Ladies Rejoice! Study Shows You Are Naturally Fitter Than Men: Here's How

'Girls rule, boys drool!'

True it is, at least when taking aerobics exercise into consideration. Researchers at the University of Waterloo found that women can transfer oxygen from the blood to muscles 29% faster than men while moderate exercising. The rate at which the muscles absorb oxygen is termed as VO2 of Oxygen uptake is an important measure of cardiorespiratory fitness.

Muscles need oxygen to the burn fuel to produce energy. When you exercise and breathe in, oxygen goes from your lungs to haemoglobin in RBCs which then goes to the muscles.

During intense workout, depending on your how hard your heart muscles can pump, your HB levels and some other factors, your VO2 maxes out. It is only on the basis of how much breathing you are able to do.

By the time, your muscles start burning more fuel without much oxygen. This leads to the buildup of by-products like lactic acid in the muscles you are mainly working on. This results in a burning sensation, exhaustion and soreness. It may even result in giving up in those people who do not care much about the 'feel the burn' sensation.

The rule is, men max out at a higher VO2 than women. The paper reveals that men beat women in terms of maximum aerobic power by 15% on an average. However, when it comes to daily exercises like brisk-walking, treadmill test, women have an edge. This was exactly the opposite of the expected result, said the study author and U of W kinesiologist Thomas Beltrame said.

The study was conducted at a small scale including nine men and women in their 20s, all at similar fitness levels. The results, however, turned out to be dramatic enough to make the researchers confident in it, Beltrame explained.

The participants practiced several rounds of power-walking on a treadmill. They stopped only when their heart rate reached 80% of the highest limit. Researchers made use of a new technique named infrared spectroscopy to find out the speed of oxygen transfer from their blood to the muscles.

Women did remarkably well in this experiment and the reason is still unknown. It is being estimate that this is because of the difference in muscle fibre mix in men and women or because of the difference in muscle blood flow during their menstrual cycles. Irrespective of the reason, this is important because it related to one daily life activity, walking. This is expected to change the way research will be conducted in the future, Beltrame explained.