- Title
- Body composition and gender differences in performance
- Creator
- Reaburn, Peter R. J.; Dascombe, Ben J.; Janse de Jonge, Xanne
- Relation
- Nutritional Assessment of Athletes p. 121-147
- Relation
- http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439818213
- Publisher
- CRC Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- As more and more women started participating in sports over the past 50 years, they embarked on a "catch-up" race for the world records. World records improved at a faster rate for females than for males from the 1950s until the late 1980s. However, since the 1990s a stable gap has been observed between male and female elite performances, though it is evident that men typically possess greater levels of strength and power, and have larger anaerobic and aerobic capacities. The relatively small number of gender-specific research studies makes it difficult to elicit the physiological mechanisms responsible for these performance differences between genders. The responsible mechanisms are probably related to specific gender differences such as body composition, muscle characteristics, and hormonal influences. It seems likely that much of the reluctance to include females as subjects in research studies is related to the need to control for hormonal fluctuations due to menstrual cycles or oral contraceptives. Over the past 10 years, exercise physiology research on gender differences has increased, but many areas require further clarification. Both the body size and body composition are similar in boys and girls during early childhood. During late childhood, girls begin to accumulate more fat than boys, while during early adolescence, boys start to develop their fat-free mass at a higher rate than girls. These body-composition differences between the genders are primarily determined by significant hormonal changes that occur during development. Before puberty, small amounts of the gonadotrophic hormones - follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) - stimulate the growth of ovaries in girls and testes in boys. However, at puberty, the increased release of these same hormones from the anterior pituitary gland leads to significant increases in males. In females, this increased estrogen secretion leads to a broadening of the hips, an increased rate of bone growth, and increased fat deposition, especially in the hip and thigh regions. On the other hand, males tend to possess an increased testosterone production, leading to advanced development of the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Another important factor to consider is that during the reproductive years, when most female athletes are competing, their bodies are exposed to rhythmical fluctuations in either endogenous (menstrual cycle) or exogenous (oral contraceptives) female steroid hormones. These variations in estrogen and progesterone not only have effects on the reproductive system but also cause physiological changes outside the reproductive system. Receptors for estrogen have been found in multiple tissues, including the brain, cardiovascular system, kidney, muscle, and many others. How the secondary effects of estrogen and progesterone, and their interaction, affect exercise performance in females has recently started to receive more attention in research. However, this topic is complex and not well understood, thus warranting further investigation. This chapter addresses the three main areas of exercise performance - muscle strength, anaerobic performance, and aerobic performance - in relation to gender and body composition differences. Each section addresses both differences in body composition and potential effects of male and female steroid hormones on performance.
- Description
- 2nd ed.
- Subject
- body composition; gender differences; hormones; sports
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1037004
- Identifier
- uon:13392
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781439818213
- Language
- eng
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