IDNTY #4

Cutting Through the Noise

Erica Mulholland on the Real Truth About Strength, Speed & Staying Injury-Free for Post-Competitive Female Athletes

Erica Mulholland training in her garage gym

For most of your life, you poured everything into the game—high school varsity, college, the late-night lifts, the early-morning sprints. Then life hit: the 9-to-5, the kids, the never-ending to-do list. But that fire? That athletic identity that made you feel unstoppable? It doesn't have to fade. And you definitely don't have to live in fear of injury just because you're a woman who once played at a high level.

Enter Erica Mulholland—former 3x All-American soccer player and Hall of Famer at Johns Hopkins, now a Master of Science in Exercise Science and Certified Strength & Conditioning Coach with 14+ years coaching female athletes. She's seen the fear-mongering cycle repeat itself for decades, and she's calling it out.

"There's never a dull moment in the female athlete space. There's always some sort of fear mongering when it comes to female athletes."

In the early 2000s it was "girls are 2-5x more likely to tear their ACLs because of wider hips." Today in 2025 it's estrogen, menstrual cycles, and "you're fragile during ovulation—maybe put your daughter on birth control." The message to post-competitive athletes trying to stay strong while juggling careers and families? Your body is basically a ticking time bomb.

Erica's done with it.

@fitsoccerqueen

The Biggest Lies Still Haunting Post-Competitive Female Athletes

Erica has zero patience for trendy nonsense that keeps busy, accomplished women from training hard and staying resilient.

Lie #1

You need "special" female-only injury prevention programs.

False. "There's no such thing as a separate injury prevention program… it's just proper strength training, and year-round," Erica states. "Girls [and women] must load and progress with heavier weights so they can truly build strength! They must also do plyometrics and deceleration (landing) drills year-round because motor learning with these take time."

Injury prevention isn't a cute balance drill on Instagram or a 10-minute warm-up. It's consistent, properly progressed strength work—exactly what post-competitive college athletes already know how to do when life doesn't get in the way.

Lie #2

We still need more research before women can train "like the boys."

False. "We have enough research to know what female athletes need… Female athlete bodies respond VERY well to consistent strength stimuli, proper nutrition, and proper rest days just like boys. Training doesn't need to be different!"

Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple's groundbreaking muscle biopsy research proved it: no meaningful differences in muscle building or protein breakdown across menstrual cycle phases. The takeaway? "Females just need consistency with strength training and muscle-building nutrition more than anything, so they can train hard and compete across all phases."

Lie #3

Hormonal fluctuations make ACL injuries inevitable.

Also false—and dangerously misleading. "The research is extremely confusing," Erica explains. "Some studies say the ovulatory phase… others point to the follicular phase… The truth is: we just don't know enough, so we're better off sticking to what we know helps injury reduction and improved performance."

Before adding complicated cycle-syncing layers, get the basics locked in: heavy lifting, smart plyometrics, fueling, and recovery. "Before complicating training… let's get [women] in the gym and eating enough FIRST!"

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A Real Inside Peek: Training That Fits Real Life

For the post-competitive high school and college standouts now balancing board meetings, carpool, and everything in between, Erica keeps it refreshingly simple and brutally effective:

Lift heavy and progressive

3–4 days a week. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows. Your body can handle it.

Plyometrics & deceleration year-round

Box jumps, single-leg landings, cutting drills. These skills take time to groove—don't wait until "injury prevention season."

Fuel like an athlete

Enough protein, carbs around training, consistent calories. No crash diets.

Recover like you mean it

Sleep, stress management, actual rest days. The same things that made you elite in college still work.

No $2,000/month menstrual-cycle-syncing programs. No treating your body like it's broken. Just common-sense strength and conditioning that respects your current life while honoring the athlete you still are.

Erica Mulholland coaching young female athletes

@fitsoccerqueen

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You're Not Broken—You're Built for This

Erica's message is loud and clear:

"Let's empower female athletes. They're not broken. They can train hard like the boys. They don't have to be told they're delicate little flowers…"

You already proved you're tough on the field. Now prove it in the weight room, on the trail, or in your garage gym at 6 a.m. before the work grind or your kids wake up. The same resilience that got you through college athletics is still in there—waiting to be maintained, not managed with fear.

Whether you're chasing PRs at 25, staying strong for your kids at 40, or simply refusing to let the athletic identity that defined you slip away, Erica's philosophy is your permission slip:

Train hard. Lift heavy. Land strong. Fuel right. Recover smart.

Your body can handle it—because it always could.

That's the IDNTY of the women who never stopped being athletes.

Train With Erica Mulholland

Erica's evidence-based strength & conditioning programs are built specifically for post-competitive female athletes who want to lift heavy, land strong, and stay injury-free — no fear-mongering, just proven training.

Explore Erica's Programs