What do we want to find out?

It is an exciting time for women in sport.

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Particularly when it comes to ultra-endurance events women are increasingly meeting or exceeding male performances. There are numerous hypotheses as to why this may be ranging from our evolutionary roots as child-bearers used to toughing it out through to the composition of our muscles.

Current research has suggested that women may have greater potential in ultra-endurance events than men, with so many inspiring stories about women achieving incredible sporting feats.  We’re completely awed by long distance swimmer Sara Thomas who swam the channel four times back-to-back, and Jasmine Paris, who broke the record for the 268-mile Montane Spine Race along the Pennine Way in January while still expressing milk to feed her daughter

We are using our row as an opportunity to further research in this area.

As part of our Masters in Extreme Medicine, we spent a week in

December 2019 the start line of the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge

2019. Here the competitors kindly consented to us taking body

composition data and muscle fatiguability results (using repetitive

squeezes of a handgrip dynamometer).

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We shall repeat these measurements at the finish line and cannot wait

to see the trends that will appear. In addition to this, psychological

questionnaires were handed out to complete daily throughout the race. 

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