Joshua Carr, Texas Christian University – The Exercise Prescription: One Size Doesn’t Fit All Between Men and Women

On Texas Christian University Week: We might be thinking about strength training for women in the wrong way.

Joshua Carr, assistant professor in the department of kinesiology, examines some new research that could help develop resistance training for women.

Dr. Joshua Carr is an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University. He earned his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Carr currently directs TCU’s Neuromuscular Physiology Laboratory and was recently honored with the prestigious Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Award for his contributions to research and teaching. His primary research interests center around optimizing neuromuscular function through exercise training interventions.

The Exercise Prescription: One Size Doesn’t Fit All Between Men and Women

Exercise is critical for health and wellness. To this end, there is evidence that exercise is medicine. But one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the “exercise prescription,” especially for men and women. New research reveals striking differences in how the genders respond to resistance training. In a recent study, men and women with resistance training experience performed four sets of bicep curls to failure using a moderate weight.

The surprising finding? Women could do significantly more repetitions than men before their muscles gave out. Not only that, but the women were able to better maintain their maximal muscle strength and muscle activation during the exercise compared to the men. Essentially, the women exhibited less muscle fatigue than the men despite doing more total work. This suggests that the ideal “dosage” of exercise medicine may need to be tailored for maximum therapeutic benefit. A one-size-fits-all approach to exercise recommendations could be leaving significant benefits on the table, particularly for women.

What does this mean for the average gym-goer? For women who resistance train, it suggests they may be able to tolerate higher exercise volumes for single-joint upper body exercises. For personal trainers, it highlights that prescribing the same weight and rep schemes to male and female clients may not be optimal.

The evidence suggests that physiological sex differences in muscle fatigue and endurance should be considered when designing resistance training programs. Women may be able to grind longer on exercises like bicep curls before reaching a failure point.

While more research is still needed, these findings have useful implications. For women looking to build upper body strength and muscle, higher volume resistance training may be necessary to allow for optimal performance gains over time compared to a one-size-fits-all approach. Properly accounting for sex differences in fatiguability can help optimize training for individual goals.