Research
Hormonal
Older women exhibit anabolic resistance, showing a reduced capacity for muscle hypertrophy and a smaller increase in MPS in response to resistance exercise and protein feeding compared to young men and women.
As women age, their muscles become less responsive to protein and exercise. To maintain muscle, older women may need to focus on higher protein intake or specific training strategies to overcome this natural resistance.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Older women also have a reduced capacity for hypertrophy in response to resistance exercise... Recent unpublished data... indicates that older women show a smaller increase in MPS in response to resistance exercise than men.
Why this rating
Based on a review of studies, including some unpublished data.
Source
Exercise training and protein metabolism: influences of contraction, protein intake, and sex-based differences
Nicholas A. Burd et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2008
DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.91351.2008
narrative_reviewCited 390×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Post-exercise protein ingestion is required to shift net protein balance to positive and support muscle hypertrophy, with a window of opportunity extending up to 24 hours after resistance exercise.Good
- Resistance exercise increases muscle protein synthesis (MPS) for up to 48 hours, creating a 'window of anabolic opportunity' where the muscle is more sensitive to protein intake.Good
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