Women find it easier to work out in the gym than men

Although we meet more and more women, if we walk into the machine room of a gym, we usually see a larger number of men. It’s true what is often said that women exercise less physical. Most statistics point in this direction. However, according to a recent study, this is not a problem because they need less training for long term health benefits.

This is a very comprehensive study conducted by scientists from Schmidt Heart Institute, California. ABOUT 400,000 peopleaged 27 to 61 years, followed from 1997 to 2019. The goal was to test them exercise routines and relate them to the likelihood of death from diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

It has been observed that women actually do much less physical exercise. However, men were less likely to die from these types of causes than men. WITH a little training As a result, they received additional protection, which cost the male volunteers much more effort. The reasons are not entirely clear, although the study authors have some hypotheses.

Gender bias in exercise

According to the Spanish Government’s Ministry of Equality, as of February 2023, the proportion of working women involved in sports, cultural activities or leisure activities was 39.3% compared to 45.5% men. This indicates that women, since they have more problems with reconciliationand they do not have enough free time for activities outside of work and at home.

This includes sports as well as other activities. If we focus specifically on exercise, we can analyze data from a study carried out by the Spanish Heart Foundation in 2021. 22.4% of casescompared with 16.2% in men.

In addition, in most sports disciplines, many more men than women participate in federations. This indicates that there is some factor, perhaps social, that explains why women tend to perform less exercise. A study itself, recently published in the United States, comes to the same conclusion, including in this country.

All this may mean that women who They don’t have time to exercise become frustrated when they find that they cannot reach the appropriate frequency to obtain benefits. However, this study concludes that this frequency is calculated relative to the people who exercise the most: men. Therefore, it is time to differentiate by gender. Women need to exercise less to reap maximum benefits.

Some numbers from the study

One of the most striking findings from this study is that women with minimal physical activity are less likely to die in 24%compared to those who did not do any exercise. On the other hand, for men this probability in a similar situation decreases only by 15%.

Exercise requirements were also analyzed to achieve maximum benefit. In the case of women, this was enough. just over 2 hours of cardio and one strength training session per week. However, men needed 5 hours of cardio and 3 strength training.

Why should women exercise less?

This study does not clarify the reasons why women need less exercise. But there are some hypotheses.

The authors suggest that this may be due to the fact that women have less lean body mass These are men. It is a free mass of fatty tissue, so it is made up of muscles, bones, skin and organs. If this mass is very large, it is difficult for the blood vessels to dilate during exercise. Perhaps this is why men need work harder.

In fact, it has been observed in other studies that blood flow measurements More women engage in physical exercise than men. This would support the lean mass hypothesis.

Further investigation will be necessary to determine the reasons. What is clear, however, is that women do not need to exercise as much as men to reap the health benefits. The privilege is appreciated from time to time.