… Nelson and her climbing partner, Jim Morrison, hiked to the 27,900-foot-high-summit of Mount Lhotse in the Himalayas and then skied 7,000 feet down. She’s the first woman to do so on that peak.
The average black diamond trail is at a 30-degree angle, and the slope they began their descent on was at a 60-degree angle.
“The skiing requires all the energy, and focus, and mental acuity that you can muster,” she said. “And then of course when you throw the altitude in you don’t have any of that.”
To fuel her hard months of training before the race, the Flagstaff, Arizona-based runner ate a steady stream of calories from smaller dishes and whole-food snacks, rather than three large meals. “This prevented my body from falling into a cycle of a few big spikes in blood sugar with lulls in between,” Crouch said in an interview with Runner’s World.
In the kitchen, she’s a master at swapping healthy ingredients in classic comfort food recipes, like replacing the sour cream in chili with a dollop of Greek yogurt. “While traditional American fare is loaded with fat and salt and often unnecessary preservatives, a lot of that can, fortunately, be replaced with better choices,” she said. Here, she walks us through her typical menu for the day. Check out how she fuels below.
he Journey is an original U.S. Soccer series that follows U.S. Women’s National Team players on and off the field as they work toward earning a spot at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. In this episode of The Journey, Sponsored by Motrin, U.S. WNT defender Abby Dahlkemper shares insight about her path to becoming more comfortable in the elite National Team environment. She gives credit to fellow UCLA alum and NC Courage teammate Samantha Mewis, who has been at her side for eight years, in helping her grow as a person and player as she pursues her dreams of helping the USA qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. [video, 5:07]
Owoeye and colleagues correctly addressed the concern of adherence to injury prevention programmes as key to achieve a societal health impact: ‘it takes more than just a prescription and education to get patients to take their drugs’.1 In order to be effective in the real world, uptake of the programme must be guaranteed.1-4 Currently, coaches and athletes use injury prevention programmes designed by researchers, however, uptake has been low to date seen by the continuous rise of ACL injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures.5 But, why is uptake low? Often times, we see that trainers and coaches hesitate to implement prevention exercises or even stop the proposed program,6-10due to a lack of 1) facilities/resources, 2) leadership/knowledge, 3) player enjoyment/engagement, or 4) training time/link to training goals.10 Some athletes find that prevention exercises ‘take too long’, are ‘boring’, ‘have no performance benefits’ or ‘are too difficult’. As a follow up on previous work by Owoeye et al., we would like to contribute innovative ideas on how to optimize adherence to injury prevention programmes.
Basketball athletes frequently engage in intensities ≥85% HRpeak throughout competition. Knowing the time spent competing at intensities ≥85% HRpeak can improve training protocols. The purpose of the study was to assess heart rate responses across 4-quarter games (N = 31) in an NCAA division I women’s basketball season. Ten female athletes were tested and monitored with heart rate-based wearable microsensor devices. Before the season, HRpeak was recorded through a peak metabolic test (V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak). Average (HRavg) and HRpeak were recorded for each game, and time spent in 5 heart rate zones (HRZones) were recorded: HRZone1 = 50-60% HRpeak, HRZone2 = 60-70% HRpeak, HRZone3 = 70-76% HRpeak, HRZone4 = 77-84% HRpeak, and HRZone5 = 85-100% HRpeak. Training load was calculated with the summated-heart-rate-zone model (SHRZmod). There was a main effect of position (p ≤ 0.019) and quarter (p ≤ 0.005) on SHRZmod and on time spent in HRZone1-5. Athletes accumulated the most time in HRZone4 and HRZone5 and in the fourth quarter, and SHRZmod was the greatest in the fourth quarter. There was no main effect for HRavg and HRpeak (p ≥ 0.110). Athletes averaged 34.5 minutes per game competing in HRZone5 or ≥85% HRpeak with nearly one-third of those minutes accumulated in the fourth quarter. Although there were no differences in HRavg and HRpeak from quarter to quarter, SHRZmod increased from the first to fourth quarter. Utilizing time spent in heart rate zones and training load with SHRZmod can provide valuable information to practitioners regarding the intensity and physiological demands of competitive basketball games.
… Concussions occur after an external force has been applied to the head, neck or elsewhere on the body, which cause a sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head resulting in a collision between the brain and the skull. Therefore, strategies to reduce head accelerations or decelerations after an impact might minimize the risk of sustaining a concussion. Athletes with a higher isometric neck strength exhibit a decreased acceleration of the skull after an impact and have a decreased likelihood of sustaining a concussion. Further, specific neck training interventions have shown to decrease the prevalence of concussions in male athletes. However, female athletes are thought to be at a higher risk, because they display lower maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) values as well as have lower neck muscle volumes than male athletes. There is a lack of
data about the efficacy of an intervention of neck strengthening on skull kinematics after an impact in female athletes.
Popularity of using handheld devices in clinical settings has increased, especially the use of motion analysis applications (MAA). Video-based measurement tools have been found reliable in measuring knee valgus in subjects without anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. However, there is a need for validation of using a MAA to measure knee valgus in an injured population given that they may exhibit higher degrees of knee valgus. OBJECTIVE::
To examine the reliability and validity of using a MAA to measure knee valgus during functional activities used to assess return-to-sport after ACL reconstruction (ACLR). DESIGN::
Reliability and validity study. SETTING::
University laboratory. PARTICIPANTS::
Twelve ACLR participants and 20 healthy individuals. INTERVENTIONS::
Each subject performed single-leg drop landing, single-leg hop, and 90º cut with simultaneous 3-dimensional (3D) motion capture and video recording on an iPad. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES::
Peak knee valgus during the landing phase was measured using MAA and 3D analysis. To obtain reliability, peak knee valgus was measured on 2 separate days. Reliability was determined using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and standard errors of measurement (SEMs). Validity was assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients by comparing peak knee valgus between the MAA and 3D analysis. T tests were used to compare knee valgus obtained between raters, within raters, and between the MAA and 3D analysis. RESULTS::
Our data revealed excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability with low SEMs of using a MAA for both groups. Significant, moderate to large associations were found in comparing peak knee valgus between the MAA and 3D analysis. However, knee valgus was significantly different between the MAA and 3D analysis across all tasks in both groups. CONCLUSIONS::
While a MAA is reliable for measuring peak knee valgus in individuals with ACLR and healthy controls, the actual values obtained by a MAA should be viewed with caution.
KTUL (Tulsa, OK), WCHS (Charleston, WV), Rick Lord from
… Players can hurt their heads in a lot of different ways on a soccer field, so now engineers and scientists are wrapping their heads around the issue.
Inside a really cool and pioneering sports science laboratory at Virginia Tech, a group led by Dr. Steve Rowson is investigating concussions, and the most effective ways to prevent them.
They just released the first ever ratings for soccer headgear and say the risk in the girls sport could be reduced by as much as 70 percent with the use of padded headbands.
This morning Flo Health, an AI-enabled women’s health platform, announced that it closed a $12 million Series A Extension funding round led by Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from Flint Capital and Haxus. The company plans to use the new money for the startup’s next growth phase, as well as product improvement.
The Redwood City, California-based startup is focused on women’s health. It uses AI to personalize the platform and takes users’ age, health goals and physical condition into consideration.
Objective Normal-weight oligo-amenorrhoeic athletes (OAA) are at risk for low bone mineral density (BMD). Data are lacking regarding the impact of oestrogen administration on bone outcomes in OAA. Our objective was to determine the effects of transdermal versus oral oestrogen administration on bone in OAA engaged in weight-bearing activity.
Methods 121 patients with OAA aged 14–25 years were randomised to receive: (1) a 17β-estradiol transdermal patch continuously with cyclic oral micronised progesterone (PATCH), (2) a combined ethinyl estradiol and desogestrel pill (PILL) or (3) no oestrogen/progesterone (NONE). All participants received calcium and vitamin D supplementation. Areal BMD was assessed at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, total hip and total body less head using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Intention-to-treat (ITT) and completers analyses were performed.
Results Randomised groups did not differ for age, body mass index or BMD Z-scores at baseline. For ITT analysis, spine and femoral neck BMD Z-scores significantly increased in the PATCH versus PILL (p=0.011 and p=0.021, respectively) and NONE (p=0.021 and p=0.033, respectively) groups, and hip BMD Z-scores significantly increased in the PATCH versus PILL group (p=0.018). Similar findings were noted in completers analysis.
Conclusion Transdermal estradiol over 12 months improves BMD in young OAA, particularly compared with an ethinyl estradiol-containing contraceptive pill/oral contraceptives.
Sports Medicine Research: In the Lab & In the Field, Nicole Cattano from
Take Home Message: Females who were former NCAA Division III athletes were more likely to report several long-term health benefits (i.e., very good/excellent overall health, healthy exercise habits, less chronic health conditions) than non-athletes. Despite these positive benefits, the authors noted that former athletes reported poorer mobility and higher anxiety.
Following an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, patients are often reassured that timely surgery followed by intensive physiotherapy will “fix their knee”. Not only does this message create a false perception of uncomplicated return to sport (RTS), it also ignores the large body of evidence demonstrating a high RTS re-injury rate following ACL reconstruction. In this article, we propose an individualised approach to the management of ACL injuries that targets a shift away from early surgery and towards conservative management, with surgery ‘as needed’ and rehabilitation tailored to the patient’s RTS goals. Education on the natural history of ACL injuries will ensure patients are not misguided into thinking surgery and intensive rehabilitation guarantees great outcomes. Further, understanding that conservative management is not inferior to surgery—and not more likely to cause knee osteoarthritis—will help the patient make an informed decision. For patients who opt for surgical management, rehabilitation must target strength and functional performance, avoid rapid increases in training load, and be guided by an RTS timeframe that is no shorter than 9 months. The content of rehabilitation should be similar for patients who opt for non-operative management, although the RTS timeframe will likely be shorter. All patients should receive education on the relationship between injury risk and training load, and understand that a home-exercise program is not inferior to intensive physiotherapist-led exercise.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sees one simple way for both the NBA and women to mark real progress in the league.
Hire more women in positions of power.
“I think there just has to be more, more of the same,” said Popovich, who during the offseason promoted assistant coach Becky Hammon, moving her one step closer to a head coaching seat. “There are more Beckys out there, they just have to be noticed and given the opportunity by people who are wise enough and courageous enough to do it and not just sit in the old paradigm.”
Last month, the National Women’s Soccer League wrapped up its season with a North Carolina Courage championship. Concluding its sixth season of operation, the NWSL is the first women’s soccer league in the U.S. to continue operation past its third campaign, a testament not just to the management and operation of the league itself but also a growing interest in the sport and appreciation of the women’s game.
Amanda Duffy, managing director of the NWSL, attributes the league’s success where others have failed as a product of several factors.
The league was founded by a group of owners that had experience operating both women’s professional teams and MLS organizations and launched with the support of U.S. Soccer, which currently serves as the manager of the NWSL.
Like anyone else waking up after being cryogenically frozen since the 19th century, I reflexively believe all the things Fifa says about itself. Nowhere is world football’s governing body more convincing than in its stated desire to grow the women’s game in the buildup to next year’s Women’s World Cup in France.
Back in the summer, 19-year-old Venezuelan international Deyna Castellanos was permitted to interview Gianni Infantino, with the result posted on the Women’s World Cup social media channels. “Next year in France, we will see the greatest, greatest, greatest Women’s World Cup ever,” promised the Fifa president. “We will have a country that celebrates women’s football – and this virus of women’s football will spread from France, over the whole world.”
Oh. Well, put like that, perhaps it is understandable that Fifa should be doing everything in its power to contain the outbreak of the virus. What else can explain the decision to schedule the Women’s World Cup final on the same day as not just the final of the Copa América, held in Brazil, but also the Concacaf Gold Cup, hosted in the United States?
… Women are often cast as conservative when it comes to investing, but the results for Giefer’s clients should be no surprise. In a sampling of 5 million users over the last five years, women fell pretty evenly across the risk spectrum, Riskalyze found in data provided exclusively to Bloomberg. Only 37 percent of women have a below-average tolerance for risk, 25 percent have an average tolerance, and 38 percent have an above-average tolerance. “The data show that the stereotypical risk-averse woman is not a reality,” says Aaron Klein, chief executive officer of Riskalyze.
Harvard Business Review, Dulini Fernando, Laurie Cohen and Joanne Duberley from
Women engineers have a visibility problem. Like women in other ultra-masculine sectors, they are often excessively visible as women, but overlooked when it comes to their technical expertise. This paradox gets in the way of forming relationships at work and hurts their advancement.
We wanted to know how women deal with this. In 2014 we interviewed 50 women engineers in three leading FTSE 100 organizations in the UK. All three organizations said they were committed to diversity and were attempting to hire, retain, and promote more women engineers. However, numbers remained persistently low, and in all three organizations attrition was high, especially among junior women. But the women we spoke to had remained in their companies, and several had advanced to senior positions. We asked them about their day-to-day experiences of work, opportunities for career progress, and how they overcame the challenges they faced.
Our respondents talked at length about how their competence was obscured by their gender.
Women and girls are increasingly encouraged to pursue STEM careers, potentially leading to greater gender diversity within research organizations. While Stanford historian Londa Schiebinger sees that as a positive step, she wants those organizations to go further by also supporting the changes to research itself brought on by the greater diversity.
“Everybody supports diversity these days,” Schiebinger said. But for the most part that diversity refers to the people on the team, not the outcomes. “Our hypothesis is that if you bring diversity to the team, you get diversity in the kinds of questions people ask,” she said.
And those new research directions could have their consequences. “If people are asking new questions we might also get new participants,” she said.
For all of baseball’s self-congratulatory braggadocio about being a “national pastime,” the game isn’t exactly inclusive. Opportunities to play baseball have remained elusive for women and girls, especially after reaching a certain age.
Given a prime-time slot at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s 13th annual film festival in Cooperstown, New York, in late September, “Shutout! The Battle American Women Wage to Play Baseball,” presented a multi-pronged inquiry into the systematic exclusion of girls and women from Little League to the big leagues, while also chronicling their successes and achievements in the face of tremendous adversity at all levels.
“All of this is tied to the much larger issue of how women in our country are marginalized,” said the documentary’s director, Jon Leonoudakis. “It seems to be woven into the fabric of American culture and history.”