A comparison of motor performance between men and women in multiple sets of weight exercises

The magnitude of men and women’s neuromuscular, metabolic, and morphologic responses seems to be quite different even when both are submitted to exercise protocols using similar weight exercises protocols. However, differences in the motor performance between men and women have been predominantly reported in protocols based on isometric and isokinetic contractions. Thus, this study aimed to analyze men and women’s behavior during multiple sets of weight exercises achieving the exhaustion, and later verifying possible differences as to the physical performance between genders using weights with similar intensity. For this, 83 subjects (50 men, and 33 women), 48 hours after being submitted to 1-RM tests in bench press, squat and arm curl performed a protocol composed by four sets at 1-RM 80% up to achieving the exhaustion in each of three exercises to evaluate the endurance ability to the fatigue in different muscular groups. It was used the ANOVA and ANCOVA for repeated measurements, followed by the Tukey’s post hoc test, where P < 0.05 to the data treatment. It was verified a significant fall in the performance both in men and in women since the first up to the fourth sets of every exercise investigated (P < 0.01). Although the fatigue magnitude was higher in men in all the three exercises, the effect on the gender was only identified in the arm curl exercise (P < 0.01). The results of this study indicated that men and women presented quite different behavior in multiple sets of weight exercises, and women presented a more stable performance and a higher endurance ability to the fatigue in the arm curl as well.