Neuromuscular Fatigue, Muscle Damage and Recovery, and Injury Prevention in Women’s Sport

Background and Scientific Rationale:The rapid growth of women's participation in sport has created unprecedented opportunities for athletes across all levels of competition. From grassroots participation to elite professional leagues, female athletes are training harder, competing more frequently, and achieving remarkable physical feats. However, sports science research has historically overlooked female cohorts, frequently extrapolating data gathered from male participants. Sex-related physiological, neuromuscular, and anatomical factors may influence exercise responses, fatigue, recovery, and injury susceptibility in female athletes. Bridging this scientific gap is essential for developing training paradigms that are informed by female-specific evidence and protect long-term health and athletic performance.Neuromuscular fatigue and exercise-induced muscle damage may present sex- and task-specific responses. Evidence suggests that women may display lower fatigability than men during certain sustained isometric and submaximal tasks. At the same time, the kinetics of muscle damage following high-intensity eccentric loading and sport-specific actions, such as repeated sprints or rapid decelerations, demand targeted investigation. The potential influence of hormonal status, including menstrual cycle characteristics and hormonal contraceptive use, on neuromuscular function, muscle damage, and recovery remains incompletely understood and warrants methodologically rigorous investigation. Understanding these recovery trajectories is crucial for designing evidence-informed training schedules and individualized recovery strategies.The intersection of neuromuscular fatigue and injury risk represents another urgent clinical and performance priority. Female athletes face a higher incidence of certain injuries, particularly non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, in sports involving cutting, jumping, and rapid changes of direction. Fatigue-related changes in neuromuscular control, inter-limb asymmetries, muscle function, and movement biomechanics may contribute to injury susceptibility. Integrating neuromuscular and biomechanical assessments, workload monitoring, non-invasive muscle-function technologies, and structured neuromuscular conditioning may improve individualized training prescription, recovery monitoring, and injury-risk management.This Research Topic aims to connect fundamental laboratory discovery with applied sport and clinical practice. We invite original research, systematic reviews, and methodological evaluations that advance our collective understanding of neuromuscular performance, exercise-induced muscle damage, recovery dynamics, and athlete protection in female sporting populations. By bringing together sports scientists, physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches, and medical professionals, this collection seeks to establish robust, evidence-informed approaches to assessment, training, recovery, and injury-risk reduction. Ultimately, our goal is to advance the long-term health, resilience, and performance of female athletes across different sports and competitive levels. Topic editors: Pedro L. Cosio, Nikola Prvulović Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86078/neuromuscular-fatigue-muscle-damage-and-recovery-and-injury-prevention-in-womens-sport