VANCOUVER, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Men may have greater physical strength than women, but the latter has much greater muscle endurance than their male counterparts, a recent study suggested.
The study, published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, has found that women are considerably less exhausted after natural, dynamic muscle exercises than men of similar age and athletic ability.
"We've known for some time that women are less fatigable than men during isometric muscle tests - static exercises where joints don't move, such as holding a weight - but we wanted to find out if that's true during more dynamic and practical everyday movements," said Brian Dalton, a study author and an assistant professor at the University of British Colombia, in a news release.
"And the answer is pretty definitive: women can outlast men by a wide margin," he added.
The study had a small sample, involving eight men and nine women at a similar level of physical fitness to flex their foot against a suite of sensors as quickly as they could 200 times.
The speed, power and torque of their movements and electrical activity of their muscles was then captured and recorded over time.
"What we found is that males were faster and more powerful at first but became more fatigued much faster than females," said Dalton.
Although only one muscle group was studied, Dalton said he would expect similar results for other muscles groups and his results are consistent with what has been observed elsewhere.
"We know from previous research that for events like ultra-trail running, males may complete them faster but females are considerably less tired by the end," he explained.
"If ever an ultra-ultra-marathon is developed, women may well dominate in that arena," he added.
