“The Taboo Must Go”: How the Monthly Cycle Affects the National Team

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Christian Finkbeinerfootball boss

Meriame Terchoun (27) talks candidly about her menstrual cycle and how it affects her daily life as a footballer. She makes no secret of the fact that she started menstruating on Friday, the day of the World Cup opening match against the Philippines. “I thought in the morning: that can’t be true,” says Terchoun.

But now she knows how to handle such a situation. Because she prepares her body in the days before so the symptoms are less severe when menstruation starts. She needs more rest these days, more sleep. And she eats more anti-inflammatory foods like nuts and berries. Terchoun does without coffee and drinks tea. The headache she feels in any case is significantly relieved.

Know-how from the Anglo-American area

In daily training, four phases of the female cycle are distinguished. The onset of menstruation heralds the first phase. Stages two and three are before and after ovulation, the last before menstruation.

Depending on the phase a player is in, nutrition, regeneration and stress are adjusted. There are different smoothies with different nutrients and vitamins that the players need depending on their fitness level. Or in the weight room, a series is made less. Or avoid too many changes of direction in stop-and-go movements.

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“But you can perform at any stage,” says Mélanie Pauli (43). Since the arrival of the athletics trainer at the Swiss Football Association in 2019, cycling-oriented training has also found its way into the national team. “Yes, I’m to blame,” says Pauli with a laugh. She is deep into the matter. There are female scientists in the UK who have been working on this for 20 years. Pauli is also in close contact with Dawn Scott, US women’s track and field coach during the 2019 World Cup.

Pauli speaks enthusiastically when she talks about cycling-oriented training. As an athlete, she never addressed this topic. It was only later, when she was involved in injury prevention and repeatedly encountered the problem of cruciate ligament injuries, that she began to engage with the subject. “By then you get the idea that this could be related to the menstrual cycle.”

Together with Nils Nielsen (51) she tackles the project with a view to the European Championships in England. With the help of an app (Fitrwoman), in which the players regularly document their condition, Pauli can check the data.

The goal is that the players feel better, can perform optimally and reduce injuries. “But the body needs at least three months to adapt to the whole thing,” says Pauli, who is already sensitizing eleven and twelve year olds to the subject in the youth centers.

Breaking taboos is important

Three things are important to Pauli. First, that the players talk about their menstrual cycle and their well-being in their sports environment. “The taboo must disappear.” Second: the surveillance. Information about sensitivities and symptoms should be collected. Third: From this data, every player can develop a strategy in consultation with the staff on how to deal with this. “You should be given a key so you can open the door,” says Pauli.

One person who immediately responded to the issue is Terchoun. A third cruciate ligament tear marked the turning point in her career. Since then she has been very interested in the subject. “The whole thing has turned my life upside down – in a positive way. Since then I feel healthy, fit and almost never injured.” She now knows her body much better than before. She also passes on her experience to younger people and addresses the subject in her daily life in Dijon (Fr). “We have made a giant step in the national team, but there is still a lot to do worldwide.”

How the whole is handled is very individual. Not everyone has the same symptoms, not everyone uses contraceptives, which usually relieve symptoms, and not everyone reacts in the same way to external influences. But what is true: in phases two and three, when women have the most energy, the posterior muscle chains – buttocks, thighs, calves – should be especially activated because the ligaments become slack. “This is the coolest phase,” says Terchoun. “Because then everyone is in a great mood and accelerates.” Terchoun will be in this phase by Sunday at the latest. Then Switzerland denies their last and possibly decisive preliminary round match against New Zealand.

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Source : Blick

Emma

I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.