Comparative anaerobic power of men and women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in anaerobic power (AnP) between men and women and the contribution of anthropometric variables in accounting for these differences. There were 18 female and 19 male subjects who performed the 30-s Wingate test where power outputs in watts are expressed as mean power (MP, the mean for 30 s) and peak power (PP, the highest 5-s interval). Thigh volume (TV), lean body mass (LBM) and body weight (BW) were used as anthropometric variables. Absolute AnP of men was 35% and 40% higher (p less than 0.001) than that of women for PP and MP, respectively. These differences decreased to 10% and 17% for PP and MP when expressed relative to kg LBM. Anthropometric variables explained less than 50% of the variation in PP and MP for men, while in women, TV accounted for 66% and 71% of the variation in PP and MP, respectively. When the data were combined, TV, BW, and LBM explained 48%, 74%, and 79% of variation in MP and 53%, 71%, and 76% in PP, respectively. These data show that gender differences in indices of AnP are similar to those reported for muscular strength and aerobic power. Additionally, a larger portion of the between gender variation compared to the within gender variation in AnP can be accounted for by anthropometric variables.