{"id":172578,"date":"2019-03-04T11:54:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T11:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=172578"},"modified":"2019-03-04T11:54:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T11:54:36","slug":"can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/04\/can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Women Outperform Men in Endurance Sports?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox is just one of the names whose astounding accomplishments are enlivening the debate surrounding the battle of the sexes in endurance sports. Wilcox has won both the\u00a0Trans Am Bike Race and the\u00a0Tour Divide,\u00a0being the first woman ever to do so. She also set world records with her time on the Baja Divide route and in 2018, she became the second woman ever to finish Switzerland\u2019s Navad 1000 bike packing race, winning second place.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u2019s not the only one beating the guys either, and we\u2019re starting to understand why. Since a study was published in 2017 showing that women\u2019s bodies might actually be more endurance ready than men\u2019s, the discussion around who can excel when the body is pushed to the edge, and then pushed again, has changed.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BoZo7CahYBA\/<\/p>\n

As more women enter endurance sports, more are proving they can outperform men. This is especially true for competitions involving extreme feats of endurance. It seems that the longer the race, the better chance women have at narrowing the gap with male competitors, or even overtaking them. As this phenomenon has become harder to ignore, more questions are being asked and more research is being done. Some have argued that it is a greater ability to withstand pain, a residual effect of the fact that women survive childbirth, or that it has to do with aerobic capacity or size, but the answer seems to be in the muscles.<\/p>\n

The study headed by Dr. Brian Dalton of the University of British Columbia found that, although men may have superior strength,\u00a0women last significantly longer when it comes to dynamic muscle exercise. In order to compare muscle endurance and fatigability in both men and women, the study asked participants to perform 200 dynamic plantar flexion or calf muscle contractions at a set resistance of 30% or their maximal strength. As both male and female participants performed the test, researchers were recording data on speed, power, movements and electrical activity of their muscles. Their findings had big implications for endurance athletes. Big, strong muscles simply don\u2019t last as long.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/TransAmBikeRace\/status\/1062009395201007616<\/p>\n

Dr. Dalton and others in the field are now working to determine the exact mechanisms behind why this is the case, and their research could prove critical in helping coaches and exercise physiologists to construct training plans that better complement an athlete\u2019s physiology. Although there is still much to be discovered, the findings of this research make a powerful point for considering the different strengths of each sex, as opposed to always labelling women as the \u201cweaker\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although this doesn\u2019t change the fact that men are able to build muscle more easily in the first place, it is important to make the point that females, who don\u2019t always receive as much encouragement in their athletic endeavours, have bodies that are just as (if not more) capable of achieving feats of amazing strengths and endurance. It is still said too often within the world of athletics that \u201cwomen can\u2019t,\u201d and having solid research on hands helps dispel this myth.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BtVC2gNAaqE\/<\/p>\n

As this body of research grows, coaches and consultants will be better equipped to help women athletes excel. As it stands, many athletes, coaches, and researchers start believing that \u00adwomen may still be far from achieving their full \u00adpotential due to a lack of knowledge about how their bodies work. Not to mention that, compared to men, women have been compet\u00ading in \u00adendurance sports for a \u00adrel\u00adatively short amount of time and therefore scientific understanding of women athletes is unfortunately lacking.<\/p>\n

That is changing though. We have no shortage of females who are proving that their bodies are capable of amazing things. It\u2019s a thrilling experience to push your body beyond what you thought it could do, and more women are realizing their bodies are a lot stronger than they thought. As research continues to be done and more women discover the joy of endurance sports, Lael Wilcox will likely be in good company as other female athletes continue breaking world records and setting a new standard for what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox is just one of the names whose astounding accomplishments are enlivening the debate surrounding the battle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":172582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[2744,2743],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-172578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-brian-dalton","tag-lael-wilcox"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Women Outperform Men in Endurance Sports? - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox is just one of the names whose astounding accomplishments are enlivening the debate surrounding the battle of the sexes in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/04\/can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Women Outperform Men in Endurance Sports?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Endurance cyclist Lael Wilcox is just one of the names whose astounding accomplishments are enlivening the debate surrounding the battle of the sexes in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/04\/can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-04T11:54:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/03\/Trans-Am-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan Flottorp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/04\/can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/04\/can-women-outperform-men-in-endurance-sports\/\",\"name\":\"Can Women Outperform Men in Endurance Sports? 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