Female Athlete Performance and Recovery

Evidence-Informed Training Across Physiology, Performance, Recovery, and the Lifespan

Learn how to design evidence-informed exercise programs that support female athletes through progressive strength training, power development, endurance conditioning, nutrition, recovery, and appropriate injury-risk-reduction strategies.

Female Athlete Performance is a comprehensive 5-CEC continuing education course exploring the physiological, physical, and practical considerations involved in coaching female athletes across different sports, training levels, and stages of life.

The course examines why female athletes benefit from the same foundational training principles used for all athletes while also requiring individualized consideration of menstrual function, reproductive health, energy availability, recovery, bone health, and life-stage changes when those factors meaningfully influence training.

Special attention is given to distinguishing scientific evidence from common misconceptions about female athletic performance. Fitness professionals will learn why universal menstrual-cycle training schedules, unnecessarily light resistance training, and broad assumptions about female physiology can interfere with effective programming.

Participants will explore strength and hypertrophy development, explosive power, sprinting, plyometrics, endurance conditioning, injury-risk-reduction training, and sport-specific workload management.

The course also examines low energy availability, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), the Female Athlete Triad, iron deficiency concerns, bone stress injury, hydration, sleep, and recovery.

Fitness professionals will learn how to recognize health-related warning signs, individualize exercise programming, and communicate effectively with qualified healthcare and sports nutrition professionals while remaining within professional scope.

Topics Include:

• Understanding the NFPA Female Athlete Performance Framework

• Universal training principles and female-specific considerations

• Female physiology and individual training responses

• Strength and power adaptations in female athletes

• Menstrual function and exercise performance

• Menstrual-cycle phases and common training misconceptions

• Hormonal contraception and performance considerations

• Symptom tracking and individualized exercise adjustments

• Energy availability and athletic performance

• Low energy availability and REDs

• The Female Athlete Triad

• Menstrual health and bone stress injury concerns

• Bone health and progressive skeletal loading

• Strength training for female athletes

• Muscular hypertrophy and functional strength

• Progressive overload and individualized loading

• Speed, acceleration, and maximal-velocity development

• Plyometric training and landing mechanics

• Rotational, explosive, and sport-specific power

• Autoregulation using RPE and performance monitoring

• Endurance training and cardiovascular conditioning

• Training load, fatigue, and recovery management

• Heat exposure, hydration, and thermoregulation

• Carbohydrate availability and athletic fueling

• Protein intake and resistance-training recovery

• Iron, calcium, vitamin D, and nutritional considerations

• Sleep quality and recovery

• Neuromuscular training and injury-risk reduction

• ACL injury-risk-reduction programming

• Landing, deceleration, and change-of-direction mechanics

• Progressive training following injury and rehabilitation

• Female athlete training during adolescence

• Growth, maturation, and youth athletic development

• Pregnancy and postpartum training considerations

• Perimenopause, menopause, and masters athletics

• Athlete communication and informed decision-making

• Recognizing medical and nutritional referral concerns

• Practical female-athlete coaching scenarios

• The NFPA Female Athlete Performance Process

Course Includes:

5 NFPA Continuing Education Credits

Self-paced PDF continuing education course

25-question Practice Knowledge Check with answer key and explanations

20 applied coaching cases involving strength, endurance, menstrual symptoms, nutrition, recovery, injury concerns, and different life stages

Practical strength, power, endurance, and injury-risk-reduction programming examples

Evidence-informed frameworks for female athlete monitoring, individualized programming, and professional referral

Course Code: CEC-FAP-501

Train the athlete in front of you. Use female-specific information when it changes the decision.