Sex Differences in Strength Training
A brief narrative review.
A new review published in Sport Sciences for Health set out to explore if and how men and women might respond differently to strength training. The short answer is less than most people assume. While men start with more muscle and produce more absolute force, when both sexes train the same way, they gain strength and muscle at roughly the same relative rate. The review also found that women tend to outlast men in endurance-based efforts, and that the gap in explosive power is larger than the gap in raw strength. For coaches and athletes, the takeaway is that programs should not be based on sex alone and should be based on the individual needs. Let’s dive in.
Aim
Researchers from the Neuromuscular Research Lab at the University of Lisbon conducted a narrative review of the current literature on sex-based differences in resistance training (RT) adaptations. They focused on four key areas: maximal strength, muscle hypertrophy, speed strength, and strength endurance. A semi-structured search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted, with preference given to studies published between 2020 and 2025.
Methods
This was a narrative review, not a controlled trial. The authors searched sport science databases using terms like “sex differences,” “resistance training,” “muscle hypertrophy,” “speed strength,” and “strength endurance.” Only peer-reviewed studies conducted on human adults and published in English were included. Older studies were pulled in through reference screening of more recent papers.
Results
Maximal Strength
Men produce significantly more absolute strength than women across most exercises. In bench press and chest press, female strength sits around 40 to 55% of male values. In the squat and leg press, that figure rises to around 60 to 65%. The gap is wider for upper-body movements than for lower-body. Among competitive powerlifters, strength-to-bodyweight ratios also favour men, though the margin is smaller in the lower body. The key driver of this gap is greater muscle mass in men, not differences in how well the nervous system activates muscle. Both sexes voluntarily activate their muscles to a similar degree.
When you account for body composition, particularly lean mass, the lower-body strength gap between male and female athletes largely disappears. The upper body gap persists even after that adjustment.
The gap in strength is also smaller during eccentric contractions compared to concentric. Women tend to show a higher eccentric-to-concentric strength ratio, particularly in upper body exercises like the military press and bench press.
Relative Strength Gains
Despite the baseline differences, both men and women improve their relative strength at comparable rates following RT. Percentage gains in maximal strength are largely similar. Some data suggest women may have a slight edge in upper-body relative strength gains, though this finding comes with caveats around training status and study design.