Women are as tough as men, study suggests, as it finds extreme physical exercise doesn't have greater negative effects on females

The ‘battle of the sexes’ has pitched men against women for thousands of years, usually with the connotation that women provide the brains and men the brawn.

Sensational contests include Billie Jean King defeating Bobby Riggs in three sets, Donald Trump defeating Hillary Clinton in one election and Girls Aloud beating One True voice with ‘sound of the underground’ to clinch the top spot in the Christmas chart of 2002. But a new study suggests that the notion that females aren't physically as capable is outdated, and that with the right training, women are in fact just as tough as men. After testing a group of six British female soldiers who trekked across Antarctica, researchers found that they showed no more negative health effects than would be expected in men.

The all-women team underwent extreme physical preparation for their expedition, and once on the ice, spent 62 days battling high winds and low temperatures to trek 1,056 miles while dragging sledges loaded with supplies and equipment weighing 80kg.

They were the first ever all-female team to complete the journey.

The study is the first to suggest that women are not more susceptible to the negative effects of physical exertion and, that with appropriate training and preparation, can be as resilient as men in undertaking arduous physical activity.

Research conducted by Dr Robert Gifford from the University of Glasgow and scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Centre for Defence, monitored several markers of their health before and after the successful expedition.

These included indicators of stress, reproductive and metabolic hormone levels, body weight and bone strength.

The findings, presented at the Society for Endocrinology annual conference in Glasgow, indicated not only that markers of reproductive function and bone strength were preserved, but that some markers showed evidence of delayed, exercise-related benefit to their physical fitness two weeks after the expedition.

Dr Gifford said, “Our findings contain some potentially myth-busting data on the impact of extreme physical activity on women. We have shown that with appropriate training and preparation, many of the previously reported negative health effects can be avoided.

Speaking at the Defence Medical Innovation Conference in Birmingham, Major Natalie Taylor said of the group’s efforts: "We did very well.

"Physiologically we coped very well, so our bones were as strong as we left. Our hormones, there was a little dip but within two weeks our hormones were back to normal which is really good.

"We also found that we lost fat, not lean mass. We didn’t lose any kind of muscle. Which is good because that’s what we gained before we went.”

The findings come on the back of Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announcing last month that all roles in the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, including frontline infantry units and the SAS, are now open to female recruits.


telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/19/women-tough-men-study-suggests-finds-extreme-physical-exercise/

Early this year 20 Women were put through the Marine Commando's course, None passed !

nicko wrote:Early this year 20 Women were put through the Marine Commando's course,    None passed !

You need to put links to that on here

Sorry H/T, cant find it now, and wouldn't know how to do it. Perhaps Thor can find it ?

nicko wrote:Sorry H/T, cant find it now, and wouldn't know how to do it.  Perhaps Thor can find it ?

I know 20 have started selection, but this article was in August

So they could be on the course, which is a 32 week training course

I dont see anything mate that they have failed

plymouthherald.co.uk/news/local-news/20-women-have-begun-selection-1940674

I can't bloody remember where I saw it !!!

Many women stayed the course on a SAS Are you fit enough competition some years ago, they had ex SAS instructors putting them through the tests the jungle. There was also something similar on fairly recently, the women on there mostly stayed the course as well. There were more men than women taking part but proportionally more women completed the course.

It could make sense considering when early people moved around a lot and took all their possessions with them, it was the women that carried all the stuff and the children up to a certain age, while the men guarded the group and didn't carry anything so as to be able to jump into action should a predator or rival group attack, they'd have to be pretty resilient - without special training.

Believe me Vintage, that program was nothing like what the SAS selection is, nothing at all !

nicko wrote:Believe me Vintage, that program was nothing like what the SAS selection is, nothing at all !

Have you ever seen a man rigged up to a simulated childbirth machine?   They scream like babies.

Have you ever seen a Man shot in the Stomach with a Tracer round ?

A 19 year old lying in a Belfast gutter and crying for his Mom, and Irish sluts standing over him and jeering, you wont see your Mama again !

Would you take on these two?

eddie wrote:Would you take on these two?

hahaha I love photoshop

Probably nothing like SAS training but I think it showed that women can endure and don't need to be carried along.
It took until the first world war for people realise women weren't too weak physically or mentally to do a range of jobs that only men were supposed to be capable of. A funny idea considering previously women were helping out with a agriculture, pulling drams full of coal in the mines and working from 6:00am til 11:00am in domestic service some maids of all work doing cleaning, cooking, laundry and being ladies maids ever day with a half Sunday off a fortnight,
factory girls working long hours in terrible conditions, especially the match girls and mill workers.
It'll just be a new chapter in women's history.

HoratioTarr wrote:

eddie wrote:Would you take on these two?

hahaha   I love photoshop

Still funny as fuck though.

You’ve started some bloody good threads recently by the way.

nicko wrote:Have you ever seen a Man shot in the Stomach with a Tracer round ?

Women get shot too. Just because a soldier gets shot doesn't mean that women, and come to that, animals, haven't suffered in war time.