, resumed running after six weeks, and had returned to 80 percent of pre-pregnancy training levels after 14 weeks. But if you look beyond the averages, there was enormous individual variability: the 80-percent threshold was 14 weeks with a standard deviation of 11 weeks.

That鈥檚 why Schulz cautioned me not to get too hung up on numbers: 鈥淢y personal belief is instead on focusing on timelines, it should be focused on ability, i.e. do they have adequate strength, are they ready mentally, do they have the right social support, are they exhibiting any symptoms, are they eating enough, sleeping enough, etc.鈥�

Meeting those thresholds isn鈥檛 always straightforward. Molly Huddle had a relatively successful run in New York earlier this month, in her a year and a half earlier, placing ninth in 2:32:02. But her path to the race wasn鈥檛 smooth. In March, she suffered a femoral stress fracture鈥攁n injury that kept her from running until July, and that she suspects might have been linked to the added demands of breastfeeding.

In a direct sense, breastfeeding takes extra calories that could tip you toward relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), which is associated with compromised bone health. But there鈥檚 also a more subtle link. highlights the 鈥渂iopsychosocial overlap鈥� of lactation and REDs: it can be hard to tell them apart. Both conditions can be associated with weight change, sleep disturbances, decreased libido, altered menstrual cycle, and other changes. As an elite endurance athlete, Huddle is hyper-attuned to the risks of REDs, but in she speculated that she might have missed the warning signs because she was still breastfeeding.

It鈥檚 also worth emphasizing that it鈥檚 not just about physiology and physical healing. new studies in the British Journal of Sports Medicine address some of the broader challenges of postpartum training: confronting stereotypes, working with coaching and trainers who don鈥檛 have experience with new mothers, dealing with postpartum depression, and鈥攑erhaps most crucially鈥攆inding time, energy, and childcare. It doesn鈥檛 really matter whether your ligaments are ready if you don鈥檛 have someone to take care of the baby while you train.

In other words, yes, we need more research on female athletes in general, and on new mothers in particular. But there are plenty of things we can do right now to help smooth the return to training after childbirth. For new mothers, that means recognizing that every return from pregnancy is different and there鈥檚 no default timeline. For the rest of us, a good start would be to see all the postpartum athletes around us, recognize the challenges they鈥檙e encountering, and celebrate their achievements.

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I sat anxiously in my pickup truck on Pacific Coast Highway, waiting to go nighttime lobster diving with a guy I just met.

At 8:30 P.M., Liam arrived in his eighties Jeep Wrangler. It was dark, but passing headlights allowed me to spot his wavy hair and goddamn fraternity sweatshirt.听He skirted past me as I opened my car door, busying himself by inspecting the gear in my truck bed鈥攐ccasionally speaking, half to me, half to the sky. He told me to sit tight while we waited for the others.听Others?

Then a gargantuan Ford Raptor with a blinding overhead light bar pulled up. A small dude in a camo hoodie and a trucker hat hopped out. His passenger door burst open and out popped an overly excited teenager whose hair resembled charred tumbleweed. Classic. The Aquatic Country Boy and his sidekick strolled over to Liam and exchanged Neolithic handshakes. The boys cordially shook my hand, asking if I had done this before. I nodded, 鈥淎 bit,鈥� and adjusted my weight belt, securing the knife in its sheath.

I spent most of my childhood playing in saltwater.

I was raised in San Diego, but this was abnormal for my family. I have no memories of my mother allowing the waves to reach past her ankles, and my father never learned to swim.听I would pad along into the water and plunge headfirst into the sea. My mother would pace along the shoreline yelling, 鈥溌en cuidado!鈥� She always wondered why I turned toward the ocean and not her.

The first time I caught a wave, I was 12 years old in a red and blue rash guard and pigtail braids. Some dusty blonde old-timer, a friend of a friend of my father鈥檚, sat on a longboard behind me and pushed me into a mashed potato wave. I was waltzing on water. Hell, Jesus Christ himself had nothing on me. I dove off the board and let the white water wrap my tumbling torso.

I learned to seek out rip currents. They saved me energy鈥攕ucking me out quickly, protecting my endurance. Jumping into a rip on a surfboard, I could make it past the set waves without getting my hair wet.

I remember sneaking out of my house in high school to go night surfing during El Ni帽o conditions. I took four friends, all of us piling into my mother鈥檚 old Chevy Tahoe. We rolled out of the driveway with the headlights off. The impatient Santa Ana wind tugged at our glow stick necklaces and tickled our cheeks. The full moon even came out to play that night, allowing us brief previews of the dark walls of water approaching before the waves would break. Every time someone got caught in the rinse cycle, the glow stick luminescence gave color to the white water. We were the only ones out, giggling and ducking below the surface when the border patrol would drive by on the sand. It was near midnight鈥攁 perfect time to catch people swimming to America. We saluted their tail lights with paint-chipped middle fingers. But to be fair, my grandfather did stagger out of the surf on a beach three miles south of where we were. Forty years earlier. I guess he wasn鈥檛 the only one.

The more time I spent in the ocean, the more I craved it. My parents feared the physical dangers, like lethal currents and sharks. I never did.

The demons in my head were heckling locals and ostracizing beach boys.听 Maybe I would have been less bothered if I saw other people in the water who looked like me鈥攇irls with brown skin and dark hair, their mothers yelling at them in Spanish from the shore. My imposter syndrome grew as the years went on. In the faces of every male surfer, I saw remnants of cupcake-blonde 13-year-old boys in matching rash guards, trash talking foam board users and flaunting their fiberglass shortboards. They were kids who learned about the ocean from their parents. I should鈥檝e known they were often full of shit, but as a shy tween, I let them take my waves. Maybe if I didn鈥檛 piss off the local groms, they would let me into their little club.

Once, while in line for the bathroom at a party, I overheard a cluster of half-baked surfer bros berating someone’s Instagram photos. Their frosted tips touched as they crowded around one phone screen.

鈥淎ll her photos are in a fucking thong bikini.鈥�

鈥淪he doesn鈥檛 even surf!鈥�

Their words raked over her body like they owned her.听I peered through one of their elbow crevices to see what they were laughing at. She was my friend.

Like a lobster, I adapted to survive. Lobsters evolved to swim backwards, compressing their tails to propel themselves away from predators; I learned to live in a state of constant apathy, unbothered and unoffended. Lobsters pee out of their faces to attract a mate; I found safety in emotional inaccessibility. I said the names of beach towns鈥擲an Diego, San Clemente鈥攍ike a gringa so I could be understood. I feigned oh yeahs when the white boys showed me their tanned vacation photos and asked me whether they looked Mexican. I knew I wasn鈥檛 ever going to look like the Southern California stereotype, but I could play the part.

Lobster diving found me in Mexico. I was 19, sitting at a restaurant in Tijuana with my family. Where I come from, we cross the border for restaurants and the vet鈥檚 office. V谩monos a Ensenada means brunch on a Sunday.

Two men emerged from the sea hauling foot-long reddish-orange lobsters鈥攂ugs, as they’d probably call them鈥攊n nets strapped to their waists. I couldn鈥檛 stop staring at them, seeds of curiosity already taking root. I let YouTube teach me about a world where you enter the sea hungry and exit with dinner. I studied the way that divers cleaned their gear and prepared for oxygen deprivation. I saw the lobster as a tangible validation of my authenticity, my ocean-badass certification.

My first few attempts at freediving were a kookshow. I had a mask and bodysurfing fins. I dragged a friend along with me, but the best I could offer her were swim goggles. I told her to bob around at the surface. I would poke around the limpets and near the tiny anemone communities in the deep intertidal zone, not yet venturing into the kelp kingdoms.

Over the months that followed, I swam deeper into the bull kelp, testing the upper limits on breath holds and finding animals I had only ever seen in documentaries. Sheep crabs. White seabass. Hermaphroditic sheepshead. I鈥檇 try to join schools of anchovies, but they would just scatter and regroup ahead of me. I loved laying in the eel grass looking up at the surface, little crabs trying to pinch my ass beneath me. When I couldn鈥檛 be in the water, I鈥檇 watched Kimi Werner on YouTube take hundred-foot drops and artfully transform into an underwater predator. Unable to afford any proper training, trial and error became my method.

I had been diving for nearly a year when I had my first real scare, during a dive in college.

I spotted a lobster trap with monstrous bugs and I dropped down to get a look. On my way back up, a tug halted my ascent attempt. Oh, I thought, looking down. The small gauge, used to determine a lobster鈥檚 legal size, had been dangling from my belt and got caught in the metal squares of the cage below me, the curves of my tool hooked perfectly inside the trap.

The chest convulsions began. That didn鈥檛 mean I was out of air yet, but a panic welled inside me. I was 20 feet down. The current began pushing blades of kelp into my face. I tried to surface again, hoping that with an upward push, the gauge would slip out as confidently as it had slipped in. I was met with a jolt.

My trembling fingers lacked dexterity as they battled the kelp, my knees banging against the black bars of the trap. Relax. Turn it sideways, you idiot. Freeing my gauge, I shot to the surface, panting frantically. That was close.听I looked around. My friends splashed happily in the intertidal zone.听They would鈥檝e had no idea.

Suited up around Aquatic Country Boy鈥檚 vehicle, we planned the dive. I eyed Liam carefully, painfully aware that I knew nothing about this guy, other than that he was a strong surfer and we had a mutual friend, whose car we鈥檇 met in briefly only days before.

Sidekick spoke up, 鈥淗ow do we know if it鈥檚 legal size?鈥� He must be new.

I held up my silver lobster gauge, 鈥淵ou measure the carapace exoskeleton that covers the cephalothorax, which means the head鈥攆rom the horns to where the tail starts.鈥� All three boys looked at me. Liam smiled. 鈥淐ephalothorax. We must measure the cephalothorax,鈥� he mocked in a high-pitched, nasally voice. I cracked a smile.

In a five-millimeter suit, I strap 10 pounds to my waist, which will allow me to stay near the seafloor without much exertion. More effort means less oxygen. I minimize movements by bending at the waist and avoiding fin thrashing on the dive down. Lobster gloves are lined with Kevlar that protects your hands from the piercing underside of the Pacific spiny lobster tail, which contracts when they try to swim away.

We stood at the water鈥檚 edge waiting for the one half-ass wave to pass. Liam turned on his flashlight. I did the same, pretending I鈥檇 done this countless times before. I hadn鈥檛 told him I鈥檇 never gone diving at night. He shoved his neoprene feet into his fins and held my gaze as he backed into the surf. Intrigued by his sense of adventure, I followed him into the dark water.

I spotted lobster after lobster, pinning them to beds of eelgrass or the seafloor. Most were juveniles, too young to keep. Following the light emanating from my right hand, I scanned one rocky algae structure, looking for the reddish twitch of an antenna or an arthropodic shuffle, telltale signs of a lobster on the move. I spotted a sneaky antenna disguising itself amongst the grass. Going in half-blind, I shoved my palm down into a crevice, hoping I wouldn鈥檛 pull out a moray eel. Feeling the familiar ridges of the carapace, I smiled and pulled up a twitching lobster. I turned it over. A big male. Lobsters gripped my wetsuit through the bag hanging from my belt as we swam, passing dens of drowsy orange garibaldi.

We stumbled out onto the shore, drunk on saltwater and high off hunting adrenaline. The wetsuits kept our bodies lukewarm, and the weight belts fought every step we took. Liam and I dragged our feet, letting Aquatic Cowboy and Sidekick get far ahead. He spoke softly, making me giggle while being careful not to wake the empty stilted beach homes above us.

Liam and I let our friendship bud into something more, then set it on fire. We played amongst the algal fortresses and collected bugs and made lobster mac and cheese.

My first octopus friend was a yellow and blue beauty. She took her time crawling up my arm as I shouted for Liam to come see her. She and I watched each other as she tinkered with my snorkel, her body splayed out across my chest. She never inked. On many occasions, Liam would get his hands on a horn shark. He would splash around, wrestling it delicately. I would pull my mask down and tread next to him shaking my head. He would later show me teeth marks on his bare limbs as we lay in bed, and no matter how many times I scolded him for getting what he deserved, Liam would shoot back a lopsided grin and laugh, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the point.鈥�

By the time Liam came around, I was well-versed in how to interact with aquatic boys. I could easily interpret the various meanings of chaaaa and duuuude depending on the tone of utterance. But years of adapting to emotionally unavailable ocean-boy culture left me emotionally stunted. I was the chill girl who always carried extra dive gear and knew where to find the leopard sharks, but I couldn鈥檛 be honest with myself鈥攐r the boy I loved.

Many full moons after that first night dive and three months after our college graduation, he asked me what I wanted. He鈥檇 been distant all night. I wanted to appear unaffected by his indifference, ashamed by how emotionally attached I鈥檇 become. I was suffocatingly concerned with maintaining the facade of a chill girl, worried that the strength of my feelings would make me an inconvenience. I felt like I was being rejected by ocean culture all over again. The imposter syndrome had washed up on the shore at my feet. In a panic, I blurted out friendship.

In my new landlocked home, I practice my I love you鈥檚 on firs and larches. Sometimes I cry.

Alone atop a mountain and pretending hard enough, I can just make out the sea. Bug season began a few weeks ago.

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Working as the minority female amongst a varsity team of alpine jocks can be difficult. Some days, you will feel ignored or unheard and question whether you should wear a low-cut v-neck or your baggiest pair of Carhartt鈥檚 to balance out the lack of acknowledgment. On other days, you鈥檒l feel like you鈥檙e part of the band of brothers.

Yes, I know: Most shop boys aren鈥檛 judgmental bros. They want to play around with shiny objects and expensive toys and never give into the structure of a 9-to-5 salaried job. Relatable! It鈥檚 not their fault their ideas are being constantly reinforced by their male counterparts who have little to argue about other than the placement of the new retail racks or which idiot bought 500 units of Edgie Wedgies. Every once in a while, you get to listen to an emotionally charged debate over which technician is better at their job. (At this point, you should pat them on the head and give them a lollipop.)

However, being the token female, or even one of three women in the ski showroom, you must quickly find your niche and establish your dominance amidst a sea of salty bros that have a hard time hearing a woman鈥檚 voice over their daily monologue of sales goals, humble brags, and poop jokes. To establish your own Shop Cred, you鈥檒l need to back up 鈥渢hat pretty face鈥� with equal parts intelligence, kindness, and a thick skin coated with sassy comebacks to protect perceived weaknesses that may be exposed to the elements.

As with most male species, they have a limited comfort level with gray area topics and opinion-based conversations. Here are some tips to get you started.

Comments You Should Steer Clear Of:

Your feelings and emotions.

鈥淒o you think he鈥檚 hot?鈥�

鈥淲ould these bibs look cute on me?鈥�

鈥淚 mean yeah, the topsheet graphic sort of matters.鈥�

鈥淚 do not enjoy Coors Light.鈥�

Safe Topics:

Farts

The weather

What to order for lunch

Freeride World Tour

Motorsports

The Token Female will likely run into a few mansplaining situations while at the ski shop. The term mansplaining was derived from the male species鈥� frequent assumption that a woman does not understand something a male might understand. Often prompted by a simple question, the male engages in an unintentional yet compulsive desire to deliver an answer in a highly in-depth manner that is best suited for educating a 5th grader. Reactions from women trapped in a mansplain range from interest to annoyance to hot, silent fury.

鈥淪o, as the ski slides over snow you will begin to engage your knees and bend them enough to rotate the ski onto its edge, at which point the skis will carve in the direction you have bent your knees-鈥�

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 ask how to ski鈥� I asked how the ski 鈥榮kis鈥欌�︹��

鈥淥h鈥� Like how it feels? Suuuuuuper surfy. You鈥檙e gonna love it.鈥�

(Pat on the head, then lollipop, remember?)

A small but notable percentage of the 50-80 age group may converse with you exclusively to find an experienced male employee who can answer the same questions. But of course, a young girl such as oneself could not understand the complexities of a ski鈥檚 shape, structure, and composition! They will look straight through you as they meander towards the ski wall, floating on a cute little cloud of ignorance. I鈥檒l chalk this one up to generational differences.

On the opposite end of the customer inquiry spectrum is the elder who hasn鈥檛 skied in 25 years and is ready to pick the sport back up. This customer missed the time their beloved 210cm parabolic skis transformed into what used to be called waterskis. Their first steps back into a shop must be a shocking and confusing time, as you can imagine.

This customer presents the Token Female with a pivotal moment in her retail career. She must utilize the fundamental tactics of mansplaining to patiently describe new-age ideologies and technologies that said elder seemed to miss during the past two decades. Unlike the male, the female will offer a soft blow of information balanced with a gentile discussion of the changing times as she lends an ear to a 20-minute commemorative reflection of an intrepid adventure in the San Juans on their beloved set of Elan skis.

The action sports world may dominated by men, but that doesn鈥檛 mean our place in that world should be defined by gender. You will experience eye-rolling conversations no matter what field you work in. The key is to take the good, bad, and the ugly in with charisma, confidence, and pride. Ski fast, take chances, and the rest will follow! Just make sure to keep a few lollipops in the back pocket.

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I鈥檝e been wearing running shoes for 30-plus years, and still, when I lace up a new pair that fits me just right, it makes me want to take them for a spin right then and there鈥攂ut finding perfectly fitting running shoes can be a challenge, even for someone like me who has access to innumerable pairs as a running shoe reviewer.

Because I test shoes, people always ask me, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the best running shoe?鈥� And while my male counterpart, Cory Smith, and I vet, test, and write up all the best shoes on the market each season for the 国产吃瓜黑料 Gear Guides and other roundups throughout the year, I always respond with some version of: 鈥淭here are a lot of great ones out there, but what鈥檚 most important is that those great shoes fit your specific feet.鈥�

Much of the running experience depends on comfort, and so much about comfort depends on how well a running shoe fits the individual person鈥檚 foot. Yes, other factors differentiate running shoes from each other鈥攎idsole compounds, traction, upper materials, lacing systems鈥攁nd all of them matter in creating a comfortable and effective ride for individual runners and their technique and preferences. But none of it matters if the shoe rubs, bites, or binds your feet uncomfortably. Fit should never be overlooked, and it is linked to the shape of your foot, which is tied to your gender.

So how big a role does gender play in finding your ideal running shoe? Most brands offer men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 sizes and colorways in each of their shoe models, with both size ranges based on the same last, or, the shape/mold around which the interior of the shoe is built. Some shoes come in men鈥檚 sizes only (usually shoes from smaller brands and 鈥渘iche鈥� models, like weatherized mountain running shoes). Women buy those shoes, but the fit isn鈥檛 always right. Many of them have a higher-cut heel cup than women鈥檚 models, which can put pressure on a woman’s Achilles. And most often, a men鈥檚 shoe fits wider than a women鈥檚.

A handful of brands (Altra, Asics, Hoka, New Balance, Saucony) offer some of their shoe models in widths for both men and women, which offer a broader range of choices. But a select few brands (Altra, Adidas, Hoka, Under Armour) offer all or some of their models in truly gender-specific fits鈥攕hoes molded off of gender-specific feet to create gender-specific lasts. And a few brands have come to market with models meant just for women: Lululemon鈥檚 Blissfeel and Blissfeel Trail, 贬颈濒尘补鈥檚 road-to-trail shoe, UnderArmour鈥檚 Flow Synchronicity road shoe, and Puma鈥檚 road shoe are some examples.

Check out our picks for the best road-running shoes of 2023.听

Brian Beckstead, co-founder of shoe company Altra鈥攁 brand that鈥檚 offered men鈥檚 and women鈥檚-specific fits in all of their models since the brand launched in 2011鈥攅xplains how the differences between men鈥檚 and women鈥檚-specific lasts are found around three main places in the foot. One: Women鈥檚 lasts are generally narrower in the heel than men鈥檚 or gender-neutral lasts, because women tend to have narrower heels. Two: Women鈥檚 lasts generally have more support around the midfoot, or arch, because ladies generally have higher arches than men. And three: Because men and women tend to have different 鈥淨-angles鈥濃�攖he angle drawn between the hip, the patella, and the upper shin, which differs genetically for the purpose of child-bearing, the National Library of Medicine鈥攎ost women鈥檚 lasts are built up slightly around the interior of the heel or calcaneus bone, with more room on the lateral side of that bone.

But gendered fits aren鈥檛 always black and white. 鈥淚 know women who like to buy the men’s fit [of Altras] and I know men who like to buy the women’s shoes just because they have a really narrow heel,鈥� says Beckstead. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of having options. It’s just a matter of having more variations for a dialed-in fit.鈥�

Regardless of brand preferences and gender designations, some women have wide feet and flat or fallen arches, and some men have narrow feet and high arches. Not all women have more pronounced Q-angles than men. (Personally, I have narrow feet with fallen arches, and appreciate a little space in the toe box, but a secure midfoot wrap.)

And what if you don鈥檛 identify as either male or female? That鈥檚 a question the running shoe development team at has been asking lately, as they鈥檝e relaunched a handful of their trail running shoe models as 鈥渦nisex,鈥� with what aims to be inclusive color palettes (though the fit is based off a men鈥檚 last).

It鈥檚 a trend we may see continuing throughout the footwear space.

What really matters, regardless of your gender or how you identify, is that you find a running shoe that fits your particular foot. Ill-fitting shoes can create blisters and discomfort, which can make you alter your gait and lead to injury. Great fitting shoes, on the other hand, can excite you to head out for a run and make that experience as enjoyable as possible.

So head to a local running shop with good reviews where you can get to know your feet with some professional help and assess the options available to you. The perfect shoe for you is out there.

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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.

Welcome to Tough Love. We鈥檙e answering your questions about dating, breakups, and everything in between. Our advice giver is Blair Braverman, dogsled racer and author of and . Have a question of your own? Write to us at聽toughlove@outsideinc.com.

I have a friend who is terrified of snakes. He鈥檚 from Australia, where the snakes are much more dangerous than the ones who live around us now. Technically we have rattlesnakes here, but I don鈥檛 even know anyone who鈥檚 seen one, and most of the snakes we have aren鈥檛 venomous. However, my friend is still terrified to the point where if we have a barbecue or hang out in the park, he usually gets startled at least once. We went swimming in a lake and he screamed because something touched his leg. It made a scene and was kind of embarrassing. How do I help him realize that he doesn鈥檛 have to be worried here?

I mean, just googling Australian snakes makes me jumpy鈥擨 can鈥檛 imagine how much more alert I鈥檇 be if I grew up there. Yes, I know, people get used to their environments. But it sounds like your friend developed a completely reasonable and well-earned survival instinct. Getting startled once on an excursion doesn鈥檛 strike me as necessarily excessive, particularly if your friend is open to hanging out outside and isn鈥檛 limiting his plans out of fear. A lot of people wouldn鈥檛 even get in a lake if they were worried about water snakes. Heck, I stay out of a lot of water just because leeches are gross.

Does your friend think he has a problem, or is it just you? Was he embarrassed when he screamed in the lake, or were you embarrassed for him? If you鈥檙e not sure how he feels, you could try posing a question: 鈥淗ey, I know you鈥檙e nervous around snakes. If you could snap your fingers and make the fear go away, would you?鈥� If he seems baffled, or shakes his head, then clearly he feels just fine with his snake anxiety, and the appropriate response is for you to let it go.

If he says something along the lines of, 鈥淵eah, honestly it鈥檚 kind of a phobia for me and I wish I could get over it,鈥� then he鈥檚 making an opening for you to offer help. You could teach him a bit about the very nice, polite, not-gonna-kill-you snakes in your region, or鈥攂etter yet鈥攖ake him to a nature center where he could encounter some up-close in a totally secure environment. (Nature centers love teaching people about their local species. That鈥檚 a big part of what they鈥檙e for!) Education probably won鈥檛 make his fear go away completely, but it鈥檒l give him the tools to talk himself down when he鈥檚 startled. He might even start to recognize certain non-venomous species when he鈥檚 out and about.

Regardless of whether or not he wants your help, I think it would serve you to do some thinking about why your friend鈥檚 startle reflex strikes you as embarrassing. Do you think it reflects badly on him? Do you think certain types of people shouldn鈥檛 have phobias (or at least show them publicly)? Is it that you don鈥檛 like making a scene? If so, maybe that鈥檚 a phobia of your own that you could confront. Know that there鈥檚 nothing shameful about being afraid of something, whether or not it鈥檚 rational. That鈥檚 just how our brains work sometimes.

And if you鈥檙e ever desperate for a completely calm activity, plan a ski trip. Snakes don鈥檛 live in the snow.

I鈥檓 hoping you can settle a debate I鈥檝e been having with my girlfriend. She鈥檚 a trail runner and likes to listen to music while she runs. However, she says that she doesn鈥檛 feel safe wearing headphones because it makes her less aware of her surroundings, so she plays music on her phone out loud while she runs. I understand her logic, but it seems extremely rude to play music aloud on shared trails. There are other people trying to enjoy some peace and quiet, and they don鈥檛 want to hear whatever she鈥檚 listening to. She says I just don鈥檛 get it. Which one of us is right?

You both are. It is rude to play music aloud on shared trails. Also, if you鈥檙e male, your girlfriend has to stay far more aware of her surroundings than you do. If she felt comfortable doing so, the most polite solution would be for her to wear a single earbud and keep the other ear open to her surroundings. But, given the circumstances鈥攁nd assuming that she鈥檚 only seeing people every few minutes, rather than being constantly surrounded by fellow hikers and joggers鈥擨 think it would be appropriate for her to play music out loud quietly, so that folks she passes would just hear it for a moment when they鈥檙e directly beside her. It鈥檚 not ideal, but that鈥檚 not her fault; sometimes an imperfect world forces us into imperfect solutions. I鈥檓 sure she鈥檇 much rather live in a world where no one would bother her and she could wear her headphones in peace.

The post My Friend鈥檚 Fear of Snakes Seems Silly to Me. Can I Help Him Get Over It?聽 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In the ongoing quest to ensure that women are well served by sports science, there鈥檚 a subtle tension between two conflicting impulses. One is to emphasize the many ways that women are different from men, and the resulting need for woman-specific training guidance derived from woman-only studies. The other is to emphasize the many ways that women are similar to men, and the resulting need to stop excluding them from existing research initiatives and stop making training advice more complicated than it needs to be.

There鈥檚 merit in both perspectives, so finding the right balance can be tricky. Keep that tension in mind as you consider the results of a new systematic review, by a team led by Lauren Colenso-Semple of McMaster University in Canada, that assesses the effects of menstrual cycle phase on strength and adaptations to strength training. Colenso-Semple and her colleagues don鈥檛 pull their punches: they don鈥檛 think the claim that strength or trainability varies over the menstrual cycle is supported by the evidence, and they don鈥檛 think we should be issuing training advice on that basis.

It’s certainly true that hormone levels vary dramatically in women over the course of a menstrual cycle, in contrast to the relatively stable hormone levels in men. Here鈥檚 a diagram showing the typical pattern of estradiol (a form of estrogen), luteinizing hormone, and progesterone across the cycle:

You can broadly split the cycle into three phases: follicular, starting with the beginning of menstruation and ending with ovulation; ovulatory, which only lasts for about a day; and luteal, which follows ovulation until the next period begins.

In practice, as the diagram above shows, there can be significant hormonal differences even within a phase. For example, estradiol is low early in the follicular phase (EFP) and peaks in the late follicular phase (LFP). Still, studies on cycle-based training have generally stuck with a simple breakdown: train hard during the follicular phase, then back off during the luteal phase.

Why should phase matter? Estrogen (and perhaps progesterone) are thought to play roles analogous to testosterone in men in the regulation of muscle mass. I say 鈥渢hought to鈥� because there鈥檚 a huge gap in research on the topic. If you take the estrogen-producing ovaries out of rodents, they lose muscle mass. And the gradual decline in hormone levels that follows menopause is also thought to contribute to muscle loss. But whether either of these lines of evidence tell us anything about the effects of day-to-day variations in hormone levels is unclear.

The new paper takes a critical look at five previous reviews and meta-analyses (including one from 2020 that I wrote about here, which includes endurance performance as well as strength), all of which aggregated training and performance data from multiple studies. Three of the reviews concluded that cycle phase doesn鈥檛 influence strength performance. The other two, according to Colenso-Semple, drew inappropriate conclusions based on insufficient or inappropriately analyzed data.

In all cases, the general quality of the individual studies was low. One of the biggest and most widespread limitations was in the methods used to verify cycle phase. Simply knowing when you last menstruated is insufficient to determine your current hormone levels, the authors point out. There鈥檚 huge variation in phase length, both among different people and within an individual鈥檚 consecutive cycles. Here鈥檚 an illustration from the paper showing the contrast between expected fluctuations in luteinizing hormone (in black) and what you actually observe in a group of women (various colors):

Even some of the supposedly more rigorous approaches, like watching for changes in basal body temperature to signal ovulation, are unreliable. The best option is to confirm ovulation with a simple urine or blood test.

This sounds like a methodological problem for researchers, but it鈥檚 actually a more fundamental practical problem for exercisers. Even if we eventually establish that certain combinations of hormone levels are more conducive to certain types of training, how do you make use of that information if you鈥檙e not really sure what your current hormone levels are and can鈥檛 predict how they鈥檒l change over the days to come? You could take regular urine tests鈥攂ut you鈥檇 probably want to be sure that there鈥檚 a significant benefit to training according to your cycle before going to all that trouble.

There鈥檚 lots more detail in the journal article (which is ), so I won鈥檛 belabor the point. Suffice to say that, in the opinion of Colenso-Semple and her colleagues, there鈥檚 no convincing evidence that you need to adapt your training based on your menstrual cycle. This eliminates the main excuse used by researchers to exclude women from their studies, so here鈥檚 hoping the scientific establishment takes note.

But figuring out what message women should take from these results is a little trickier, as I noted at the top. It might seem tempting to take a hard line and say, 鈥淲ell, there鈥檚 apparently no evidence that performance varies with the menstrual cycle, therefore we should never mention it again.鈥� But that鈥檚 thoroughly contradicted by the actual experience of female athletes. In of more than 1,000 athletes, nearly half of them reported sometimes missing training due to symptoms related to menstruation or hormonal contraceptive use.

Colenso-Semple and her colleagues thread this needle by concluding that there鈥檚 no basis for systematic training recommendations based on the menstrual cycle, but that strength training programs should be tailored to individuals based on factors that might include the menstrual cycle. In practice, that means tracking your cycle and keeping training records that are detailed enough to tease out any recurring patterns of better or worse performance. But it also means that you don鈥檛 need to go looking for problems: if you can鈥檛 detect an effect, it鈥檚 probably not big enough to worry about. The one takeaway that everyone would agree with, of course, is the same one that concludes all articles about women in sports science: more research is needed.

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