{"id":1254,"date":"2019-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-the-english-institute-of-sport-is-optimising-performance-for-its-female-athletes\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:36","slug":"english-institute-of-sport-female-athletes","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/english-institute-of-sport-female-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"How the English Institute of Sport is Optimising Performance for its Female Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Mar 21, 2019 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How the English Institute of Sport is Optimising Performance for its Female Athletes<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dr Emma Ross introduces EIS\u2019 SmartHER campaign and its focus on the female-specific factors of performance.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Sport needs to be smarter in supporting its female athletes in the performance environment.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

The notable gaps in understanding and knowledge stem from the lack of research into female athletes, with studies seen by the English Institute of Sport [EIS] suggesting that as little as 3% of sports performance research has looked at training, recovery and the general wellbeing of female competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of research findings in sports performance are only applicable to male athletes,\u201d observes EIS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could adjust training, recovery, nutrition and the environment to account for specific female physiology and genetic profile, you could guarantee better performance outcomes for female health, wellbeing and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its quest to optimise female-specific factors around training and performance, EIS has rolled out its SmartHER campaign.<\/p>\n

It says: \u201cWe want to create a place where it\u2019s absolutely vital, in the pursuit of world class performance, to have the best evidence, insight and culture to ensure we have informed and open conversations about anything and everything that might help female athletes fulfil their performance potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leaders Performance Institute spoke to Dr Emma Ross, EIS Co-Head of Physiology, to explore how SmartHer is already benefiting the female athletes who enter its high performance system. \u201cWe know there are gaps and these gaps are quite big,\u201d she begins, \u201cbut that provides us with an amazing opportunity to improve performance and wellbeing. That\u2019s what is truly motivating us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding the fundamentals of female athletes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ross admits that the workshops arranged by SmartHER refreshed even her knowledge of basic biology and have proven useful in dispelling common misconceptions around female athletes and their menstrual cycle. She says: \u201cWhile a female athlete cannot be defined by the fact that she has a menstrual cycle, her fluctuating hormones really do have a massive impact on the things that she does, whether that would be motivation to train, mood and emotion, ability to adapt to a certain training stimulus, how she might communicate or be communicated to.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things might be affected by these powerful hormones that fluctuate through a female\u2019s physiology over the course of a month. Understanding the basic biology of females is a good starting point for us and, in doing that, we really understand the gaps in terms of the data that\u2019s collected in sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientific research either tends to just look at men or at females in one specific point in their menstrual cycle when their key hormones are quite low and so they closely resemble male athletes. There\u2019s very little research that takes into account what a female looks like in terms of this intervention or outcome measure when she\u2019s in different phases of her menstrual cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deficit, Ross explains, has also affected the medicine. She says: \u201cThey\u2019re now finding that there are medical treatments, which at certain times in the menstrual cycle, have the opposite effect or increase the propensity for illness \u2013 because the clinical trials were all done on men.\u201d<\/p>\n

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