#378 ‒ Women's health and performance: how training, nutrition, and hormones interact across life stages | Abbie Smith-Ryan, Ph.D.

View the Show Notes Page for This Episode Become a Member to Receive Exclusive Content Sign Up to Receive Peter's Weekly Newsletter Abbie Smith-Ryan is a leading researcher in exercise physiology whose work focuses on how training and nutrition influence body composition, metabolism, cardiovascular health, and women's health across the lifespan, with particular attention on perimenopause and post-menopause. In this episode, Abbie explains how early exercise and play help build the foundation for bone health, muscle development, and cardiorespiratory fitness in girls, as well as how puberty and menstruation shape athletic performance, motivation, and recovery. She also explores how women can tailor training and nutrition across the menstrual cycle through smart fueling, hydration, and inflammation management; examines the evidence behind supplements such as creatine, omega-3s, and magnesium; and unpacks the metabolic and body composition changes that accompany the transition into perimenopause and menopause. Finally, she covers practical exercise programming for busy women, training and nutrition considerations during pregnancy and postpartum, and the evolving role of hormone therapy alongside lifestyle-based, evidence-driven approaches that help women better advocate for their health. We discuss: Abbie's background in distance running and her interest in studying women's health around exercise [3:00]; The role of early-life exercise in building lifelong bone, muscle, and cardiovascular health in girls [4:00]; Training principles for premenstrual girls, the risks of early specialization and delayed puberty from intense training, and how youth sport participation can shape bone and spinal health [7:15]; Nutrition as fuel in young female athletes: supporting training, growth, and performance [11:00]; Training and recovery across the menstrual cycle: recovery, nutrition, supplements, and practical strategies for performance support [16:00]; The benefits of creatine s