Up to Speed

The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes

By: Christine Yu

Narrated by: Cindy Kay

“Up to Speed is a roadmap and toolbox for athletes of all ages. Every coach should read it and discuss it with their athletes. I wish I had been able to read this book while I was competing.” —Kara Goucher, Olympic long-distance runner and author of The Longest Race

How the latest science can help women achieve their athletic potential

Over the last fifty years, women have made extraordinary advances in athletics. More women than ever are playing sports and staying active longer. Whether they’re elite athletes looking for an edge or enthusiastic amateurs, women deserve a culture of sports that helps them thrive: training programs and equipment designed to work with their bodies, as well as guidelines for nutrition and injury prevention that are based in science and tailored to their lived experience.

Yet too often the guidance women receive is based on research that fails to consider their experiences or their bodies. So much of what we take as gospel about exercise and sports science is based solely on studies of men.

The good news is, this is finally changing. Researchers are creating more inclusive studies to close the gender data gap. They’re examining the ways women can boost athletic performance, reduce injury, and stay healthy.

Sports and health journalist Christine Yu disentangles myth and gender bias from real science, making the case for new approaches that can help women athletes excel at every stage of life, from adolescence to adulthood, through pregnancy, menopause, and beyond. She explains the latest research and celebrates the researchers, athletes, and advocates pushing back against the status quo and proposing better solutions to improve the active and athletic lives of women and girls.

©2023 Christine Yu (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Illuminating. . . . Yu’s overview of the many ways women athletes are underserved enrages, and her mastery of the scientific literature impresses. This is a valuable contribution to the growing science on women in sports."—Publishers Weekly

"A brisk, well-researched study of athletic performance.”—Kirkus

“This important distillation of the science underlying women's sports performance illuminates what we've known all along—that we're different but not lesser."—Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim

Must Read

Every coach, trainer, and female athlete needs the information presented in this book in their toolkit. If you read invisible women this is a great and specific look about similar, in some cases the same, challenges through a specialized area. Definitely needed literature for those in this field.

Worth reading

Some great information, especially in chapters 3 and beyond contributing to the important (and growing) conversation of women in sports.

Inclusive and Thought Provoking

Well written and great information on women in sports. Calls for more research while summarizing what’s out there.

Outstanding. Simply outstanding.

If you have any interest in girls and women in sports this book is an absolute must read! I am going to re-read chapters as well. Excellent job Christine Yu!!!

Fascinating read

Hearing the history of women in sports was fascinating. Women have come so far, but still have so much farther to go.

So Good!

A must read for anyone and Everyone connected to any female athlete should read this book!

Some Women's Sports History via Good Stories

Quite good overall. I love the chosen bits of women's athletics history and individual anecdotes used to lay out her position on things. Her summary of intermittent fasting as a calorie restriction method that puts the body in a stressful state does make me really question her summary of different bits of research though, hence why I can't give it 5 stars for everything (intermittent fasting does not typically restrict total daily/weekly calories and appears to stress out bodies less than more regular timing of meals and snacks).

Women and sports at any age

This book highlights the needs for studies of women’s bodies at all ages. Better training programs can be developed with clothing shoes and equipment made for women”s bodies. The needs of women athletes during menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum and menopausal stages need to be considered . This will allow women to become their best at all stages of life.

Really helpful perspective for Mom & Daughter

My daughter’s soccer coach shared this book with me because we’ve been having a lot of conversations about how to leverage current research to help the girls on our team stay healthy and thrive. I found all the info in the book to be really relevant and helpful for mapping out a pathway for being an active, athletic female through the lifespan. Each chapter was engaging, interesting and applicable.

Must read!

Illuminating read about all things women in sports. Highlights the harm that comes to all athletes when we fail to properly account for gender and sex in sports. Appreciate the author’s attempt to be inclusive of genders other than the usual binary, especially in a book focused on one gender (female) for the most part. There is much nuance in this book and it looks at women across the lifespan and in many sports. Engaging as an audiobook with a great reader.