Author(s): Iti Chakraborty and Sumanta Kumar Mondal

Abstract:
Today sports and physical activity as a strategy for the empowerment of girls and women has been gaining recognition worldwide. But sports activities required different levels of fitness and abilities as per the level of competition and requirement of that particular skill or events. Menstruation is an important part of every women’s life cycle. A woman begins to go through a series of hormonal changes during the menstruation cycle that occur once every month. An attempt has therefore been made in this paper to discuss the comparison of psycho-physical and health related physical fitness variables of sports and non-sports women in their different menstruation phases by a review study. The paper reviewed that the observation of performance in athletic events and had also documented specific physical, psychological and physiological changes as they relate to varying hormonal levels of the menstrual cycle. Another paper reviewed that the different phases of the menstrual cycle had little or no effect upon the relationships among body weight, percent body fat, knee extension and flexion, strength and endurance. One more paper reviewed that the sensitivity of psychological factors should be taken into consideration while planning training programme as well as should be clinically treated during menstrual phases. The paper concluded that there is considerable variation in the finding of the literature and that any reported variations in performance may well be greatly influenced by inter subject variability, the nature of fitness level, psycho-physical status and the nutritional status of the athletes and non-athletes as well as minor changes that could be attribute to the menstrual cycle. The paper recommended that further more specific investigation in the health fitness and psycho-physical variables of sports and non-sports women during menstrual phases can contribute in the training field of women for enhancement of performance.

Pages: 103-109  |  50 Views  34 Downloads

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