Outdoor Women Strong

Liz Koch
  • 4.8 (33)
  • Sports
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to Outdoor Women Strong Podcast, a podcast dedicated to fitness and health for women who want to be strong for their outdoor sports such as mtn biking, whitewater paddling, hiking, snow sports, running, and many more! Let's focus in on training habits, mental issues, and how to gain strength and mobility to keep you healthy so you can enjoy and excel at your sport! Come learn with me, doctor of physical therapy Liz!

  1. 3d ago

    102. Building Stronger Bones Strength, Impact Training & Your Outdoor Sport

    Being active outside doesn't automatically mean strong bones. In this episode, physical therapist and strength coach Dr. Liz Koch breaks down what actually builds bone density — and why some of the most popular outdoor sports don't provide it on their own. Liz explains the mechanism behind bone adaptation (mechanotransduction and Wolff's Law), why walking alone typically doesn't provide enough mechanical load to build bone density, and walks through the landmark LIFTMOR trial: an 8-month study showing that heavy resistance training and impact training significantly improved bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis — safely, reversing decades of guidance that told women with low bone density to avoid heavy lifting. She details the exact exercises used (deadlift, back squat, overhead press, and jumping chin-ups with drop landings), the gradual loading progression, and an accessible alternative (foot stomping) for anyone without access to a pull-up bar.The episode also covers site-specific bone loading — why cyclists and paddlers may be missing a stimulus their sport doesn't provide, and why hikers and trail runners on technical terrain get more benefit than those on flat trail. Liz shares her own approach to bone health as a mother of two who breastfed both kids, including her plan to get a DEXA scan for a real baseline.This episode is for any woman who hikes, trail runs, mountain bikes, or paddles and wants to understand what her training is — and isn't — doing for her long-term bone health. ⛰️ Join the OWS Membership → ⁠⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership⁠⁠ 🆓 Free guide — 1 Think to Change to Feel Stronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → ⁠⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes⁠⁠ Follow me on IG - ⁠⁠@drlizkoch⁠

  2. Sep 24

    101. What Does "Lifting Heavy" Actually Mean for Outdoor Women?

    What does it actually mean to lift heavy? In this episode of Outdoor Women Strong, physical therapist and strength coach Dr. Liz Koch breaks down what "lifting heavy" really means for women who hike, trail run, mountain bike, and paddle — and why it has nothing to do with a specific number on the bar.Liz explains rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and why effort, not rep count, determines whether a set is actually heavy. She covers why training in a 9–15 rep range can build strength and muscle nearly as effectively as low-rep, heavy-load training — backed by current exercise science research — and why she personally programs effort no higher than a 7–8 out of 10 rather than training to complete muscular failure, based on research showing higher injury and discomfort risk with failure-based training. This episode also covers why rep ranges and load should flex day to day based on readiness and fatigue, why accessory and mobility-focused exercises don't need to be maximally loaded, why the first set of a workout should function as a warm-up set, and why beginners should build toward heavier lifting gradually rather than starting there.Whether you're new to strength training or have lifted for years, this episode will change how you think about progressive overload, training intensity, and injury prevention in your strength program.Outdoor Women Strong is a strength training and physical therapy podcast for women who hike, trail run, mountain bike, and paddle — helping you build strength that keeps you doing what you love, on the trail and for life as you age.

  3. Sep 17

    100. The 5 Things I Want Every Outdoor Woman to Know About Getting Strong

    One hundred episodes in, Dr. Liz Koch steps back from the body-part-of-the-week format to share the five beliefs about strength training she keeps coming back to — as a physical therapist, a strength coach, an outdoor athlete, and a woman who has rebuilt her own body more than once. This episode covers why your sport alone isn't your strength training, why the number on the bar matters less than what it proves about your body, why consistency beats the perfect program, how to build strength that supports your outdoor life instead of competing with it, and why the goal was never to get your old body back. Liz also shares her own story — years of chronic pain after multiple surgeries and a hypermobility diagnosis, and how strength training changed not just what her body could do, but how she saw it. Whether you're brand new to strength training or you've been at this for years, this episode is the philosophy underneath every other episode Liz has ever recorded.Outdoor Women Strong is for women who hike, trail run, mountain bike, and paddle — helping you build strength that keeps you doing what you love, on the trail and for life as you age. ⛰️ Join the OWS Membership → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership⁠ 🆓 Free guide — FeelStronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes⁠ Follow me on IG - ⁠@drlizkoch⁠

  4. Sep 10

    99. You Don't Have to Be Ready. You Just Have to Have a Direction

    A few weeks ago Dr. Liz Koch rolled her ankle on her own driveway — not on a trail, not doing anything heroic, just walking to her car — right in the middle of training for an 8.5-mile trail race. In this episode she tells the full story: the decade off trail running, the slow careful rebuild, the setback, and where she actually is right now — back on short trail runs where she has to really focus, back in the gym loading single leg stability, back on the bike because that's where her body feels best. She's not on the other side of the setback with a neat lesson. She's in it. And four days before the Strong for Fall Challenge starts, that's exactly the right place to be talking about the three things that keep you moving forward when fear would have you stop: meeting your body where it is, recognizing fear as a signal rather than a verdict, and understanding why direction matters more than readiness. A setback changes the timeline. It doesn't change the direction. ⛰️ Strong for Fall Challenge — join theOWS Membership to participate → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership⁠ We start Monday Sept 14th - Plan - Proof - Profit 🆓 Free guide — FeelStronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes⁠ Follow me on IG - ⁠@drlizkoch⁠

  5. Sep 3

    98. The One Thing That Separates Women Who Finally Get Consistent From Women Who Keep Starting Over

    Consistency doesn't come from motivation. It comes from the right kind of goal and a plan that exists before the week gets away from her. In this episode Dr. Liz Koch, DPT breaks down the two types of goals that produce completely different relationships with consistency — deficit goals that make her feel behind every day she hasn't achieved them, and gain goals that build her up every session she shows up. She also covers the planning piece most goal-setting content skips entirely — why deciding when sessions are happening before the week starts is the single highest-leverage thing an outdoor woman can do for her consistency, and why September is the most perfectly timed window of the year to put both into practice. Life is schedulable again. The outdoor season is at its peak. The structure that makes planning possible is back. And the Fall Strong Challenge — a 3-week accountability challenge for OWS Members starting September 14th — is the structure that makes the goal and the plan real. Plan, Post, Profit. Details inside. ⛰️ Strong for Fall Challenge opens Sept 7 — join the OWS Membership to participate → outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership⁠ 🆓 Free guide — FeelStronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes⁠ Follow me on IG - ⁠@drlizkoch⁠

  6. Aug 27

    97. What Your Body Actually Does in the First 3 Weeks of Consistent Training — The Science Will Surprise You

    Most women stop a training program after two or three weeks because they can't see results yet. What they don't know is that the most significant adaptation phase of the entire training cycle is happening right then — in the nervous system, not the mirror. Dr. Liz Koch, DPT walks through exactly what the body does in weeks one, two, and three of consistent training — the neurological changes that improve trail performance before they ever produce visible results. Better glute recruitment on climbs. More reflexive stability on technical terrain. Faster recovery after big days. These changes happen in the neuromuscular system first. Three weeks. That's the window. And with September right around the corner — the best outdoor months of the year — the timing has never been better to understand what starting now actually gets you. 🆓 Free guide — FeelStronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → ⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes⁠ 🔗 OWS Membership →⁠outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership⁠ ⛰️ A 3-week September challengeis coming — keep an eye out. Follow me on IG - ⁠@drlizkoch⁠

  7. Aug 20

    96. Why Your Shoulders Ache on the Bike and on the Water — And Why Your Core Has Everything to Do With It

    If your shoulders start aching somewhere in the beginning of the second half of a long ride or paddle day — this episode explains exactly why. Mountain biking and kayaking look like completely different sports but they create the same pattern: a forward-flexed, internally rotated position sustained under fatigue that loads the shoulder in a position it was never designed to hold for hours. The shoulder isn't the problem. It's where the problem shows up. Dr. Liz Koch, DPT breaks down the posture and core stability breakdown that drives shoulder pain in both sports, why it gets worse as a long day progresses, and the three-part fix — thoracic mobility, scapular strength, and deep core base — that addresses the pattern rather than the symptom. This episode also connects directly to the foundational movements from episodes 94 and 95 — if you've been doing that work, this episode tells you exactly why it matters for your shoulder. 🆓 Free guide — Feel Stronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes 🔗 OWS Membership → outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership ⛰️ A 3-week September challenge is coming — keep an eye out. Follow me on IG - @drlizkoch

  8. Aug 13

    95. You've Stretched Your Hip Flexors Every Day for a Year. Here's Why Nothing Has Changed.

    If you've been stretching your hip flexors consistently and the tightness keeps coming back — this episode is the answer you haven't been given. The sensation of tightness is real. But for most outdoor women the cause isn't what they think. There are two completely different patterns that create the same feeling in the front of the hip: true structural shortening and neurological protection — the nervous system guarding an area it perceives as unstable. Passive stretching can address the first. It cannot fix the second. And most outdoor women are experiencing the second. Dr. Liz Koch, DPT explains the lumbopelvic stability breakdown that causes the hip flexor to chronically overwork as a stabilizer instead of functioning as a mover — and walks through the three-step fix that actually changes the pattern: core stability first, loaded lumbopelvic control second, hip flexor strengthening through its full range third. In that order. 🆓 Free guide — Feel Stronger on the Climb, Feel Better the Next Day → outdoorwomenstrong.com/3-small-changes 🔗 OWS Membership → outdoorwomenstrong.com/ows-membership

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4.8
out of 5
33 Ratings

About

Welcome to Outdoor Women Strong Podcast, a podcast dedicated to fitness and health for women who want to be strong for their outdoor sports such as mtn biking, whitewater paddling, hiking, snow sports, running, and many more! Let's focus in on training habits, mental issues, and how to gain strength and mobility to keep you healthy so you can enjoy and excel at your sport! Come learn with me, doctor of physical therapy Liz!

Information

  • Creator
    Liz Koch
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    102
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 0
  • Show Website
    Outdoor Women Strong

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