In today’s world we hear a lot about the gender pay gap, so much so that it is a metric that is reported in listed company accounts!
Let's delve into the fascinating world of gender gaps in physical exercise and their impact on all-cause/cardiovascular mortality! 🏃♂️🚴♀️ Do men and women truly reap the same rewards from comparable workout routines, or does exercise work its magic differently depending on gender? 💪
Before we answer those questions let’s look at whether there is a gender gap in engagement with physical activity between men and women.
Stats: Which sex is more active, Men or Women?
Here are some quick numbers from a few different sources that you are encouraged to read for yourself.
There are 313,600 fewer women than men who are regularly active.
More men do sport and physical activity than women at almost every age group.
4 in 10 women are not active enough to ensure they get the full health benefits.
The lancet Global health
Across most countries, women are less active than men. Global average for inactive women is 31.7% Vs 23.4% for inactive men.
NHS Digital
66% of men met national aerobic activity guidelines compared to 58% of women.
National centre for biotechnology information
More men than women met the recommendations for muscle-strengthening activities in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland as illustrated below.
Given the data above, Imagine the impact of this revelation: despite women generally being less active than men, research unveils that women benefit significantly more from exercise and strength training than men do! What a powerful truth that is often overlooked.
Not only that, women can achieve the same benefits from exercise as men do with less effort — a fascinating insight that challenges our perceptions.
It begs the question: what steps are we taking to empower more women to embrace an active lifestyle? Why aren't we amplifying this new knowledge and actively motivating more women to engage in physical activities, including weightlifting?
As we delve deeper into this discussion, let's reflect on this fundamental question: do men and women truly experience equal benefits from similar levels of exercise when it comes to reducing all-cause and cardiovascular mortality?
What the research says.
Here is the highlight reel from the latest research published in February 2024. These results are best shown visually.
How aerobic and muscle strengthening physical activity impact all-cause and cardiovascular mortality between the sexes
The chart with the blue background represents impact on all-cause mortality.
The chart with the orange background represents impact on cardiovascular mortality.
In simple terms
When women take part in regular aerobic physical activity, they reduce their likelihood of dying from any reason by 24% versus men at 15%.
Similarly, when women take part in regular muscle strengthening physical activity, they reduce their likelihood of dying from any reason by 19% versus men at 11%.
The figures get even more interesting when we look at cardiovascular mortality.
“Cardiovascular mortality refers to the number of deaths caused by diseases and conditions related to the heart and blood vessels and includes deaths from heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and other heart related illnesses.”
When taking part in regular muscle strengthening physical activity Men reduce their risk of cardiovascular mortality by the same 11% seen above whereas women reduce their risk by a massive 30%!
Regular aerobic physical activity sees a reduction in cardiovascular mortality in men of 14% and again a huge reduction of 36% in women!
What if more women were aware of these research findings - would the gender gap in physical exercise persist?
The research reveals even more intriguing insights in the following section, shedding light on the optimal exercise levels for maximising benefits. In essence,
how much aerobic exercise will lead to the biggest reduction in all cause or cardiovascular mortality?
Lets find out!
For simplicity:
Moderate intensity aerobic physical activity will be shortened to MPA
Moderate intensity definition
“ In general, if you’re doing moderate-intensity activity, you will be able to talk but not sing during the activity e.g walking briskly, water aerobics etc.”
Per the center for disease control and prevention.gov
Men
To reach the maximum reduction in all-cause mortality men need to exercise for 90 minutes per week doing MPA and the reward is a 20% reduction in all-cause mortality!
Women
Women can get that SAME 20% reduction with just 50 minutes per week of MPA That’s just under 56% of the effort that men must put in to achieve the same result! Unreal!
Furthermore, if women do MPA for 90 minutes they reach their maximum reduction in all-cause mortality which is 24%.
How many muscle strengthening sessions does it take to get the biggest reduction in all-cause mortality?
When it comes to muscle strengthening physical activity the results were also very interesting.
Men
Men derive the greatest mortality benefit by taking on 3 sessions per week of muscle strengthening physical activity. The reward is a 14% reduction in all all-cause mortality.
Women
Women will get the same 14% reduction in all-cause mortality by taking on just one session per week of muscle strengthening physical activity! If women went on to do 3 muscle strengthening exercises per week they get a maximum benefit of 24% reduction in all cause mortality.
Facts and limitations of study
· The study was carried out on 412,413 US adults [55% female].
· The study was conducted over 4,911,178 person years [from 1997 through to 2019].
· Throughout the study period 39,935 all cause deaths occurred including 11,670 cardiovascular deaths.
· For any amount of physical activity up to 300 minutes per week, women derived proportionately greater benefits than men did [in terms of cardiovascular and all cause mortality risk reduction].
· Physical activity data collected were self-reported albeit using a standardised questionnaire.
· When estimating muscle strengthening activities, the only information collected was the frequency NOT the duration of each activity.
BOOST closing comments
At BOOST we have one mission, one objective and that is to get you to move like your life depends on it because ultimately it does!
We hope this bite size summary of research gives you enough information to spark thought, create curiosity and mostly drive action towards movement!
For our female readers, perhaps after reading this blog you might take up a strength training session or finally sign up for that gym membership now you know how beneficial moving your body can be to increasing the time in this short existence we call life.
Are you likely to move more after reading the findings of this research?
Write an answer
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Referencing
Original research name: Sex Differences in Association of Physical Activity With All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality
Link to original research publication: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.12.019#fig2
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