Women v. Men (Volume differences of Maximum Effort)

[Joe Brock]

I've searched for some time to find an answer to an observation of mine. When training women, it would appear that their 1RM is often also their 3RM.

It seems to me that one of 2 things is going on:
1. Men can exert more total strength in a single lift.
2. Women have a genetic predisposition to greater endurance.

I noticed that some of you on these boards recommend higher volume training for women, and I'd agree, but from a physiological perspective...I have no idea what is the ACTUAL difference.

Does anyone here have solid research on this topic?

[Kyle Schuant]

There is literally no research directly comparing RM differences in men and women, let alone any solid research.

Some relevant articles include this one comparing previously trained men and women training over 12 weeks; the men ended up stronger than the women, but the relative increase in strength was greater in women. I'd say this was because the study's training was the first time the women really pushed themselves. This article tells us that when dealing with beginners, whether it's low or middle reps doesn't matter much, but that high reps doesn't do much.

This study notes that when people select their own resistance training load, they choose one too low to have any effect.

This article talks about using 4-7RM to predict 1RM in women, and notes,

"Perhaps, individuals who do not routinely perform strength training exercise are more familiar with producing maximal muscular contractions with the upper body compared to the lower body.

"In general, the accuracy of the 1-RM prediction equations reported in the present study is less than the accuracy of equations that we previously reported for males for the same exercises (Dohoney et al., 2002). Mayhew et al. (1987) also noted that the correlation between predicted and actual 1-RM was slightly higher for men than for women."

Which is all a roundabout way of saying what coaches have observed for years:

• beginners of both genders wuss out and need guidance
• 1RM doesn't mean much for beginners of either gender, since the performance of beginners is so inconsistent, and even the 1RM test will produce an adaptive response, ie make them stronger
• women are less likely to put out a maximum effort in a lift than men, this is more psychological and individual than physiological and general

Most studies of resistance training are of previously untrained college-aged males volunteering to get easy credit, or of people with medical issues (Parkinson's disease, previous heart attack, etc). They invariably show that learning to have correct movement and lift heavy shit is good for you.

[Joe Brock]

They invariably show that learning to have correct movement and lift heavy shit is good for you.

Although this is certainly accurate, I had hoped for a test study on Advanced Novice and above lifters. You have pretty much said what I was thinking, which was that there simply aren't any studies to compare these. I'm certainly not saying that Laura Phelps could have busted out 3 bench press reps at #515, but I had hoped to find someone who was more familiar with this particular phenomenon...which may simply be as you put it, "women are less likely to put out a maximum effort in a lift than men." As far as the rest of the studies that you cited, I can't say that I'm at all surprised by the outcomes. Thanks for your input, though.