男性為什么比女性肌肉更多

Walk into any gym, and one thing becomes obvious right away — the men are generally larger, stronger, and more muscular than the women. Sure, there are some unusually large and strong women, and some men that land on the smaller side of the spectrum. But even when a man and woman are the exact same height and weight, the man will normally have more muscle mass (via DrElist). What gives?

走進(jìn)任何一家健身房，有一件事馬上就變得顯而易見——男人通常比女人更高大、更強(qiáng)壯、更有肌肉。當(dāng)然，有一些異常高大強(qiáng)壯的女性，也有一些男性的體型較小。但是，即使男女身高和體重完全相同，男性通常也會(huì)擁有更多的肌肉。到底是什么原因?

We can give the sex hormone testosterone most of the credit for the difference. The hormone contributes in a major way to (among other things), growth in both muscle mass and bone mass (via WebMD). Although women's bodies do produce some testosterone, their levels of the hormone are far lower — 90 percent lower on average — than men's. The hormonal difference accounts for men's ability to both build more muscle than women, and to build it faster.

我們可以把這種差異大部分歸功于性激素睪丸激素。這種激素主要促進(jìn)肌肉和骨量的增長(通過WebMD)。盡管女性的身體確實(shí)會(huì)產(chǎn)生一些睪酮，但她們的激素水平比男性平均水平低90%。荷爾蒙的差異解釋了男性比女性更能鍛煉肌肉，也能更快地鍛煉肌肉。

Strength training is important for both women and men

力量訓(xùn)練對(duì)男女都很重要

Sean Fortune, a personal trainer and running coach in New York City, explains "As a trainer, I know some very strong females. But it's safe to say that, generally speaking, it's easier for men to develop not just upper-body strength, but strength in any body part, simply because of the hormonal advantage of having more testosterone."

紐約市的私人教練兼跑步教練肖恩·福瓊(Sean Fortune)解釋說：“作為一名教練，我認(rèn)識(shí)一些非常強(qiáng)壯的女性。但可以肯定的是，一般來說，男性不僅更容易發(fā)展上半身的力量，而且更容易發(fā)展身體任何部位的力量，這僅僅是因?yàn)閾碛懈嗖G丸激素的荷爾蒙優(yōu)勢。”

While testosterone plays a major role in muscle mass, there's more to the structural and physiological differences between men and women than just a single hormone. Women have (and need) a higher percentage of body fat than men, to maintain optimum health. And their muscle mass tends to be more concentrated in the lower body, while for men it's greater in the upper body. Also, scientists have found more than 3000 unique genes that behave differently in women's muscles than in men's (via Livestrong).

雖然睪酮在肌肉質(zhì)量中起著主要作用，但男女之間的結(jié)構(gòu)和生理差異不僅僅是一種激素。為了保持最佳健康狀態(tài)，女性比男性擁有(并且需要)更高比例的身體脂肪。女性的肌肉集中在下半身，而男性的肌肉集中在上半身。此外，科學(xué)家還發(fā)現(xiàn)了3000多個(gè)獨(dú)特的基因，這些基因在女性肌肉中的行為與男性不同。

In spite of the differences, both women and men can benefit greatly from strength training exercises. Fortune adds, "Strength training is so important in terms of building bone density and strength ... women are going to get the same results as men, just to somewhat of a lesser degree" (via WebMD).

盡管存在差異，但無論男女都能從力量訓(xùn)練中受益匪淺?！敦?cái)富》雜志補(bǔ)充道，“力量訓(xùn)練對(duì)于提高骨密度和力量非常重要……女性將獲得與男性相同的結(jié)果，只是程度稍低”。