Female Athlete Triad Syndrome

Female participation in sports is drastically increasing. Today's athletes are competitive and strong. As a result, it is important to look at the health concerns specific to women athletes.
The Female Athlete Triad is what women are at risk for. The triad consists of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis.

The first part of the triad, disordered eating, affects 16% to 72% of women athletes. Disordered eating is not only defined as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. Specific to the triad, the main aspect of disordered eating is that the female athlete's regular diet does not provide sufficient calories to for their sports and training; and, this is not always a conscious restriction of calorie intake. Many times, these athletes have ritualized nutrition habits, compulsive behavior, low intake of food and increaded energy expenditure. Generally it starts as monitoring food consumption, moving to restricting foods from the diet (such as red meats or fats) and then eventually limiting acceptable foods.

Disordered eating can consequently lead to the second aspect of the triad, amenorrhea. Primary amenorrhea is the delayed onset of a menstrual cycle (older than 16 years old). Secondary amenorrhea is lack of menstrual cycle for 6 months or more, having once had normal menstrual function. Recent research theories suggest that caloric deficit results in too little energy to keep up the endocrine reproductive system, and as a result the menstrual cycle stops. It is uncommon for coaches to ask their female athletes about their menstrual cycle, and a lot of female athletes are not worried about the lack of their menstrual cycle because it is convenient.

The third component is osteoporosis. Amenorrhea is highly correlated with osteoporosis, premature bone loss or inadequate bone formation. Consequently low bone mass, micro architectural deterioration, increased skeletal fragility, and increase risk of stress fracture are all risks. It is imperative for female athletes to keep up their bone mass during their teenage years and early 20’s. If high levels of bone mass are not obtained during this window, because women are loosing bone mass when bone should be forming, the athlete is predisposed to premature, irreversible osteoporosis.

PREVENTION:
To prevent female athletes from embarking on this dangerous path, it is important to look for these risk factors:
Chronic dieting
Low self-esteem
Family dysfunction
Perfectionism, and
Lack of nutrition knowledge

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the bodybuilder

How to build muscle:

1. Increase strength: more strength equals more muscle. A combination of weight lifting and calisthenics will allow for strength to increase over time.

2. Incorporate free weights in addition to machines.

3. Do compound exercises that work more that one muscle at one time. For example instead of leg extensions, try squats and dead lifts.

4. Recover. Work your way up to working out 5-6 times per week. Get plenty of rest. While exercising focus on intensity instead of time. Also, make sure you get plenty of sleep. Growth hormone is released while at rest. Aim for 8 hours per night. Stay hydrated not only while exercising but throughout the day.

5. Eat whole foods. Your diet should consist of lean protein (chicken, fish, egg whites), complex carbs (oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes), fresh fruits and vegetables, fats (nuts, olive oil, fish oil)

6. Eat more frequently. Aim for six meals a day. Try to cosume all carbs before 3 pm. Post workout consume protein and carbs to help repair muscle.

7. Log your workouts and your daily food consumption. Keeping a journal helps you stay focused and allows you to monitor progress.

Women's Tri-Fitness 2009

This past July, I competed in the Women's Tri-Fitness Competition that was held in Las Vegas, NV. Over 200 athletes from all around the world joined together to compete in this ultimate fitness experience. There are three components to the Tri-Fitness Competition: grace & physique/fitness routine, obstacle course and fitness skills (box jumps, bench pressing and a shuttle run). These events test all althlete's strength, flexibility, endurance, agility, power and all areas of fitness.

The first event is grace & physique. The athlete is judged based on: grace and poise presentation, symmetry, overall firmness and overall appearence.

The second event is a fitness routine event. Athletes are judged based on: strength moves, flexibility, choreography, endurance, overall presentation, enthusiasm and appearence.

Fitness skills are next. Box jumps are the first event. Athletes are required to jump on an 20 inch box fifty times as fast as they can. Athletes strive for a score of 34 seconds. Next comes bench pressing. Athletes bench 60% of their body weight. A perfect score is 50 reps. Third, is the shuttle run. Ten bean bags are placed 20 ft from a square riser. The athlete is timed as they run and grab each bag and place it in the riser.

The obstacle course comes next. The obstacle course consists of a 10 ft wall, a 15 ft. running grid, 16 incline-decline monkey bars, a balance beam, a 15 ft. cargo net, a shuttle run, 3 hurdles, a steeple chase box, an under bar and an over bar. Idealy the athlete wants to complete the course in under a minute.

For all of the events athletes are categorized by age. Weight is only considered for the bench pressing component. In addition, the east coast and the west coast compete against each other. In the end, which ever coast has the more successful athletes for each event wins. This year the east coast won in every category.