The Body Pod

What if your body came with a maintenance manual and you've just been ignoring it? In this episode of The Body Pod, hosts Hailey and Laura sit down with Dr. Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett, the legendary movement and mobility experts behind Built to Move and The Ready State, for a conversation that will completely change how you think about your body in midlife. From hip extension to voodoo flossing, the Starretts break down why most women are unknowingly setting themselves up for injury, chronic pain, and lost function and exactly what to do about it.

The conversation dives deep into the most overlooked mobility issue affecting midlife women (hint: it's not your ankles), why sitting on the floor for 30 minutes a day might be the sneakiest and most effective mobility practice available, and how to audit your current strength and conditioning program to know if it's actually building the bone density and muscle mass you need. Kelly and Juliet also tackle the perfectionist mindset trap that causes so many women to push through pain and overtrain, the truth about "core work" and why you might want to ditch it, and why a quality strength and conditioning practice is a must.

Whether you're brand new to lifting or years into your fitness journey, this episode is your guide to training smarter, moving better, and staying injury-free for decades to come. Learn the key markers of a quality strength program, why hip extension is the single most common mobility deficit in women, how to use voodoo flossing to manage soreness and recover faster, and more. If you're a woman in midlife who wants to sprint on the beach, hike the Grand Canyon, and keep doing the things you love, this episode is essential listening.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

In this episode of The Body Pod, Hailey sits down with Dr. Alyssa Olenick - exercise physiologist, researcher, endurance athlete, and one a trusted voice in women's fitness science. Alyssa holds a PhD in exercise physiology with an emphasis in women's fitness and has dedicated her career to translating complex science into real, actionable guidance for everyday women.
 
Hailey and Alyssa dig into the strength training conversation that midlife women actually need, cutting through the conflicting online noise to talk about what a smart training year really looks like, why training multiple characteristics (strength, power, and cardio) across a year produces far better results than doing the same thing indefinitely, and why power training and plyometrics are the most overlooked piece of the puzzle for women over 40. They also break down the cardio and heart rate zone conversation with refreshing honesty, explaining when zones actually matter, how to build an aerobic base, and why most women are overthinking it entirely.

The episode closes on the topic every midlife woman is asking about: metabolism, body composition, and the real story behind the changes happening in perimenopause and beyond. Alyssa unpacks what the research actually says about metabolic rate, fat redistribution, muscle loss, and why so many women feel like everything changed even when nothing in their routine did. She leaves listeners with a simple, grounded framework to stop spinning their wheels and start building a body (and a relationship with fitness) that actually works for this season of life. Find more of her work at doclyssfit.com.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you're a woman in perimenopause, menopause, or beyond and you've heard that strength training is important but aren't sure where power training, jumping, and plyometrics fit in, this episode is a must-listen. We sit down with plyometrics expert and PhD researcher Matt McInnes Watson to explore why midlife women need more than just lifting weights to support bone density, balance, mobility, fall prevention, healthy aging, and long-term independence. Matt breaks down the science behind plyometric training, tendon health, force production, reaction time, and how explosive movement can help women stay strong, capable, and athletic for decades to come.

In this fascinating conversation, Matt explains why power is one of the first physical qualities we lose with age, how plyometrics improve bone health, muscle function, coordination, cognitive performance, and injury resilience, and why traditional exercise programs often miss this critical piece of the longevity puzzle. You'll learn the difference between strength and power, why learning new movement skills is so important for brain health, and how simple activities like skipping, hopping, bounding, and multidirectional movement can improve everything from athletic performance to everyday confidence.

Whether you're looking to build stronger bones during menopause, improve balance and stability, prevent falls, increase athleticism, boost cycling or running performance, or simply move through life with more energy and confidence, this episode provides practical, evidence-based strategies you can start using today. Matt shares beginner-friendly approaches to plyometric training, how to safely build tissue capacity, and why adding speed, power, and reactive movement to your fitness routine may be one of the most powerful investments you can make for healthy aging, longevity, osteoporosis prevention, and lifelong strength.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

If you're a midlife woman trying to build muscle, lose stubborn fat, and finally get straight answers about protein, this episode of The Body Pod is required listening. Host Hailey Babcock sits down with nutrition scientist Mikki Williden, PhD, and nutrition coach Brandon DaCruz to tackle the online protein controversy head-on: is there really a "ceiling" of 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or does that number change entirely once a midlife woman is strength training and eating in a calorie deficit? Drawing on a 2025 meta-regression on protein dosing, Bill Campbell's body recomposition research, and decades of clinical experience, Brandon and Mikki break down exactly how much protein women over 40 need to protect muscle mass, support bone density, and build a body recomposition: losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.

The conversation goes far beyond protein numbers, digging into the fat loss strategies every midlife woman should understand before trying them. Brandon explains protein-sparing modified fasts and rapid fat loss protocols — including who they're genuinely appropriate for and why chronic dieters and lean women trying to get leaner should approach them with real caution — while Mikki offers a more sustainable alternative using calorie cycling and diet breaks to create a deficit without the burnout. The two also unpack the real science behind spot reduction, walking through the physiology of fat loss (lipolysis, transport, and oxidation) to explain whether targeting fat loss in the abs, arms, or glutes is actually possible.

This episode also confronts the hidden hormonal risks of chronic dieting in midlife, including low energy availability, thyroid dysfunction, and declining bone mineral density, referencing the IOC's 2023 consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. Hailey, Mikki, and Brandon also touch on GLP-1 medications, muscle loss, and the pressure many women feel to be "rail thin," closing with Mikki's simple 3-day food journal exercise designed to reveal what's really stalling fat loss progress. Whether you're navigating perimenopause, menopause, or just tired of conflicting advice, this roundtable delivers the nuanced, evidence-based guidance midlife women need to build muscle, lose fat sustainably, and protect their long-term hormone health.

If you love what you learned in this podcast, Mikki Wlliden is one of the featured experts in our Fat Loss Happens Education course starting September 8th. Join now for our 7-week science-backed education program that teaches midlife women how to lose fat, build strength, and keep results, without extreme diets or endless cardio.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →

This week's Best of The Body Pod episode was selected for a rerun because menopause education is something our community keeps asking for, and Dr. Louise Newson's insights are just as essential today as when we first released this conversation. If you missed it the first time, or need a refresher, this is a powerful conversation that every woman over 40 needs to hear. In this game-changing episode, Dr. Louise Newson, known as "the medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution," joins us to debunk menopause myths, explain hormone therapy (HRT), and redefine what healthy aging looks like. We discuss:
Why too many women are wrongly prescribed antidepressants for perimenopause
The essential roles of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in brain, bone, and heart health
The real science behind HRT and who it's for
Why individualized, evidence-based care matters
The dangers of medical misinformation and outdated menopause narratives
Whether you're in perimenopause, postmenopause, or just starting to ask questions, this episode offers empowering, no-nonsense insights to help you make informed health decisions. Dr. Newson's message is clear: no woman should suffer through menopause without support, education, and choice.

Be First in Line for Shred Happens: Our popular 6-week challenge for shredding fat and building muscle starts October 18. You get a personalized calorie/macro budget, live Q&A calls with experts, workouts for both gym and home, prize giveaways and an incredible community of women doing it along with you. Save Your Spot →

Hailey Happens Fitness Membership is my full training system in your back pocket. Join with a Yearly Plan to design a training year that fits your midlife goals and body.
Start training with a 10-day free trial →