We’re constantly told that men have an advantage when it comes to strength and fitness. Generally speaking, men are stronger than women in the sense that they have the ability to lift more weight compared to their body size, but what if our measurements of fitness were a little different? Would we start to realize that women may actually be more fit than men?
According to a study conducted at the University of Waterloo in 2017, women are technically more fit than men. The study used 18 young men and women of the same age and weight and tracked their oxygen uptake during their workouts, finding that women tended to facilitate oxygen 30 percent faster than men. The ability to uptake oxygen at a faster rate is a critical measure of aerobic fitness and people who are able to facilitate oxygen at a faster rate experience less strain in the body’s cells. In general, women are less likely to accumulate molecules in the body that lead to muscle fatigue and ultimately poor athletic performance.
Women are certainly more fit than men when it comes to their ability to adapt to exercise. In fact, women adjust to exercise about 15 seconds faster than men do, indicating a higher fitness level. Their muscles are able to extract oxygen from their blood faster than men which “scientifically speaking, indicates a superior aerobic system” says Richard Hughson, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Heath Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Their bodies are also better at transporting oxygen to tissues and efficiently utilizing excess oxygen.
Clearly, women have evolved to be more efficient than men when it comes to fitness, specifically aerobic fitness. This contradicts the common societal conception that men are generally more athletic than women. It’s still unknown as to why women can uptake oxygen faster than men, but it certainly changes the way athletic training and assessment will be approached in the future. Secretly, we’ve known that women were the stronger sex all along.
