Hit Play Not Pause

Iron is one of the most-requested topics in the Hit Play Not Pause community, and it's one of the most confusing. Sports dietitian Kristen Arnold, who works with pro teams and everyday athletes, returns to explain what iron does and why you can have symptoms from low iron long before you're anemic. She also covers how our needs change after menopause and how new ferritin thresholds from the American Society of Hematology reset the old, far-too-low targets. We get into the full iron panel, hepcidin, heme vs. non-heme foods, every-other-day supplementing, when an IV makes sense, and why altitude...

As an Olympic cyclist and speed skater with scores of medals, Clara Hughes thought she knew how to breathe. Then came menopause, along with a catastrophic knee injury, COVID, and months stuck in stillness. All of it broke open what she'd spent a lifetime outrunning. In this conversation about her new memoir, Learning to Breathe, Clara opens up about her dark journey through the menopause transition, being offered antidepressants instead of hormone therapy, finally getting care from a women's health specialist, and how somatic therapy, psychedelic-assisted therapy, breathwork, and long days on trail helped her face childhood trauma she...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So, this week breast oncologist and lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Amy Comander returns to explain what comes after a diagnosis: why breast cancer isn't one disease, how treatment decisions get made, and why cancer guidelines tell oncologists to talk about exercise. We cover training through treatment (including when to postpone the race), how chemo and aromatase inhibitors can bring on "menopause 2.0," and the non-hormonal options for hot flashes and aching joints. We also get into the harder question of hormone therapy after hormone-sensitive breast cancer, why "estrogen doesn't cause breast cancer" leaves a...

It's been three years since Leka Fineman last joined the show — and in that time she won the CrossFit Games at 56, retired from competition, took up surfing for the first time in her 50s, started menopause hormone therapy (including testosterone), and lost her partner to cancer just seven months ago. Leka pulls back the curtain on the “identity grief” she experienced after working so hard to meet her goals and so hard to take care of her partner that she no longer knew who she was when it was all over. Physically and emotionally drained, Leka looked past her usual...

When people go on GLP-1 medications, part of the treatment plan is to encourage them to exercise. But what about all the already active–even athletic–women who are layering them onto serious training? That’s less clear…and far less researched. Performance nutritionist Heidi Skolnik, author of the new book Your GLP-1 Game Plan, returns to break down how these medications really work, the side effects you may be prepared for (as well as some important ones nobody warns you about), and how to protect your muscles and bones and build a fueling strategy that actually works. We also get...

Today's menopause conversation is dominated by hormone therapy, which leaves many women who can't use it feeling left out and worried about their current and future health and well-being. This week's guests, Drs. Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su and Amy Voedisch — co-authors of Estrogen, Interrupted and hosts of the OvaryActive podcast — are here to bring some evidence-backed hope. Because no HT doesn't mean "sorry, you'll just have to suffer." Together we map out who actually shouldn't use hormone therapy versus outdated "rules" that no longer apply. The doctors break down the new NK3/NK1 "candy neuron" blockers Veozah and Lynkuet, the underrated comb...

Anxiety, rage, depression, 3am wake-ups, fear that freezes you in your tracks — psychiatrist Dr. Allie Sharma joins us this week to explain why perimenopause is a real window of mental health risk. We unpack how shifting and declining estrogen and progesterone levels drive mood, sleep, and anxiety changes (and why anxiety is often the first symptom, even before hot flashes), plus how hormone therapy, medication, testosterone, acupuncture, and CBT can help, often in combination. We close with a guided breathing and full body-scan exercise to help calm the nerves during this often emotionally-fraught time.

Dr. Allie Sharma (So...

Anyone who's played a full 18 holes of golf knows you need to reset, refuel, and refocus before heading into the back nine. Well, midlife works the same way, says this week's guest, OG Peloton instructor Jenn Sherman, who calls this stage of life her "Back Nine Era." Jenn opens up about her perimenopause-to-menopause journey and what it was like navigating it on camera, in front of a Peloton community that's watched her age in real time. We also dig into how her training has shifted — ditching calorie counting, embracing strength training, taking plenty of daily walks, and leaving the BS...

Recent research shows that between 40 and 60% of women either change or quit their sport due to bladder leaks. That’s 100% too many in our book. So this week we sat down with Dr. Lauren Siff, a double board-certified urogynecologist to demystify one of women's health's most under-discussed issues: urinary leakage. We break down the differences between stress and urge incontinence, why athletes and active women are prone to leaking, and how the menopausal transition can worsen the situation through declining estrogen, shifting vaginal pH, and rising UTI risk. Dr. Siff walks us through the full range of solutions, from pe...

People often think of weight loss drugs like GLP-1 and related agonists (e.g., Wegovy and Mounjaro) as “medications”--which they are, but they work because they mimic our own natural gut hormones to lower blood sugar, slow digestion, blunt appetite, and ultimately reduce weight. In that way, they’re weight health hormone replacement therapies much like estrogen and progesterone are sex hormone replacement therapies, says this week’s guest best-selling dietitian Ashley Koff, RD. We dig into weight-health hormones (GLP-1, GIP, PYY, CCK) that regulate appetite and metabolism, why digestion and hydration have to be optimized before nutrition even ent...

Can’t lift heavy loads but still want the benefits of heavy lifting? Blood flow restriction (BFR) training—using cuffs to partially restrict venous blood flow so you can get heavy‑lifting‑like gains with much lighter loads—could be just what you need, says this week’s guest, veteran strength coach Ashley Selman, CSCS. In this episode, we dig into what BFR training is, how it’s done in real‑world workouts, who it’s for, and why it can be a powerful option for midlife athletes who can’t tolerate traditional heavy lifting but still want to build and maintain m...

We’ve all heard jumping can help build our bones. But here’s the catch: the gains don’t come from the jumps; they come from how you land. This week we break down the mechanics of bone-building and how to make your skeleton stronger no matter what your age with bone health researcher Tracey Clissold, PhD. Tracey explains what it really takes to turn bone “on” with impact—and why just walking, running, or weight-bearing exercise is not enough for midlife women who want stronger skeletons. We unpack why bones respond to how you land, not just that you jump; wh...

Trail runner, writer, and BRCA1 gene carrier Sara Aranda grew up watching breast and ovarian cancer devastate the women in her family and ultimately lost her mom while she was in college. This week, she brings us her story–what it was like choosing prophylactic mastectomy and bilateral salpingo‑oophorectomy in her mid‑30s, going from FKT‑strong to surgical menopause overnight, and the collision of relief and grief that follows. Sara shares how she used a massive “lowest to highest” FKT and a prayer run for missing and murdered Indigenous women as both metaphor and preparation, how she’s navigating h...

In this episode, we welcome back exercise scientist Maria Luque, PhD, to talk about her new book New Moves in Menopause: A Fearless Guide to a Stronger, Healthier, Saner Midlife and the mindset shift it asks of midlife women. Maria explains why she moved beyond traditional “fix your body” fitness narratives to focus on helping women feel better in their bodies through movement and create their own personalized “map” for midlife. She shares how becoming a mother to her daughter Charlie forced her to confront her own body image struggles and led to the “Charlie Test,” a practical filter women can us...

Could you have PCOS and not know it? You sure can, says reproductive endocrinologist and menopause specialist Dr. Carla DiGirolamo, who is hopeful that the recent renaming of the condition from “polycystic ovary syndrome” (PCOS) to “polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome” (PMOS) will help raise awareness—and improve care. This episode breaks down what PMOS actually is, why the new name matters, and how this androgen‑driven metabolic condition shows up across the lifespan, from irregular cycles and fertility struggles to increased cardiometabolic risk, especially once you hit the menopause transition. We also cover treatment options including metformin, inositol, and compelling n...

Registered massage therapist and athlete Tara Findlay nearly lost her life to fibroids, was thrown into chemical menopause, developed a “cranky” shoulder that threatened her career, and watched a long-quiet autoimmune condition roar back to life. This week, she shares how hormones, inflammation, and tissue capacity collide in midlife—and how massage, eccentric loading, “movement snacks,” and better recovery can help active women heal, prevent injury, and keep moving through and beyond the menopause transition.

Tara Findlay is a BC Registered Massage Therapist with 26 years of experience, a menopause educator, and a certified menopause coach. After navigating chemical m...

Muscle and bone loss. Inflammation. Bloating, diarrhea, and other GI issues. Peri and postmenopausal active women can face myriad training and performance challenges. But the good news is that a lot of them can be helped with proper nutrition practices. This week we dive into the basics on how to fuel your active midlife body, including what to know about carbohydrates, ultraprocessed foods, energy availability, protein, anti-inflammatory foods, supplements, and more with sports dietitian Kristen Arnold.

Kristen Arnold MS, RDN, CSSD is a board-certified sports dietitian, cycling coach, retired professional athlete, and team sport director for USA...

This week’s guest, renowned midlife trainer Hailey Babcock, wants you to know one thing: No one is crushing it 100%. Not the celebrities or big names she trains; not the tens of thousands of women she works with, and certainly not herself. Hailey is currently going through it with brain fog, joint pain, 2 a.m. wake ups, migraines, MIA libido, raw emotions, and low motivation and mojo. That’s before you layer on the stress of running a business and parenting three kids. We dig into how she’s navigating her onslaught of symptoms while she keeps showing up for he...

When you’re in pain, the first question someone asks is “Where does it hurt?” The answer—as anyone with phantom limb pain can tell you—is not always as straightforward as it seems. This week, pain psychologist and author Dr. Rachel Zoffness breaks down the “big fat lie” we’ve been sold about pain: it’s not just a signal from damaged tissue, it’s a brain-driven experience built from a mix of ingredients, including your nerves, thoughts, emotions, memories, and environment. She explains how the same brain regions that process emotions also construct pain, why that matters so much for women—wh...

Most of us have had that moment where we get our bloodwork back and shake our heads. We’re still our active, health‑minded selves and out of nowhere—rising LDL, ApoB, A1C, and maybe blood pressure and Lp(a), too. This week, preventive cardiology dietitian Michelle Routhenstein joins us to unpack the cardiometabolic chaos and what’s really driving it. She explains estrogen’s protective role in lipids and blood pressure, why standard risk calculators and even calcium scores can miss women’s disease, and which advanced labs are worth asking for. We also dig into how under‑fuelin...

In this bonus episode, Selene welcomes longtime friend, cyclist, and women’s sports powerhouse Kate Veronneau to the show for a preview of the first-ever FeistyFest in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

For Kate, the location is personal. The Valley Preferred Cycling Center is where she first fell in love with bike racing, found her cycling community, and eventually launched a career in the sport. She shares how a casual Friday night trip to watch track racing turned into an entry-level “try the track” class, a relocation to the Lehigh Valley, and years immersed in one of the most m...

There’s a lot of advice out there on how to fix, cure, hack, medicate, and manage menopause. Often, what we really need is nourishment, says this week’s guest Andrea Donsky, RHN, author of Nourishing Menopause: Powerful Nutrition and Lifestyle Strategies to Feel Your Best. Andrea’s 14‑year journey through perimenopause led her to blend naturopathic and conventional medicine into a complementary approach that focuses on gut health, nervous system regulation, blood sugar management, and other strategies that give your body, mind, and spirit what they need to thrive through and beyond the menopause transition. We dig into all of i...

This week we sat down with menopause and mental fitness coach Sara Larson to cut through the noise around midlife, from quick‑fix promises and supplement stacks to rigid “shoulds” about how we’re supposed to look, feel, and age, and offer better solutions for navigating this challenging transition. Drawing on her own brutal perimenopause—crushing joint pain, brain fog so bad she joined an Alzheimer’s study, suffocating anxiety and depression—Sara shares how she went from feeling like everything was coming apart to becoming a menopause navigator, helping women walk into the doctor’s office “ready,” advocate for themselves, and...

What happens when a world class athlete and mindset coach meets the menopause transition? We find out this week with champion mountain bike racer and mental performance coach Sonya Looney, who dug deep into her positive psychology toolkit to navigate her compressed midlife journey through pregnancy, postpartum, motherhood, miscarriage, perimenopause, and the performance/identity challenges they bring. She shares hormone therapy insights, nutrition shifts, powerlifting gains, training for who you are now, acceptance without resignation, and much more.

Sonya Looney is a World Champion (24-hour racing) mountain biker and 4x National Champion, a positive psychology researcher, and...

Active women are often blindsided by an osteopenia or osteoporosis diagnosis. This week, we explain why—and, more importantly, what to do about it—with Professor Belinda Beck, PhD, investigator on the groundbreaking LIFTMOR trial, which found that high-intensity resistance and impact training was both effective and safe for postmenopausal women with low bone density. This episode is a deep dive into how bone remodeling works and why mechanical loading—especially the right combination of impact exercise and progressive heavy strength training—is essential for building and maintaining bone strength. We also cover peak bone mass, estrogen, menopause, and the foun...

We have questions–lots and lots of questions–on hormone therapy during the menopause transition, and this week Dr. Heather Hirsch — menopause specialist and author of The Perimenopause Survival Guide — brings her signature blend of clinical wisdom and data-informed, personalized care to help answer them. Perimenopause is the most complex phase of the menopause transition, and this conversation goes deep on the pros and cons of hormone testing, the nuances of hormone therapy dosing, progesterone intolerance, breakthrough bleeding, receptor sensitivity, why it may never be too late to start hormone therapy, and much more.

Dr. Heather Hirsch, MD, MS...

Elite cyclist, multisport athlete, and endurance coach Jenny Smith has spent decades pushing her limits — including multiple Leadville 100 podiums — but perimenopause and a meniscus tear brought unexpected mental and physical health challenges…and solutions. Ultimately, she found help through traditional medical interventions, picked up weights and got stronger than she’s been in years, and discovered Angelic Reiki, which gave her peace, calm, and a deeper connection to herself. This week we unpack her perimenopause journey, the symptoms she didn't see coming, the relief strategies that actually worked, and why aging doesn't have to mean stepping back from the sports a...

In running, we celebrate grit, determination, pushing through pain, and crossing the finish line—whatever it takes. It shines on Instagram, but what does it really cost women in midlife and menopause who may be bogged down by endless injuries? How do we process it and find what's right for us? Sports like running are more than something we do. They become who we are, who our friends are, what our lives revolve around. When we can't do them anymore, there's enormous loss—and all the stages of grief. Longtime runner, Another Mother Runner co-founder, and author of The 27th M...

If you're an active woman in perimenopause or menopause and it feels like your body is suddenly falling apart — new injuries, recurring pain, workouts that just aren't working the way they used to — this episode is for you. This week we sat down with Casey Francis, DPT, a performance physical therapist who works with midlife women to understand why they’re getting hurt, and importantly, what to do about it, including movement assessment, prehab, rehab, lifestyle and nutrition practices, and much more. Plus, we have a special guest appearance from our very own resident menopause specialist Dr. Carla DiGirolamo — who not...

Feisty Media is proud to welcome Another Mother Runner to the Feisty Media family. Enjoy this bonus crossover AMR episode starring, Selene Yeager!

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Calling all 40+ women: This is a must-listen episode! The guest is Selene Yeager, host of the popular menopause-focused podcast called Hit Play Not Pause. Selene is the longtime health and science journalist who co-authored ROAR and Next Level with Dr. Stacy Sims. Along with hosts Sarah Bowen Shea and Tish Hamilton, Selene discusses:

As athletic women, we often pride ourselves on grit—shoving down feelings, pushing through pain and measuring every metric in pursuit of optimization. But what does that cost us long-term? And how does it hold up in the chaos of midlife and menopause? This week, former Ironman champion and lifestyle medicine practitioner Dr. Tamsin Lewis joins us to explore the evolution from "harden the F up" culture toward bioharmony—a compassionate, context-driven alternative to the more rigid biohacking that’s popular today. Drawing from her high-performance athletic career and hard-won personal experience, she unpacks what she’s learned about female b...

If you've ever leaked when you laughed, jumped, or sneezed–or felt like your core disappeared after pregnancy, injury, or into perimenopause–you're not alone. This week, fitness specialist Leah Keller joins us to unpack deep core dysfunction: what causes it, and why healing it changes far more than just your abs. Leah's breakthrough came when she realized she could help women actually heal the separation between their abdominal muscles–known as diastasis recti–even years after giving birth. Clients who came for core work started reporting that they'd stopped leaking, that sex felt better, that back pain eased, and that...

Women in their 50s, 60s, and beyond are crushing courses around the world. At a time when we’ve been preconditioned to believe we’ll slow down, many women are holding strong—or even improving. This week’s guest Anna Troup, 56, who has clocked many of her greatest ultrarunning feats since turning 50, is a perfect example. Last year she took first overall (including the men) at the 268-mile (430K) Montane Summer Spine race—Britain’s toughest ultra marathon—in 84 hours, 56 minutes, and 37 seconds. This after a 2022 injury that left doctors questioning if she’d ever run again. This week, we talk about he...

Now that menopause is finally getting the research and medical attention it deserves, we are finally putting perimenopause in the spotlight as a pivotal period in a woman’s life that demands its own care and attention. This week, midlife gynecologist Dr. Alyssa Dweck returns to break down perimenopause care, the state of hormone therapy, and much more. We dig into how perimenopause is so variable, how to think about the pill, IUDs, hormone therapy, and the new non-hormonal drugs, plus what hot flashes may be revealing about your heart health. We wrap with a look at wearables, telehealth, an...

This week’s guest would like to apologize. Like many of us before perimenopause hit, Shawna Norton admits she used to quietly doubt—even judge—women who said their bodies changed overnight despite doing nothing differently. Then it happened to her. Now she gets it. And she’s genuinely sorry. In this wide-ranging, sometimes raucous, and brutally honest conversation, we dig into her own experience with rapid weight gain, joint pain, brain fog, and the unsettling feeling of living in a body that suddenly feels unfamiliar. We talk cortisol, stress resilience, inflammation, blood sugar management, the complexities of HRT, sleep st...

As women, we’re told our bodies are wrong almost from the moment we become aware of them—and that messaging hits hyperdrive when the body composition changes of menopause arrive. Those changes are often framed as urgent health risks, even when the picture is far more nuanced and the steps taken to “fix” them can carry risks of their own. This week we sit down with dietitian and public health nutrition specialist Diana Reid to dig into what actually drives midlife weight gain, what belly fat and BMI do (and don’t) mean for your health, and where GLP-1 medi...

Sports nutrition is confusing. Sports nutrition for endurance athletes is even more confusing. And sports nutrition for midlife female endurance athletes? That’s where a lot of women end up working incredibly hard… and getting nowhere, because they’re trying to outtrain a fueling problem. This week we sat down with sports dietitian and endurance athlete Meghann Featherstun of Featherstone Nutrition to talk about the fueling mistakes that women often struggle with the most: iron status, energy availability, carbohydrate fueling, hydration, and GI distress, along with the emerging complications of GLP-1 medications.

Meghann Featherstun, MS, RD, CSSD Owner...

Up in the middle of the night at 2:37 a.m. like clockwork? Toss and turn, desperately trying to slip into slumber? Eyes pop open at 4 a.m. though you’d really love to sleep in till at least 6? Are you just tired all the time? Welcome to the sleep syndrome of menopause–a common cluster of midlife sleep problems this week’s guest Dr. Andrea Matsumura treats every day. We break down what’s behind women’s sleep woes, including sleep apnea, lifestyle factors, and of course menopause. She also shares her DREAM Method as a practical framework for getting a...

Midlife and menopause can bring real physical and psychological changes that affect libido, arousal, and pleasure—but that doesn’t mean desire or a satisfying sex life are destined to disappear. This week we sat down with registered nurse and Permission for Pleasure author Cindy Scharkey to unpack what actually happens to desire, arousal, pleasure, and our bodies as we move through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. We explore why so many women stop wanting sex in midlife, how hormones, stress, body image, and long-term relationships play a role, and why waiting to be “in the mood” often doesn’t work anymo...

This week we welcome back our resident reproductive endocrinologist and menopause specialist, Dr. Carla DiGirolamo, for another candid conversation. We pull back the curtain on Carla’s own menopause experience—how she navigates her symptoms, what she’s learned, and what she practices herself. We also dig into the hard conversations so many of us are having as we navigate this ever-evolving space, and how years of working closely with active midlife women have shaped her thinking on hormone therapy, GLP-1 medications, testosterone, hormone testing, and what actually moves the needle for athletic women in the transition.

Carla...