In recent years, lot of advancements happened around health and sports science. However, women’s health is still often been ignored or overlooked as most of the research circled around male bodies. We’re finally starting to acknowledge how crucial it is to understand the unique physiological aspects that impact women’s lives and especially the impact on sports performance.
Female athletes often train in a world designed for men, lacking the insights to adapt their routines to their bodies’ natural rhythms. Despite extensive knowledge of training and recovery, we have largely overlooked how the menstrual cycle affects athletic performance. Consequently, female athletes find it challenging to tailor their training to their body’s needs.
Bridging the Gap in Sports Science
We understand that female athletes face unique challenges, particularly when it comes to how their menstrual cycles affect their training. At JOIN, we are committed to bridging the gap in sports science and to support every athlete’s journey equally. We’ve partnered with leading experts, including the Martini Hospital and UMCG/Obstetrics and Gynaecology, to advance research in this crucial area.
Together with Dr. Anne Marijn van der Graaf and the Sport & Gyn knowledge network, we’re working to learn more about how hormonal changes, fatigue, and other factors influence athletic performance. It’s about time that training programs reflect the realities of female physiology.
“So often, women are expected to train in the same way as their other teammates – men and women alike – without consideration for the regular impacts that come from their own unique cycles,” says Dr. van der Graaf. “We cannot ignore the impacts of fluctuating hormonal levels, iron availability, visible blood loss, and other contributors to fatigue, discomfort, and mental state that should be considered as we train toward athletic performance.”
Tailoring Training for Individuals
JOIN Cycling’s mission is to create adaptive training plans that meet the needs of every athlete. With over 400 professionally developed workouts and seamless integrations with platforms like Strava, Zwift, and Garmin, JOIN provides a comprehensive solution for cyclists at all levels. The app’s adaptive nature ensures that training plans evolve based on individual performance and feedback, allowing athletes to achieve their goals while balancing their busy lives.
Jim van den Berg, CEO of JOIN, emphasises the importance of this adaptability: “We want JOIN to be a destination for athletes committed to improving and needing clear directions on how to train today. Therefore, we need to understand the substantial impact of the female cycle on training to provide women with the best possible coaching, any day of any month”
Introducing JOIN’s Period Tracker
With the launch of our JOIN Period Tracker, we aim to support our female users and fill the research gap. The new feature allows our female users to log their menstrual cycles and see its impact reflected in their suggested training. This feature allows tailored workouts to align with the body’s natural rhythms, helping athletes achieve goals on their and their body’s terms.
This marks the beginning of our journey to understand and support female athletes better. With valuable feedback from our female users and collaboration with Sport & Gyn, a network of specialized nurses and gynecologists, we commit not only to enhancing our Period Tracker and deepening our ability to support our users but also to fill a crucial research gap.
