Advertise on podcast: She’s Gotta Try

In this quick episode, I'm talking about what to do when you're nailing the basics, getting your strength and rugby training in, working on your mindset, but you still feel like you're getting nowhere. Whether you're perimenopausal like me, struggle with confidence, or find that work and life always seem to get in the way, it can feel like you're doing enough without seeing any progress. So I'm sharing four questions to ask yourself to help steer you in the right direction: Have you tried it for long enough? Have you actually been doing what you said you'd do, or are you kidding yourself? Are you focusing your efforts in the right place? Are you giving yourself the best possible chance of success, with the right environment and the right people around you? I also share my own history of chasing quick fixes, the sofa habit that was quietly sabotaging my business, and why I believe every woman has the ability to be the best rugby player she can possibly be. This is the last call for the October Peerless Pack. Doors won't open again until early November, and that will be the last intake before Christmas. If this episode has got you thinking, drop me a message and let's see if we're a good fit. Find me on Instagram at @laurapeerlesscoaching or email [email protected]

I took the money and ran. Fifteen years in commercial banking, a redundancy payout, and the push I needed to finally do something with the two qualifications I'd been sitting on. This week I'm telling the story I've been keeping in the bank for a few weeks: why I built my business around fat loss coaching because it felt safe, not because it was me, the real reason I wore a scrum cap for years that had nothing to do with injury, and what hitting my 2000th Instagram post taught me about the difference between the person who started this and the one posting now. If any of this sounds like your own story, the Peerless Pack starts this Sunday, 4th October, contact me via @laurapeerlesscoaching on instagram to get in before doors close.

I took a week off social media and came back to a very strange week in women's sport. I share my take on the Sydney Sweeney ad debate, a HYROX moment that made me weirdly grateful for grassroots rugby mud, and why I think the Red Roses drawing with Canada might be no bad thing. Then I get honest. The last few weeks have been hard. I've lost a bit of my mojo, I probably won't be playing competitive rugby this season, and my HRT hasn't fully kicked in yet. So I walk you through exactly what I do when life starts lifing: my Tight 5 Method. Five pillars that keep you stable, like the tight five in a scrum, even when you're only moving forward by inches. In this episode I cover plants and protein (the only nutrition rule you need on a bad week), daily movement that has nothing to do with the gym or rugby training, how I get my fluids in when I can't stand tap water, why I use a 6 to 8 hour sleep range, and my three mindset rules: imperfect action, never miss twice, and unconditional permission with the F*ck Yes test. The next phase of the Peerless Pack starts on 4th October and runs for six weeks. If you play grassroots rugby, whether you're six months in or fifteen seasons deep, and you want to keep playing the game you love for as long as you can, DM me PACK on Instagram @laurapeerlesscoaching or email [email protected].

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected].

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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