Femtech: making your "on" days synonymous us with peak performance
According to new research in the growing industry of Femtech – tracking your period and working with the physiology involved – may increase your chances of success as a female athlete.
I wish I had known this sooner was the first thought that popped into mind when I was reading this article by Amanda Loudin. But instead of instantly getting to work and summarizing the information for my athletes as usual, I paused and decided to first use it myself to test if it proved worthy.
I was fully aware that women have been tracking their periods forever, so part of me questioned, why would an app make a difference? Also, a more specific sports related question came to mind, since most athletes have such irregular periods, wouldn’t tracking be too difficult? Yet, from my experience, I can now tell you firsthand why an app versus old-school tracking is more helpful and even for pre-menses or amenorrhoeic athletes, tracking can change your game.
Inside scoop
Personally, I have experienced everything a women’s period could bless one with — from late onset (commonly due to intense training), irregularity, abnormally heavy bleeding, infertility, ovarian cysts, and hyper-ovulation — and you can also add Hashimoto’s, a thyroid condition that can affect your hormone levels, to the mix. As a late teen and through college, I had very difficult time with the ups and downs of my energy, focus and emotions. This was compounded with the fact that the only suggestion from EVERY doctor was birth control, which never improved anything and actually added different issues that subsided, ironically, once I stopped taking them. Regardless, I was very hard on myself. I often thought that I was just not as tough as my athletic counterparts.
Naively, I also always assumed since my period was irregular, tracking it would not help. But now, that I have learned how to use a tracking app, I see in hindsight that tracking my cycle was possible. Even though my bleeding was inconsistent, the phases of my period including the rising and falling of hormones, were not. If I had tracked my symptoms while training, I could have detected that things were more physiological and patterned, and not just a in my head. I could have modified certain parts of my schedule and more importantly accepted what my body was telling me. Through this experience, I now believe those of you missing periods or dealing with late onset, can still greatly benefit from tracking physiological symptoms and adjusting or adding some personal wellness regimens, especially if you track for an extended time-period, say 6 months or longer.
Your options
The newest and best apps are much more than just plotting a red dot on the days of your period. For starters, scientists are far more advanced in understanding the different phases of our cycles and more importantly, putting them into terms that are applicable and easy to understand. Depending on your goal, here is a list of the top 10 tracking apps according to The Thirty but we are going to stay focused on just one: Fitrwoman because it is geared towards athletes.
How to take full advantage of the app
Tracking your period will not take place of hard work nor relieve you of the actual symptoms that coincide with whatever your body is going through. It can, however, make you feel more in control of day to day training, help you set more defined goals, and streamline nutrition, sleep, and other wellness choices.
Here is how you can jump right into the process:
1. Download the app here
2. Get to know the difference between high and low hormone days throughout a cycle and what they mean in relationship to training. If you are looking for a longer but great read, the book Roar explains this in good detail, otherwise Fitrwoman information is very clear.
3. Begin to track. You will see sections in the app for activity/symptoms/notes. These three sections are your ticket to understanding your body in detail over time. It provides options to mark no bleeding, as well as symptoms such as bloating, fatigue, breathing rate and so forth. For those whom are irregular, pre-menses, or missed your period but think it’s coming, still track your physiological symptoms. (Note: if you are not getting your period and assume you should be, it is important to discuss your situation with a medical professional – Fitrwoman is solely to track, it is not a medical/clinical solution).
4. Read the suggestions to get an idea of things that could help tighten up your training. Aspire works with athletes with fully written and hands-on assignments (team sports, gymnastics, figure skaters, dance, divers etc.) as well as those that are on a hybrid program and write part of their schedules themselves (cyclists, marathoners, and triathletes and other endurance sports etc.). Fitrwoman tracking can help those on a fully written hands-on program adjust some of the more important factors such as sleep, nutrition, mental skills training, relaxation, and recovery methods. For those that are in charge of picking and choosing your competition or race schedule, you can take full advantage and line-up harder training days, define strength versus endurance days, as well as choose went to rest or stretch extra.
5. Remember that tracking is a process just like conditioning. The results will not be overnight, but the long-term positives are well worth it. Also, be as consistent with tracking your symptoms (or lack thereof) as possible to get the full picture of how you can manage all the extenuating factors that can improve your performance.
Many athletes are finding great success with tracking using the Fitrwoman app. The Fitrwoman team has worked with some big names; impressively, some big names that have claimed much of their next-level successes to cycle tracking and working with Fitrwoman -- UK Women’s Soccer, Red Bull High Performance, USA swimming -- to name a few. Even if you are not aiming for international sports status, Fitrwoman or some of the aforementioned tracking apps, can help you pinpoint specific strategies to get you more on top of your game.
Contact us at Aspire if you have questions or want to learn more about streamlining your athletic game plan to perform consistently at your best.
