Slower fatigue and faster recovery of the adductor pollicis muscle in women matched for strength with men

Abstract

In previous gender comparisons of muscle performance, men and women rarely have been closely matched, absolute force has not been equalized, and rates of fatigue and early recovery have not been determined. We compared adductor pollicis muscle performance at a similar absolute force development in healthy men and women (both n=9) matched for adductor pollicis maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force (132 +/- 5 N for women and 136 +/- 4 N for men, mean +/- SE, P > 0.05). Subjects repeated static contractions at a target force of approximately 50% of MVC force of rested muscle (68 +/- 3 N or 51.9 +/- 1.0% MVC for women and 72 +/- 2 N or 53.0 +/- 2.0% MVC for men, P > 0.05) for 5 s followed by 5 s rest until exhaustion, i. e. inability to maintain the target force for 5 s. MVC force was measured following each minute of exercise, at exhaustion, and after each minute for 3 min of passive recovery. For women compared with men: MVC force fell less after 1 min of exercise (to 93 +/- 1% vs. 80 +/- 3% of MVC force of rested muscle, respectively, P < 0.05); MVC force (N min-1) fell approximately 2-fold slower (P < 0.05); and endurance time to exhaustion was nearly two times longer (14.7 +/- 1. 6 min vs. 7.9 +/- 0.7 min, P < 0.05). After declining to a similar level of MVC force of rested muscle at exhaustion (56 +/- 1% for women and 56 +/- 3% for men), MVC force rose faster in women than in men (to 71 +/- 2% vs. 65 +/- 3% of MVC force of rested muscle, respectively; P < 0.05) during the first minute of recovery. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that slower adductor pollicis muscle fatigue in women is linked with differences between men and women both in impairment of force generating capacity, per se, and in rates of recovery between contractions.

Enhanced muscle fatigue occurs in male but not female ASIC3−/− mice

“…Thus, the animals in fatigue task 1 ran substantially longer than those in fatigue task 2. There was a greater fatigue observed in females than male mice in the longer duration fatigue task (fatigue task 1), which was surprising given prior data showing fatigability is greater in males than in female human subjects (22,24,27,38,66). However, in human studies, differences in the development of muscle fatigue between sexes are task dependent (31).…”

“…In human subjects, males have greater overall strength, but can fatigue to a greater extent than females in a task-dependent manner (22,27,31). When males and females are matched for strength, women fatigued less than men during intermittent contractions but performed similarly during sustained low-intensity contractions as males (27).…”

Prospective study of the relationship between musculoskeletal and psychological complaints and electromyographic activity during isometric muscular contractions in a working population

“…It has been documented that women have better endurance than men when performing static contractions of low or moderate intensity (39)(40)(41)(42). Hence the gender difference in endurance times during shoulder abduction is probably caused by the slightly higher relative force of the women.…”

Time is money: Costing the impact of duration misperception in market prices

“…Clark et al (2003）found that there is a 33% difference in muscular endurance capacity between males and females and a number of studies have found differences in the recovery time of males and females (Fulco et. al., 1999;Russ & KentBraun, 2003;Russ et al, 2005;Hunter et al, 2006).…”