The current book presents the articles included in the Special Issue "Women in Sports and Exercise: From Health to Sports Performance". Readers will find in this book evidence about the relationships between physical qualities in sports and how women's performance can be optimized using dedicated training intervention. Moreover, information about the impact of the menstrual cycle on athletic performance will be revealed. Attention to physical activity patterns in women will be also disclosed.
Hyperandrogenism profoundly affects women’s lives from lowering self-esteem to changing cognition and affective motivation. The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common androgen excess disorder worldwide. While it is not the focus of this book, some aspects are discussed. The aim of this book is to improve understanding of androgen excess and its impact on several conditions. Topics include development of adipose tissue in females, insulin sensitivity, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and Cushing’s disease/syndrome. There is also a discussion of PCOS with emphasis on in utero origins and specific genetic and epigenetic factors. This book provides a wealth of relevant information for every endocrinologist and gynecologist who wants to broaden their knowledge of androgens in various conditions.
This is the first book of its kind to focus solely on the female athlete triad - its origins, its recognition, and most importantly, its management. Since the symptoms themselves cover a range of medical specialties, chapters are written by experts in a number of relevant fields - sports medicine, orthopedics, endocrinology, and pediatrics - with an eye toward overall care of the young female athlete. Additionally, each chapter includes suggestions on how to educate and communicate with young athletes and their parents, as well as trainers and coaches, on how to manage the illness outside of the direct clinical setting. The female athlete triad is often seen in sports where low body weight is emphasized, such as gymnastics, figure skating, and running, though it can appear in any sport or activity. The interrelated symptoms - eating disorders, amenorrhea, and low bone mass - exist on a spectrum of severity and are serious and potentially life-threatening if not properly treated. Psychological problems, in addition to medical ones, are not uncommon. The Female Athlete Triad: A Clinical Guide discusses all of these areas for a well-rounded and in-depth approach to the phenomenon and will be a useful reference for any clinician working with female athletes across the lifespan.
An Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal Winner A Progressive Book of the Year A TechCrunch Favorite Read of the Year “Deeply researched and thoughtful.” —Nature “An extended exercise in myth busting.” —Outside “A critique of both popular and scientific understandings of the hormone, and how they have been used to explain, or even defend, inequalities of power.” —The Observer Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready culprit for everything from stock market crashes to the overrepresentation of men in prisons. But your testosterone level doesn’t actually predict your appetite for risk, sex drive, or athletic prowess. It isn’t the biological essence of manliness—in fact, it isn’t even a male sex hormone. So what is it, and how did we come to endow it with such superhuman powers? T’s story begins when scientists first went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. Over time, it provided a handy rationale for countless behaviors—from the boorish to the enviable. Testosterone focuses on what T does in six domains: reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting, addressing heated debates like whether high-testosterone athletes have a natural advantage as well as disagreements over what it means to be a man or woman. “This subtle, important book forces rethinking not just about one particular hormone but about the way the scientific process is embedded in social context.” —Robert M. Sapolsky, author of Behave “A beautifully written and important book. The authors present strong and persuasive arguments that demythologize and defetishize T as a molecule containing quasi-magical properties, or as exclusively related to masculinity and males.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Provides fruitful ground for understanding what it means to be human, not as isolated physical bodies but as dynamic social beings.” —Science
Optimising Female Athletic Performance presents a comprehensive overview of the wide range of factors that underpin female athletic performance based on the most up to date research. This book draws from the disciplines of anatomy, physiology, psychology, and sociology to develop an integrated approach and illustrates how female athletes can be safely prepared for training and performance in a way that benefits their health and optimises their performance. The book covers the specific challenges active females encounter as they move through their lives from childhood, puberty, adolescence, adulthood, potentially motherhood, and on to the menopausal stage. As well as presenting the key knowledge and research around female athletic performance, each chapter includes real world examples in the form of case studies and athletes’ experiences. Each chapter concludes with a summary offering key points and take away messages for coaches and practicing athletes, as well as end of chapter quizzes to allow students to assess their own learning and knowledge. Optimising Female Athletic Performance is key reading for undergraduate students studying sports science and sports coaching degrees who aspire to a career working with female athletes in a range of contexts and environments. Content has been presented in a way that is easily accessible to students and to facilitate the practical application of knowledge by practitioners in a range of sport and exercise settings. It is also useful to active females to understand their own performance and enhance their experience of sport and fitness.
Women's sport in general has gained an increasingly higher profile and level of respect in recent years, and it is becoming widely acknowledged that a female athlete's training programmes will differ in several respects from that of their male counterparts. Despite this, there is a dearth of research evidence available to coaches and athletes to guide the planning and programming process, with limited comparisons of training adaptations between the genders and in particular, a lack of investigation into elite female performers. Strength and Conditioning for Female Athletes contains insights from various experts in this specialised area. This text outlines specifically what is and what isn't known regarding female athlete development, and exposes the gaps that currently exist in the academic literature, with practical examples of applied practice. Coaches, sports scientists and athletes themselves will find here a wealth of useful information, with topics including: needs analysis; programme design for the basic biomotor abilities; speed and agility; long-term athlete development; the menstrual cycle and gender-specific injuries.
This new International Olympic Committee (IOC) handbook covers the science, medicine and psycho-social aspects of females in sports at all levels of competition. Each chapter focuses on the specific issues that female athletes confront both on and off the field, such as bone health, nutritional recommendations, exercise/competition during menstruation and pregnancy, and much more. Fully endorsed by the IOC and drawing upon the experience of an international team of expert contributors, no other publication deals with the topic in such a concise and complete manner. The Female Athlete is recommended for all health care providers for women and girl athletes internationally for all sports and all levels of competition. It is a valuable resource for medical doctors, physical and occupational therapists, nutritionists, and sports scientists as well as coaches, personal trainers and athletes.
