Differences between Male and Female

Bodybuilding - What Are the Differences between Male and Female ?

The differences between male and female bodybuilding is evident at all levels of participation. It is important to make this distinction, as bodybuilding is enjoyed at all levels and encompasses the recreational, amateur and professional/competitive level bodybuilder. Certainly there are far more recreational bodybuilders than professional.

At the competitive level, females are at a disadvantage in a direct comparison physiologically for the purposes of bodybuilding as it currently judges its competitors. Bodybuilding at the competitive level is judged by primarily by the competitors mass, definition, proportion, symmetry, stage presence and posing routine among other things.

Females can compete through the same hard work to obtain all of the ingredients that a great bodybuilder is judged by except in the area of muscle mass. Testosterone levels and fat metabolism mechanism are the major difference in the physique differences.

Women do not have nearly the same amount of testosterone as males and this translates into the finished product that one sees onstage with far less mass. All things being equal, a female will have significantly less muscle mass than the male. Furthermore, the manner in which the female body metabolizes differs from the manner in which males do.

Females generally have higher fat percentages than males, and they store it in different areas of the body, (hips and thighs, rather then the abdomen as males do). The body can more easily metabolize fat in the abdomen area then it can the thigh and hips.

A further difference is that in many female bodybuilding competitions there are contests with titles that include words such as "fitness" in them. These contests seem to cater to the more accepted stereotype of the beauty and agility of the female body, rather than the muscular. These contests do not exist for male competitors.

Other differences include a lower number of participants at all levels, though this is particularly true at the competitive level. Part of this has to do with the difference in available money for male bodybuilders versus their female counterparts. This extends to bodybuilding magazines and endorsements (how often have you seen a female bodybuilding on the cover of a mainstream bodybuilding magazine?).

At the recreational level, in general, males engage in higher levels of bodybuilding supplement purchases, magazine purchases and bodybuilding equipment. Since the business is geared to males, it pays more to be a successful male bodybuilder, and in turn, males gravitate to the sport more than females.