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What if the biggest breakthrough in women’s health isn’t a brand-new protocol… but learning how to better apply the fundamentals to the person in front of you?

Kelly and Juliet Starrett sit down with Dr. Abbie Smith-Ryan, professor of exercise physiology and nutrition at UNC Chapel Hill, to explore what the latest research can teach us about training, body composition, creatine, and women’s health across the lifespan. Drawing from more than 15 years in the lab – and her experience as a collegiate runner who suffered 9 stress fractures – Abbie explains how our understanding of female physiology has evolved.

They unpack how women can use body composition data without becoming ruled by the numbers, why creatine may become even more valuable as we age, whether women really need female-specific strength programs, and how to approach HIIT and recovery during perimenopause and menopause.

The takeaway? Human bodies aren’t black and white. And now that we have more tools than ever, the focus should be on finding the ones that work best for you.

• How Abbie’s experience with 9 stress fractures shaped her approach to training, fueling, and women’s health
• Why body composition data can be a valuable tool for tracking muscle, bone, fat, and long-term health
• What the research says about creatine for women, from muscle and hydration to potential cognitive benefits
• Why women don’t necessarily need “women-specific” strength training – and when female physiology should influence how you train
• How to use high-intensity interval training, recovery, and scaling to get results without turning every workout into an all-out effort

(00:00) Intro

(01:43) Meet Dr. Abbie Smith-Ryan

(04:00) Advocating for Women's Health Research

(06:37) Women's Health Research: What's Changed & What's Missing

(11:40) 9 Stress Fractures, Underfueling, & Low Energy Availability

(17:54) Body Composition & Injury Risk

(23:21) DEXA, Bod Pod, & Measuring Body Composition

(30:43) Body Composition for Midlife Women

(35:47) Juliet's Bone Density Loss During Menopause

(37:28) What the Research Says About Creatine for Women

(41:42) Creatine Hesitancy, Myths, & Safety

(45:41) Creatine Loading & the Menstrual Cycle

(48:23) Creatine Dosing: 5g vs 10g & Brain Benefits

(52:32) What's Changed in Athletic Performance

(54:43) Applying Elite Performance Science to Everyday Women

(55:27) Women-Specific Strength Training: Science vs Marketing

(1:00:32) Overcomplicating Exercise

(1:02:16) HIIT, Recovery, & the Menstrual Cycle

(1:04:50) HIIT vs Sprint Interval Training

(1:07:30) The 20-Minute HIIT Protocol: 1 Min On, 1 Min Off

(1:09:48) Abbie's Proof of Practice Podcast

(1:13:49) No Black & White Answers

(1:16:07) Have We Improved Sports Science?

(1:20:23) Infinite Shelf: '90s Rap Music

Huge thanks to our sponsors, BEDGEAR, Momentous, and LMNT.

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Juliet and I are officially empty nesters. Both girls are launched, the bathroom is clean every morning, and we're figuring out what the next phase looks like. It rhymes with dusk bike rides, protein shakes for dinner, and a cereal bar in Marin we somehow didn't know existed until now.

We also revisited one of our longest-running household debates: women's pain tolerance. An Instagram infographic claiming childbirth equals breaking 20 bones made the rounds and reignited everything. We cover what the McGill pain scale actually says, why medical research has failed women on pain, and the full story of my eardrum, which ends with blood in the ER and a pain scale I have never quite recovered from.

From there we got into our book Outplay and the data shaping every youth sports conversation right now. The number everyone cites is that 70% of kids drop out of sport by age 13. A researcher on LinkedIn tried to find the primary source and came up empty. So did researchers at the Aspen Institute. So did everyone else. We unpack what the CDC data actually shows and why citation drift doesn't mean youth sports is fine.

The biggest chunk of this episode is something I wanted to make sure we gave real time to: what two years of running the Starrett System has actually taught us. Most people coming into the program weren't working a coherent physical practice at all. They might have been doing some weight training or riding a Peloton, but nobody was hitting all three legs of the longevity triangle: strength, conditioning, and mobility. Nobody was sprinting. And a lot of people believed that the moment they felt discomfort, they should stop.

Watching that shift has been one of the most rewarding things we've done. Member Lily gained 5.4 pounds of lean mass in eight months. Cole said he's craving training every day for the first time. The fall cohort starts September 8th. Early bird: $200 off at starrettsystem.com.

• Why the "70% of kids drop out of sports by age 13" statistic cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics and major sports governing bodies may have no verifiable primary source, and what the CDC and Aspen Institute data actually shows
• Why the claim that childbirth equals breaking 20 bones is a myth, and what the McGill pain scale says is actually more painful
• Why medical research has historically underserved women on pain, and how self-reporting skews the picture
• What two years of running the Starrett System revealed about what most people were actually missing in their physical practice
• Why having a strength practice, a conditioning practice, and mobility work are three separate things, and why most people were only doing one of them
• What the "longevity triangle" is and why most wellness and longevity conferences have almost no conversation about it
• How teaching people to train around injuries and physical limitations, rather than stop, has been one of the biggest shifts for Starrett System members
• Why the program's nutrition approach centers on abundance and eliminating nothing, and what happens when people who have been chronically underfueling start eating enough

(00:00) Welcome to RECESS / Kelly and Juliet go officially empty nest

(00:31) The bathroom story and Byron Katie's towel wisdom via Gabby Reese

(03:19) Life as empty nesters: bike rides at dusk, protein shakes, cereal for dessert

(04:43) Listener ask: send your best recipes for two

(05:18) Women vs. men pain tolerance: the debate renewed

(06:44) Kelly's eardrum story

(08:57) McGill pain scale and Juliet's finger

(11:11) Outplay: preparing families for youth sports

(13:32) Pay-to-play, private equity, and the Norwegian youth sports model

(16:26) The 70% dropout stat and its missing primary source

(19:12) Starrett System: origin story from the YPO conference

(26:48) Starrett System: member results and the September 8th fall cohort

(30:41) Cereal bar in Marin and the great Raisin Bran debate

(34:07) Wrap and early bird CTA

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Andy Stumpf spent years navigating some of the most extreme environments imaginable as a Navy SEAL, but he says the hardest lessons he learned had nothing to do with combat. In this episode of the Ready State Podcast, Kelly and Juliet Starrett sit down with the retired SEAL Team Six operator, pilot, skydiver, and author of Drownproof to explore the mindset that helps people stay steady when life feels anything but that.

From a chaotic military skydive gone spectacularly wrong to the emotional toll of divorce, Andy shares why the ability to "chunk" overwhelming challenges into the next manageable step has become one of the most valuable skills he's ever developed. Along the way, the conversation dives into self-talk, asking for help, ownership, leadership, flow state, and why resilience isn't about being fearless – but about learning to focus on what you can control when everything else feels out of control.

Whether you're navigating a personal setback, leading a team, raising kids, or simply trying to build a more resilient mindset, this episode offers practical lessons for staying grounded, making better decisions, and keeping your head above water when the inevitable storms of life arrive.

• Why resilience is less about toughness and more about controlling what you can control
• How breaking overwhelming challenges into small, manageable steps can help you navigate almost any crisis
• The surprising role that self-talk plays in performance, confidence, and decision-making under pressure
• Why asking for help is one of the strongest leadership skills, not a sign of weakness
• How finding a healthy "flow state" can improve focus, reduce stress, and build long-term resilience through work, sport, or everyday life

(00:00) Intro & Andy's Background

(05:15) Origin of "Becoming a Supple Leopard"

(11:00) Backstory of "Drownproof" Title

(17:49) Where We Learn Resilience & Life Skills

(20:22) Breaking Tasks Into Small Chunks

(23:12) Andy's Wild HAHO Jump Story

(30:43) Everything Goes Wrong Mid-Air

(37:52) Getting to Safety & Lesson From the Jump

(43:04) How Divorce Was Harder Than SEAL Training

(47:38) The Power of Self-Talk

(49:11) Asking for Help as a Sign of Strength

(54:32) After-Action Reviews, Accountability, & Leadership

(54:34) Why 85% Quit BUD/S

(58:14) The Chunking vs. Overwhelm Theory

(1:00:00) Hell Week & the Psychology of Time

(1:09:57) "It Takes Longer to Do It Wrong"

(1:17:32) Writing Drownproof

(1:20:38) BASE Jumping, Wingsuits, & Risk

(1:23:44) Flow State, Not Adrenaline

(1:31:23) The Sphere of Influence Exercise

(1:33:32) Redirecting Negative Self-Talk

(1:34:47) The Infinite Shelf: Money & Meaning

Huge thanks to our sponsors, LMNT and Momentous.