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.

“Dr. Sims realizes that female athletes are different than male athletes and you can’t set your race schedule around your monthly cycle. ROAR will help every athlete understand what is happening to her body and what the best nutritional strategy is to perform at her very best.”—Evie Stevens, Olympian, professional road cyclist, and current women’s UCI Hour record holder Women are not small men. Stop eating and training like one. Because most nutrition products and training plans are designed for men, it’s no wonder that so many female athletes struggle to reach their full potential. ROAR is a comprehensive, physiology-based nutrition and training guide specifically designed for active women. This book teaches you everything you need to know to adapt your nutrition, hydration, and training to your unique physiology so you can work with, rather than against, your female physiology. Exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacy T. Sims, PhD, shows you how to be your own biohacker to achieve optimum athletic performance. Complete with goal-specific meal plans and nutrient-packed recipes to optimize body composition, ROAR contains personalized nutrition advice for all stages of training and recovery. Customizable meal plans and strengthening exercises come together in a comprehensive plan to build a rock-solid fitness foundation as you build lean muscle where you need it most, strengthen bone, and boost power and endurance. Because women’s physiology changes over time, entire chapters are devoted to staying strong and active through pregnancy and menopause. No matter what your sport is—running, cycling, field sports, triathlons—this book will empower you with the nutrition and fitness knowledge you need to be in the healthiest, fittest, strongest shape of your life.

The Exercising Female: Science and Its Application is the first book to provide students, researchers, and professionals with an evidence-based reference on the exceptional scientific issues associated with female participation in sport and exercise. Based on the latest research, and treating women as a unique population, the book seeks to critically evaluate current debates, present the science underpinning female sport and exercise performance, and inform applied practice for the exercising female. Featuring contributions from leading scientists from around the world, and adopting a multidisciplinary approach—from exercise physiology, endocrinology, and biochemistry to psychology, biomechanics, and sociology—the book includes chapters on topics such as: Exercise and the menstrual cycle, contraception, pregnancy, motherhood, and menopause. Body image, exercise dependency, the psychology of sports performance, and homophobia in female sport. The Female Athlete Triad, bone health, musculoskeletal injury, and breast biomechanics. Nutritional requirements for the exercising female, immune function and exercise, and cardiovascular health. Filling a considerable gap in book literature around the science of female sport and exercise, this is crucial reading for any student studying female sport and exercise science, researchers of female sport, and any coach, sport scientist, strength and conditioning coach, sport psychologist, physician, or physiotherapist working with female athletes.

This book outlines best practice protocols for body composition analysis of high-performance athletes and provides guidance on the use of new technologies for anthropometry. While surface anthropometry has traditionally been used to assess body composition through the internationally recognised methodology of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK), the recent commercialisation of devices, such as bioelectrical impedance technologies, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), ultrasound, 3D photometry and air-displacement plethysmography (Bod Pod), has led to the non-standardised adoption of new measurement techniques. In this textbook, leading researchers detail standardisation procedures for each technology: in terms of athlete preparation, test protocols, test reporting, equipment calibration and data interpretation. Each chapter covers a different tool: how it works, what it is used to measure, and what the issues are surrounding its validity, practicality and reliability. This book provides an essential reference for device technicians and sport practitioners, ensuring that high-performance athletes are afforded accurate and comparable body composition information to guide their training routines.

This superbly illustrated book provides information of outstanding quality on the presentation and management of the entire range of sports injuries and conditions likely to be encountered by the sports medicine physician, as well as many other topics relating to sports activity, events, and outcomes. It is the product of close collaboration among members of several ISAKOS committees, and the chapter authors are clinicians and scientists from across the world who are acknowledged experts in sports medicine and orthopedics. The book opens by discussing fundamental topics and principles, covering subjects such as the biomechanics of injuries, physiological demands in sports practice, sports activity at different ages, nutrition and hydration, strength and conditioning, injury prevention, recovery, rehabilitation, and return to play. Subsequent chapters focus in depth on overtraining injuries, neurological disorders, sports trauma to different parts of the body, and special clinical conditions. Further topics to be addressed are different scenarios in sports (e.g., indoor vs outdoor), sports equipment, biologic treatment of sports injuries, major sporting events, and patient-recorded outcome measures.

Since the observation in the 19th century that an extract of the suprarenal bodies injected into the circulation caused a rise in blood pressure, the endocrine system has become a major component in our understanding of human physiology. The introduction of radioimmunoassay techniques and the ability to measure minimal amounts of hor mones (a term derived from the Greek "to excite") have shown that acute exercise causes a release of a large number of hormones and that chronic exercise may further lead to long-term alterations in endocrine homeostasis. Actually, almost every organ and system in the body is affected by physical activity and exercise, much of it through the endocrine and neuroendocrine system. Investigation ofthe effect of acute or chronic physical activity on the endocrine system is a complex matter since the stimulus called "exercise" has many components, such as mode, intensity, duration, and others. In addition, several other factors, such as age, gender, training status, body temperature, circadian rhythm, metabolic state, menstrual cycle, and various external conditions as well as psychological factors, can modify the effect of physical activity on hormonal secretion. Moreover, the physiol9gical stimulus of exercise often provokes several and parallel cascades of biochemical and endocrine changes. It is therefore often extremely difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary events and between cause and effect. These limitations will be discussed in Chapter 1.

The use of antioxidants in sports is controversial due to existing evidence that they both support and hinder athletic performance. Antioxidants in Sport Nutrition covers antioxidant use in the athlete ́s basic nutrition and discusses the controversies surrounding the usefulness of antioxidant supplementation. The book also stresses how antioxidants may affect immunity, health, and exercise performance. The book contains scientifically based chapters explaining the basic mechanisms of exercise-induced oxidative damage. Also covered are methodological approaches to assess the effectiveness of antioxidant treatment. Biomarkers are discussed as a method to estimate the bioefficacy of dietary/supplemental antioxidants in sports. This book is useful for sport nutrition scientists, physicians, exercise physiologists, product developers, sport practitioners, coaches, top athletes, and recreational athletes. In it, they will find objective information and practical guidance.

Proven solutions for a better night's sleep, from the "sleep guru" to elite athletes--rest for success in work, sports, and life One-third of our lives -- that's 3,000 hours a year--is spent trying to sleep. The time we spend in bed shapes our moods, motivation, alertness, decision-making skills, reaction time, creativity . . . in short, our ability to perform, whether at work, at home, or at play. But most of us have disturbed, restless nights, relying on over-stimulation from caffeine and sugar to drag us through the day. The old eight-hour rule just doesn't work, and it's time for a new approach. Endorsed by leading professionals in sports and business, Sleep shares a new program to be your personal best. Nick Littlehales is the leading sport sleep coach to some of the biggest names in the sporting world, including record-breaking cyclists for British Cycling and Team Sky, international soccer teams, NBA and NFL players, and Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Here, he shares his proven strategies for anyone to use. You'll learn how to map your unique sleep cycle, optimize your environment for recovery, and cope with the demands of this fast-paced, tech-driven world. Read Sleep and rest your way to a more confident, successful, and happier you.

High-Performance Training for Sports changes the landscape of athletic conditioning and sports performance. This groundbreaking work presents the latest and most effective philosophies, protocols and programmes for developing today’s athletes. High-Performance Training for Sports features contributions from global leaders in athletic performance training, coaching and rehabilitation. Experts share the cutting-edge knowledge and techniques they’ve used with Olympians as well as top athletes and teams from the NBA, NFL, MLB, English Premier League, Tour de France and International Rugby. Combining the latest science and research with proven training protocols, High-Performance Training for Sports will guide you in these areas: • Optimise the effectiveness of cross-training. • Translate strength into speed. • Increase aerobic capacity and generate anaerobic power. • Maintain peak conditioning throughout the season. • Minimise the interference effect. • Design energy-specific performance programmes. Whether you are working with high-performance athletes of all ages or with those recovering from injury, High-Performance Training for Sports is the definitive guide for developing all aspects of athletic performance. It is a must-own guide for any serious strength and conditioning coach, trainer, rehabilitator or athlete.

This book offers both sport psychology practitioners and sport athletes a clear understanding of mindfulness to help athletes optimize sport performance. It provides a clear insight how sport athletes can learn to increase their ability to concentrate, be fully present during high pressure competition and how to effectively respond to distracting thoughts and emotions (e.g. performance anxiety; dread). The strategies offered in the chapters are based on Mindfulness Meditation Training for Sport (MMTS), an empirically supported mindfulness intervention for sport, which was created by the authors. MMTS has been adopted internationally by practicing sport psychologists – used with collegiate, club, and Olympic teams. Through offering a clear explanation of mindfulness and self-compassion (an essential element of MMTS), brief mindfulness based practices, and consistently offering how such practices link to performance – the reader learns to implement all of MMTS or elements of MMTS to help the increase their ability to focus, cope with difficult emotions, and perform their best when it matters.