Gender Differences in Exercise Responses

During puberty in females, follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone cause estrogen production from the ovaries, which in turn instigates pelvis broadening, increased bone growth, targeted fat depot sites, and breast development. However, puberty in males is the result of these hormones causing testosterone production from the testes, which upregulates bone formation and muscle mass as well as increases erythropoietin production from the kidneys. One can infer why sexually divergent responses to exercise are present for both cardiovascular and skeletal muscle systems in the human body. Perhaps the greatest impact of sex differences in exercise responses may be seen in a population of individuals with chronic diseases (i.e., hypertension), since exercise may be as beneficial to a particular sex as pharmacological interventions (or even more). This ...