Tuesday, May 16, 2023

[New post] Real Fit Podcast Ep. 54 | Christine Yu on owning her voice and validating women athletes’ experiences

Real Fit Podcast Ep. 54 | Christine Yu on owning her voice and validating women athletes' experiences

Pam Moore

May 16

Christine Yu is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on the intersection of sports science and women athletes. Her writing has appeared in Outside, The Washington Post, Runner's World, and other publications. She's a lifelong athlete and yoga teacher who loves running, surfing, and skiing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Her new book, Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes, masterfully blends narrative and science to explain what we know about female athletic performance, why women have historically been left out of the research, why it matters, and what it would take to fill to the gap.

I've read so many books that felt like an article or two with about 50k extra words thrown in. This was absolutely NOT one of them. The only thing better than reading the book — which covers everything from the history of the sports bra (originally slated to be called the Jock Bra- who knew!?) to how your period can affect your performance — was talking to Christine herself.

We dug into some of the book's content as well as:

How she scored the book deal
What drove Christine to write the book
The self-doubt, occasional procrastination, copious reporting, and meticulous research that were part of the process
The sticky note that got her through drafting the manuscript and edits
What it took for Christine to adopt a healthier approach to eating
Why the current state of women's sports nutrition science is in direct conflict with diet culture

I thought I knew a lot about women's sports science but it turns out I'd only scratched the surface. Christine's book is a must-read for every woman athlete out there.