When Experts Argue, Athletes Pay the Price

There’s a theme that keeps showing up in the running world: people with credentials love to argue about theories they’ll never actually live through. They’ll publish studies, debate each other on podcasts, or drop hot takes on Instagram. And then when an actual athlete says, “Hey, here’s what’s happening in my body,” the shutters slam down.

This isn’t harmless. Because while they hypothesize, athletes are left trying to sort out what’s real, what’s useful, and what’s just ego.

Example One: The DPT Who Thinks Jogging Is a Warm-Up

A DPT recently said runners don’t need dynamic warm-ups. Just jog, he claimed. Get your blood moving, raise your core temp, and you’re good.

That’s like saying you don’t need brakes on a car because the engine runs fine.

Jogging is part of a warm-up, but it’s not the whole thing. Dynamic drills, mobility, strides—these aren’t just “cute extras.” They’re strength disguised as prep. They prime form, wake up stabilizers, and protect tendons before the pounding starts.

Elites across every sport do them because they extend careers. But if you’ve never lived through chronic tendon pain or felt your stride unravel with fatigue, it’s easy to hypothesize that jogging alone is enough.

Example Two: Jason Karp and the Fueling Blind Spot

I’ve had this conversation with Jason Karp. He’s written books, he’s got a platform, and he frames himself as an authority on running and fueling. But when I challenged him, I pointed out what he ignored: decades of research on Low Energy Availability (LEA) and REDs, especially for peri- and menopausal athletes.

Expertise isn’t only about what you’ve published. It’s about how you respond when lived experience challenges your model. If you shut it down instead of listening, you’re not advancing the field—you’re protecting your ego.

Example Three: Stacy vs. Lauren and the Fasted Training Fight

Then there was the Stacy Sims vs. Lauren Colenso-Semple debate. One leaned on mechanisms, the other leaned on outcome studies. Both cherry-picked. Both focused on young women in labs. Neither gave real answers for masters or menopausal athletes.

Meanwhile, athletes are still clinging to fasted runs like gospel, even when they’re exhausted and under-fueled. The “debate” didn’t solve anything because it wasn’t rooted in the realities of women outside the lab.

Menopause: Where Theories Fall Apart

This is where it hits home for me. I’ve lived surgical menopause since I was 38. And I can tell you firsthand: the research guesses, but it doesn’t capture the drastic, messy, unpredictable shifts.

• It’s not always just “age” or “slowing down.”

• It’s not inevitable decline.

• It’s not solved by a tidy calorie equation.

CICO coaches love to say “calories in, calories out is all that matters.” But menopause rewrites how nutrients are processed. Carbs and fats hit different. Protein becomes non-negotiable. And yet the oversimplified advice keeps rolling out, as if my surgically menopausal body didn’t just prove otherwise.

The Injury and Recovery Disconnect

Same story with injury prevention. Experts often default to “rest, stretch, foam roll” for tendon issues. But anyone who’s actually been through Achilles pain or plantar fasciitis during menopause knows that hormones, fueling, and strength training change the whole picture.

That’s why I built tendon and plantar guides that actually speak to peri- and menopausal athletes. Because I’ve lived it. My athletes live it. And it looks nothing like the cookie-cutter PT scripts.

The Missing Piece: Community and Context

And here’s another thing “experts” don’t usually talk about: the social side. Belonging, identity, accountability—those things matter as much as VO₂max or lactate threshold. Studies show social bonds improve performance and health, but it’s not the kind of metric that gets lab researchers excited.

Athletes, though? They know the difference. Training with support versus training in isolation is the line between burnout and breakthrough.

The Bigger Problem

What frustrates me most isn’t just the bad takes. It’s the dismissal of lived experience. When women in peri- or menopause speak up about fatigue, weight changes, or fueling struggles, they’re too often told they’re “wrong” because it doesn’t fit the model.

But models aren’t reality. Humans are.

My Takeaway

Research matters. I use it all the time. It gives us frameworks and hints. But it’s never the full story. And it should never be used to shut down the voices of people actually living the thing you’re theorizing about.

Experts love to hypothesize the “best” way. My job—and my lived reality—is to show athletes there isn’t one best way. There’s your way, built from evidence and experience, layered with context and supported by community.

That’s not just science. That’s survival.