Bend Into Balance: Dr. Sonja Halsey, founder of EmpowerHer Health & Performance

In this episode of Bend into Balance, Adriana Marino sits down with Dr. Sonja Halsey, a naturopathic physician, performance coach, and founder of EmpowerHer Health & Performance, to explore the powerful connection between hormones and athletic performance. Dr. Halsey shares how her work with young female athletes—from USA Hockey to international training camps—is helping shift the conversation around women’s health in sport, bringing long-overdue attention to menstrual cycles, recovery, nutrition, and performance.

Together, they dive into the science behind hormone cycles, why female athletes need different training and fueling strategies, and how understanding the body can unlock both better performance and deeper self-confidence. From body image and teen athletics to stress, recovery, and resilience, this conversation highlights a growing movement to normalize and empower women’s health in athletics here in Central Oregon and beyond.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hello, my name is Adriana Marino, and I am host and producer of Bend into Balance, Powered by the Source. Today I'm very happy to be accompanied by Dr. Sonia Halsey, naturopathic doctor, and also the founder of Empower Her. Sonia, thank you so much for being here. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Hi, thanks for having me. It's really good to be here. And yes, my name is Dr. Sonia Halsey. I'm a naturopathic physician and also a personal trainer and sports nutrition coach. So a little bit about me is that I founded Empower Her Health and Performance earlier this year, January 2026. But it's been about um at least four years in the making, but I finally took that leap. And I'm working with primarily young female athletes, athletes of all ages, really, but primarily female athletes, and working with their education to help them understand their hormone physiology and how it relates to exercise physiology.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

This is a very interesting field and something that I haven't seen much written about.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

It's a specific niche.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I think this is also a very big paradigm shift we're going to start seeing in female athletics with what we're seeing in the advent of more elite professional and Olympian female athletes speaking out about their experience as a female athlete and pushing the needle on research towards more research on female athletes.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

How did you decide to occupy this space?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So I am, well, first I was invited to be the performance physiology coach in the 2023 National Players Development Camps for USA hockey. So this is ice hockey. And it really wasn't on my radar. I was just chugging along as a clinician, but also having some thoughts of wanting to spread out of clinical work. And there's more to the background of the story of how I got to this point with women's hormone health. But I was invited to come and teach their young players, 16 and 17-year-old girls, about performance physiology. Very forward-thinking director of girls' hockey at USA Hockey. And she really wanted them to have more education on their hormone physiology and how it connects to exercise to help them feel more confident and comfortable in their body.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Okay. And was this the first time that you approached this subject from the hormonal perspective and performance?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

For athletes, yes. And I spent, I almost made it a full-time job for a month covered. I was so nervous. So spent a lot of time uh preparing for that. And I felt um, I don't know, have you heard of Dr. Stacey Sims? She's very big in this field.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

She after I had gone through my first camp, I then discovered a lot of her research and her work.

unknown 3:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

And it was right on par. And I was like, okay, I'm on the right track. Oh, good. So and everything's just grown from there.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Okay. And what did you discover in this research? I mean, and and and also your preparation for this program that you had to deliver.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

For, well, for one, uh, you know, I think oftentimes when it comes to girls and women's bodies and hormones, we tend to compartmentalize estrogen and progesterone as reproductive hormones, right? That they're just in a part of a very small system. But the reality is that during the years when girls and women are producing in the reproductive years when they're producing higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, they're like a master control system to almost every aspect of our body. Uh, they have involvement in our musculoskeletal health, muscle strength and mass, bone health, brain function, other glandular tissues like the thyroid, uh, there, and then the adrenals and our stress responses. They also are tied into our digestion and our microbiome. Wow. So it's really looking at um, you know, it's expanding that compartmentalized view of what our hormones are doing. And especially for an athlete who, you know, is has high energy expenditure and also has to, you know, get used to cycling hormones, especially in the teen years, which is a big uh cohort of athletes I work with, um, we can really start to see how taking care of our bodies in a certain way, we're also taking care of our hormones. And that gives back to the health of our body and our performance.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

And how did the women that you trained and that experienced like receive this information, those young women?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Uh, you know, it's it's a mixed bag. Um, definitely had athletes that were very into the topics. And I think too, uh, there can be a little bit, you know, in the teen years, maybe it's a hard hard to completely um absorb everything that I'm talking about. Uh-huh. Sure. But that's, you know, even if there's only little pearls that they just remember from my talk, I'm happy with that and getting more comfortable with their body. Such a huge aspect that I'm why I'm passionate about doing this is being that person that stands in front of them and says, Hey, it is so okay to talk about our hormones and our period experiences and how we feel in our periods and all that. Um, so I definitely love incorporating parents into these workshops. She was, I think it's it, you know, as the major supporters.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

It's also beneficial.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, that makes sense. And for them to relay the information in the stress of the situation too. Um, so how exactly do hormones affect women, you know, their performance in an athlete?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Okay, so there's there's so many ways. Um, what I kind of like to do, and I do this for the athletes, is um, you know, after they I do teach them about the menstrual cycle and what is happening from phase to phase, so they understand that in the follicular phase, our low hormone phase, we have estrogen on the scene. And then the luteal phase is a little more complex because we do have a little, we do have some estrogen, but then another hormone progesterone comes on the scene. And there's a lot that can shift in the luteal phase, um, which is the two weeks before a period. So once I break that down for them, I go into really kind of other aspects of estrogen and progesterone. So estrogen is our hormone that is considered anabolic. And you can compare that to boys and men who have testosterone, that's their their major anabolic hormone. So when we think anabolic, that means to build up. And typically, when we have primarily estrogen on the scene, we have more muscle conservation, we have um more efficient fuel, um, fuel utilization, which means that what we eat is going to be used for fuel to energize our muscle and our tissues easily. We tend to have different um brain function qualities that come on, which is focus, drive, extroversion, and feeling more social and happy. That typically does happen in the brain because our neurotransmitter, serotonin, is regulated by estrogen quite a bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Oh, wow. Interesting. I had no idea. Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

So we kind of think of estrogen as our major anabolic hormone as an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

And then we have this other hormone who has a very different job in the body, but still very important for our female health. And that's progesterone. And so our needs and the support we need to put um into our support we need to have um around times when progesterone is elevating, tends to be um increased calorie intake, increased food, because progesterone is a catabolic hormone. She really wants to um help our uterine lining grow and get us ready for our next period. And so we have um more needs, I would say, when progesterone's on the scene are in our luteal phase before our period.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Okay, you explained it very well. So, how can that relate into athletic performance for a woman of any age?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Okay, so first up, and I break this down on in one of my online courses um to try and make it, especially because it is geared towards teens, to make it as simple as possible and like stuff you can start doing right away. So I break it down into nutrition. So we think about what our body needs at any given time of our cycle. And it doesn't have to be uh crazy math in like your food. It's really about eating whole foods, really, and um I would say balancing your macronutrients well, making sure you're getting carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats. And then looking at timing of how we eat, because female athletes, and this kind of goes into a different topic, but female athletes recover and utilize um fuel efficiently at different times than compared to a male athlete. And that has a lot to do with our recovery windows. So for an example, we hear a lot, you know, with athletes, especially competitive athletes. You'll hear about carbloading the night before of the descent, right? Yeah. Because you want to fill up your glycogen tank, which is gonna be your quick energy.

unknown 10:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

So girl can do that too, and women, uh, but you're not gonna get as much out of carbloading in as you would by actually doing a little carbload right before your event. You're gonna use that more efficiently than loading up.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

So instead of the night before, that serves men better. It's right before the event, the day of.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yep. So it's fuel timing, so that's called pre-fueling. And then uh for girls, it's also and women, it's also more essential to do post-fueling, pre-fueling, and having a different strategy around food. I'm not saying not to carb load as an athlete, a female athlete. It just we go into complex biochemistry when uh to talk about kind of what's going on with that glycogen store. Okay. Don't tend to use it as much because estrogen, again, is very efficient at um fuel utilization. So estrogen will use some glycogen, and then that hormone will switch us over into fatty acid oxidation. So there's some more complex like nutritional biochemistry going on that maybe we want to get into. Okay. But that's one um important difference for female athletes is nutrition strategy. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

And also after um, when we hit midluteol, yes, about a week before our period, yeah, uh, to increase um food intake uh because we're actually utilizing more energy for other reproductive like sure processes.

unknown 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Okay. Yeah. So for that phase then and that final week before the period, you recommend your athletes to eat as much as their body needs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

And you know, keeping it um, I know it can be hard for athletes. Uh, there's so much can, you know, one, you're these athletes are pretty busy and they're on the road, or so they might have to grab more convenience. But as much as you can keep it whole food um when it comes to your macros, sure, that's going to be the best. Uh, but definitely listening to hunger signals, there is a there's a real physiological reason why girls and women are hungrier a week that week before their period. And we need to honor that and not um, I think there's there's a lot of food restriction that happens probably when we actually need to be giving our body more nourishment during that time.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Okay. So nutrition is a big component of your education program. What what other things are is are being taught to the young women?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Uh so we also talk about uh recovery and training and how uh certain aspects of exercise physiology connect with hormones. Uh, one big difference between male and female athletes is recovery. So female athletes and girls and women in general, that you know, we can just talk about anyone that's active or not active about this, but um female athletes, we have a shorter window of recovery time to get new nourishment to muscle to remove waste product. Why is that? We're very efficient thermoregulators. So it is again like it's a signal that starts in the brain, our and we have different basal body temperatures at different times of our cycle, but we are very good at vasodilation and vasoconstriction of blood vessels to cool off or warm up. Okay. And this will shorten the window. So, say a girl just gets done with soccer practice and she just, you know, she's really warm, she's sweating, and then she just stops and does nothing, uh, doesn't do any type of cool down. Her body is going to thermoregulate very quickly. And it's about a half hour to an hour window when she's gonna have that good but blood flow to her muscle to get that nutrition into her muscle she needs and remove waste products so she's not as sore and she recovers more efficiently. So we talk about a lot of strategies around recovery practices. We talk about uh adding in more support in recovery, again, during that luteal phase when we are slower to recover in general, anyway, um, as well as are more inflamed because we have natural inflammation that occurs before our period and gets us ready to have our period. So there's more needs. It's like that sweet spot of the cycle where female athletes tend to have more needs. Okay.

unknown 14:53

And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

So looking at the cycle, is there, would you say that there's a moment of the cycle where a woman, an athlete, could have a peak performance as a I mean, if I was an athlete, you know, I'm a swimmer, I love to swim, you know, and if I had to do my best 50 free, what period, what moment of that cycle would I want to do that race?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

So, I mean, a lot of, you know, this is gonna be a different, I would say, very individuated from woman to woman. Sure. I don't want to say in generalization. Got it. Uh huh. And most people feel most women feel pretty good in that follicular phase, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

In the first two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

That first two weeks of their cycle.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Because we have that anabolic hormone estrogen. We are our basal body temperatures lower.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

We tend to be more efficient in our fuel utilization. We feel more energized. Um, our brain even feels more focused. Uh-huh. Um, but what I will say, and this is this is where there's a lot of individualization from athlete to athlete, um, is there's some research actually on um competing or training um certain variables are the highest during the time of the period. Um, for instance, I I uh say again, I don't understand. It's actually on our on our periods that can have the best high, you know, these high mark the our highest martial eagles will mark in certain aspects of sports. So that's fascinating. Yeah, and one study actually was done on female swimmers where they basically took female swimmers, I don't know what ages, I think they were age different age ranges, and they had them swim an event um at different parts of their cycle. Uh-huh. And what they found was the slowest clock times were in that late luteal phase, right before their period, and their fastest times were while they were on their period.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Wow. How do you interpret the fastest times while they're the period? Because it's also a time when we feel a little bit tired, we have more of the symptoms.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Exactly. And that's where I I think that it really is an individualized experience. Uh, but with some of the physiological things going on is especially if it's, you know, because there can still be quite a bit of inflammation going on the very start of the period. Uh huh. Prostaglandins are doing their thing to shed the lining of the uterus. But we're shifting out of the luteal phase. So hormones are low. And we actually, that's when the only time in our cycle where testosterone is kind of the major hormone on the scene.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Variable, but to some extent, inflammation's going down. Um we're shifting out of that like higher inflammation state. And I think that has a lot to do with it. It's like it's kind of that shift out of the luteal phase where the body kind of has this, it like resets itself to higher recovery. Cool. Yeah. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

And how do you how have you seen on this journey, Sonia, that educating young females is different from educating adult women?

SPEAKER_00 18:12

So, you know, one thing, and I love this movement that's happening um around women our age is I think, you know, we're kind of like looking up. We're more in that perimenopausal time in life when things are shifting. And I I feel like women are demanding more. And I I love that that there's so much new research coming out. There's so much more attention on what our bodies are doing during these different life cycles. So I feel like there's more openness with adult women to, you know, understand what their body is going through because they've been living with their hormones for a long time. Right. And working with younger girls, um, teen girls, I feel like it's, you know, I when I first started doing this, I was so, um, as you can tell, I love, I love studying research and I want to give them everything in the that, but I think it's more about them getting more comfortable with their bodies, feeling like they're more comfortable to speak about what's going on in their bodies so that we don't have so much of this taboo going on, especially for um girls and women in sport. So it's I think we're you know, it's not being so complex with girls, but hitting those foundations that are gonna last them a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

And how have you seen that Empower Her has worked for the the you're you're more primarily working with hockey?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Right, yes. Um so USA hockey is what started this journey, and then Ice Hockey Australia reached out to me uh in 2025. I've worked with their U17 um developer camp athletes, and then I also did a workshop for their national women's team before they went to Worlds this year. Oh, what's the that's so cool? Yeah, the the conversation changes obviously between like working with teens and working with adult athletes at that level. Um so I think I might have forgotten your question.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

No, just how do they receive this information? Yeah, I mean, were they receptive? Were they inquisitive to know more? Did it empower them effectively? Like I'm just curious how, you know, I think as a female and as an athlete, we kind of just ignore the period at some point. We just kind of take it for granted. It's what it is. I've never given thought to it. You know, I just exert myself the same way or try to, you know. Of course I notice certain energy shifts, but I don't pay much attention because I just it's take it as that's the way it is. But I can imagine for people who are, you know, you know, almost professional athletes, that it's a whole nother ballgame for them because they're constantly looking at their marks.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

And I'm just curious, you know, how they receive this information, this knowledge, how it empowers this, how it empowers them to approach their sport perhaps differently in their bodies.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Yeah, I think they're receiving it really well. And I think it's it's gonna be dependent too on the athlete. Like for someone like you that has kind of, you know, maybe you just haven't had a lot of symptoms or shifts, like you've felt pretty even. Right. And some some girls and women are gonna have those types of cycles. Uh-huh. And, you know, and there's also gonna be those girls and women who definitely have more of a an experience with their hormones and the shifts of hormones. And I'm sure, like, you know, and that's really I think this is great information for all athletes, of course. Uh, but definitely getting a lot of um feedback from girls where this is really helping that have those more difficult. Period experiences and um making those shifts so they they are getting um less symptoms and they do feel more even through their cycle. Because the one thing I think we forget about when we watch girls and women's sports and or the Olympics is that those girls and women have to perform on their most difficult day. And we never think about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

We don't.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

And and that's just such a that can be a huge um performance barrier. Yeah. Um, I love 2024 and 2026 Olympics were pretty incredible for a couple of reasons, showing body diversity. Um the 2024 and 2026, a lot of these female athletes have been speaking up about um being more vocal about what seems to be taboo in sport, um, which is talking about their period experiences. And some of those stories that I've read are incredible to be at that level and going through such difficult experiences. Wow. So I feel like overall it's been the reception of this has been amazing. I will say that probably my, you know, I I do get the athletes that that have the questions and want to come talk to me. Um, and but even more than that, I have moms that are like, this is incredible. This is what I wish I had when I was a human. So even when a teen might not fully really grasp what I'm trying to do, like it's reaching the moms. And it hopefully it will stick with them and their journey to just feel more confident in that process.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah. Wow. Can you does your training in naturopathic medicine influence a little bit your approach of how you approach um not only hormones, but just performance, athletic performance in general? I'm just curious the link between that type of medicine medical practice that you have.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Definitely. I I really have a lot of appreciation for my background. And I even what I'm doing now, I'm coming more from that doctor background or being my own elite athlete. I'm a leisure athlete. So I, you know, I don't have that pressure that they have on them. But 100%. Um, you know, as naturopathic physicians, we we tend to, we can specialize and specializes can happen to us. Uh, but the majority of, and I will say most naturopaths will probably agree with me, is that we see so many more women in our offices than men. And in my opinion, and I'm sure many doctors' opinion, is that when you're when you're seeing a lot of women, it's it's almost a duty to become very hormone literate. Got it. Because if you're gonna really do right by that woman, you really have to understand that aspect. So I've just had so many years of working with women and women's hormone health. Got it. That that was a huge part of the piece of the puzzle that helped me click into the exercise physiology. Uh-huh. Research and working with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

So that's so cool. I mean, all of the pieces of your puzzle fit so organically in what you're doing because you're also a physical trainer.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

I am, I am. I uh decided to get my certification in personal training the rest year and sports nutrition. I felt like even though I don't use it directly, um, like I don't have PET clients, personal training clients. It's it's a big piece of the puzzle that helps me um relate this information and put all the put pieces together. And the sports nutrition was nice because that kind of goes into almost like the math of nutrition. When when you're thinking about um elite athletes, they've you know things have to be pretty dialed in for them.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Uh-huh. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Like about dial yeah, what kind of the what that nutrition looks like, Burnette.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Well, macros are really important and it depends on the type of sport you're in. So, you know, uh an Olympic power lifter is going to be eating quite a bit differently than an endurance runner, swimmer, cyclist. It's more in that, uh, using more of that cardio endurance. And it really kind of comes down to ratio of protein and carbs are the big two. Okay. Where uh, you know, a woman that's strength training and maybe competing in heavy lifting, she definitely needs carbohydrate um for the energy to build muscle, but she's gonna have higher protein requirements than an endurance athlete who's, you know, just running that fuel for long, long distances. They're gonna definitely wanna be picking up their carbohydrates, especially around training. Okay. And then off season is so much different than like training and competition season.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Okay, got it. So, how did what you know, how what what what did your youth look like, Sonia? I'm curious. Like, how did you you'd grow into this beautiful field and embrace so many parts of this puzzle that you now work at so actively in?

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Uh, well, you know, it's it's um, I was um an athlete and I started pretty young. Uh, I would say junior high. I got into volleyball. Um, I ended up on varsity team my freshman year. Oh, wow. Of high school. I really loved it. I played AAU for a couple seasons, which in the Midwest, that's kind of like the multi-season um league for volleyball. And then I also was a sprinter in track and field and did really well with that too. And unfortunately, this is and definitely this is a part probably of a personal healing uh journey and also why I'm so passionate about doing what I do. Uh-huh. Um, especially, and we haven't really gotten into my online course. We can talk about that if we have time. Yeah, for sure. But I um I grew up, I was in high school in the 90s, um, in the later half of the 90s. And I was, when I went through puberty, I became like strong. And, you know, just, you know, anytime I did athletics, you know, it just I built up a lot of muscle. Definitely wasn't one of those like maybe typical skinny girls. Um, and I was made fun of a bit by certain other girls in junior high high school. And I went through my own issues with body image. And I ended up actually leaving sports, which is really sad because I was so good at them when I was that age because of body image issues. And that is actually a huge statistic for teen girls still. And one of the reasons why I do this work. Um, I definitely came back into athletics, as you can see, and I yeah, you know, I'm very active, but um I just kind of leaned into academics. And so that is also a great journey because I am where I am now. Uh-huh and I picked up, you know, getting back into running. I played um Division A adult volleyball while I was in medical school. Oh, wow. Yeah. And now I just I love um riding my bike. I am the most like to do. Yeah. Uh-huh. So, but I think that for me, where this really came full circle, even though I started teaching athletes in 2023, it's almost like that first camp, something just clicked for me. And I think it was a full circle moment of, you know, um wanting to help girls feel more confident in their bodies and to just, you know, to shut out the to shut out the noise around you because there's so many girls that deal with that. And yeah, the teen years are such a hard decade for so many reasons. So yeah, that was unfortunate uh that that happened for me, but also I learned a lot from it. And I think that's really where we find our path in life, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

For sure. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. That's I mean, it's bittersweet that that experience is what brought you to this field, wanting to advocate for women.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Definitely. Um it is, but you know, if I wouldn't have had that experience, who knows if I ever would have, you know, had that light bulb come on or even been invited, you know, to do it.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

No, I get it. That's what I'm saying. It's yeah, it's like a blessing in disguise. I mean, I'm sure it must have been very difficult for you to drop out of this athletic scene at that moment in your adolescence, but it's also served as a fuel to want to advocate for women now.

unknown 30:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Yeah, and that's a part of so Girls in Sport, my online course. Um, it's six modules, but one of the modules, it's the last module, we go into um body competence and um well, body image self-competence through the teen years. And so we talk about the normal changes that are going on, um, why the we can feel a little uncomfortable in our bodies when we're going through developmental changes. And, you know, ways we can work on that self-confidence, both as that that athlete as well as the community and support system around athletes. So that module means a lot to me.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

I can imagine. Yeah. And how has that been received by the athletes that you have worked with?

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Really well. Um, it was last year, USA hockey was the first year I incorporated that. Uh-huh. Um, and especially from the directors of USA Hockey. They were just like, yes, thank you. That was so perfect. And, you know, so it's been well received. And yeah, I'm that's why I definitely put it into the course and I've ex I expanded the module big time. So girls are getting a ton of information in that course. And wow, I I'm really happy. It's I've worked really hard on it.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. What else can be studied and learned in that in your online course, Sonia?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

So we go through the first thing we do is um the first um educational module is going learning the female menstrual cycle. What are the hormones doing, learning the phases? We learn about estrogen and progesterone and their different roles in the body. Uh, and we talk about um our period experiences and what's going on around our period and why we can feel kind of crappy. I also talk about tracking uh because tracking is a huge tool that girls and women can use to really hone into their cycle. The next module is all about nutrition. Um, it's a long module, and I go through macros as well as um key micronutrients important for girls and women. And then we go through recovery and training. There's a module on stress management. We talk about adaptive versus maladaptive stress and and why, as girls and women, we can tend to be more sensitive to stress. And that's why stress management is so important for our bodies recovery. And then we go through um the body confidence and body image. Okay. Yeah. Does sleep factor into any of this? Yes, that's our recovery module. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Got it. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Sleep.

unknown 33:26

That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah, because it definitely affects us as depending on what's you know, where we are in the cycle. Um, going back to the stress, which I'm interested in, what kind of um things can women do to better deal with stress during their menstrual cycle? What are you teaching the young women, especially?

SPEAKER_00 33:46

I well, when I do teach them, you I definitely hone in for them when we have less stress resilience, which is when progesterone is elevated. Um, so cortisol and progesterone have the same precursor molecule. And that is called pregnenolone. And what it is is when we have elevated stress, when progesterone is also needing, uh, we need to synthesize progesterone. And I would say this is maladaptive stress because adaptive stress is good as long as we can get out of stress.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Do you want to explain what you mean by adaptive stress and maladaptive stress? I think that would be worthwhile.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

So adaptive stress is the stress um we physically go through. Um, and this can also be, you know, mental and emotional stress that helps us um our bodies grow and um not grow, but helps us to train to get to a next level of, say, athletics. So we have to put our body through stress, then we have to come down from that stress and recover. And that's called parasympathetic rebound. That's how we really get stronger and better at sports. So we can't, we can't be get better as athletes if we're not going through adaptive stress.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

But when when stress becomes maladaptive is when we're not allowing our body to recover. So that's physical stress. If we just continue to train and train and train and we're not recovering, then that can become maladaptive stress. If we're going through a lot of other stressors on top of that, say mental, emotional stressors in life and all not incorporating stress management practices. Yeah. Then that's when stress turns maladaptive and we can start seeing imbalances in our hormones as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Wow. Yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah. It makes me think of all the issues that many women are having now to have babies. Like how that could be so related to so so related.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Yes. And in modern life, yeah. And there's so much on um people's plates uh that I think that sometimes it can almost be this like engine running in the background that we're just trying to condition ourselves to be okay, constantly being in like low-level stress all the time. But then it does turn maladaptive. We really need to be able to rejuvenate, relax our bodies. So, and that cortisol, which is our stress hormone, right, which is really important, we have it. It's not bad almost. No, I yes. But if it's if it's elevated too often too long, it's called the pregnenolone steel. And progesterone will go down. And then basically it hormones get out of balance. There's a there's a lot of different things that can come in um female's uh woman's experience based on hormones getting out out of sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

They cannot have their period, for example.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Not have their period, um, have more painful periods, uh heavier periods sometimes. I mean, with athletes, we've got to look at the low hormone stuff, um, low energy availability or reds. Um that is a really big problem with female athletes um in the female athlete world too. But so some of the stress management tools that I talk about is um one is good nutrition and recovery practices to get that parasympathetic rebound. Yeah. Lower inflammation in the body when we're eating highly processed foods all the time, lots of sugar. Yeah. We're actually raising our cortisol level for sure.

unknown 37:28

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

I talk about uh somatic experiencing. So being aware of body signals that are telling you your stress. Talk about breath work. Okay. Um, I love breath work, it's the best real-time tool. Yeah. Out of stress. Uh-huh. And then I um actually recorded three short meditations on that course um for girls to try, um, which I I'm a big believer in meditation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Okay. Wow, that must be a very powerful module of your course.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yeah. I I hope so. I have surveys at the end of my course now waiting to get surveys back. I'm really excited to see the feedback.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Yeah, that sounds amazing. And additional to all of this, you're you also trained certain athletes in town in Bend.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

I have, yes. So I mean, and not even when I was doing Empower Her, but just being a doctor, a clinician in Bend. Personal trainer too. You're gonna land some plates. Yeah, of course. So I have worked with a couple of um female athletes, all 30 and above. Uh-huh. So I haven't worked as with as many one-on-one um teen athletes yet. Okay. But we did just launch in January. So we're sure everything's rolling. Yeah. Um, yeah. And it it is that has been a great learning experience for me too, to incorporate like and seeing really the hormone imbalances that can happen for female athletes and how we can focus on getting those back into balance. So their energy goes up, thyroid function goes up.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Uh-huh.

unknown 39:03

Things like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Wow. Can you think, you know, in the recent years, Sonia, any athlete, any w woman that you've trained, that you've coached with an incredible success story, like that you really see that this program has really come through for her?

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Yeah. So I uh did work with a um an ultra-marathon runner, huge energy expenditure. And she came into my office barely having periods. Uh, she she was in low energy availability and her hormones were very low. Yeah. And the kind of the downhill slide from that was her thyroid function was also tanking. So she just was really um struggling with energy levels and even being able to train for her next race. Oh, wow. Um, and so, you know, we had to balance things out. And she did end up taking a a little bit extra time off from her usual marathon schedule to work because that's the one thing about hormone health as well, is sometimes balancing hormones takes time. It's a really big off-season thing to be working on. Yeah. Um, she worked with me for gonna say we worked together for about six, four to six months. And she not only was she back at it and doing like PRing for herself and as races, um personal records. Yeah, personal records, but she she said she was feeling better than she did all through her 20s as LRL on runner. So there's so much that can be done when we start balancing these systems and seeing the body as a whole thing and not just compartmentalizing. Um, I think one doctor just wanted to give her thyroid medication and not look at her hormones. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Wow.

unknown 40:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

It's fascinating. And it seems like it's such a good timing given what you said earlier in the talk, that you know, women are demanding more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

I think so. You know, I I know it's a niche, and but I'm so excited for it.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

And we're half the population.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

It's not it's not such a niche. Um, and you know, I just I think that really what I hope to see in the next decade is that this is all so normalized for female athletes that it's a part of their training and performance. It's a performance tool, it's a health signal. It's it's not out of the conversation of how to um one, just keep girls and women healthy, but also how to up level performance. Because when we're really looking at how the hormones, like it's like training smarter, not harder. And not I like that.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Training smarter, not harder.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Not burning the candle at both ends, not paying attention to your body's signals. Yeah. And, you know, and of course, there are like deeper, you know, testing that is available and they can do with me uh to really hone in on what their hormones are doing and how it's relating to their experience. So I do, I just really think this is the next level for female athletes.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Wow. So interesting. My last question for you, Sonia. How has this journey of helping and empowering other women come back to you? How has it also enhanced your own health and wellness as an as a female, as an athlete?

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Um as a doctor as well, of course.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

One might, you know, I just I gain so much. Um it feeds me to to know I'm helping them. So it's like a big heart-opening experience for me for sure. And I would say that I've I've shifted a lot of I I still see how I was in some patterns of which I think a lot of women get into, of feeling like we have to be smaller. And um, and of course, some athletes just are small. We're all different, we have body diversity. Um, but I could see how I was still kind of in that mindset of thinness. And when I really started diving into this research and teaching other girls and wanting, obviously too, just wanting to be um a very good role model for younger girls and women is is to allow my body to be to not to have that thought process, but you know, it's more about how does my body feel? How is my energy? How is my cycle going? And I've just learned a lot about how to, you know, to incorporate all these things into my own life. Yeah. And, you know, I've seen the difference in myself as well. Um, my energy capacity and endurance is so much better than it used to be. Um, I do strength training quite a bit, and I'm just I'm able to like really, you know, lift more and more if I want to. And I feel like I'm the strongest I've ever been.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Wow, that's amazing. Wow, that's great. It's so empowering for you, for all the women that you're coaching. Okay. Sonia, where can people find you here in Bend?

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Uh, so I am doing everything virtually at this point. And you can find out more at empowerherperformance.co.co. And you um, I do, I have all my information about workshops, online courses, and one-on-one consulting and how to get a hold of me. Great. And what's next for you? Well, I am going to be at USA Hockeys uh National Player Development Camps 2026. That's in July, and I'm really excited and getting ready for that. I'm also expanding my course library, and the next course I'm putting out is around birth control and performance. So even though there is going to be a module that is um very specific to performance research with birth control for female athletes, I believe it's an incredible course for any teen girl, woman, parent, because I'm really gonna break down the different types of birth control, what birth control is doing in our body, because different ones do different things. And um I think it's a great resource for any girl or woman who wants to know more about birth control and not just be handed a birth control without understanding what's going on in their body and make more choices around birth control.