Lots of studies have been done on the effects of exercise on men. But when it comes to exercise and women’s health, there’s still so much we don’t know. Here, exercise physiologist Dr. Michaela Devries-Aboud and Medcan’s Clinical and Product Director of Sports Medicine, Therapy, Rehabilitation and Fitness, Dr. Andrew Miners, explore what we do know about women and exercise, and how that knowledge could change the way you approach your workouts.

One measure of aerobic fitness is VO2max—and one ranking of the best-ever VO2max scores features five cross-country skiers in the top 10 results. So for our Winter Olympic special, host Shaun Francis and his team investigated what’s so great about cross-country skiing.

We’ve spent 99 episodes interviewing global experts about optimal wellness. So for our 100th episode, host Shaun Francis and his team turned the mic over to listeners and explored audience-submitted Eat, Move and Think stories. Also: An Omicron COVID-19 update from Medcan’s chief medical officer, Dr. Peter Nord.

Many of us have goals we want to accomplish. Some of us will achieve them. Others won’t. University of Victoria exercise psychologist Dr. Ryan Rhodes has devoted his career to determining why people don’t do the things they want to do—and devised strategies to help. (Encore episode.)

Eat Move Think experts nutritionist Leslie Beck (eat), our host Shaun Francis (move), psychologist Dr. Jack Muskat (think) and Dr. Peter Nord (medicine) discuss the year that was, make their picks for the wellness trend that dominated the last 12 months, and speculate about what’s to come in 2022.

Keijo Taivassalo is 82 years old, and at the 2021 Boston Marathon he demolished the competition, winning his age group by more than 30 minutes. We think Keijo is the embodiment of the Eat Move Think approach to living a long and healthy life. So what’s his secret? We had Medcan’s chief medical officer, Dr. Peter Nord, sit down with Keijo to explore the life of the master marathoner, and the lessons the rest of us can draw from it.

Should we break up our days with short bouts of exercise? Should we trade the single 45-minute workout with three 15-minute bouts, or even smaller units of physical activity? According to The One-Minute Workout author and McMaster kinesiology professor Martin Gibala, a series of short exercise bursts distributed throughout the day provides a wide variety of health and longevity benefits. In this episode, Prof. Gibala chats with host Shaun Francis about the benefits of exercise snacking, and how to do it right.

There are a lot of self-help books out there, but none of them are written by a hockey legend with four Olympic gold medals and a medical degree. Hayley Wickenheiser’s extraordinary success as a woman in a male-dominated sport happened because of her remarkable grit and resilience. In this episode, she chats with Medcan’s Chief People & Growth Officer Bronwen Evans about her new book, Over the Boards: Lessons from the Ice, and tells stories of the moments and mentors that made her who she is.

Want a cheat sheet on how to extend your life, while staying healthy and happy along the way? Medcan Chief Medical Officer Dr. Peter Nord has been a sailor for more than 50 years. He noticed that his fellow sailors are staying incredibly fit, sharp and healthy well into their old age. This week, Dr. Nord joins host Shaun Francis to describe five secrets of longevity drawn from the sailor’s lifestyle.

What’s the difference between getting through the day and performing at your absolute best? A whole lot, argues Dr. Greg Wells—and he wants to help you get there. Dr. Wells is a physiologist who takes the latest training techniques from elite athletics and applies them to corporate executives. On this week’s episode, Dr. Wells joins host and Medcan CEO Shaun Francis to discuss the benefits of recovery, why we all need to be thinking about how to sleep better and how to optimize our lives for the best results.

When Canadian rugby star Phil Mackenzie left the sport, he had to redefine his relationship to fitness. That led him to launching Leansquad, an incredibly popular online business dedicated to helping people get fit and stay healthy, and becoming one of the most influential Canadians in the industry. On this week’s episode, he sits down with host and Medcan CEO Shaun Francis to discuss his rugby career, how he made the transition from athlete to trainer and how his fitness mindset has evolved.

Gyms have been closed for months. Now, with fitness centres reopening across Canada, we have an opportunity. We can get back into our fitness regimens—or start a new one. This week, Stephen Salzmann, Medcan director of fitness, and fitness manager Anna Topali join executive producer Christopher Shulgan to discuss how to form an exercise habit that’s part of our daily lives, and not just a chore we force ourselves to do.

If you could take a pill that helped you live longer, would you? The good news is, you don’t need a prescription at all—you just need to move. Yet, many of us don’t meet the minimum recommended levels of movement; in fact, 1.5 billion people around the world are so inactive they are at greater risk of everything from heart disease to cancer and dementia. Journalist Peter Walker, author of The Miracle Pill, joins us to discuss how our world discourages movement, and what we need to do to change it.