Weight Training Recovery Varies By Gender

Regardless of the exercise, after finishing sets of reps, fatigue sets in and it takes a while to regain the full strength of that muscle group. An interesting study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine suggests men and women recover their strength at different rates.

Researchers had 18 men and 18 women perform 50 reps with their elbow flexor muscle using a load equivalent to 60% of their one rep max. Biceps torque decreased about 80% immediately after this set for both groups.

After 5 minutes, concentric peak torque has improved to 95% of pre-test levels in female subjects, but only by about 88% with men. On the other hand, eccentric peak torque improved to 88.9% of pre-test values for men compared to 86.9% for women.