She’s Gotta Try

Feel the fear and do it anyway. That's been my mantra since I first left my job as a banker to start my own business, and it's the whole reason I'm sitting down to record this one today, adrenaline and all. This week I'm talking about fear — the kind that talks you out of a heavy squat session, the kind that stops a 46 year old touch rugby player from ever trying contact, and the kind I felt hanging off a bouldering wall on bank holiday Monday, absolutely certain I couldn't do the next hold. I get into why I nearly skipped leg day, the message from a follower asking if she was too old to switch from touch to contact, my own story of nearly never playing rugby at all, and why doing one scary thing always seems to lead you looking for the next one. If you're sat on the fence about something right now, whether that's your first contact session, your first competition, or just showing up when you don't feel ready, this one's for you. Come find me on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching or drop me an email at nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk if this lands with you and you want a nudge in the right direction.

This week I'm talking about something that comes up every single time a new player is about to step over the white line for the first time: how do you actually fuel for a full game of rugby when you've never played one before? I've just come off a call with one of my clients who is playing her first ever game of contact rugby this Sunday, and it reminded me how much this catches people out. You might have been a runner, a CrossFitter, a hyrox girl, you might have done years of strength training. None of that quite prepares you for what 80 minutes of rugby actually demands. I talk through why it's not as simple as a big bowl of pasta the night before, how I build my plants and protein pillar into game week, the 72 hour carb build up, what "eating like a hobbit" actually means on match day, and what to do in that first hour after the final whistle so Monday morning doesn't wreck you. I also let you into a little secret about what my own pre-match fuelling used to look like in my twenties. It was not this. If you want the full pre-game fuelling checklist, the link is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X7fbSma-bmgGelpWMhu-0SanONEk7XAu/view?usp=drivesdk And if you like the sound of finding a community of grassroots players who get it, the next intake for the Peerless Pack opens on the 5th of October. The waitlist opens the week of the 21st of September, so come and find me on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching or drop me an email at nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk.

For months I put it down to burnout. Running my own business, two jobs, rugby, life. of course I was tired. But the brain fog, the low mood, the fatigue that wouldn't lift kept nagging at me, so I went back to my own menopause training and realised I was ticking every box for perimenopause. I'm 43. My periods are still regular. I didn't expect to be here yet. In this episode I'm telling you exactly what happened when I finally went to my doctor and burst into tears in front of her, what oestrogen actually does in the body (spoiler: pretty much everything), the full list of symptoms nobody warns you about, and why I've decided to start HRT alongside everything else I'm already doing to look after myself. If you're in your late 30s or 40s and playing rugby, or you're the older head in a changing room full of younger players who've never had this conversation with anyone, this one's for you. Let's stop pretending this doesn't happen to us.

This week I'm talking about what happens when you're putting the work in but the results just aren't showing up yet, because this week one of my clients hit exactly that wall. She'd had a brilliant few weeks away, come back to her normal routine, and three weeks back in she was ready to throw the whole plan out because she wasn't seeing what she expected. I'll be honest, my first reaction wasn't my finest coaching moment. But it got me thinking about what I'd actually say to any client, or to you, if you're in that same spot right now. In this episode I'm sharing the four things I'd tell you instead: why fixating on the end goal will wear you down, why consistency beats perfection every single time, why slowing down gets you further than a quick fix, and the one question you need to ask yourself before you chase any goal at all. It's a bit of tough love this week

This week I'm talking you through the easiest way I know to manage your calorie intake and structure your plate without ever opening a tracking app. Life has been full on for me lately, decorating, hormones, the usual chaos, and it reminded me how quickly nutrition slips down the priority list when things get busy. So I've broken down exactly how I want you thinking about your plate: protein first, plants and fibre for half your plate, a smart carb source, and fats done properly. I'll give you the practical tools I use with my own clients, from palm sized servings to the one measuring cup trick that saves me weighing pasta every single day. Whether you're trying to lose weight, build muscle, or just want to stop overthinking food, this episode gives you a structure for life, not just for dieting. Mentioned in this episode: my free guide to managing your plate without tracking, and the Peerless Pack, open for applications now with the next phase starting 31st August. DM me on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching or email nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk for more information on either.

This week on She’s Gotta Try, I break down what it actually takes to build muscle for rugby, using a real question from inside the Peerless Pack. I cover the three things you need for hypertrophy: training stimulus, protein, and fuel, and translate the science into something you can actually do around a normal life. Plus, the Peerless Pack intake opens on 17th August ahead of a new six week programme starting 31st August.

This week’s episode is the flip side of last week’s conversation about structuring your training week. This time it’s all about the eating around it. A Peerless Pack member asked me about meal timing for optimal performance and recovery, so I break down the basics of how your body actually uses fuel, the difference between aerobic and anaerobic energy systems, and why that matters for what and when you eat. I talk through the difference between fuelling a morning gym session and fuelling evening rugby training, share my own trial and error from this week including the big meal that went badly wrong, and cover what to do when you know you’ve missed your carbs during the day. As always, the message is simple: know your own body, test what works, and don’t let food rules take the fun out of playing. I’m also offering five free check ins this week if you want a second pair of eyes on how you’re fuelling around training, to book yours the link is here - https://calendly.com/nutrition-laurapeerless/30min

New to rugby or coming from another sport and trying to work out how to train like a rugby player? This week I’m answering the three questions I keep getting asked by new Peerless Pack members: how many rest days you actually need, whether back-to-back training days are okay, and whether you can weight train on the same day as rugby. I walk through my own pre-season week as a real example, plus how to adapt all of it to your own life instead of copying someone else’s plan.

We won our league. We’re going up to NC1 after 14 years in NC2. And now the real work starts. In this episode I go deep on Operation NC1 Ready, my 70 day countdown to Seaford Scarlets’ first NC1 fixture, and why I’m applying the exact same Tight 5 Method I coach my players with to my own preseason. I talk through what an optimal week looks like for me versus a baseline week, why fixed targets set you up to fail, and how building in a Plan A and a Plan B is the difference between all or nothing thinking and actually staying consistent. I also get honest about training through perimenopause symptoms, juggling two jobs and a growing business, and why this plan has to flex around real life instead of the other way around. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t know what “enough” looks like for you, this one’s for you.

I had a proper hiatus last week. Three weeks of posting three times a day, onboarding new one to one clients and a Peerless Pack intake finally caught up with me, so instead of forcing out a podcast I wasn't proud of, I gave myself 48 hours off and came back with a head full of new content ideas, most of them straight from my own clients. This week two of them had sevens tour on the calendar, and it got me thinking about how we actually navigate the chaotic, brilliant weekends that come with playing rugby. So in this episode I'm sharing my tour survival kit. Spoiler, it's not about packing fruit or hitting your protein targets. It's about permission, guilt, and how you get yourself back to routine once it's over. I also drop a small teaser for next week's episode, where I'll be talking about my own journey into NC1 as a 43 year old prop. Stay tuned for that

It's launch week for the Peerless Pack — the last one before September — and I'm knee deep in it. So this week I'm talking about the thing my mate said to me that's stuck in my head all week: what you forget to do in July gets remembered in September. I've taken on two new 1:1 clients this week, both women in their 40s finding their way in rugby, and like clockwork, they've turned up thinking they need to train six days a week, eat off a meal plan, say no to every social event and needed a cupboard full of supplements to get results. So today I'm unpicking all of that — what people think it takes, versus what actually works when you're a rugby player with a job, a life, and hormones that occasionally stage a coup. Inside this episode: the 10-second boot reel that outperformed everything else I’ve ever made (and what that tells us), the 80/20 approach to food that actually sticks, why I will never write you a meal plan, sleep vs supplements, and the Kaizen mindset that's getting me preseason-ready one interval at a time. The Peerless Pack opens for its last intake before September on Monday 6th July. If you've been humming and hawwing this is the one to stop humming and hawing about. DM me on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching or email nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk to get in before the doors close.

In this episode, I sit down with Holly Montabelli (known on Instagram as "The Rugby Midwife") to tackle a critical, yet often ignored, topic in our sporting community: pelvic health. Holly opens up about their personal journey as a lifelong rugby player and midwife who experienced a prolapsed cervix and pelvic floor dysfunction while training. Together, we bust common strength-training misconceptions, discuss the immense physical demands placed on rugby forwards, and share the exact breathing and rehabilitation techniques needed to restore core stability. We also dive into the cultural and structural challenges facing women's clubs today—from the normalization of urinary incontinence to the glaring lack of basic infrastructure, like sanitary bins in changing rooms. Tune in to discover how to identify key warning signs, seek the right professional care, and implement proactive team education to break down barriers and keep female athletes in the sport they love. Find Holly on instagram @therugbymidwife

This week I’m taking a step back to answer a question that came up in my business mentoring group: what do I want to be known for? The result is a properly honest rundown of what sits behind the Peerless Pack and my coaching, from my childhood at the rugby club to why a no bullshit, common sense approach to nutrition and training matters more than ever in a world of conflicting advice and AI generated noise. I talk community over competition, fun over grind, and why keeping women in the game for as long as possible is the whole point. Like the sound of this, come join the Peerless Pack. Early bird sign up for the Peerless Pack opens 22nd June - contact me @laurapeerlesscoaching or nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk for more info.

This week I'm back on my own and we're getting into something that's been on my mind after a very normal, very human weekend involving three consecutive days of drinking. Did it ruin my life? No. Did I still get the job done on Monday? Yes. And yet somewhere out there, a man with millions of podcast listeners is telling the world that two glasses of wine ruined his life for three days. So let's talk about that. Because when people with massive platforms conflate imperfection with disaster, it quietly reinforces the idea that you have to be perfect to be healthy. And that is not only wrong, it is genuinely harmful. In this episode I get into the WHO definition of health (physical, mental, and social well-being), why I think about it as a Venn diagram, and why chasing optimisation in one area often tanks the others. I also talk about the version of myself that spent too long trying to look like the right kind of fitness coach, and why I would rather be messy and relatable than aspirational and unattainable. Featuring: Friday balcony beers, a County Cup final at Twickenham, a birthday weekend for someone deeply missed, and the England Women's Rugby team still half-cut at their post-World Cup interviews. This one is for anyone who has ever felt like they ruined everything because they had a normal weekend.

This week I'm joined by Becky Jones, otherwise known as the Empower Coach, and honestly this conversation went places I didn't expect. Becky is an anti-diet coach who helps women break free from diet culture and unrealistic beauty standards. She grew up being bullied in a small Yorkshire village, developed a disordered relationship with food at 12 years old, and spent her 20s fighting the messaging that her body needed to look a certain way to be accepted. Now in her 40s, she's turned that into a career calling out the systems that caused it in the first place. We ended up talking about a lot more than food. We talked about what happened when my team won our league this season and got almost zero recognition from our club. We talked about being labelled "difficult" and "hysterical" when you ask for things that are completely reasonable. We talked about how women in sport are still being made to feel lucky just to be there, and what you can actually do when you're tired of beating your head against a brick wall. In this episode we cover: • Growing up in 90s diet culture and how it shaped us both • Why "skinny talk" is making a comeback and why that matters • The lack of recognition for women's grassroots rugby (and why 5,000 people clearly agreed) • How to find your voice and set boundaries without blowing everything up • Non-violent communication as an actual practical tool for dealing with institutions • Why BMI is basically useless for rugby players • The patriarchal systems behind diet culture and why Becky isn't shutting up about them • And why community, not comparison, is what actually changes things This one is for the women who've been told they're too much. You're not too much. The room is just too small.

At 39 I genuinely believed I had no business playing rugby anymore. So I hung up my boots, missed an entire season, and told myself that was just what happened when you got older. Spoiler: I was completely wrong. In this episode I am shooting from the hip and sharing the five things that took me from retirement to county trials at 43. Not theory. Not things I read in a book. The actual stuff I did, the mindset shifts I made, and the honest truth about what was holding me back in the first place. We talk about why I finally invested in a coach and what that actually changed, what structured strength training has done to my body and my confidence on the pitch, why I used to treat rest days like failure and why that was costing me more than I realised, how I simplified my nutrition after years of overcomplicating it, and the one thing that was quietly killing my enjoyment of the sport I love. If you are a woman in your 30s or 40s who is starting to wonder whether your best rugby is behind you, this episode is for you. I promise it is not. The Peerless Pack opens Monday 1 June. If anything in this episode lands for you, come and find me at @laurapeerlesscoaching on Instagram or drop me an email at nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk I would love to have you in the Pack. If you’re ready to take action then apply here https://forms.gle/JwvgHttK7GLHzHAq6

I’m going to be honest with you. The last few weeks have been a lot. Socialising, eating on the fly, poor sleep, and a body that was absolutely cooked after our cup final. I intentionally took a week off the gym because I knew I needed it. But the other stuff? That crept in and I can feel it. So this week I’m doing what I tell my clients to do when things have slipped. I’m going back to my Tight 5. These are the five foundations I come back to every single time life gets messy. Not an overhaul, not a punishment, not a dramatic detox. Just five simple things done consistently that keep me feeling good, performing better and staying sane. Named after the front row and second row of the scrum, the players that provide a strong, stable platform to keep everything safe, secure and moving forward. That’s exactly what these five things do for you. In this episode I’m walking you through all five. Protein and plants at every meal, hydration habits that actually work, why daily movement is not the same as training, why sleep might be undermining everything else you’re doing, and the mindset shift that holds all four together. I’m doing this reset alongside you this week. Not above you, with you. And if by the end of this you want to do it inside a community of women who genuinely get it, the Peerless Pack is back and we start on the 1st of June. Five early bird spaces available. Link to the app form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeds7rXSJY0zef0ZpQXPYZS5igR5UEWvanz6tt16eJRVN_nQ/viewform Come find us.

This week I’m getting something off my chest. I’m part of the most successful team at my club, league winners, National Plate winners, three-time County Cup holders yet when we won the league last weekend, nobody from the board came to watch and there was nothing on the club’s social media. Not a word. In this episode I’m talking about what that feels like, why I think silence is compliance, and what real allyship actually looks like in the grassroots game. This isn’t a rant, it’s a rallying cry. And I’d love to know if any of it resonates with you.

We won the league. 13 seasons in the making, two near-misses, one absolutely rank mud bath, and a day trip to Guernsey that cost more than a week away and we finally did it. In this episode I’m unpacking what winning the league with Seaford Scarlets actually taught me about goal-chasing not the glossy version, the real one. Because it wasn’t one game or one season that got us here. It was the boring stuff. The uncomfortable stuff. The stuff nobody sees. I’m sharing my five takeaways from the season and how every single one of them applies whether you’re chasing a performance goal, trying to shift your body composition, or just trying to show up consistently when life is being a nightmare. We cover: — Why you’re basically winging it without a proper plan — Getting comfortable being uncomfortable (and why it’s non-negotiable) — The danger of the “one big moment” myth — Why community will always beat going it alone — What happens after you hit the goal (this is where most people go wrong) If you’ve been waiting for a sign to stop messing about and actually go for it this is it. DM me PACK on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching if you want to know more about the Peerless Pack, or drop me an email at nutrition@laurapeerless.co.uk if you’ve got 1:1 coaching on your mind. She’s Gotta Try. Let’s go.

I’m 14 seasons deep, a qualified nutritionist, mid-way through my gym instructor exams, and feeling the strongest and fittest I’ve ever felt. But it wasn’t always like this. In this episode, I’m fessing up on some of the genuinely daft things I used to do in the name of “health” from 5am HIIT sessions on an empty stomach to kebab-shop pre-game meals and full-blown meltdowns when my pre-match routine went sideways. If you’ve ever obsessed over the scales, winged it nutritionally, burnt the candle at both ends, or told yourself you’ve “ruined everything” because one thing didn’t go to plan, this one’s for you. Five points. Five hard lessons. One older teammate who made all the mistakes so you don’t have to.