COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Swimming, the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming in the United States, and leading sports data, biomarker and performance experts Orreco, are teaming up to raise awareness for Orreco’s groundbreaking FitrWoman app. FitrWoman provides individualized data about a woman’s menstrual cycle to suggest training and nutrition advice to maximize performance.
The free FitrWoman app helps women take the guesswork out of training. It provides access to insights gleaned by Orreco’s two decades of working with top athletes and their pioneering research around the needs of the female athlete.
“The more awareness we can drive to this app within the swimming community, the more we can begin to understand the impact the sport of swimming has on the female hormonal system,” USA Swimming Director of Sports Medicine and Science Keenan Robinson said. “We are continually looking at innovative ways, and to work with world-leading organizations such as Orreco, to further educate us in ways to help reduce injuries or illnesses, in this instance as a result of hormonal irregularities.”
“We are very excited about this partnership and the opportunity to bring the cutting-edge science that underpins our work with elite athletes to the girls and women of USA Swimming,” said Orreco CEO and co-founder Dr Brian Moore. “Historically investment in female athlete specific research has been overlooked. Our team is working hard to address this. We are excited that the years of peer-reviewed research underpinning FitrWoman will help these swimmers to utilize the power of the hormonal cycle to be their best on any given day. It is our ambition to take a lead position and support female athlete research globally.”
Research is gradually emerging to highlight how exercise and nutrition can be altered to optimize training and performance and to reduce injury risk in women, but more is needed.
What the research* says:
– 54% of women say their menstrual cycle has made them stop playing sport or exercising
– This rises to nearly 75% of 16 to 24-year-olds
– More than half of women surveyed say they are embarrassed by their periods
More specifically, a significant reason behind the decision to stop exercising was the fear of ‘showing’ – the appearance of blood – with many women preferring to hide any physical signs of a period and 76% citing associated symptoms such as cramps and muscle soreness.
USA Swimming becomes the first US NGB to partner with the FitrWoman app. Under the partnership, Orreco scientists and performance experts will work with USA Swimming National Team staff to deliver coach and athlete education workshops and will conduct swimming specific research for the specialized area of ‘the female athlete’ to benefit girls and women in the sport.
The goal of FitrWoman is to give exercising women a competitive edge at all times during their menstrual cycle. By tailoring training and nutrition in line with the fluctuations in hormones throughout the cycle, women can learn to adapt training to gain maximum benefits, reduce injury risk, and know when to prioritize recovery.
*Research study: A survey of over 1,000 Irish and British women carried out by Populus for FitrWoman.
The FitrWoman App is available to download for free on IOS and Android:
App Store: ow.ly/ROXr30khQHg
Google Play: ow.ly/5cqh30khQIb
Keep up with all the latest USA Swimming news by following @usaswimming on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Follow @fitrwoman to keep up with new app features and the latest insights on training, nutrition and physiology. Track your period and train smarter.
