How do gymnasts deal with their period?
Tampons are a common choice for many dancers and gymnasts for a lot of the same reasons as the menstrual cup – they're invisible under your leotard. If you're comfortable with using tampons, this can be a good option.
Any changes in normal hormone levels can lead to menstrual dysfunction, especially in athletes. This can be caused by overtraining, stress, dieting and weight loss. Typically, menstrual dysfunction occurs when the amount of energy used by athletes exceeds the amount of energy taken in through nutrition.
A high level gymnast usually doesn't start their period until at least 13, they just don't have enough body fat.
High Performing Female Athletes Are Getting Regular Periods.
Ladies, I know we don't like to talk about “that time” of the month. But here's the truth: Your menstrual cycle DOES affect how you feel, and how you feel DOES affect your performance…..it's COMPLETELY NORMAL…and its time we talk about it!
Most competitive swimmers and other swimmers rely on tampons when it comes to managing their periods while swimming. And according to a recent Knix study, they're the second most popular period product in general. Tampons have the advantage of being familiar.
Hormonal side effects
High-intensity exercise can throw your hormones out of whack, especially if you are training during or just before the onset of puberty. "Training that hard, nearly 40 hours a week, can result in delayed pubertal onset, particularly in young women," says Dr Costin.
When you combine under-fuelling with the demands of a strenuous running program, it causes a deficit and drain in your body. If this goes on for extended periods of time with multiple training seasons without rest phases, it can result in a loss of your cycle due to hormonal imbalance and the stress response.
Some wrestlers choose to wear tampons with pantiliners, pads, menstrual cups, and period-proof underwear. Compression shorts can increase security and comfort. Check out Lucha Fit for period info and much more.
It is known that female athletes underreport menstrual cycle disorders, with a prevalence of up to 40% in some studies [4]. Miller et al. found that 22% of athletes in lean-build sports would not report amenorrhea [12].
The rings, also known as still rings (in contrast to flying rings), is an artistic gymnastics apparatus and the event that uses it. It is traditionally used only by male gymnasts, due to its extreme upper body strength requirements.
Is free bleeding a real thing?
Free bleeding is the practice of intentionally menstruating in public, without blocking or collecting the period flow. When you hear about free bleeding, you might think, “But what about all that laundry?” But more than just a period practice, free bleeding is a movement.
Dr. Edmundo Escomel reported her case in the medical journal La Presse Médicale, including that her menarche had occurred at eight months of age, in contrast to previous reports that she had had regular periods since the age of three or two and a half.
While most swimmers work through their periods the way the rest of us do, some very high level athletes have been known to shift their periods so they don't occur during competition.
Some gymnasts may experience what's considered primary amenorrhea, meaning they have not started their period by 15 ½ years of age. This is usually due to inadequate energy availability for high level athletes.
One might wonder in many cases why the female uniform for a sport is designed to show more skin than the male uniform for the same sport. The belief is that performance can be increased with the use of less material as it is not as restrictive and that tightness of the clothing allows the body to move easier.
“Most women bleed only 60 milliliters (about three to four tablespoons) over five whole days,” says Dr. Haughton. Even if you're free-flowing into the pool for five hours, there's no way that water is going to turn into the Red Sea with the amount of blood coming out of your body.
While it is not recommended to swim with a sanitary pad in place, both tampons and menstrual cups are completely safe to use internally. Many competitive swimmers use these options when participating in practices or events on their period.
"A tampon will absorb the water from the lake, pool, or ocean while you are swimming, so it is important to change the tampon when you get out of the water," says Ho. "Otherwise, the tampon will be saturated and will not absorb the blood from your period."
Because the more demanding gymnastics routines have become, the bigger an advantage it is to be small. A smaller gymnast not only has a better power-to-weight ratio. She also has a lower moment of inertia. You can think of moment of inertia as essentially a measure of a body's resistance to rotating.
And some are going to drastic lengths to remove them - or even to stop them developing in the first place. According to ESPN magazine, gymnasts push themselves to the 'brink of starvation' to avoid developing breasts and a host of professional athletes have spent a lot of money to surgically reduce them.
What age do female gymnasts peak?
It's no secret in the gymnastics community that a female competitor usually peaks around the age of 16, long before one enters college. So to be a successful college gymnast, these athletes must maintain the strength, size and skill that they had at that age and carry it through four more years of competition.
Some female athletes also use birth control pills to manipulate their periods, but it is advised not to pop these pills right before an event, since it could lead to decreased performance levels. There's another way female athletes manage their periods, and that's by using a period tracker.
Wear A Pad/Tampon Combo
Choose a heavier option or go for a sport tampon that expands to avoid leakage. "Ensure you change it right before you go into the gym to avoid disruptions or distractions during your workout," Aroosha Nekonam, personal trainer at Ultimate Performance Manchester, tells Bustle.
It is a fact that women in all active sports, especially those who have to wear skimpy clothing, use the pill or some other hormone treatment + shaving or waxing to make sure they are “tidy” in every way, for a big match or competition.
The Menstrual Cycle and Oral Contraceptives
So common, in fact, some coaches and athletic trainers recommend female athletes use hormonal birth control, which they think can minimize the potential changes in performance by keeping hormones stable.