Recap on a study that shows how men and women respond to the same strength-training program

Here’s an interesting study that shows how men and women respond to the same strength-training program.

In this study published early last year, researchers had 44 untrained college-aged men and 47 untrained college-aged women perform the same workout for 10 weeks. The workouts included leg press, leg curls, bench press and lat pulldowns. All the exercises were performed for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

Before and after the study, the researchers measured the peak torque of the elbow flexors. Basically, how much they can curl. What they found was that both groups made significant increases in strength. However, the relative strength gains were the same between genders. What this study suggests, at least in this specific situation, is that men and women have a similar (proportional) response in upper body strength to the same training program.