Does Gender Affect Pulse Rate Before and After Running?

Whether you run on a regular basis or you're a sporadic weekend warrior, monitoring your pulse rate can help you stay in your target zone, and ensure that you return to your pre-workout levels after your run. But don't compare your pulse rate to your opposite-sex partner. Heart rate values are gender-specific, with women tending to have a higher pulse both at rest and during exercise.

  1. Oxygen to the Max

    • When comparing male and female endurance athletes, Greg Crowther, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Washington, explains that men and women vary in their maximal oxygen consumption, or VO2 max. VO2 max represents the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can use during intense exercise. Dr. Crowther notes that both sedentary females and elite female athletes have a lower VO2 max relative to body mass compared to their male counterparts. To compensate for the deficit in oxygen consumption, women have a higher heart rate both at rest and during exercise.

    Size Matters

    • The lower VO2 max and higher heart rate in women can partly be explained by heart size and blood volume. Each time your heart beats, the left ventricle ejects oxygenated blood into your systemic circulation. Because a woman's heart is smaller, it's not able to pump as much blood per stroke as a man's. What's more, women have a lower relative volume of blood, meaning there is less blood available within the circulatory system at any given time. The combination of a lower stroke volume and a lower blood volume means that a woman's heart must beat more quickly to meet oxygen demands.

    Dead Weight

    • VO2 max is expressed as the amount of oxygen your body uses relative to your body mass. But not all mass is created equal. Because men have a higher fat-free mass than women, they have more metabolically active cells that use oxygen and contribute to energy production. Fat cells, on the other hand, are storage units for energy that are incapable of aerobic metabolism, and are essentially dead weight. Because women have a higher body-fat percentage than men, they have a lesser capacity for oxygen consumption per kilogram of body weight, resulting in a faster heart rate.

    Low From the Flow

    • Before blood is ejected by your left ventricle to distribute oxygen throughout your body, it passes through your lungs. There, oxygen attaches hemoglobin, a protein component of your red blood cells. Hemoglobin is a limiting factor for available oxygen, affecting your VO2 max. A woman's hemoglobin levels tend to be lower than a man's due to the monthly shedding of red blood cells during the menstrual cycle. Lower hemoglobin levels contribute to the need for a faster heart rate to meet oxygen demands before, during and after exercise.