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Muscle Science for Women — Fitness & Nutrition
Muscle Science for Women

Muscle Science for Women is a weekly podcast for women who want to build muscle, get stronger, improve their nutrition, and understand what their bodies actually need, especially in their 40s and beyond.

Hosted by Rachel Gregory, MS, CNS, CSCS, and Ashleigh VanHouten, each episode takes a question women are asking and breaks down what the research says, what matters in real life, and what you can actually do with that information.

Rachel is a nutritionist, strength and conditioning specialist, and the founder of RG Fitness. Ashleigh is an author, coach, and former nationally ranked natural figure competitor and powerlifter. Together, they bring science, coaching experience, personal stories, and plenty of honest conversation to topics that are often confusing, oversimplified, or buried under a mountain of internet bullshit.

You’ll hear conversations about strength training during perimenopause and menopause, hormone replacement therapy, bone density, body composition, and how to train now so you can still be strong at 80. Rachel and Ashleigh also dig into the fundamentals beneath it all, including protein, fat loss, maintenance phases, muscle growth, rep ranges, cardio, training zones, GLP-1s, fasting, gut health, pelvic floor health, emotional eating, and the habits that make progress sustainable.

This is not about chasing perfection or following one rigid plan. It’s about understanding the why behind training and nutrition so you can make better decisions for your body, your goals, and the season of life you’re in.

Have a question you want Rachel and Ashleigh to answer? Want to explore the Muscle Science for Women training programs?

Visit https://musclescienceforwomen.com

Copyright: Muscle Science for Women © 2022

Latest Episodes:

EP 4: Healthier Meat, Healthier People, Healthier Planet: Belcampo's Alternative Meat Supply System Jun 09, 2020

Show notes

The conventional agricultural system, with its focus on efficiency and mass scale, is harmful to animals, the environment, and humans. Belcampo is the only fully vertically integrated meat supply company in the US with a carbon positive impact and fully regenerative processes, and they are a shining example of a business that is moving the needle in healthy and sustainable directions. Anya Fernald, its CEO, joins us today, and her passion for the industry, healthy living, and conscious consumption is palpable. We begin the episode by getting to know Anya and the Belcampo founding story. After spending several years in Italy, where high-quality food is prioritized, Anya realized that the US paradigm was an entirely different one. This prompted her to take matters into her own hands. From there, look at Anya's 'radical' approach to food, which includes nose-to-tail and seasonal eating. We then take a deeper dive into Belcampo's holistically sustainable approach where Anya sheds light on the cascading benefits of their regenerative practices. Along with this, we also hear about some of the challenges Anya has faced going against the industry norms, positive COVID-related changes that she has noticed both in her business and her personal life, and what it's like being a woman in the male-dominated meat game. This was an incredible conversation that we learned so much from, and we know you will too. Tune in today!

Want to connect, ask questions for the podcast, or offer feedback? Drop me a note on Instagram @themusclemaven, send me an email at ashleighvanhouten@gmail.com, and sign up for my weekly newsletter at ashleighvanhouten.com

Thanks to our show sponsor Ancestral Supplements for providing animal-based superfoods in capsule form: try their grass-fed beef organs or beef liver supplements for 15% off with the code MUSCLEMAVEN at ancestralsupplements.com

Key Points From This Episode:

Learn more about Anya's background, her company, Belcampo, and what they do.
What Anya's time working and living in Italy taught her about food quality.
Anya's return to the US and the different ventures that led to founding Belcampo.
Why the current consumption paradigm has to shift for the food system to be sustainable.
What we can learn from our ancestors about seasonal and nose-to-tail eating.
Find out why the industrial agricultural system produces bad offal.
Insights into Belcampo's regenerative approach to agriculture and what it entails.
Belcampo's species-specific ethos: Evolutionary diet, natural mothering, and natural mating.
The biggest challenges Anya has encountered when getting her message out there.
Why Anya has chosen to steer clear of focusing on her competition.
How COVID — through the challenges it brings — will teach us all much-needed lessons.
Some of the positive changes COVID has brought for Belcampo.
Encouraging shifts around food waste, slowing down, and conscious consumption.
Belcampo Meat Camps: Why they started, what they are, and their goal.
What it's been like as a woman in a male-dominated industry for Anya.

Tweetables:

"My heart is in revolutionizing meat and changing the system for the better." — @anyafernald [0:14:16]

"We make choices every day that support a certain style of meat eating." — @anyafernald [0:19:29]

"I really do think of Belcampo as an animal wellness company trying to create a system where animals thrive and that's to the benefit of human wellness and to the benefit of our animals' quality." — @anyafernald [0:35:13]

"From my perspective, nothing good comes from reflecting on your competition." — @anyafernald [0:50:46]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Anya Fernald on Instagram

Anya Fernald on Twitter

Belcampo Meat Camps

Ancestral Supplements

Ancestral Supplements on Instagram

Ashleigh VanHouten

Ashleigh VanHouten Email

Ashleigh VanHouten on Instagram

EP 3: Hunting, harvesting, and cooking with Wilderness to Table's Bri Van Scotter Jun 02, 2020

Show notes

No matter how we eat, the way we participate in the food cycle in the most ethical, sustainable, and healthy way is a really important conversation to have. Joining me to talk about cooking what you hunt is Bri Van Scotter, a true renaissance woman with degrees in art, communications, and cuisine – and the force behind Wilderness to Table, through which she teaches people about making, enjoying, and also sourcing delicious and healthy food. We chat with Bri about her journey to becoming a self-sustained food maker through harvesting and hunting, hearing about how she felt unfulfilled with her initial education and career before learning about cuisine and becoming fascinated with self-sourced ingredients.

She talks about how she learned to hunt and reconcile her hesitance to kill with her belief that it's more humane than mass farmed approaches, recounting the story of her first kill and how she overcome the initial shock. We consider the contrasts between factory farms, slaughterhouses, and sustainable harvesting, and Bri weighs in on our culture's damaging eating habits, how organic food helped her health journey, and that self-harvesting results in a more meaningful cooking process. Bri speaks about the contrast between Instagram's culture of trophy hunting and her approach, according to which the whole hunt is geared toward the meal, and the work she is doing to advocate it with women's hunting groups and a course in the pipeline. Bri's current career also takes center stage, and we chat about her show, the hunts she goes on, her favorite game meat, the new recipe book she is working on, and the nose-to-tail message behind all her projects. For this and a whole lot more on the topic of self-sustained cooking, tune in today!

Want to improve your skin health with ingredients you can actually pronounce? Want a natural deodorant that actually works? Check out show sponsor Primally Pure and treat yourself to their beautiful and luxurious natural skincare products with discount code MUSCLEMAVEN for 15% OFF

Want to connect, ask questions for the podcast, or offer feedback? Drop me a note on Instagram @themusclemaven, send me an email at ashleighvanhouten@gmail.com, and sign up for my weekly newsletter at ashleighvanhouten.com

Key Points From This Episode:

Culinary school, rearing a chicken, bowhunting, spearfishing: how Bri found her passion.
The contrast between the evils of slaughterhouses and rearing/catching your own food.
How Bri overcame her hesitance to kill; learning humane practices, and her chef background.
Bri's perspective that cooking becomes more respectful if you have harvested the meat.
Bri's approach to ethical questions of Instagram trophy shots, and the backlash she still gets.
How Bri learned her bow skills, her first hunt, and what the hunts she goes on involve.
Bri's work with women hunters promoting approaches centered around cuisine, not trophies.
How Bri dealt with feelings of shock after killing and field dressing a doe on her first hunt.
The influence of Bri's childhood and chef/hunter mentality to her nose-to-tail approach.
The need for 'normal' people being the face of the organ meat movement.
Bri's career since leaving the restaurant industry: focusing on her show and personal brand.
The message behind Bri's brand; bridging the gap between wild game hunting and cuisine.
Bri's renaissance woman status with five degrees in photography, cuisine, and more!
Some of the recipes Bri is working on using duck fat and wild boar lard.
How eating organic protein helps Bri manage rheumatoid arthritis and stop taking meds.
Side effects of the eating habits of our culture and the importance of eating organic foods.
Bri's thoughts on making her recipe-dense wild game cookbook and when it will drop.
Why Bri loves moose and bear so much and which periods their meat tastes best.
Perspectives on the quality of organic food and the need for farming to become more humane.
New projects that Bri is working on which teach how to cook meat you harvested.

Tweetables:

"I need to pay respect to these animals and if I had my hands on them since the beginning, I need to have only my hands on them in the end." — @Chefbrivs [0:06:19]

"Even when I hunt, if I can't get a good shot, I am not going to take it, because the last thing I want is for that animal to suffer." — @Chefbrivs [0:10:46]

"It's been my dream to have a cookbook. As a chef, that's my goal, but I never thought I was going to have a wild game cookbook." — @Chefbrivs [0:43:35]

"Farming could be transformed into something really amazing." — @Chefbrivs [0:54:18]

"You have to know what to cook before you harvest your animal because that determines how you butcher in the field." — @Chefbrivs [1:00:37]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Bri Van Scotter on Instagram

Wilderness to Table

The Culinary Institute of America

Slow Down Farmstead on Instagram

The Ritz-Carlton

The Magic Pill

Primally Pure Skincare

Primally Pure Discount Code

Ashleigh VanHouten

Ashleigh VanHouten Email

Ashleigh vanHouten on Instagram

EP 2: The most important hormone we aren't talking about with Dr. Anna Cabeca May 19, 2020

Show notes

Discovering the intricacy of the female body is a beautiful process. Our delicate hormonal balance affects all aspects of our health and wellbeing, from the condition of our skin to the quality of our sleep and sex lives. In this episode, I interview Dr. Anna Cabeca who is board certified in genealogy and obstetrics, integrative medicine, and anti-aging and regenerative medicine and who is also an authoritative voice in the realm of functional medicine, menopause, and women's sexual health. Dr. Cabeca unpacks the three major hormones and how an increase or decrease in their levels affect us and explains how they can be managed and even optimized for healing. We get into the variables that affect the efficacy of oxytocin supplementation, the use of exogenous hormones such as melatonin, and the relationship between adiponectin and weight loss resistance. Turning our attention to her newly released book Keto-Green 16, Dr. Cabeca explains how her approach to the ketogenic diet differs from the mainstream understanding, highlighting her views on alkalizing foods, the need for digestive enzymes, consuming greens versus proteins, intermittent fasting, and much more.

Want to connect, ask questions for the podcast, or offer feedback? Drop me a note on Instagram @themusclemaven, send me an email at ashleighvanhouten.com, and sign up for my weekly newsletter at ashleighvanhouten.com

Check out our show sponsor Sweet Apricity and use the code MUSCLEMAVEN for 15% off. Get a digital subscription to Paleo Magazine for as low as $1.25 a month!

Key Points From This Episode:

How Dr. Cabeca's personal experience informed her approach to her OB-GYN practice.
Three major hormones—insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin—and how the levels change with age.
The impact of the stress hormone (cortisol) on other hormones and our health in general.
An explanation of the role of oxytocin in the body and how it can be optimized for healing.
The dangerous cortisol-oxytocin disconnect that occurs amid prolonged stress and trauma.
Suggestions for the lifestyle practices that can help you regulate oxytocin and cortisol levels.
The variables that can affect our physiological response to oxytocin supplementation.
Advice about the correct use of exogenous melatonin: dosage, timing, and more.
The relationship between adiponectin levels and weight gain in menopausal women.
The four key markers that women need to pay attention to when it comes to their hormones.
How Dr. Cabeca's approach to the ketogenic diet differs from the traditional view.
Distinguishing between foods that have an alkalizing effect versus those that are alkaline.
The importance of increasing your digestive enzymes and not diluting them with liquids.
The ideal amounts of protein versus greens in Dr. Cabeca's approach to the keto-green diet.
Guidelines around the best times to eat, intermittent fasting, and stabilizing your blood sugar.
Caloric restriction versus fasting and how each affects our basal metabolic rate.
Using metrics and tracking in a way that is non-dogmatic and serves your goals.

Tweetables:

"It takes more than hormones to fix our hormones. That's where lifestyle medicine becomes really powerful." — @AnnaCabeca [0:05:18]

"We really need to look at the major hormones and for me, those are insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin. Those three hormones are the most powerful hormones in our body, with oxytocin being the crowing hormone." — @AnnaCabeca [0:05:57]

"It is our own activities and our perceptions and our lifestyle practices that increase our own natural oxytocin. We manage cortisol and do practices that increase oxytocin." — @AnnaCabeca [0:18:25]

"Increasing your digestive enzymes is one of the key things that we need to do and focus on, especially as we get older." — @AnnaCabeca [0:43:06]

"These low-calorie days that we have, destroy our metabolism. We are better to fast than eat small meals." — @AnnaCabeca [0:59:42]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Dr. Anna Cabeca

Dr. Anna Cabeca on Twitter

Dr. Anna Cabeca on Instagram

Keto-Green Community on Facebook

Keto-Green 16

The Hormone Fix

Macro Calculator

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon

Ashleigh VanHouten

Ashleigh VanHouten Email

Ashleigh vanHouten on Instagram

EP 1: Welcome to Muscle Maven Radio May 12, 2020

Show notes

A lot has happened since the last time I published a podcast episode, so I want to thank all of you for sticking around despite all the chaos in the world right now. I hope that you guys missed me as much as I missed talking to you. Today I'm introducing you to the new name and brand of the show and explain to listeners the reasons for all these changes.

In short, Paleo Magazine is undergoing some big transformations and part of their restructuring resulted in much uncertainty about the future of the podcast. But loving this show and the community we've created, I jumped in and purchased the podcast, and decided to rebrand it as Muscle Maven Radio! This is an exciting journey that I hope to take all the current listeners on with me and hopefully gain a whole lot more as we continue building out the community. In this episode, I walk you through the aspects that will stay the same, and those that—I'm certain—will be even better than before!

Key Points From This Episode:

The exciting news: I purchased the Paleo Magazine Radio podcast!
Hear about Paleo Magazine's transformation and what they decided about the podcast.
Rest assured: You will still be getting the same quality, high-value content as before.
Why I feel so strongly about the podcast and the community we've built together.
Find out which elements of the show will remain the same and which will change.
The perks of a new brand—we can talk much more broadly about health and wellness.
I need all of you to help me make the podcast a viable and helpful resource!
What I'm currently envisioning for the show in terms of its structure and featured guests.
Let me know which topics you'd like to see covered and any other suggestions you have.
Monthly giveaways, special offers, and more for those actively participating in the show!

Tweetables:

"I have purchased the Paleo Magazine Radio podcast and I have rebranded it under my own name aka the Muscle Maven, which is my nickname." — Ashleigh VanHouten [0:01:01]

"All I knew was that putting the podcast on hold or permanently getting rid of it was just too sad for me to bear." — Ashleigh VanHouten [0:01:58]

"I wanted to make a space that is for everybody who is a health and fitness and food nerd and just likes to learn." — Ashleigh VanHouten [0:04:26]

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Ashleigh VanHouten

Ashleigh VanHouten Email

Ashleigh vanHouten on Instagram

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