96. Lift Heavy, Then Glide: A Smarter Recovery Plan for Women Over 40 | with Karen Kirkness

Dr. Karen Kirkness has spent decades in the yoga world and the last ten-plus years in anatomy labs earning a master's in clinical anatomy and a PhD in medical sciences. In this episode she and Kate go straight into fascia — not as packing material, but as a signaling system — and into hyaluronan, the molecule that makes your tissue juicy.

The surprise: more lubrication is not better. Fresh, long-chain hyaluronan tells your cells everything is regulated. But movement shears those chains into fragments, and fragments are inflammatory. Clearing them matters as much as making them. That's what a recovery day is actually for.

Karen breaks down what changes at perimenopause and after, why losing lean muscle and mitochondria puts the brakes on your body's own hydration, and what to do about it: vigorous training a few times a week, active recovery in between, and 'movement snacks' scattered through the day — the twist, the reach, the sprint to the stop sign.

Find Karen at spiralsyllabus.com and on Instagram at SpiralSyllabus or Karen Kirkness.

Questions for a follow-up episode? Email hello@ayurvedicliving.institute or leave a comment on your podcast platform.

Referenced in this episode

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/karenkirkness

https://www.instagram.com/spiralsyllabus

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1649-7221

Latest paper: The Myofascial Rheostat: H

yaluronan Molecular Weight Dynamics and Purinergic Signalling as a Physiological Feedback System

https://www.spiralsyllabus.com/

Work with Karen: Experience Spiral Motion Autumn Program

Caon, I., Bartolini, B., Moretto, P., Parnigoni, A., Caravà, E., Vitale, D. L., et al. (2020).

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3485–3496. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.011982

Caon, I., Parnigoni, A., Viola, M., Karousou, E., Passi, A., and Vigetti, D. (2021). Cell

energy metabolism and hyaluronan synthesis. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 69, 35–47.

doi: 10.1369/0022155420929772

Kirkness, K. B., and Scarlata, S. (2025). Understanding fascial tissue on the molecular

level—how its unique properties enable adaptation or dysfunction. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 27,

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Kirkness, K.B., da Silva, Schleip,R, Cruvinel-Júnior R., and Scarlata, S. (2026). The Myofascial Rheostat: Hyaluronan Molecular Weight Dynamics and Purinergic Signalling as a Physiological Feedback System. Frontiers in Physiology 17 (June 2026). https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2026.1854585.

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Raghavan, P. (2025). Muscle physiology in spasticity and muscle stiffness. Toxicon 259,

108350. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2025.108350

Raghavan, P., Lu, Y., Mirchandani, M., and Stecco, A. (2016). Human recombinant

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doi: 10.1042/BCJ20180054

Slater, A. M., Barclay, S. J., Granfar, R. M. S., and Pratt, R. L. (2024). Fascia as a

regulatory system in health and disease. Front. Neurol. 15. doi: 10.3389/

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Stecco, C., Pratt, R., Nemetz, L. D., Schleip, R., Stecco, A., and Theise, N. D. (2025).

Towards a comprehensive definition of the human fascial system. J. Anat. 246, 1084–

1098. doi: 10.1111/joa.14212

Stecco, A., Stecco, C., and Raghavan, P. (2014). Peripheral mechanisms contributing to

spasticity and implications for treatment. Curr. Phys. Med. Rehabil. Rep. 2, 121–127.

doi: 10.1007/s40141-014-0052-3

Stecco, A., Stern, R., Fantoni, I., De Caro, R., and Stecco, C. (2016). Fascial disorders:

Implications for treatment. PM&R 8, 161–168. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2015.06.006

Theise, N. D., Kohnehshahri, M. N., Chiriboga, L. A., Fyfe, B., Cao, W., Zee, S., Imam, R., Pichler-Sekulic, S., and Wells, R. G. (2025). Evidence of interstitial continuity within and beyond the human pancreas. Human Pathology 161, 105855. doi: 10.1016/j.humpath.2025.105855

Vigetti, D., Clerici, M., Deleonibus, S., Karousou, E., Viola, M., Moretto, P., et al. (2011).

Hyaluronan synthesis is inhibited by adenosine monophosphate-activated protein

kinase through the regulation of HAS2 activity in human aortic smooth muscle cells.

7924. Biol. Chem. 286, 7917–7924. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.193656

Vigetti, D., Deleonibus, S., Moretto, P., Bowen, T., Fischer, J. W., Grandoch, M., et al.

(2014). Natural antisense transcript for hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2-AS1) induces

transcription of HAS2 via protein

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