Friday, August 28, 2015

Fitness Facts for Females


All too often when women approach exercise with simply losing weight or getting to a smaller size. Outside of highly competitive female athletes women have a tendency to misunderstand or under appreciate how the female body is capable of performing. More importantly, women typically get stuck in a rut with an approach to exercise and fitness, and miss out on opportunities for improved health and fitness. Women tend to make a few mistakes in fitness training and I have covered those here. The upside to all of this is that, more so than men, women are willing to be open-minded, learn and apply.I have also talked about the specifics on my ideas about women and strength training so this will not dive too deeply into that topic.  So here are few things about the female body and exercise that women should consider in regards to exercise.

Based upon recent research[i] women tend to have more durable nervous systems than men. This study published in August of 2015 tested both women and men after completing a 110 kilometer ultra-trail running race. After completing the race men and women were tested to see who retained the most efficient control of muscular strength and efficiency in movement. Women came out on top in both categories. What does this mean for a woman who exercises? The first take away is this: if a woman and a man perform the same workout; the longer that workout lasts, the less the woman will be affected by fatigue. The woman, not the man will retain better quality of movement and well as faster recovery during breaks. A woman needs shorter rest periods and displays better control of movements the longer the training lasts. Better efficiency and faster recovery would indicate that a woman has the ability to train longer and harder than a man doing the same workout.

Closely tied to this is another study that came out in March of 2015[ii]. This study found that over the course of a marathon women were less likely to slow running pace more so than men. In other words, it would seem that women have better endurance than men. This does not mean that a woman would run a marathon faster than a man but it does mean that fatigue is less likely to force her to slow down; this conclusion drawn after analyzing race results from 14 marathons with 91,929 athletes competing. Women, it would seem, have to the potential to be more durable than men.

Switching gears to a more medical outlook on the effects of exercise on a woman’s body, gestational diabetes, one of the key health concerns for pregnant women, is avoidable or the effects can be reduced if a woman regularly stayed active during the pregnancy.[iii]  Avoiding Gestational Diabetes goes a long way to improving both the health of the mother and the baby during the pregnancy and after birth. Stay active and both baby and mother will be better for it.
Creatine is a supplement that has made a lot noise in the last fifteen years as being a safe, nonsteriod strength enhancing supplement. Most women shy away from it out of fear that it will make them “bulky like a man.” However, there is new research suggesting that postmenopausal women should pay attention to. A recent study found that postmenopausal women that supplemented with creatine for 12 months while strength training three days per week had dense bones than women who followed the same training program without creatine supplementation.[iv] Osteoporosis is one of the major health concerns for a postmenopausal woman and this study would suggest that creatine may have the potential to prevent or possibly aid in the treatment of Osteoporosis. That is just my two cents on creatine’s potential; more study is needed to verify this.

The final point is something that would seem to make sense without research but validation through research is always reassuring. One Hundred and Forty middle-aged women were divided into three groups: non-exercising, aerobic exercising, and strength-training.[v] This study wanted to determine whether strength-training or aerobic based exercise led to a higher metabolic rate. The women in all three groups were all placed on the same restricted diet, eliminating nutrition as a component in the weight loss. Unsurprisingly, the two groups of women that exercised lost more weight than those who did not. The big finding in this study was the women who strength-trained had a faster metabolic rate, after weight loss, than the women who used cardio as the form of training. A faster metabolic rate makes it harder to regain lost body fat; more muscle equals faster metabolism. Want to permanently lose weight? Get stronger.

It is important to note, that these advantages that women may have when it comes to health and fitness, are completing dependent on regularly engaging in exercise. No advantage exists for those who do not. Great health and high levels of fitness come to those women willing to work the hardest.




[i] Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Are Females More Resistant to Extreme Neuromuscular Fatigue. 47 (8) August 2015 pages 1372-1382.
[ii] Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Men are more likely than Women to Slow in the Marathon. 47 (3) March 2015 pages 607-616.
[iii] Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Exercise is Associated with a Reduction in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. 47 (8) August 2015 pages 1698-1704.
[iv] Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Effects of Creatine and Resistance Training on Bone Health in Postmenopausal Women. 47 (8) August 2015 pages 1587-1595.
[v] Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Exercise Training and Energy Expenditure following Weight Loss. 47 (9) September 2015 pages 1950-1955

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