ABSTRACT
It is unclear whether gender differences in relative strength are due to differences in muscle mass or dissimilarity of use[1], Davies[2] concluded that differences in absolute strength, ascribed to age and sex in young children, are a function of muscle mass and merely reflect differences in muscle development. This is supported by the work of Housh et al[3], who demonstrated with mature adolescents, moderate to high (0.61-0.70) correlations of total muscle mass to flexion and extension of the arm at 30, 180 and 300 deg·s-1. Their conclusions suggest that increases in peak torque across ages are fully accounted for by changes in muscle mass, and that there are no gender differences in peak torque per muscle and bone cross-sectional area.
