Ep 13. Fitness & Womxn’s Blood Rites: Tracking Menses, Not Macros and Embracing Menopause with Rachelle Ballard-Clayton

There is a lack of representation of women aged 40+ in fitness. Rachelle Ballard-Clayton is shifting that pattern by basing her approach to training womxn on their shifting internal landscape and cyclical patterns.

In this episode:

• A little pre-interview solo ramble on systemic racism and unrecognised privilege in yoga/wellness/spirituality worlds
• Training womxn and running a fitness business, without body transformations or weight loss challenges (!)
• The importance of strength training – as opposed to just cardio and yoga - for womxn, especially those over 30 years of age
• Movement and the menstrual cycle: adapting your training to the hormonal fluctuations of one’s menstrual cycle - or mood cycle for peri-menopausal womxn
• What movement might look like for a midlife womxn 
• Why we might find ourselves at this stage of life feeling less likely to move, more burnt out than ever and what we can do about that
• Throwing all expectations of what we should be doing out the window
• Understanding what our bodies are doing by tracking cycles
• How to work with and not against your body 
• Why some weight gain around menopause is normal and protective
• “Focus on what you can do, and understand YOU better”

PLUS, some post interview-thoughts on:

• Rites of Passage in womxn’s lives, also known as the blood mysteries – menarche, childbirth, menopause
• The phenomenal benefits womxn get from strength training
• Better indicators of fitness than six pack or how lean you are
• “Does weight training make you bulky?” 
• #YogaEveryDamnDay – with no other form of movement - is non-sensical
• What yoga is missing that strength training can provide
• What my own personal movement practice looks like

Rachelle’s Bio: Rachelle Ballard-Clayton owns MEE Active a Womxn’s health and movement coaching practice on the Gold Coast, Australia and delivers her programs worldwide. She creates a safe space for midlife womxn to step off the sidelines & connect deeply with their mind & body.

Resources mentioned:
Wild Power by Alexandra Pope
The Optimised Woman by Miranda Grey
The work of Jane Hardwicke-Collings

Casey's articles on why strength training is especially helpful for breastfeeding women: https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/breastfeeding-and-barbells

https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/youre-a-yogi-why-the-eff-are-you-powerlifting

Will Lifting Weights Make Me Bulky?
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/blog/articles/heavy-bulky/