Broads: The Bold & Badass Fitness Podcast for Women

Rocio Cortez had never played a sport. She'd never been in a weight room. At 27 she walked into a jujitsu gym, and three and a half years later she's training wrestling, striking, MMA and Muay Thai, and she's competed at Apex twice.
The number that matters in this conversation is not the 275-pound deadlift she pulled at a bodyweight of 119. It's three and a half years. That's how long it took to build the body she has now, and she never once trained for it directly. She trained to get faster, to jump higher, to get stronger. The body followed.
Tara and Rocio get honest about what that stretch actually felt like: the days she took progress photos and hated them, the clothes that stopped fitting, the body dysmorphia that showed up right as she was making her best gains.
In this episode:
Why the people you train around change what you believe is possible for you
How to build a circle when you're the shy one in the corner
Grieving friendships that fade when your lifestyle changes, and why the real ones modify the hangout instead
Starting at 27, and how Rocio stopped mourning the years she didn't train
What actually makes you an athlete, and why Tara says you don't have to compete to be one
Why being a beginner is an advantage, not a liability
Training for performance and letting the body sort itself out
103 pounds to 120: learning to use a body that's changed
Diet culture, double zero pants, and 100 crunches before bed
Injury, warming up, and why pushing through isn't a plan
Starting martial arts as a woman when the room is mostly men
How to know you're progressing when the weight on the bar has stalled
Screen time, comparison, and curating a feed that doesn't cost you anything
Timestamps:
00:42 Welcome to Broads
01:35 You are who you surround yourself with
04:24 Building your five people
07:11 When friendships fade
09:53 Starting at 27 and grieving lost time
13:00 What makes you an athlete
14:41 Why Rocio likes being a beginner
18:02 Where the intimidation actually comes from
21:18 Training for performance, and the body that followed
23:40 Diet culture and high school
25:26 103 to 120
27:16 Injuries and the machismo mindset
29:09 Being a woman in a male-dominated sport
30:18 How to start jujitsu when you're intimidated
32:31 "I work out but I don't look like I work out"
33:20 Three and a half years of reps
35:44 Progress when the weight stalls
37:25 Perfectionism, imposter syndrome and screen time
42:34 Curating who you follow
44:36 For the woman focused on how she looks
46:53 Get a coach
Connect with Rocio:
https://www.instagram.com/rockin_rocio/
https://www.rociocortez.com/
Learn more about Broads: www.broads.app

Episode Notes
Nutrition advice for women is loud, contradictory and usually built for someone else's body. In this solo Q&A, Tara answers the nutrition questions you sent in, and keeps it real about what actually matters.
In this episode:
Intermittent fasting for women: who it can work for, and why stress, poor sleep and under-eating can make it backfire on your hormones, energy and cycle
Whether you need to track macros, and why protein is the one number worth knowing
The protein math: 0.7–1 gram per pound of body weight (or goal body weight), and how to build up gradually instead of doubling overnight
Easy high-protein options at home and on the go
What to look for in a protein bar: 15–20g of protein, under 5g of added sugar, and fiber to keep you full
Healing your relationship with food: dropping the good/bad labels, getting out of the all-or-nothing trap, and why mindful eating starts with slowing down
Going alcohol-free when your partner drinks: boundaries without blame, NA swaps that make date night easier, and coming back to your why
You don't need to weigh every bite forever. Give it three days of looking at what's actually on your plate, find the protein, and build from there.
Tara is a Precision Nutrition–certified coach, not a registered dietitian. This episode is for education, not medical advice.
Resources mentioned:
Macronutrient Guide: broads.app/macronutrient-guide
Learn more about Broads: broads.app
Connect with Tara:
instagram.com/taralaferrara
instagram.com/broads_coach
youtube.com/@TaraLaferrara
tiktok.com/@taralaferrara
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For women who strength train consistently and feel like something is still missing, it is probably not the program or the effort. The tools that elite collegiate strength coaches use with their athletes — plyometrics, isometrics, contrast training, tempo work — are almost never included in general fitness programming. In this episode, Erica Lowery breaks down exactly what those tools are, why they work, and how any woman can start adding them to her week without overhauling what she is already doing.

Erica Lowery, MS, CSCS, is the Director of Athletic Performance at the University of South Alabama, where she oversees strength and conditioning for volleyball and women's soccer. A former Division I volleyball player at Texas A&M and Liberty, Erica has spent her career on both sides of the barbell — competing at an elite level and coaching young female athletes through the fears and patterns that hold most women back from ever touching a weight they actually need to be lifting. She is also an APEX athlete and has trained for the USA Bobsled team.

What's Discussed:

What it is actually like to coach freshmen athletes coming in scared on day one — and how Erica builds the relationship before she builds the program



Erica's own athletic background: D1 volleyball, how the weight room at Texas A&M changed everything, and the moment she realized training was the one thing she could always control



What Erica tells young female athletes who are scared of getting bulky from lifting — and the "toned" reframe that actually lands



Why nutrition and recovery account for 75% of results — and what that means for women who are working hard in the gym but not seeing it translate



Plyometrics and the 9'4" broad jump: how foundational strength — not endless jumping — is what actually built Erica's explosive power



Why women should add jumping to their training even if they are not athletes — durability, daily life, injury prevention, and why being scared of stepping off a curb is a training problem not an age problem



How to start adding sprinting and jumping to a three-day strength week without increasing injury risk — the progressions, the order, and how slow is actually fast enough



Sprint progression timelines: four to six week blocks, short to long, slow to fast, and why Erica pulled her hamstring multiple times before she followed her own advice



What isometrics actually are, why they speed up soft tissue recovery faster than rest does, and how Erica used them to train around injuries instead of stopping completely



How to use isometric holds when you are not injured — warm-up applications, tempo work, building strength at the bottom positions most people skip entirely



Why isometrics build muscle and why they are one of the most underused tools for women who have plateaued on standard rep schemes



Isometrics for travel and bodyweight training — how collegiate athletes train on the road with no equipment and still make progress



What most general training programs are missing: tempo work and athletic movement — and why just doing three sets of ten forever is quietly capping your results



Following a plan, tracking your training, and why switching programs every few weeks is one of the most common ways women accidentally stall their progress



Erica's personal training right now: Apex prep, sprinting focus, and what she is going after once the competition season is done



Recovery, mobility, and why sleep and nutrition are still the 75% — even for an elite-level athlete



The perfect warm-up structure: 10 minutes max, foam rolling to mobility to low intensity to max effort, and why more is not better here



What it actually means to fail a lift — and why it is a sign you are pushing yourself, not a sign you are bad at this



Creatine: safety, energy output, cognitive recovery, and why Erica has been taking it since her freshman year

Ready to have programming that builds on itself the way it is supposed to? Apply for BroadsCOACH at https://www.broads.app/broadscoach.

Learn more about Broads: https://www.broads.app/ https://www.instagram.com/broads_coach/

Check out more from Tara LaFerrara: https://www.taralaferrara.com/ https://www.instagram.com/taralaferrara/ YouTube: @TaraLaferrara TikTok: @taralaferrara

Check out more from Erica Lowery: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericalowerystrength/ Links: https://linktr.ee/ericalowery

Most women who are not seeing results from their training are not failing because of their program, their supplements, or how hard they are pushing. The problem is consistency — and not in the way most people think. This episode breaks down seven specific ways to build the kind of consistency that actually holds, so you can stop spinning your wheels and start making progress that compounds.

If you have been training for months and nothing is changing, the answer is almost never a new program. It is almost always the gap between what you are doing and what you are doing every single week without negotiating. Consistency is not a personality trait. It is a system. And once you have the right one, everything else — strength, body composition, confidence — follows.

What's Discussed:

[00:55] The hard truth about why results are not showing up — and why it is almost never the workout plan

[03:30] The one thing most women overlook that silently costs them progress week after week

[09:15] Why measuring success on the scale is keeping you from seeing what is actually changing in your body

[14:40] Why motivation is not a strategy — and what to build instead so you show up even when you do not feel like it

[22:05] What perfectionism in the gym is actually costing you — and why imperfect workouts always beat no workouts

[30:10] The shift that separates women who quit from women who stay — and how to get to the other side of it

 

Ready to stop figuring it out alone? Apply for BroadsCOACH at https://www.broads.app/broadscoach.

Learn more about Broads: https://www.broads.app/ https://www.instagram.com/broads_coach/

Check out more from Tara LaFerrara: https://www.taralaferrara.com/ https://www.instagram.com/taralaferrara/ YouTube: @TaraLaferrara TikTok: @taralaferrara

For women who care about their health and are already paying attention to what they put in their bodies, skincare should be straightforward. It is not — because the information online is loud, contradictory, and often more driven by fear than evidence. In this episode, triple board-certified dermatologist Dr. Mamina Turegano cuts through all of it: the sunscreen myths, the ingredient fears, the products not worth spending money on, and what your skin actually needs to stay healthy long-term.

Dr. Mamina Turegano is a triple board-certified dermatologist, internist, and dermatopathologist based in New Orleans — one of the only physicians in the country who holds all three certifications. She specializes in medical, cosmetic, and integrative dermatology, blending conventional and holistic approaches to skin health. With over 2 million followers across social media, she co-hosts the Skin Deep MDs podcast, has been published in leading medical journals, and brings the same evidence-based, no-fearmongering approach to everything she touches.

What's Discussed:

The one skincare step that outperforms everything else — and why consistency is the only metric that matters

 

SPF 30 vs. SPF 50 vs. SPF 100 — what the actual coverage difference is, what Dr. Mamina recommends for daily use, and the honest answer to "which sunscreen is best"

 

What three separate board certifications give Dr. Mamina that a standard dermatologist cannot offer — and why the internist lens changes how she reads skin from the inside out

 

The skincare categories you never need to spend money on — cleansers, moisturizers, and sunscreen do not need to be expensive

 

The face-washing take that would make most of the internet mad — and why she stands by it completely

 

What stress does to your skin at a biological level: cortisol, oil composition, inflammation, and why the cascade matters for women who are chronically under load

 

The benzene-in-sunscreen scare of 2022 — what actually happened, what the levels meant in context, and why the fear grew bigger than the evidence warranted

 

The sunscreen-causes-skin-cancer myth — debunked, with the ice cream and shark bites analogy that puts it in perspective

 

Chemical vs. mineral sunscreen: the endocrine disruption concern, what the animal studies actually show, and who should consider switching to zinc-based

 

Why sunscreen does not cause low vitamin D — and what is actually driving the low vitamin D epidemic

 

Toxic and problematic skincare ingredients — what to look for and what to avoid

 

Bacne and skin issues specific to women who train

 

Fungal breakouts — how to tell the difference from bacterial acne and what to do about it

 

What movement does for your skin at a cellular level

 

The link between metabolic health and skin

 

Ready for coaching that builds around your training and your health? Apply for BroadsCOACH at https://www.broads.app/broadscoach.

Learn more about Broads: https://www.broads.app/ https://www.instagram.com/broads_coach/

Check out more from Tara LaFerrara: https://www.taralaferrara.com/ https://www.instagram.com/taralaferrara/ YouTube: @TaraLaferrara TikTok: @taralaferrara

Check out more from Dr. Mamina Turegano: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.mamina/ Website: https://www.drmamina.com/ Consultation services: https://app.futureclinic.com/clinics/drturegano/profile