Why Do Men Run Faster Than Women?
BY Herschel Smith
7 years, 5 months ago
Before girls and boys hit puberty, their bodies are fairly similar. During puberty, however, boys experience a surge of testosterone. By adulthood, some men have up to 20 times more testosterone than women do, according to HealthLine.
Testosterone plays several roles, including telling the body to create new blood cells, keeping bones and muscles strong and prompting growth spurts, according to the Society of Endocrinology.
“Because [women] produce less testosterone, we are at a disadvantage in terms of muscle,” said Dr. Emily Kraus, a primary care sports medicine physician at Stanford Health Care in California. “Males have a greater amount of muscle bulk.”
A man’s leg is about 80 percent muscle, compared with about 60 percent muscle in a woman’s leg, Kraus said. That extra muscle can help men run faster, she said. Also, men’s muscles tend to have larger fast-twitch muscle fibers, which help with sprinting, than women do, Kraus said.
In addition, women have more estrogen than men do, which leads them to have a higher percentage of body fat than men have. “That can also lead to a small disadvantage for running performance [for women, in comparison with men],” Kraus said.
Body size is another factor. Women, on average, have smaller lungs than men do, meaning their maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) is lower. The VO2 max for a sedentary woman is about 33 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body mass per minute, while a young sedentary man’s is about 42 ml/kg/min, according to a 1998 study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
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Women’s hearts also tend to be smaller than men’s, which means they have a smaller stroke volume, or the amount of oxygenated blood that the left ventricle pumps out in one beat.
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To top that off, women also have less hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to the body’s tissues, including the muscles, Kraus said.
As far as biomechanics, men usually have longer legs than women do, meaning they have more room for muscle, as well as a longer stride length, said Dr. Miho Tanaka, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Program at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Moreover, because women tend to have wider hips, their running stance is not as efficient as a man’s is, Tanaka said.
So in other words, it’s a fool’s errand to deny that God makes men and women differently and for different purposes, and to insist that women be integrated into infantry because “they can do everything a man can?”
Who would have thought it? I guess you learn things every day from the field of science.
On June 5, 2017 at 8:51 am, Fred said:
“Before girls and boys hit puberty, their bodies are fairly similar”
This all relates to puberty? This statement, which I have heard from ‘experts’ many times is simply not true. I don’t remember, being athletically equal or any of the girls being remotely as physically capable as me and I was not a big child. Maybe a couple of the strongest girls were more capable than a couple of the weakest boys, maybe. None of this explains why girls are inherently fearful of the physicality of boys. Could it be that they are conceived to be different? More ‘research’ is clearly needed. How about having the children play dodgeball and let’s see who covers and cowers and cries.
Listening to scientists, researchers, and philosophers try to explain the natural law is sometimes interesting and enlightening, Jordan Peterson comes to mind. But, this particular case will cause more ignorance.
On June 5, 2017 at 9:26 am, Rooster said:
The only area of strength that is slightly gender similar is that of the lower body.
In the upper body its apples to oranges….men are stronger, faster and more aggressive. The good Lord just made it that way and no more “research” is needed as the post is accurate.
R
On January 11, 2018 at 1:02 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Within the scientific community, this knowledge of the differences between the sexes has been out there for a very long time, but in today’s politically-correct culture where uttering the wrong thing can cost you your job and the painstaking built reputation it took you years to earn, scientists – male and female alike – have learned to keep their heads down and their mouths shut… at least the ones whose data contradict the official cultural Marxist orthodoxy now so prevalent within the Western World.
That’s why even the most-respected members of the scientific community suddenly lose their voices and become mute when the reporters turn on their microphones and cameras – out of fear of being burned at the stake of political-correctness.
I have not been in the military but I am a martial artist of many years experience both as an instructor and as fellow trainee with students of all ages, skill levels and both sexes. I now hold a second-degree black belt in hapkido, but have also trained extensively in Brazilian jujitsu, karate and judo.
In all of my years doing hand-to-hand combat training and martial arts, I have never seen a female of any age or rank, beat a male in randori (free-style fighting or practice) who wasn’t a preteen. In other words, I have never seen even our finest female martial artists beat any male teenaged or older, in one-to-one competition. Even the most-skilled women get beaten by teenaged boys, even by ones who are relatively unskilled. The disparities in size, weight, strength, speed and aggressiveness are just too steep for the female students to overcome.
This outcome has nothing to do with the commitment, skill, bravery or quality of our female students; it is simply a biological reality.
Having been fed a steady diet of “I am woman, hear me roar!” since grade-school, a lot of girls come into our program believing that they will be the toughest kid on the block. However, as they grow into their teen years and the boys start to pull away, they suddenly realize that the world isn’t what they had been led to believe.
Some years ago, we had a wonderful young girl in our program – freshman or sophomore in high-school. Everyone liked her; she was personable, friendly and always had a smile on her face. Great fun to be around, a really nice person, smart and attractive, too.
Well, long-story short, none of the instructors saw it coming, but when we started doing gun-and-knife defense (using black rubber replicas of handguns and fake knives) and took out the fake “guns” and “knives,” this particular girl burst into tears, right in front of everyone, and then ran from the room. We did our best comfort her, but she ended up quitting the program, never to return. We later heard she had joined the women’s lacrosse team at school and was using her martial arts training there, so a happy ending. Another of our former female students was doing well in water polo, a very rough sport in its own right.
This particular student was only one out of many who have left around that 9th-10th grade level, around the time the boys blast off in the size/strength/aggressiveness department and the girls become women and go their own ways.
So, on an almost daily basis, I see and hear and experience the profound differences in male and female biology; I couldn’t ignore them even if I wanted to. Imagine the cognitive dissonance I experience when I read of women being “allowed” into the most-demanding and elite military units our country has to offer – Rangers, Navy SEALs, Marines, Army Special Forces, etc.
Have we gone stark, raving mad or what?