Development and evaluation of an ovarian hormone profile classification tool for female athletes: step one of a two-step process to determine ovarian hormone profiles.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a reliable, comprehensive and fit-for-purpose tool for classifying ovarian hormone profiles (OHPs) (step one of a two-step process) in postmenarcheal to perimenopausal female athletes.

Methods: The OHP classification tool was designed by a team of sport scientists, practitioners and medics and is intended for use by sport practitioners. It incorporates self-reported data and guides subsequent verification methods.

The use of saliva and blood progesterone to profile the menstrual cycles of youth professional football players.

Background: Understanding individual ovarian hormone cycles and their relationship with health, performance and injuries is highly important to practitioners supporting female athletes. Venous blood sampling is the current gold standard for measuring the ovarian hormones, but the invasive nature of this method presents a major barrier in sport environments. Saliva analysis may offer an alternative method as it is non-invasive, allowing the sample to be collected "", with relative ease, necessary in applied sport environments.

Female Athlete Sport Science Versus Applied Practice: Bridging the Gap.

Background: Female-specific science, medicine, and innovation have grown steadily since the turn of the decade as the focus on female sport continues to advance. While this growth is welcome, and despite the best of intentions, it is not always coupled with valuable application.

Purpose: This commentary discusses barriers faced when developing and applying sport-science research and innovation activities in female sport.

How Humans Run Faster: The Neuromechanical Contributions of Functional Muscle Groups to Running at Different Speeds.

How the neuromechanics of the lower limb functional muscle groups change with running speed remains to be fully elucidated, with implications for our understanding of human locomotion, conditioning, and injury prevention. This study compared the neuromechanics (ground reaction and joint kinetics, kinematics and muscle activity) of middle-distance athletes running on an instrumented treadmill at six wide-ranging speeds (2.78-8.