Post by max23 on Feb 21, 2020 4:29:33 GMT -5
According to an article on the ABC News website, the Brisbane Lions Women's [Australian Rules] team track their menstrual cycles to optimise players recovery in a bid to help them secure the AFLW premiership.
The team's high performance coaching staff began tracking the cycles of 30 players with the inception of the AFLW, three years ago.
Coach Matt Green said the monitoring has given staff important data to understand how each individual athlete is responding to training loads and nutrition.
"It's just mainly around a couple of different things — the level of pain that they're having and if they're having their period for one. Then whether it's light, moderate or heavy makes a delineation for us around what the impact of menstruation might be on them," Green said.
La Trobe university professor Kay Crossley has also been working with the AFLW in injury prevention.
"We're certainly planning studies where we're trying to look at the relationship between menstrual cycle and a variety of injuries, not just ACL injuries and also trying to do some work in the performance space," Professor Crossley said.
Brisbane Lion's player Lauren Arnell said the usually taboo topic is anything but at the club, even with male coaches.
"If anything you hear about it all the time at training. With 30 players, it's probably one in four that's going to have their period each session," she said.
"In terms of the impact on the training, a lot of the time, it's really just if it's affecting you heavily, you can have conversations and training may be monitored and altered."
Green said the main aim of tracking periods was to ensure players avoided an energy deficiency known as the Female Athlete Triad.
Alarm bells start ringing immediately when a player reports missing their monthly cycle.
"That gives us an opportunity then to have that conversation in the first place around why has the period been missed," he said.
Staff can then engage with the team's dieticians, psychologists, physio and medical staff to implement strategies to get their period back or ensure they get out of the cycle of low energy availability.
Clare Minahan from Griffith University has worked with several elite women's sporting teams including the Jillaroos, Swimming Australia and the Gold Coast Suns.
Professor Minahan said it was concerning that elite athletes still thought skipping a period was normal.
"If that occurs for more than three months in a row that means they have amenorrhea and that needs to be addressed," she said.
Link to full article: www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/menstrual-cycle-tracking-female-athletes-performance/11966194
It'd be interesting to know if there was resistance from any of the players to having their periods monitored. I can imagine there would be differing levels of comfort about providing such personal information to the team's coaching staff.
The team's high performance coaching staff began tracking the cycles of 30 players with the inception of the AFLW, three years ago.
Coach Matt Green said the monitoring has given staff important data to understand how each individual athlete is responding to training loads and nutrition.
"It's just mainly around a couple of different things — the level of pain that they're having and if they're having their period for one. Then whether it's light, moderate or heavy makes a delineation for us around what the impact of menstruation might be on them," Green said.
La Trobe university professor Kay Crossley has also been working with the AFLW in injury prevention.
"We're certainly planning studies where we're trying to look at the relationship between menstrual cycle and a variety of injuries, not just ACL injuries and also trying to do some work in the performance space," Professor Crossley said.
Brisbane Lion's player Lauren Arnell said the usually taboo topic is anything but at the club, even with male coaches.
"If anything you hear about it all the time at training. With 30 players, it's probably one in four that's going to have their period each session," she said.
"In terms of the impact on the training, a lot of the time, it's really just if it's affecting you heavily, you can have conversations and training may be monitored and altered."
Green said the main aim of tracking periods was to ensure players avoided an energy deficiency known as the Female Athlete Triad.
Alarm bells start ringing immediately when a player reports missing their monthly cycle.
"That gives us an opportunity then to have that conversation in the first place around why has the period been missed," he said.
Staff can then engage with the team's dieticians, psychologists, physio and medical staff to implement strategies to get their period back or ensure they get out of the cycle of low energy availability.
Clare Minahan from Griffith University has worked with several elite women's sporting teams including the Jillaroos, Swimming Australia and the Gold Coast Suns.
Professor Minahan said it was concerning that elite athletes still thought skipping a period was normal.
"If that occurs for more than three months in a row that means they have amenorrhea and that needs to be addressed," she said.
Link to full article: www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/menstrual-cycle-tracking-female-athletes-performance/11966194
It'd be interesting to know if there was resistance from any of the players to having their periods monitored. I can imagine there would be differing levels of comfort about providing such personal information to the team's coaching staff.