WE NEED TO TRAIN OUR
FEMALE CLIENTS BETTER
By taking advantage of hormonal shifts and appreciating female physiological
differences, you can vastly enhance your client’s outcomes, whatever her age, writes
female training expert Nardia Norman.
n 2016 at the Rio Olympics,
Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui
earnt international praise when
she told reporters that her poor
swimming results were due to her menstrual
cycle. ‘It’s because my period came
yesterday, so I felt particularly tired – but this
isn’t an excuse, I still didn’t swim well
enough’ she said.
In doing so, she broke a long-held
taboo: discussing the menstrual cycle
and, specifically, the impact it had on her
lacklustre performance. Yuanhui highlighted
one of the big issues in women’s sport today.
The menstrual cycle is an under-studied area
of sports medicine, even though it impacts
an individual’s performance, recovery and
injury risk.
But it goes beyond performance. The
menstrual cycle is the body’s natural report
card, and it tells a lot about the health status
of the woman. Biologically, the female body
has evolved to carry, grow and give birth to
a child. The female sex hormones oestrogen
and progesterone are the reasons why it can
do this. However, the sex hormones don’t
I
exclusively impact the reproductive system. Nor does every woman
choose to, or is able to, have children and fill that biological program.
The female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone influence
practically every system in the body, from bone health, body
composition and mobility and strength gains, to mental health,
appetite control and cardiovascular function.
These hormones, which are crucial to a woman’s entire being, are
created in the ovaries via the menstrual cycle. That is why menstrual
cycle irregularities or dysfunctions such as PCOS (polycystic ovary
syndrome), and reproductive system stress, such as excessive
exercise and low energy diets, negatively impact her overall health,
wellbeing and performance.
The menstrual cycle is considered so important to a woman’s
health that the ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists) in 2016 declared it to be a ‘vital sign’. This report
stated that ‘By including an evaluation of the menstrual cycle as an
additional vital sign, clinicians reinforce its importance in assessing
overall health status for patients and caretakers.’
In other words, a healthy menstrual cycle is an essential element
of being a healthy woman. So, what does this have to do with you in
your role as a personal trainer? Well, if you train women, of any age,
then it has everything to do with you.
Women are not little men with breasts
In the fitness industry our biological differences are too often either
dismissed or taken advantage of. Rarely are they given the attention
NETWORK SUMMER 2019 | 37