Does Muscle Growth Vary By Gender?

Don't be surprised, ladies.

It is scientifically proven that males build muscles faster than females do. Why is it so?

First, let us explore how do muscles grow to understand the science behind building muscles. Skipping the scientific jargon, muscle growth basically occurs whenever the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. During a workout, there will be immense and continuous stress exerted on the muscles and disrupts the homeostasis ("balance") in your body. The satellite cells will then be activated to "heal" the damaged muscles as they fuse the existing muscle fibres together to become new muscle protein strands and assist with muscle repair. With the addition of the satellite cells which replicate and differentiate into mature muscle cells, the repaired myofibres (muscle cells) will increase in thickness to create muscle growth.

Read more on "The Science Behind Muscle Growth" here.

Read more on "High Protein food list" here(1, 2) to boost your protein synthesis for muscle growth!

So now, you may ask how does gender affect the growth of muscle cells?

A key difference that explains why males can get more muscle hypertrophy, i.e. bigger muscles, than women is because of the effect of testosterone. In fact, testosterone increases protein synthesis, inhibits protein breakdown, activates satellite cells, and stimulates other anabolic hormones.

That said, it does not mean that women are incapable of becoming as muscular as men. While it is true that men have an innate advantage of having higher muscle mass than women, studies have shown that women exhibit the same muscle potential for muscle growth as men. In fact, one study found that given the same level of muscle mass, women have a higher rate of muscle protein synthesis than men.

Besides, the growth hormone in women- which is a hormone that is also responsible for muscle growth - takes over the anabolic role that testosterone plays. In this manner, women produce and secrete around three times the amount of growth hormone than men do, which significantly improves their muscle growth potential. Females also produce much more estrogen than males that supports the development of muscle tissue. Both of these key factors thus appear to mitigate the apparent differences in testosterone levels between men and women, which results in the same potential for muscle growth, as proven in this study.

You may then ask, why aren't females living up to their natural muscle potential like males? Reasons could include societal expectations for women to be slim and have lean muscles, dietary mistakes, and insufficient training.

All in all, muscle growth does vary by gender with the key differentiating factor being the effect of testosterone, which allows men to achieve a higher rate of muscle growth than women. However, this does not mean that females cannot achieve the same level of muscle growth as their counterparts. Do look out for our upcoming article on "5 Most Common Mistakes While Building Muscles" that is relevant for both genders looking to gain muscle mass to avoid!

Others: Read more on how body size affects your potential for muscle growth here