Relative physical strength of men vs. women?

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Not responding to 'cheap shots' would be a sign of strength, IMHO... ;)

All I know is that I was 5'10" by my sophomore year of HS and 5'12" by the time I graduated. My friends were mostly males of the Dungeons & Dragons, Society for Creative Anachronism, Math Team crowd. I spent a lot of time hunting down and beating the crap out of HS football players for flushing my friend's heads down toilets...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

[This message has been edited by Tamara (edited August 09, 2000).]
 
About 30+ years ago when I was young and stronger than average I was assigned to a Korean Infantry Regiment in Vietnam. I saw a large number of 130-145lb ROK troops who could clean my clock. It was not a question of strength. So I believe that a strong woman in good shape and with the will to put it on the line can beat a lot of bigger and stronger men.
Now that I am a COF I do not look for physical conquest and Tamara or some other equally determined woman could probably take me, but she would have to be quick! ;)

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
"So I believe that a strong woman in good shape and with the will to put it on the line can beat a lot of bigger and stronger men."

How exactly do you mean beat? It doesn't happen in any sport.

Now smaller and weaker men would be another matter.

[This message has been edited by cuerno de chivo (edited August 09, 2000).]
 
I meant in a fight-not sport. Many people are not inclined to go all out in a fight. As our own highly-respected DC might say: "When you take it to a level they cant comprehend, they have already lost".

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
"Many people are not inclined to go all out in a fight."

&

"Beat means you are hurt enough to no longer be a threat to the woman"

Can anybody cite a physical confrontation without a weapon where a male was rendered non-threatening by physical damage caused by a lone female?
 
I have a female cousin who was attacked by three men. She's not a large woman and doesn't exercise. But, boy, they got on her mean side. One grabbed her in a bear hug from behind and received a heel in the nads for his efforts. Next she reached into her car and retrieved one of those hinged tire tools just in time to whip it around into the face of would be rapist number two. Then on to repeat some rapping on number one's head. Then number three tried to come to the rescue. Bad move. She sent three large men to the trauma center, a long hospital stay, and extensive physical therapy.

On the other hand, I know of a six foot, strapping woman black belt who was badly beaten by a smaller man. She did not maintain awareness and was down for the count before she knew she was in the fight. I've also known the same thing to happen to many large men at the hands of smaller opponents-myself sadly included in their number.

When it comes to violence, it's not the size of the dog in the fight-it's the size of the fight in the dog. You can have your strength, your speed, your stamina, your reflexes. You can hone and maintain them like a fine blade. But age will eventually steal each one. What will you do then? For myself, I will continue to study strategy. You can have all the weapons, skills, strength, etc. possible but if a superior tactician gets two feet behind you with a brick then it is all for naught.

But to return to the main topic of the thread, men generally have superior strength. Women generally have superior endurance (both in the sense of strength and the ability bounce back from a variety of physical and emotional insult...they heal better). Women have faster reaction times and a greater capacity to endure g forces. By endurance I mean this: Take the male and female powerlifters mentioned earlier and give them weights they can each handle very easily-say fifty pounds. Tell them to do curls until they can absolutely not do another one. The woman champion will beat the male. The extremities of the male strength envelope are inarguably greater than the female strength envelope. However, in the area of overlap, there are many measureable areas where females are physically superior.

Study the death rates for each age cohort comparing the sexes. Some of it can be explained by saying that females are less likely to be involved in risk taking leading to fatal accidents (a sign of superior mentation). However, when male and female accident victims are compared; the females demonstrate both lower death rates and better healing when compared with equivalently injured males. Fewer females die from disease in every age group throughout the lifespan.
Men are physically stronger in the ability to work (physics definition) but women are physically (and emotionally) tougher.

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Byron Quick



[This message has been edited by Spartacus (edited August 10, 2000).]
 
Thanks for all the ideas. I note a few references up there, and I'll try to run them down. Take care.

Live and let live. Regards from AZ
 
Jeff we ain't done yet.

Tamara you are absolutly right, I never said women weren't more intelligent.

Spartacus
"Women have faster reaction times and a greater capacity to endure g forces." Then they should hold the NHRA top fuel record. Oh yeah, they cant drive to save their ass. ;)

Size and strength does matter, that is why we have weight classes in boxing, put a lightweight champ in ring with heavy weight champ and everyone knows who will win everytime. As they say with skill being equal the bigger man will win. Same with fighting in the octogon, much more often the bigger man will fail there, by lack of skill and conditioning, but that is very rare in the case of a very strong, conditoned athlete that is also skillfull. Someone like Ken Shamrock was only defeated once by probably the most skillfull man to enter the octagon, Royce Gracie.

On the medical front you ever see a statistic that show how much more often a woman goes to get medical care compared to a man? A LOT.

As to emotioally stronger that is relative dont think it can be proven. Throw a bunch of men and women into a 1950s style marine boot camp and I bet you see more women break then men. Them being more emotional, I definitley agree.

I think this is one where a lot of us will have to agree to disagree. Well I gotta go and get the little woman to make me some breakfast.

Why don't you buy your wife a watch? Because there's a clock on the oven! :) :)



[This message has been edited by oberkommando (edited August 10, 2000).]
 
Whoever said longer limbs is on to something. Long limbs, long muscle connections, stronger tendons, thicker bones, all these things are equal or greater contributors to your strength as compared to muscle mass. That's why some of the strongest lifters in the world don't look as muscular as bodybuilders at the same bodyfat--the strongest in the world have very long muscle connections, which tends to "flatten" the appearance of their muscles and keep them from "peaking" the way a champion bodybuilder's would. I am cursed with this myself; when I flex my biceps, they don't change shape as much as I'd like! :D
 
Re: NHRA records.

See: Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Seeling.

Re: Women rebounding from medical trauma.

See: Shirley Muldowney, my release from rehab one week early. (I can walk to the loo by myself now!) :D

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
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