Sex Differences in Strength and Fatigability

Abstract

The pattern of fatigue resulting from systematically varying the intercontraction rest interval was examined in male (N = 14) and female (N = 15) subjects employing a hand-grip fatigue exercise of 5 min duration. The contraction was maintained for 3 s, and the rest interval varied between 1, 2, 3, and 4 s, the order randomly assigned each subject. The fatigue bouts were separated by at least one week, and all testing was performed on a BLH load cell and recorder. No significant differences existed in initial maximum strength for either males or females over the four testing conditions, but significant differences did occur in final strength and absolute and relative endurance for both groups. The female subjects were significantly lower than males in initial and final strength, and absolute endurance. However, the females had significantly more relative endurance than males. The fatigue curves were two-component exponentials, with a half-time decay for the main component of 116 s for the males and 80 s fo...