Women are not "small men" Training and health issues

 One author I follow is Dr. Stacy Sims.  She has been doing research on female athletes for some time now and is active in promoting new ways to train, eat and maintain healthy bodies during athletic pursuits.  I sure wish this information had been known when I was an athlete.  

She wrote "Roar" and conducts research and presents at scientific conferences around the world.  I believe she will, with other researchers like her, help women to achieve more than they have.  

Recognizing and incorporating the menstrual cycle and all variations (using contraceptives) is one very important step she and others have made known.  I see it becoming a part of fitness trackers for women now.  (one problematic issue with this is that such information can be known, tracked and used against women of pregnancy age in areas where abortions are prohibited, so beware).  

Another "new" idea is that women require different nutrition than men.  Here we have a real problem because women are often encouraged by society to remain thin, but not eating enough has created an issue.  Women are more likely to be victims of LEA and REDS (Low Energy availability and Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome) Remembering that LEA is the exposure, and REDs is the outcome.

Here is the link to her Blog   You can sign up to follow her reports.  If you are a female athlete looking for help to maximize or optimize your outcomes, I strongly suggest you find a female coach who is aware of these issues and can train you appropriately.  

It has been my experience that male coaches tend to overtrain female athletes for a variety of reasons.  Age, biology, and genetics do affect a woman's ability to persist and recover during endurance training.  It's much more evident and important for long-distance races than it is for short-distance if finishing is the goal.  However, if you are seeking to podium on short races, it becomes relevant even for short races.  

If your coach isn't asking you about your cycles, or other female only issues such as breast feeding, pregnancy, mesntrual cycles, peri or menopause, you should wonder if they are actually giving you the best training for you.  So far in my certification training, there has been nothing about these issues in any of the educational programs despite the increasing awareness that these issues are very important to understand and factor in for women's training.  Right now the only way to find a coach who understands and factors in these issues is to ask what they have done to educate themselves about this.  Dr. Sims is one great resource and I recommend her books for both coaches and female athletes.