"Sometimes it's about doing less and knowing when enough's enough."

Most female athletes juggle multiple roles: student, employee, partner, which creates an invisible load that can lead to over-training and under-recovering. We sit down with Chloe Giles, Carlton VfLW's Strength & Conditioning Coach and PhD student, to break down the truth about why rest is not a weakness and how managing your full load, not just your training load, is key to unlocking your full potential. A critical listen for any athlete or coach looking to balance performance with wellbeing.

Key Takeaways

• The Invisible Load: Female athletes often carry an "invisible load" of roles/ responsibilities outside of organized training that coaches and athletes must consider
• The Sub-Elite Struggle: Athletes at the sub-elite level face the toughest challenge, juggling an almost full-time commitment to sport with financial pressures from work and study, leading to the breaking point for many . Chloe Giles calls this "sub-financial," not "sub-elite".
• Social Media Misinformation: Social media, paints an unrealistic picture of what athletes "should" be doing.
• Consistency Over Perfection: The key piece of advice is that consistency with treating yourself as an athlete is better than perfection.
• Recovery is Not a Bonus: Recovery is where adaptation happens. It should be approached to the same standard as compulsory training. The main pillars for effective recovery, which athletes have the most control over, are sleep and nutrition not expensive 1%ers
• Coaches and the 'Vibe': Coaches and staff need to be aware of their own external loads and how their energy affects the team. Vulnerability and professionalism can and should be merged to create an honest, supportive environment.

Timestamps:

• 01:11 — The Invisible Load: Exhaustion and the grind are holding athletes back
• 03:43 — Why athletes think they're not doing enough, and how social media influencers paint an unrealistic picture
• 06:01 — How much is too much? The highly individualized nature of load management
• 10:30 — How load management changes for women due to roles like student, worker, and carer, and the lack of research on female athletes
• 14:13 — The sub-elite breaking point
• 27:20 — Key findings from Chloe's PhD on female athlete load
• 30:58 — How Chloe uses weekly schedule mapping and small, manageable changes to support athletes
• 37:09 — Implementing load management in a team setting
• 49:49 — The importance of recovery
• 01:03:57 — One piece of advice for all female athletes

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If this EP resonated with you, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and send this episode to a female athlete or their support network who needs to hear it. Stay in the loop at @4TG_Podcast. You can find Chloe Giles on Instagram at @ChloeGiles.sc.

If you’ve been loving the pod and want to help us keep sharing real stories that move women’s sport forward, you can now support 4TG on Buy Me a Coffee. Every contribution goes straight back into creating more episodes, spotlighting more female athletes, and growing the movement.

If you’re a business or brand that wants to be part of the change and help us level up women’s sport, let’s chat about how we can collaborate! For any partnership or sponsorship opportunities, please reach out at kylie@4tg.com.au.

P3 Recovery Port Melbourne are helping our 4TG community recover smarter and feel their best 💪 Use code 4TG20 for 20% off casual visits. Remember, recovery is a non-negotiable for peak performance and health.

"My knowledge is pretty irrelevant if I can't translate it to people's lives. And that's where we now are in a coaching-based membership style." - Alicia Edge

We dive deep with Sports Dietitian and Compete Performance founder Alicia Edge to discuss the behavior of eating, not just the science of fueling. Alicia shares her work with the Matildas and the challenge of combating the "lighter is better" culture in women's sport. This is a critical listen for athletes, coaches, and parents interested in nutrition resilience, food relationships, and preventing disordered eating

Key Takeaways:

• The Missing Link in Nutrition: Turns out, nutrition information is not the missing link. The real power lies in behavior change—understanding the root cause of why you aren't doing what you know you should be doing.
• Performance is Relative: Compete Performance defines an athlete as anyone who would like to perform, making success relative to their personal definition, not just elite status.
• The Partnership Model: Effective nutrition coaching is a partnership, where the athlete is the expert in their own life, and the dietitian is the expert in food.
• Shifting the Focus for the Matildas: The long game in elite female football has been shifting the focus away from body composition and toward performance through wellbeing—emphasizing cooking, body confidence, and relationship with food.
• Body Composition is a Symptom: The IOC's 2023 paper on body composition found correlation, not causation, to performance. It's a symptom of maturity and training habits, not a behavior.
• The RAVEs Framework: Learn this simple yet powerful framework for assessing and building a healthy relationship with food: Regularity, Adequacy, Variety, Eating Socially, and Spontaneity.
  
  

Additional Resources & Support:

Alicia stresses the importance of community and support when dealing with food and body image.

• Eating Disorder Support: Butterfly Foundation (OrgHome), National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC Home).
• Body Image Resources: The Embrace Collective (TheembracehubHome - The Embrace Collective).
• Alicia's Business: Find coaching resources at @compeat_performance and CompeatperformanceClient Challenge

Episode Breakdown:

• 01:18 — Young Alicia: The energetic perfectionist and the role sport played in her life.
• 06:46 — The Compete Performance Mission: Designing a non-family-friendly career around online coaching and tech.
• 08:12 — Unlearning the Meal Plan: Moving from the science of food to the behavior of eating.
• 13:13 — Inside the Matildas Effect: Shifting the team culture away from the "lighter is better" focus.
• 23:23 — The Performance Triangle: Why you can't focus equally on Health, Performance, and Body Composition at all times.
• 36:21 — The Alarming Stats: Rates of disordered eating in the active population are 30% to 85%.
• 42:52 — The Sandwich Press Cookbook: Creating realistic expectations and performance eating on a budget.
  
  

Fuel your game the right way – 4TG listeners get 10% off Younify Active supplements designed for athletes. Grab yours here 👉 Younify Active

Connect & Subscribe:

You've been listening to 4TG, If this resonated with you, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and send this episode to a female athlete or their support network who needs to hear it. Stay in the loop at @4TG_Podcast. We'll see you next time. Same mission, same movement. This one was for the girls.

This episode was produced by The 32 Collective. Thinking about starting your own podcast or need support managing one? Come say hi on Instagram @the32collective_

"I would have absolutely done that [given up some of my pay to support women's sport] because that's the world that I want to live in." – Ben Brown

Ex-AFL premiership player and current Essendon AFLW Development Coach Ben Brown is the gold standard for male allyship in women's sport. Ben shares his journey from an injury-riddled AFL career, including nine surgeries, to becoming a champion for gender equality in football. This episode is a must-listen on athlete resilience, strengths-based coaching, and why investing in women’s sport benefits everyone.

Key Takeaways You'll Learn:

• Mindset is the Untapped Edge: Ben believes mindset and resilience separate good players from great ones.
  
  
• The Power of Simplification: Writing down one or two daily goals helped Ben manage anxiety and perform at his best.
  
  
• Strength-Based Coaching: Play to your strengths – a philosophy Ben applies in AFLW to help players excel.
  
  
• More Than a Product: Supporting AFLW fosters a safer, more equitable society, not just sports growth.
  
  
• Inspiring Dedication: AFLW players juggle elite sport and full-time jobs yet show incredible passion.
  
  
• Male Allyship's Ripple Effect: Men in sport can drive change by sharing updates, discussing equity, and communicating openly.
  
  

Episode Breakdown:

01:03 – From AFL Goal-Kicker to AFLW Champion: Ben’s inspiring shift.
05:17 – Injury as an Accelerator: How an ACL tear shaped his non-traditional path.
08:18 – Overcoming the Knackered Knee: Mindset and resilience after nine surgeries.
12:12 – Focus on One Thing: Ben's actionable method for managing pressure.
27:28 – Stepping into AFLW Coaching: Becoming Essendon's Development Coach.
31:25 – The Key Difference: Why AFLW players deserve more support.
40:13 – The World We Want: Gender equality in sport is about sharing opportunities.
47:53 – A Girl Dad's Vision: The sporting world Ben wants for his daughters.

Fuel your game the right way – 4TG listeners get 10% off Younify Active supplements designed for athletes. Grab yours here 👉 Younify Active

Connect & Subscribe:
Follow 4TG on Instagram @4TG_podcast and share your takeaways. Subscribe, leave a five-star review, and send it to a friend who believes in the power of women’s sport.

Produced by The 32 Collective. Thinking about starting your own podcast or need support managing one? Say hi on Instagram @the32collective_