Hi, I'm Beth Ruyak. The first modern Olympic games were back in 1896 in Athens, Greece. They weren't allowed in. Two hundred years later in Atlanta, more than 37oo women competed and it was a signal to the world that the perception of the female athlete was changing. So given a same kind of weight training program over a 10 to 12 week period, men and women will both increase their strength at a similar percentage.
Women tend to be more flexible in general than men.
That is a feature I think is pretty common. But because men are really aggressive trying to push big weights, and have tight muscles, or trying to do some maneuvers for instance in a gymnastics format where they're not flexible enough to do it, they may have an increased risk to teat or rupture big muscles. I think it's super that women have some newer athlete role models and those kinds of role models really help you strive to achieve at higher levels, and to dream that you can actually be something like that when you grow up. If women don't have normal menstrual periods, they become at risk for developing early osteoporosis and that can be pretty significant. We have seen women in their 20's who have bone mineral densities that are very similar to women in their 70's and 80's, and so that is a problem that can be very significant.