Myth busting: do men really get more benefits from strength training than women?

Claudio Viecelli

26.2.2026

Translation: Natalie McKay

It’s commonly believed that men have an advantage over women when it comes to strength training. In this series, we’re taking a critical look at widespread health myths. This time, we’re looking at the role gender plays in strength training.

Strength training’s about far more than just building muscle. It acts like medicine on the body, as it can help extend your healthspan [1–6]. Before puberty, the reproductive organs are the only significant physical difference between boys and girls. Only at the onset of puberty do hormonal changes lead to clear differences between the sexes.

In men, testosterone levels at rest are around 10 to 40 times higher [1, 2] than in women. Due to its strong anabolic effects [3–5], it’s assumed that testosterone promotes muscle building. On the one hand due to the increased formation of muscle proteins [6], and on the other hand through the reduced breakdown of muscle proteins [7]. In simple terms, this process can be understood as the body providing more building blocks for forming muscle, while at the same time losing fewer of these building blocks. This creates a positive net balance, enabling muscle to grow and generate more strength.

Influence of oestrogen and menstruation

While testosterone’s an important hormone in men, oestrogen plays a central role in the regulation of muscle mass in women. This hormone can reduce the breakdown of muscle proteins [8].

Oestrogen receptors are located in the skeletal muscles, as well as in tendons and ligaments. They appear to influence the protein structures of muscle, and improve the ability to respond to anabolic stimuli [9]. As women age, their oestrogen levels fall, with the potential to cause a rapid loss of muscle mass and muscle strength [9]. Studies show that treatment with additional hormones after the menopause can partially compensate for these changes, because this promotes the activity of genes involved in muscle building [10].

Many studies have looked how the menstrual cycle affects muscle strength. However, most studies found little or no variation between the different phases of the cycle [11–13]. Based on the latest research, it doesn’t matter which phase of the menstrual cycle a woman’s in. It impacts neither her strength during a single workout, nor the progress she makes with regular strength training [14]. But since numerous other factors can affect performance, there’s still a need for further research in this field.

Hormonal response in men and women

Strength training provides a strong stimulus for muscle building in both sexes. This effect’s achieved in part by short-term and long-term changes in hormones such as testosterone, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), growth hormone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) [15-18]. But women and men adapt in different ways to strength training.

After intensive strength training, testosterone levels in men’s blood rise sharply for a short time [18]. In women, on the other hand, testosterone levels show hardly any change after training [1, 19–21]. When it comes to growth hormone, both sexes have a similar response to strength training [1, 21]. It increases in both men and women after training. Research on the short-term response of IGF-1 to strength training has been inconclusive so far [1, 17, 19, 22]. But the combination of growth hormone and IGF-1 in women [23] appears to compensate for low testosterone levels, as women can significantly increase their muscle cross-sectional area [20] through regular strength training, despite their low testosterone levels.

DHEA-S is a precursor to testosterone [24], and accounts for about 90% of circulating testosterone in women [25, 26]. It’s the most important adrenal hormone in women and men [27]. A single strength training session causes an increase in blood DHEA-S levels in both women and men [28], while eight weeks of regular strength training only leads to significantly higher resting levels of DHEA-S in women [29]. A study [30] also showed that higher DHEA-S levels are associated with greater strength in the leg extensors in women (p < 0.001), but not in men. This means DHEA-S could be an important factor in the development of strength in female athletes. So overall, there are clear differences between women and men in terms of their resting levels of anabolic hormones, and their response to strength training.

Strength and mass developed by strength training in men and women

Several studies have looked at gender-specific differences in muscle building and strength as a result of strength training. Roth and his research team [31] investigated whether age or gender influence the increase in muscle volume due to strength training. Eight young men, six young women, nine older men and ten older women participated in a six-month strength training programme, where they trained all major muscle groups of the upper and lower body three times per week. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the muscle volume of the thighs and quadriceps as well as the cross-sectional area in the middle of the thigh before and after the training period. Muscle volume increased significantly in all age and gender groups as a result of the training (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups. Neither age nor gender had any influence on the increase in muscle volume.

Another study looked at how age and gender influence muscle building as a result of strength training [32]. The participants were 11 young (25 ± 3 years) and 12 older (69 ± 3 years) men, and 11 young (26 ± 2 years) and 11 older (68 ± 2 years) women. All of them trained their thigh muscles three times a week for nine weeks. Men built up about twice as much muscle volume as women (204 ± 20 vs. 101 ± 13 cm3, p < 0.01). This difference remained even when it was factored in that men had more muscle volume to start with. It was also interesting to note that, after taking a 31-week break from training, men lost more muscle mass than women (151 ± 13 vs. 88 ± 7 cm3, p < 0.05). Other studies [33–36] came to similar conclusions.

Women’s response is different, but just as strong

New research findings show that middle-aged men and women (40–64 years old) respond similarly at a cellular level, and adapt in a comparable way to ten weeks of strength training. Both genders saw significant growth in the cross-sectional areas of the muscles (p = 0.014). The increase in blood pathways per muscle fibre was also greater in both sexes (p < 0.05) [37]. This shows that middle-aged men and women respond similarly to strength training, both in terms of muscle growth and in improving blood flow and the cells that support muscle growth.

Current systematic reviews and meta-analyses come to similar conclusions in both younger [38] and older [39] subjects. To sum up, both studies show that women have a similar potential to build muscle as men, especially when you look at the percentage increase in muscle mass in relation to the baseline level. Although older men achieve greater absolute strength and muscle gains, women show more significant improvements relative to their initial strength. This means that men and women adapt to strength training in a comparable way, but their absolute and relative changes differ.

Conclusion: fact or fiction?

Although men and women have different hormonal baseline levels, research clearly shows that strength training benefits both sexes to a similar extent. Although men build up more muscle mass in absolute terms, women achieve comparable progress in muscle growth and strength gains in relative terms. Training activates muscle-building processes equally in both sexes.

So strength training should be strongly recommended for everyone, but especially for women. It’s an effective way to improve health, physical performance and quality of life, regardless of gender. As we can see, the fact that men benefit more from strength training’s pure fiction.

References:

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Claudio Viecelli

Biologe

claudio.viecelli@keyoniq.com

Molecular and Muscular Biologist. Researcher at ETH Zurich. Strength athlete.

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