I’ve always been curious about how some (most in my experience) women who are considered at peak fitness levels are still weaker than men who are in average shape. It’s been described as “body chemistry” but I’ve never truly understood why. There are absolutely some exceptions, but even when looking at fitness charts, men are expected to be stronger than women in every category. Why?
In: Biology
> some (most in my experience) women who are considered at peak fitness levels are still weaker than men who are in average shape
Yeah that’s subjective as hell….I’ve never seen a woman “at peak fitness” who’s weaker than “men in average shape”. Both men and women have a lot of levels of fitness they can be in, if you average that all out the average man will be stronger than the average woman….but a woman in great shape will almost always be overall stronger than the average man.
There is, however, some room for gender roles to appear here….in that many women are afraid to appear big and strong because they think they shouldn’t appear that way because they’re women. This causes them to sort of plateau at a lower amount of weight capable of being lifted by many men (likely not lower than the “average man” though).
Like if you’re looking at the gym and taking that as the “average male” then yeah, they are likely *above* average, which makes it harder for a fit female to compete with (but not impossible). Alternatively though there are *definitely* women who are well above the strength of the average male, being beaten out in raw strength only by similarly fit males. Just for a quick example, the current recognized strongest female has squatted ~850lbs, bench pressed ~600 lbs, and deadlifted ~690 lbs….how many average males do you know that can do even half of that? Personally? I only know a small handful of fit males that are anywhere near that level of weight.
There’s also a big difference between magazine cover “fit female” and power lifting “fit female”.
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