As women’s soccer, rugby and other sports gain popularity, scientists are racing to understand how the female brain responds to head injury.
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After discovering most of our top female rowers were at risk of RED-S syndrome, Rowing NZ and its coaches helped the athletes take up a challenge to eat more. The glittering results in Tokyo speak for themselves.
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“Until a few years ago, elite Colorado track and field athlete Annie Kunz used to feel fatigued — even during her warmups. And then there was the constant hunger: Sometimes her stomach would growl in the middle of practice. She felt like she was always thinking about food, always restricting what she ate, avoiding whole categories — such as carbohydrates — completely, because she thought they were unhealthy….”
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A radio interview with RNZ reporter Claire Concannon on Our Changing World, alongside one of my PhD supervisors Prof Holly Thorpe. In this episode, we discuss Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, my experience of, & research into this condition, pressures facing female athletes & why multidisciplinary research is key.
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Coaches often encourage young female athletes to lose weight, expecting the dropped pounds to improve their performance in athletic events. Indeed, several female runners came forward last year saying they were bullied about their weight by a Nike coach. Now, research suggests the strategy may do more harm than good.
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Did you know the gut contains 100 trillion micro-organisms? Wowee that is a lot of little tiny cells collectively called the microbiome, that lives in the gastrointestinal tract (our intestines).
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I've been guilty of this saying myself.
Whether it is a new habit, a task, a new training programme, eating better... (or this post if I'm honest!).
In a nearly 17-minute video posted online Friday, Alaska running star Allie Ostrander said she has spent the last five weeks partially hospitalized for treatment of a long-term eating disorder and is prioritizing treatment over training as the U.S. Olympic trials for track and field approach.
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“While gutsy weightlifter Megan Signal waits to hear if she's off to her first Olympics, she's helping aspiring female athletes bridge the knowledge gap around wellness and support.”
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Why does the number on a body scale carry such ‘weight’ on the happiness and worth for some individuals?
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There are many euphemisms for the word ‘period.’ Can you openly say to someone, “I’ve got my period at the moment.” Or, are you comfortable in hearing, “I’ve got my period at the moment.”
Did you cringe, or even blush, reading that?
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Whether it’s on Instagram, TikTok or TV, we’re constantly bombarded with images of perfect bodies. And it’s particularly relentless for us cyclists. The ideal body for us, we’re led to believe, is super-lean, if not super-skinny. This body image is reinforced by the pro peloton. Riders are pushing their body composition like never before, and it’s glorified on social media with images of vein-bulging, ripped legs beneath tiny torsos. Of course, this is what top-level cycling physiology looks like, but it has a dark side too.
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UNDER-FUELLING AFFECTS MEN TOO
This article was released on 21 April 2021, by Alex Ballinger in Cycling News.
“Jakob Fuglsang has said he wasted eight years of career by not eating enough.
The Astana rider has compared his own career to that of cycling’s rising stars like Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel, who are winning at the highest level after just a few short years in the peloton…”
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Presented by three curious young women; journalist Lucy Lomax, Dr Georgie Bruinvels and Dr Jess Piaseck bring important discussions for and about women to the forefront in easy to listen to audio episodes which you will find on the Female Athlete Podcast.
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This article was released 26 March 2021, by Suzanne McFadden in LockerRoom
Olympic champ Jo Aleh: I’m stronger now I eat
Jo Aleh reveals she made herself ill during her stunning Olympic sailing career by making herself lighter - as NZ high performance sport moves to improve the wellbeing of athletes and coaches.
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This article was released on 21 March 2021, by Fiona Tomas in The Telegraph
‘If I wanted a baby, I needed my body healthy': Ex-cyclist Nikki Brammeier on tackling missed periods and RED-S
Stuck in a cycle of disordered eating, Brammeier suffered from Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) - now she wants to help others
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This article was released March 18 2021, by Ashley Stanley in LockerRoom
Battling mind and body through Ironman
Lauren Mackessack-Leitch represented Great Britain in figure skating, left the sport with ongoing injuries and mental battles but is back on track in a new sport and going the distance.
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The following articles I have put together that follows Bobby Clay, a British runner that has suffered from RED-S during her athletic career and now lives with osteoporosis.
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Georgia and I meet while being a part of the National cycling programme in New Zealand. Being a sprinter and at the other end of the spectrum to endurance events, I admired Georgia’s endurance superiority, and her ability to get push herself hard with gruelling endurance sessions and races. She is a top-class athlete on and off the bike and I’m so grateful she has shared her story and continues to be an athlete advocate who has recovered from RED-S and is performing well on the world stage.
I linked two news stories that you will find interesting and empowering to read.
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This was an article released September 22, 2020 by Madeleine Kelly in Canadian Running Magazine.
Bowerman runner opens up about dealing with RED-S. Elise Cranny wants runners to speak openly about the dangers and prevalence of RED-S.
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