She stepped out of her chariot and started running down the street with the confidence of an Olympic Champion and the sophistication of a scientist. Her dirty-blonde hair flowed behind her in the gentle breeze, her playful side always accompanying her competitiveness. She was in the mid-follicular phase of her menstrual cycle. She knew that …
When Kyniska in ancient Sparta was riding her chariot at the Olympics and running to increase her fitness, she always had plenty of energy available. Female runners (and their coaches) need to be aware of the factors of the Female Athlete Triad (which has recently been renamed Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports, or RED-S), and …
It had been a week since Laura and I had spoken. I could tell she had been thinking about what we talked about. We were sitting in the bleachers at the track. She had just finished her workout, and the late day sun was casting an orange glow on the bleacher steps. “You can’t understand …
How you train the fitness factors—aerobic endurance, acidosis threshold, VO₂max, anaerobic capacity—is the same as how a male runner trains them. A VO₂max workout is a VO₂max workout, regardless of whether you’re female or male. The difference lies in the training program’s subtleties and where such workouts are placed. How the volume and intensity of …
In the 1800s, doctors thought physical activity would make a woman’s uterus fall out. As a result, women were not allowed to run races. We’ve come a long way since then. Women compete in athletic events just like men. And women run marathons without their uteruses falling out. A woman’s uterus is not going to fall …
The female athlete triad is a collection of 3 characteristics that puts a female runner at risk for bone injuries—decreased bone density, menstrual irregularities, and disordered eating. When any one of these characteristics are present, problems can occur. To determine whether you are at risk, ask yourself the following questions. If your responses indicate a …
Through the effects of estrogen and progesterone, the menstrual cycle exerts its greatest training-related influence on aerobic endurance training. As discussed in our CEO’s bestselling book, 𝘙𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, one of the ways to organize your training is to use a block periodization model, in which you congregate the stress with 2-3 hard workouts during the …
Body temperature changes rhythmically throughout the menstrual cycle, peaking during the luteal phase in response to the surge in progesterone. Progesterone acts on your brain’s hypothalamus, which increases set-point temperature. A higher body temperature increases the threshold for dissipation of heat. So a woman’s body must reach a higher temperature before her thermostat compensates and …
In a perfect physiological environment, the menstrual cycle will occur every month and always be the same duration. But that doesn’t always happen, especially with many girls and women who train with high volumes and high intensities and have a low percentage of body fat. They often experience irregular or even absent menstrual cycles, which …
The menstrual cycle, which occurs monthly from menarche (age 11-14) until menopause (age 45-50), is the defining physiological characteristic of females. The levels of estrogen and progesterone change continuously throughout the cycle as a complex interaction of positive and negative feedback mechanisms regulate the timing and amount of hormone secretion. With the large fluctuations in …
