Abstract:
Introduction: Men and women show different responses to exercise stress. Some aspects of gender differences in such situations have not been made clear yet. The aim of this study was to compare gender differences between elite men and women handball players regarding IL-6, TNF-α, cortisol and sex hormones responses to resistance exercise.Material and Methods: Twenty elite handball players (10 male aged 27.6±1.13, height 183.20± 5.93 cm,body mass 87± 3.31 kg and 10 women aged 26.9± 1.04, height 168± 4.07 cm, body mass 63.71± 7.65 kg) were selected. Resistance exercise program included six separate attempts as: Bench press, Lat pull down, shoulder press, Biceps curl, Knee extension and Knee curl which was done in an alternative method for 3 sets and 10 repetitions at 60 % 1RM. Blood samples were taken before, immediately and 2 hours after exercise regimen. Measurement of IL-6 and TNF-was done with ELISA method. Also cortisol, Testosterone and human estrogen hormone measurement was done by immunoradiometric assay.Results: Data analysis showed that there were significant differences in post-exercise IL-6 and testosterone levels between the two groups (P<0.05). No significant differences were seen in post-exercise TNF-, cortisol and esterogen levels when men were compared with women (P>0.05).Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the present study results, one session of moderate resistance exercise as a hypertrophy stimulus caused changes in both gender cytokine levels in which men showed limited inflammatory responses.
Machine summary:
"The aim of this study was to compare gender differences between elite men and women handball players regarding IL-6, TNF-α, cortisol and sex hormones responses to resistance exercise.
No significant differences were seen in post-exercise TNF-, cortisol and esterogen levels when men were compared with women (P>0.
Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the present study results, one session of moderate resistance exercise as a hypertrophy stimulus caused changes in both gender cytokine levels in which men showed limited inflammatory responses.
Keywords: Resistance exercise, IL- 6, TNF-, Sex Hormone, Gender, Handball players Introduction Men and women show different responses to short term exercise such as exhaustive attempts on treadmill or lifting of heavy weights.
Research data indicates that there was no significant difference in serum cortisol levels immediately and two hours after exercise between men and women.
In this study testosterone levels were higher in men compared to women immediately and two hours after exercise, while estrogen did not show such a profile.
Some other researches also, reported significant differences in testosterone levels immediately after exercise between men and women [1,46].
Thus a session of resistance exercise may cause specific gender-related changes in steroidogenesis enzyme expression and this factor could be one of the effective factors in gender-related differences in testosterone levels [1].
Conclusion: in brief our research revealed that doing one session of moderate resistance exercise creates different cytokine responses between men and women, in which men show limited inflammatory responses."