ABSTRACT
In the not-so-distant past, our society was influenced by the notion that boys were meant to be active and athletic, whereas girls were weaker and thus less well suited to physical activity. In fact, women were prohibited from running any race longer than 800 m until the 1960s (Wilmore and Costill 2004). This notion is no longer common,
The elderly 254 ❚
Children and adolescents 257 ❚
Obesity 260 ❚
Diabetes mellitus 262 ❚
Conditions of insulin resistance 263 ❚
Summary 273 ❚
involvement in physical activity and training, there has been a tremendous decrease in the gender gap in terms of athletic performance. In events other than those requiring muscular strength and power, performance differences between genders are no more than 15%. The current body of knowledge regarding metabolic responses to exercise and training is based largely on the responses of young adult males. This is because much of the previous research in the area of exercise metabolism has primarily been conducted using male subjects. Due to the ever-increasing involvement of women in sports and leisure and occupational physical activities, there has been a steady increase in research that aims to compare exercise-induced metabolic responses and adaptations between genders. The proliferation of research in this regard will serve to improve our understanding of gender differences in exercise metabolism. It will also help establish guidelines to be used for designing a gender-specific training regimen and exercise prescription.
