Trusted Women to Follow for Training & Nutrition Advice

I worked in the health and fitness industry for 5-years and I can tell you there’s a lot of bad information about training and nutrition floating around. People make a lot of money off of the latest fad - especially when it comes to diet. Not only that, the contradictory information can be really confusing and then when you add any level of training to your life, understanding how you should train and what you should eat can almost become a part-time job.

I’ve been following two women who offer some really solid advice when it comes to training and nutrition and they both have fantastic books and produce a lot of really great free content online.

Dr. Stacy Sims
For 20-years Dr. Sims has been saying that women are not small men and they should not be treated as such when it comes to training and nutrition. I first learned that most research done around nutrition, recovery, and athletic performance is done on 18-22-year-old men…and here’s the problem with that - they don’t have a menstrual cycle. Female hormones change everything. Dr. Sims gives advice on everything from how to best train during your cycle, what types of nutrition profiles work best for women, and how to change our exercise as our hormones change. She’s also producing a lot of information on perimenopause at this moment.

She has a book called ROAR that I found to be a practical and easy read. You can also watch her Ted Talk to get on the overview. Her Instagram feed is also a wealth of practical information!

Selene Yeager
Selene is actually the co-author of Dr. Sims book, Roar. She’s an author and athlete. You can also find her doling out great advice on the Paceline Podcast, which is more practical advice from two-seasoned yet practical riders than it is all of the updates on pro cycling. One of the things I like the most about Selene’s website is all of the great strength training videos she has available. I’ve even heard her say that strength training is like adding a gear to your bike. Oh, and she literally wrote the book on gravel.

Whether you’re just getting into cycling or tackling some serious miles, I highly recommend following both of these women for practical, scientific advice specifically focused on women.