I read somewhere that for some reason grip strength is one of the only muscle groups where the Bell curves of male strength vs. female strength has essentially zero overlap. It was something like “the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women,” or maybe even more extreme. IDK, I can’t remember the source and I can’t be bothered to look for it on a Saturday morning, but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
It’s not quite that dramatic from what I can see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if studies have been done that found that distribution.
It’s hard to account for social factors inherent in this, too. Like, how do we account for men being more encouraged to develop grip strength muscles than women? Men are much more likely, from young childhood, to be encouraged to perform many different kinds of strenuous physical activity. Women are discouraged from performing those same activities (also from childhood) and are also very heavily pressured towards eating less and being/appearing weaker.
This social influence definitely has a real tangible impact on how people’s muscle strength develops. Due to its essentially all-encompassing nature (there’s not really any man/woman in society who is entirely free from societal pressure) it’s hard to tell to what degree this discrepancy is influenced by external factors instead of biological circumstances. That is, how can we test this accurately when half the participants have been discouraged from building muscle mass and grip strength all their lives?
Testosterone exposure definitely has a real impact, but the idea that the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women is doubtful. A study may have been done that had those findings, but I’d question the methodology used and be interested to see what their sample size and demographic makeup were.
This still suffers from an unaddressed element of external factors. Including 60 participants who are athletes does not undo social pressures. Those athletes are still and were subject to social pressures throughout their childhood and adolescence. The same could be said for the men in the study as well. They were still disproportionately encouraged towards activities that would build grip strength.
There are other studies showing a more moderate bell curve overlap (closer to 50% of men studied have stronger grip strength than all women studied). I’d be interested to see data aggregated from different nations comprising individuals from similar age and height ranges across different continents. Taking a bunch of people still within western society as your sample base does, well, nothing to account for the inherent influence of western society on women.
I was way too lazy for that when I did it, but I can tell you that I googled “grip strength men and women” and found some interesting facts. Not exactly what the original comment said but very fascinating nonetheless.
I read somewhere that for some reason grip strength is one of the only muscle groups where the Bell curves of male strength vs. female strength has essentially zero overlap. It was something like “the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women,” or maybe even more extreme. IDK, I can’t remember the source and I can’t be bothered to look for it on a Saturday morning, but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
Well crap. Now I want to train my grip strength.
Here’s a source for that claim. I didn’t realize the difference was so huge! https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2017/05/04/in-grip-strength-a-woman-in-the-90th-percentile-would-be-at-the-10th-percentile-for-men/
It’s not quite that dramatic from what I can see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if studies have been done that found that distribution.
It’s hard to account for social factors inherent in this, too. Like, how do we account for men being more encouraged to develop grip strength muscles than women? Men are much more likely, from young childhood, to be encouraged to perform many different kinds of strenuous physical activity. Women are discouraged from performing those same activities (also from childhood) and are also very heavily pressured towards eating less and being/appearing weaker.
This social influence definitely has a real tangible impact on how people’s muscle strength develops. Due to its essentially all-encompassing nature (there’s not really any man/woman in society who is entirely free from societal pressure) it’s hard to tell to what degree this discrepancy is influenced by external factors instead of biological circumstances. That is, how can we test this accurately when half the participants have been discouraged from building muscle mass and grip strength all their lives?
Testosterone exposure definitely has a real impact, but the idea that the weakest 2% of men have stronger grip strength than 98% of women is doubtful. A study may have been done that had those findings, but I’d question the methodology used and be interested to see what their sample size and demographic makeup were.
The distribution is not that extreme but it’s still very skewed. This is one of the areas where the anatomy of men and women seem to really differ.
This still suffers from an unaddressed element of external factors. Including 60 participants who are athletes does not undo social pressures. Those athletes are still and were subject to social pressures throughout their childhood and adolescence. The same could be said for the men in the study as well. They were still disproportionately encouraged towards activities that would build grip strength.
There are other studies showing a more moderate bell curve overlap (closer to 50% of men studied have stronger grip strength than all women studied). I’d be interested to see data aggregated from different nations comprising individuals from similar age and height ranges across different continents. Taking a bunch of people still within western society as your sample base does, well, nothing to account for the inherent influence of western society on women.
I looked it up. It’s pretty interesting! I suggest others Google it as well.
No links? ☹️
I was way too lazy for that when I did it, but I can tell you that I googled “grip strength men and women” and found some interesting facts. Not exactly what the original comment said but very fascinating nonetheless.
Edit: here’s one of the results which I cannot speak to the legitimacy of.
It’s because we’re always grabbing things. Our own dingalings, boobies, booties. Werkin that grip.
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