Pursuit of Wellness: Secrets to Strength Training, Sleep Hacks & Recovery for Women (Part 2/2)

This is part 2 of my guest appearance on Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn. In this episode, we dive into the history of strength training for women, why muscle mass matters, and what "toned" actually means. We also cover supplements for women who lift, the truth about creatine and bloating, HRV, sleep tracking across the menstrual cycle, breathwork, metabolic acidosis, and the physiological connection between exercise and mental health.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:14 The word “toned”
00:00:48 Pilates Princess movement
00:03:16 Muscle Mommies
00:04:33 90s/early 2000s strength training and sports were male dominated
00:09:50 Benefits of having muscle mass for women?
00:11:24 One of the biggest driving factors of social withdrawal
00:14:31 Strength training at 80+
00:15:54 Performance supplementing for women who are weight lifting
00:20:32 Bloating on creatine
00:22:28 Sleep study through menstrual cycle
00:23:27 Sleep study from home
00:26:32 Thoughts on HRV
00:32:08 Measuring HRV
00:33:11 Respiratory rate on Oura ring
00:33:39 High HRV score
00:34:43 High HRV and anxiety
00:43:37 Metabolic acidosis
00:49:01 It’s difficult to eliminate physical threat detection
00:50:39 Physiological response to breathwork
00:53:00 Exercise improving mental health
00:55:03 Absolute Rest sleep device