You may have heard the word “macronutrient” being thrown around on “FitTok”, but what exactly does it mean?

The term macronutrient, often called macros, refers to the nutrients that the human body requires for energy and to maintain the body’s systems and structure. These include carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

It is ESSENTIAL for athletes to consume a ratio of all three macronutrients to ensure they reach their training goals.

Many female athletes (and their parents) want their athlete to sprint FASTER, jump HIGHER, or change direction more EXPLOSIVELY

But what is the MOST EFFECTIVE training to help enhance this POWER OUTPUT?

Contrast Training is an effective modality to enhance a female athlete’s muscular qualities to allow for GREATER POWER OUTPUT

This article aims to explain how contrast training elicits an adaptive response….and what your athlete needs FIRST in order for this method to work:

When sport seasons start, many female athletes stray away from the weight room as sport practices and games take over their schedules. The result: DETRAINING.

“But how can my athlete detrain when she is PLAYING her sport?”

It is simple, playing sports is NOT ENOUGH to maintain improvements realized outside of the season. In fact, after 3-4 weeks away from the weight room, all of the benefits your athlete realized begin to DECREASE and return to BASELINE.

Avoiding this detraining effect is easy, but it is important to understand why maintenance training is necessary if you want your athlete to maintain her speed, power, and avoid injury during her competitive sportsseason…..

As sports seasons commence and homework loads start to pile, female athletes are placed under massive amounts of stress.

Although some of the stressors are out of her control, there are 3 main factors she can manage that DIRECTLY influence how well she performs, recovers, and improves this season.

Read on to find out:

Just the idea of “carb loading” sounds too good to be true, right?!

Team “pasta parties” are often the norm before games in high school and college.

So, can a big bowl of pasta the night before a big game really increase your performance—or is there a little more to it?

Let’s take a look at what the evidence says!

“Vegans can’t be as good as non-vegans in sports.”

Is this true? And, more importantly, WHY do people make this claim?

To answer these questions, we must figure out what exactly ‘being a vegan’ entails and how protein consumption is very likely your limiting factor.

If you are a vegan athlete, this article is a MUST to understand how to ensure you are eating enough of the RIGHT type of protein you need to excel on the field or court.

Female athletes everywhere know their period will affect how they feel, and how they feel will affect how they perform. Although skipping a few periods or missing a period all together could seem attractive for a female who feels like crap on her period, a missing period or dysfunctional cycle is a HUGE warning sign that cannot be ignored.

This article helps explain the science behind the importance of a female athlete’s period in helping her perform and recovery and why a female athlete may be missing her period. Read on!

Many athletes choose to follow a vegan diet for various reasons - this article does not intend to help you decide if being a vegan is right for you.

Rather, this article does intend to help you understand what you need to prioritize in order to be a high achieving (and recovering) female athlete.

Protein is a necessary building block that helps your muscles produce force to propel your sprint up and down the field or court. But does your 8g of protein in your peanut butter & banana sandwich work the same as the 10g of protein from turkey lunch meat? What about the protein in your cheese stick versus your protein pasta?

Does protein type matter if you are an athlete vs not? Find out!

Summer is here! That means vacations, eating out, and lots of ice cream. When you fall off your normal eating habits, many female athletes may consider a detox diet or a juice cleanse to help eliminate those vacation “toxins” and lose a couple LBs.

But what is the actual science behind this? Are detox diets & juice cleanses a good idea for female athletes?

Read on…..

Does eating smaller meals throughout your day actually help speed up your metabolism? Does it really matter?

If you want to know what the science says when it comes to “boosting” your metabolism, keep reading…

SUGAR FREE and LOW SUGAR are often associated positively with health. In fact, sugar has been demonized as a type of addiction from which some people suffer.

But is sugar really BAD? And if it is, should female athletes limit their consumption of sugar found in foods like Gatorade or cereal?

This article aims to help explain the SCIENCE of sugar and how it should fit within a female athlete’s diet.

GMO’s sound scary….but are they really something to fear?

Find out the scientific FACTS when it comes to genetically modified foods and if they fit in the female athlete’s diet!

By Emily R Pappas, MS

For many female athletes, experiencing an irregular or missing period during the sport season seems “normal”. In an attempt to “bring her period back”, some doctors may still suggest taking an oral contraceptive.

But for many female athletes, an irregular cycle is a signal that a female athlete’s natural hormones are not working properly. Placing a young adolescent female on an oral contraceptive may create an illusion that her period is “regular”, BUT it does NOT mean that her hormones are working optimally.

Unfortunately, current research shows us taking an oral contraceptive is a “band aid” to the problem and does not address the CAUSE.

For female athletes considering taking an oral contraceptive for irregular or missing periods, this article is a MUST.

Supplements are intended to SUPPLEMENT a female athlete’s diet.

But which supplements can actually help her perform? And which supplements are just a waste of money…..?

For games or sport training lasting over an hour, lack of proper fueling will UNDOUBTEDLY result in poor performance.

Learn why intra-training shakes are necessary for sustained high performance….and why shying away from your protein shake is going to limit your ability to play

In the 1990s, the female athlete triad helped identify a relationship between low body fat, irregular periods, & low bone density

In 2018, relative energy deficiency syndrome helped identify the cause of relationship and what we can do about it.

Irregular or missing periods could be a HUGE warming sign and if not addressed, resulting in serious problems to long term health.

If your athlete experiences menstrual issues, this article is a must:

For female athletes who struggle with mid-game fatigue, many parents turn to extra conditioning to help.

However, she may actually need to improve her pre-game fueling.

Optimizing specific macronutrients and minimizing others has been shown to improve endurance and make a significant difference in your in your daughter’s performance.