What makes men run faster than women?

Running is a sport that both men and women love, whether it is a 5km run, a marathon, a run for the team, or a talent for their country. However, no matter what the route, men usually run faster than women.

With both men and women practicing hard, why do men run faster than women on average? Even the fastest man in the world runs about 1 second faster than the fastest woman in the world on a 100m run: Usain Bolt establishes a 9 second 58 achievement compared to the female athlete's 10 seconds Florence Griffith Joyner.

There are many answers to this question, but the hormones and the size of human organs are closely related to this problem.

Before puberty, girls and boys' bodies are relatively similar. However, when puberty occurs in boys, there is an increase in testosterone . According to data from the HealthLine information page, as adults, some men have 20 times more testosterone than women.

According to the Endocrine Society (UK), testosterone has many roles including promoting the body to create new blood cells, keeping bones, muscles strong and promoting the stage of physical development.

"Because women produce less testosterone, they are more disadvantaged than men, but they are more disadvantaged than men," said Dr. Emily Kraus, a leading sports-care medical doctor at Stanford Health Center in California. people with more muscle mass ".

Testosterone plays an important role in helping men run faster than women.(Source: Dima Sidelnikov / Shutterstock).

According to Kraus, male legs have about 80% muscle, compared with 60% for women. More muscle part can help men run faster. The tendency to shrink muscle fibers faster in men helps them sprint faster than women.

Besides, women have more estrogen than men, leading to higher body fat percentage. Dr Kraus said: "It may also be a small disadvantage that leads to lower female achievement than men."

The size of body parts is also a cause. On average, women have smaller lungs than men, which means lower maximum oxygen absorption (VO2 max). According to a 1998 study in the Journal of Medicine and Science, VO2 max of a woman was in a static state of about 33 ml of oxygen / kg body weight / minute, while in men it was 42ml / kg / minute.

For excellent athletes, the VO2 max index is higher, but men are still higher than women. According to Kraus, the maximum amount of oxygen produced in men is larger than that of women. This means that women have to spend more energy to breathe oxygen to their muscles.

Women 's hearts are also often smaller than men, meaning they can hold smaller pulses, or oxygen - containing blood that the left ventricle pumps out in every less heartbeat.

Dr Kraus said that although women have a higher rate of heart rate, it is not enough to balance the volume of squeeze. Each time the heart pumps blood, the amount of blood pumped is lower in women than men, and less blood and oxygen is transferred to the muscles in women.

Besides, women also have less hemoglobin, and the amount of protein in red blood cells transports oxygen to the body's tissues, including less muscle.

Mechanical birth and jogging

Dr. Miho Tanaka, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and director of the Sports Medicine Program for Women at Johns Hopkins center said that mechanical births , men often have longer legs than women, that is, they have more muscles, as well as longer runs.

Moreover, because women often have wider hips, their running postures are not as effective as men.

Body size is also a reason for men to run faster than women.

Tanaka said: "The muscles work effectively when your running posture forms a straight line. If your hips are very narrow, like that of a man, your front thigh muscles will run straight from the hip. This line works in the same direction that you are running. "

For runners with wider hips, the muscles almost have to form a corner that according to Tanaka is not an optimization function for muscle.

This does not mean that women with wide hips cannot run, but this is one of the many explanations for women in general not as fast as men.

Thus, the lungs and heart of women inhale less oxygen and pump oxygen-containing blood not as much as men and they have less hemoglobin in their blood to transport oxygen. Moreover, women often have less muscle, shorter legs and wider hips leading to lower achievement.

However, according to Dr. Kraus, it is impressive that these basic disadvantages do not prevent some women from competing with men.