～What is Female Athlete Diary? ～

“Demonstrating the best performance and achieving satisfactory results in a competition” are a common goal for all athletes. To realize this goal, it is important to understand more about your body and acquire skills to keep yourself in a good condition. The Female Athlete Diary is, therefore, designed to enable all female athletes to lead a satisfying career by helping them manage their conditions.

The Necessity of Self-Management for Female Athletes

For females, the menstrual cycle can be viewed as a barometer of health. Females’ body temperature involves a periodic change of around 0.3 to 0.5 degree Celsius at the hormonal level. This hormonal change can affect one’s body and brain such as mood swings. Therefore, charting basal body temperature patterns may be used to predict the next menstrual cycle. Moreover, weight fluctuations, body fat percentage, pulse (heart rate), and hours of sleep are also important barometers in managing one’s conditions. However, if menstrual disorders resulting from overtraining and dramatic weight fluctuations are untreated, they may lead to decreased athletic performance and putting female athletes at risk of their career as an athlete.

In fact, tracking physical and emotional changes leads female athlete to understand their body and mind. If athletes understand themselves, they can perform their best and achieve satisfactory results in the competitions and races that they aim for. Furthermore, athletes will have a better chance for early recovery by sharing their records with their physicians even if they suffer from injuries or other physical disorders.