The Sunday News
Simon Gama
An approach to women’s health issues can be applied to sports medicine to identify the areas of concern to females as they progress through the life cycle.
Women’s health is best understood by describing what is more common, more severe and/or exclusive to women as a basis for identifying areas of clinical and research needs.
For example, osteoporosis is more common in women but not limited to women, whereas pregnancy is exclusive to women.
Understanding women’s health means developing assessment tools that are specific to the anatomical and physiological differences of women as well as understanding the gender differences that roles, society and opportunity play in providing a women with an optimal sport environment.
-Skeletal structure
-Body composition
-Physiology
-Training effects
Prior to puberty, there is little difference between males and females. Females tend to reach puberty at a slightly earlier age (9-13) than males (10-14).
Skeletal differences
Bony growth is similar in males and females until approximately 9 or 10 years of age. Girls tend to commence their adolescent growth spurt around the age of 11 years and surge ahead of boys in height and weight.
Boys begin their adolescent growth spurt, on average, two years later, around the age of 13 years.
The rate of linear growth in girls usually decelerates with menarche (beginning of menstruation), between 12 and 14 years.
After menarche, girls will usually gain approximately 5cm (2,5 in.) and reach their maximal height by 16 or 17 years.
The growth spurt in boys usually occurs between 12 and 15 years and full maturation may not occur until 20-21 years of age.
The pattern of body weight development is similar to that of height.
The earlier growth spurt gives females an increased weight in the early teenage years.
However, by 15 years of age, boys’ weight usually exceeds that of girls. At full sexual maturity, the male outweighs the female by approximately 11kg (24 Ib). This is due to additional bone and muscle mass.
Training and performance
Females are, on average, only two-thirds as strong as males. Strength is related both to the number of muscle fibres.
Males are stronger than females because of their increased muscle mass. When correction is made for this difference in muscle mass, the difference in strength disappears. In other words, per unit of muscle mass, the female is as strong as the male.
When males perform strength training, they develop increased strength and increased muscle size due to hypertrophy of the muscles. This hypertrophy is due to the effect of testosterone. Females performing strength training gain increased strength with relatively less muscle hypertrophy.
Females may gain as much strength, relatively, as males with appropriate training. There is no increased risk in strength training for females compared with males.
In endurance sports, performance by females lag behind performances by males by between 5% and 15%. This is probably related to the difference in body size and body composition.
1. Weight training makes a woman look masculine. Actually the muscle a woman adds to her body enhances feminine allure. Women have only a small amount of the male muscle building hormone testosterone and an abundance of feminising hormones like oestrogen. This hormonal ratio prevents the development of masculine-appearing muscles through weight training.
2. Muscle turns to fat as soon as you stop bodybuilding training. This is the myth we hear most often! Muscle is muscle and fat is fat.
They are two different types of tissues! It is physiologically impossible for a muscle to turn to fat. If you cease to overload a muscle group, however, it gradually loses mass and strength but it never quite returns to its original pre-bodybuilding state.
The only way you can become fat is to systematically overeat for a long period.
3. Weight training wrecks the joints. In point of fact, bodybuilding stresses the joints much less than many forms of exercise.
If you warm up correctly before a weight-training session and follow safety procedures (outlined later), you can train as heavily as you wish with little danger of injuring your back or knees or any other joint. Weight training, in fact, helps to thicken ligaments and tendons, making joints stronger!
4. Bodybuilding training stunts growth. Scientific studies have demonstrated that all types of physical exercise — including weight training — actually stimulate height increases. Although there are many great bodybuilders of short stature, such as Danny Padilla, this situation is true only because bodybuilding competition does not discriminate against shorter men and women the way a sport like basketball does.
While the majority of women aim for the highest goals of bodybuilding — strength development, physical fitness and optimum body appearance — the benefits of weight training are much wider- reaching than large muscles and strength.
As an example, weight training will help correct overweight and underweight conditions, particularly when used in conjunction with the dietary tips I will give you later in this course.
So those who suffer from an inferiority complex because of their weak bodies will find that this feeling is quickly replaced by an improved self image and feeling of pride in their bodies.
“Consistency is the key to muscle growth.
You can’t gain anything in the real world without this consistency of effort. Discipline and dedication make up consistency. It’s quality all champs have!”
