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Female Athletes
New thinking on training, conditioning, diet and
injury to help you compete at your best
Dear Colleague,
When are the women athletes going to catch the men? Never, say the male chauvinists. But I’m not so sure. Already scientists are suggesting that females have better endurance qualities than males, and that the marathon record might eventually fall to them. Looking at Paula Radcliffe’s recent achievements, I can well believe it.
However if women are to compete on equal terms, and do so one day soon, they need to be aware of the various special problems that female athletes face – and how to overcome them. Just because the sexes are equal doesn’t mean they’re exactly the same.
So I’m pleased to announce the latest addition to Peak Performance’s library of sports books, Female Athletes – Training for Success. And to be able to offer it to you today at a special pre-publication discount. (See below for details.)
In this 90-page workbook we identify the key issues relating to the training of women athletes, discuss the latest scientific thinking – then spell out in plain English their significance for the serious woman athlete or coach. Every page of this brand new report draws on the latest evidence-based thinking in sports science research – new findings that probably won’t percolate through to the general sporting press for many, many months, if they make it at all…
It’s a rare opportunity to assess the latest thinking on training, conditioning, sports injuries and diet for women athletes – and decide how best to integrate it into your own programs or that of your team.
Order your copy today and here are some of the issues you’ll learn about:
- What’s the physiological effect of taking the contraceptive pill, and how can it impact on your athletic performance?
- Why are female athletes so much more prone to knee injury – and what steps can you take to avoid such problems?
- What nutritional strategies can women follow to ensure that they are able to train and compete at their very best?
- How should women integrate strength training into their conditioning regimes?
- In what ways does PMT affect your athletic performance – and what can you do about it?
- Is it true that women athletes are less able to tolerate high-intensity training than men?
As you’re signed up on our Peak Performance web site to receive our weekly email newsletter, you qualify to receive this workbook at a greatly reduced price when you order your copy today.
What’s more, postage & packing is free. And you’ve got 30 days to decide whether or not you want to keep the book or return it for a full refund.
Yours sincerely
Sylvester Stein
Chairman: Peak Performance
Performance and the Pill: how does this common pharmaceutical affect athletic performance?
The oral contraceptive pill (OCP) is the form of contraception most widely used by women in general and sportswomen in particular. Undoubtedly, the main reason for its popularity with both groups is its high effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. Female athletes may also choose the Pill on the basis of other perceived benefits, including bone health, the ability to manipulate the menstrual cycle and control of premenstrual symptoms.
However, as a sportswoman, or coach, are you fully aware of its physiological effects, both positive and negative, and their impact on performance and health?
In Female Athletes – Training for Success we discuss the findings of recent sports science research, including a Canadian investigation into the impact of the Pill on both aerobic capacity and sports performance in female athletes. We also assess the various physiological effects of the Pill on women athletes, focussing on how performance is affected.
Finally, we set out a comprehensive list of the advantages and disadvantages of taking the Pill – to helping you make an informed choice.
Sports Nutrition: what are the gender-specific dangers for women athletes?
Nutritional advice for female athletes is a growing area of specialist interest, and indeed concern, for dieticians and sports nutritionists.
Amongst these professionals there is an increasing awareness of the often-limited dietary intake by women athletes of two specific minerals – iron and calcium – especially when heavy training loads are undertaken.
It’s now being realised that the apparently obvious remedial steps – e.g. simply consuming more iron in the diet in order to increase haemoglobin levels – are not necessarily the correct ones.
Female Athletes – Training for Success discusses the increased iron needs of women athletes. It identifies the various factors that make women more susceptible to iron loss, explains the impact of low ‘iron status’ on athletic performance, and suggests a number of practical steps you can take to increase the levels of iron in your blood.
We then go on to reveal a NEW marker of iron status that is a more accurate indicator of iron levels in athletes than the blood tests doctors typically prescribe. And we set out several easy steps you can take to maintain an optimum iron status – explaining why swallowing iron supplements in tablet or capsule form could do you more harm than good.
We also put calcium under the microscope, identifying the key factors affecting calcium levels in women athletes, explaining the implications for performance and for general health of having low calcium levels, and listing some practical steps you can take to ensure that you avoid this situation.
Strength Training: how should female athletes incorporate this into their sports conditioning?
Women naturally develop less strength than men. The differences can be explained by the fact that at puberty boys have increased testosterone levels which promotes muscle development and bone growth over the next few years, whereas girls have increased oestrogen which promotes quite fast pelvic bone growth and fat storage around the hips and thighs.
But the incorporation of strength training into your conditioning regime can do much to alter this situation in women athletes – provided you know how to assemble the right mix of exercises for your event.
In Female Athletes – Training for Success you’ll learn how to identify what training regime is best for you. Using the 10km event as an example, we explain how to work out which are the most appropriate strength exercises that apply to your sports event, and how to create a programme for balanced strength development.
Knee Injuries: why are women so much more susceptible – and what can you do about it?
As a serious sports competitor, you probably already know that the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most commonly damaged ligament of the knee, accounting for up to 50% of documented ligamentous knee injuries. But were you aware that ACL injury rates are four to eight times higher in women than men?
Or that female athletes who take part in sports involving jumping and ‘cutting’ such as soccer, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics are particularly at risk?
In Female Athletes – Training for Success we set out the physiological and biochemical reasons why women are more prone to knee injuries, and under what circumstances. So you can take steps to minimise your risk of suffering such injuries yourself.
It’s essential information that’ll help you avoid spending weeks, if not months, sitting out the season.
Pre-Menstrual Tension: how does it affect running performance, and what can you do about it?
In childhood, there is very little difference between boys and girls with regard to endurance running – and what difference there is actually favours girls who, in development terms, are slightly ahead of boys in the years leading up to puberty.
However, from late adolescence onwards, boys rapidly outstrip girls in physical development. Female athletes are faced with the tedious business of menstruation and/or premenstrual problems, commonly called PMT.
The effects of menstruation on the individual person vary enormously. In some, there appears to be no apparent inconvenience; in others, the changes cause considerable incapacity. The weight gain associated with retention of water during the premenstrual period is clearly a handicap to the endurance athlete.
It has been clearly shown that physical activity, in the main, enables the female to cope with the physiological changes incurred more easily. But psychological changes can, and do, affect physical performance. How and why they have this effect – and what you can do about it – is comprehensively dealt with in Female Athletes – Training for Success.
We discuss the four different types of PMT, how and why they occur – and what steps you can take to mitigate the effects of PMT on your training and competition.
High-Intensity Training: should women do less than men?
The ‘accepted wisdom’ on female athletes is that they don’t recover from hard training as well as males do. This slur on females does appear to make a certain amount of physiological sense. After all, the primary male sex hormone, testosterone, is a potent bone and muscle builder and connective-tissue construction. So theoretically, after a rugged workout in which heavy stress is placed on muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones, males should be able to rebuild those parts of the body more quickly.
Taking all this into account, many coaches design training programmes which are quite different for their female athletes compared to their males. The usual difference is for the male schedule to contain more hard, high-intensity interval work, with the female programme more geared to lower-intensity, continuous, non-interval efforts.
But does the latest research support the contention that males athletes recover from rugged exertions more quickly? In Female Athletes – Training for Success we discuss the results of new research from Finland on strength athletes. Its conclusions may surprise you…
Fat Burning: it’s easier than you think…
A big problem for older, sports-active women is that body fat tends to increase with age. This heftiness interferes with the ability to exercise: each additional pound of fat is a weight which must be lugged across the tennis court, carried around a 10K race route, or dragged through a rigorous, step-aerobics workout. The fat does nothing to enhance performance; instead it raises exercisers’ heart rates and makes workouts feel more difficult.
So endurance female athletes will be particularly pleased that we deal with the issue of ‘basal fat oxidation’ – specifically, how to increase the rate of this process to counter the natural increase in corpulence that we experience with age. The answer, you’ll discover is more obvious than you might imagine. And it’s an easy one to implement.
Details of your pre-publication discount offer
As a registered member of our Peak Performance web site, you qualify for a pre-publication copy of Female Athletes – Training for Success at a special discount. Place your order today and you pay just $38 (£19.99) instead of the full price of US$55 (£29.99). You save 33%.
Female Athletes – Training for Success is the latest in a series of special reports from Peak Performance, the sports science newsletter. This book is not available elsewhere.
Order your copy today and receive the following additional benefits:
- Advance delivery: We will immediately despatch your pre-publication issue, ensuring you receive your copy weeks before it goes on world-wide sale.
- Free two-month subscription to Peak Performance: the leading publication for Athletes, Trainers and anyone interested in finding out the latest research and information from the world of Sport Science (we'll also throw in the last five back issues AND a copy of our groubdbreaking 'coaches training secrets' report).
- A $17 saving: the pre-publication price of Female Athletes – Training for Success is a full $17 (£10) less than the official cover price. You pay just $38, instead of the normal price of $55.
- Our Unconditional Money-back Guarantee: if, for any reason, you decide Female Athletes – Training for Success doesn’t deliver what we promise, just let us know. We’ll refund your money in full, immediately and without question.
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Female Athletes – Training for Success is published by Electric Word plc, publishers of the Peak Performance newsletter, Sports Injury Bulletin and Successful Coaching.
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