Do women have more endurance than men? What the research says

Do women have more endurance than men? It depends on what you mean by endurance. If you mean "who wins the marathon", no: in endurance events, men typically outperform women by 10% to 30% depending on the event (Hunter et al., 2023). If you mean "who fatigues less at the same relative effort", women often do, at least in sustained muscle contractions (Hunter, 2014). And if you mean "who paces a marathon without falling apart", the data leans clearly toward women.

So the headline you've seen is half right. Below: where men are faster and why, where women hold up better, what the ultra-distance hype gets right and wrong, and what any of it means for your training. Spoiler for that last part: you train the same way, with one plan for running and lifting or without.

If you came here from the cycle side of things, a guide to workout with menstruation covers how your cycle fits into training. This post is about sex differences in endurance, which is a separate question.

Do women have more endurance than men? The short answer

Every row is about group averages. None of them tells you what you, specifically, can do.

None of it changes how you should train either. Mostly easy running, a little hard running, strength work alongside it. A women's training plan with running built in is built from the same parts as anyone else's, scaled to your level rather than your sex.

Why men are faster in most endurance races

The most authoritative summary is a 2023 consensus statement for the American College of Sports Medicine. It says adult men are typically stronger, more powerful and faster than women of similar age and training status, and that in events relying on endurance, strength, speed and power, males typically outperform females by 10% to 30% depending on the event (Hunter et al., 2023).

Those differences emerge at puberty, alongside testosterone in males, which increases 30-fold by adulthood while remaining low in females (Hunter et al., 2023). The statement attributes the performance gap to differences in anatomy and physiology driven by sex chromosomes and sex hormones.

One piece you can see on a lab chart is VO2 max, the ceiling on how much oxygen you can use. In the FRIEND registry of treadmill tests, the median man aged 20 to 29 scored 48.0 mL/kg/min and the median woman 37.6 (Kaminsky, Arena and Myers, 2015). The full women's chart is in vo2 max by age female explained. Those are medians, and the distributions overlap heavily: plenty of women out-score plenty of men.

So on the "who crosses the line first" definition of endurance, the answer is men, on average. Pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone.

Where women hold up better

Here's the part the headlines are built on, and it's real.

Women fatigue less, in many tasks

A 2014 review by Sandra Hunter concluded that women are usually less fatigable than men for similar-intensity sustained (isometric) contractions. The catch is in the next sentence: the difference is task-specific, and it changes with the type, intensity and speed of contraction, the muscle group and the environment (Hunter, 2014).

A 2020 review went further, arguing that female skeletal muscle is more resistant to fatigue from equivalent doses of high-intensity exercise, and that the physiological response to the same "dose" of exercise isn't the same in men and women (Ansdell et al., 2020).

"Less fatigable" means you lose a smaller share of your own capacity during a task. It doesn't mean you finish ahead of someone with a bigger capacity to start with. That's how both of these statements can be true at once: men are faster, and women hold their pace better relative to their own maximum.

After a 110 km ultra trail race

One of the most-cited real-world examples tested 10 women and 10 men, matched for how close they finished to their sex's winning time, before and after a 110 km ultra-trail race. Maximal knee extensor strength dropped more in men than in women (38% vs 29%), and the women showed less peripheral fatigue in the calf muscles (Temesi et al., 2015). The authors suggested this could partly explain reports of better female performance as race distance increases. That's a hypothesis from 20 runners, not a law.

Women burn more fat during endurance exercise

A review of sex differences in exercise metabolism found that women oxidize more fat and less carbohydrate and protein than men during endurance exercise, with some evidence of muscle glycogen sparing (Tarnopolsky, 2008). Giving estradiol to men reproduced most of the differences, which points to a hormonal role.

What that doesn't mean: that women can skip fueling. General sports nutrition guidance of 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour for efforts of about one to two and a half hours applies to everyone (ACSM, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada, 2016).

Do women outperform men in ultra-endurance?

Sometimes, in some races. Not as a rule.

The best-known example is open-water swimming. An analysis of the 46 km Manhattan Island Marathon Swim from 1983 to 2013 concluded the best women were about 12 to 14% faster than the men in a race with water temperatures below 20°C (Knechtle et al., 2014). The same paper notes earlier studies suggesting women's and men's ultra-swim performances may be similar at around 35 km. That's swimming, in specific races and conditions, analyzed from results rather than controlled testing.

The honest summary: there's suggestive evidence that the gap narrows in some very long events, and some lab evidence for why. There isn't evidence that women generally beat men at ultra distances. Anyone who tells you "women are better at ultras, full stop" is selling a headline.

Women pace marathons better

This is the most practical finding, and the data set is enormous.

An analysis of 873,334 Berlin Marathon finishers from 1999 to 2025 measured how much runners slowed in the second half (Seffrin et al., 2026):

The authors say this is consistent with behavioral and strategic factors contributing alongside physiology. In other words, part of it may be fatigue resistance and fuel use, and part may be that men are more likely to start too fast. Either way, the lesson for everyone is the same: even pacing beats heroic first halves.

Does your menstrual cycle affect endurance?

Not much, on current evidence. A 2020 meta-analysis of 78 studies found exercise performance, including endurance outcomes, might be only trivially reduced in the early follicular phase, from mostly low-quality evidence. A 2024 eight-week trial in 33 moderately trained women found that scheduling hard running sessions around cycle phases gave no extra benefit over scheduling them against it; both groups improved.

So if you've been wondering should i workout on the first day of my period, the answer is about how you feel, not about losing endurance. The hormones menstrual cycle research is covered phase by phase elsewhere. And if you track recovery data, HRV moves a little across the cycle too; normal hrv for women explained covers what that means and why your own baseline matters most.

What this means for how you train

Short version: nothing changes. Long version:

• ›Train your own physiology, not the average. Set paces and zones from your own tests and race results, not from charts built on someone else.
• ›Mostly easy, a little hard. Easy runs are conversational. One or two harder sessions a week, a long run, and that's the core of endurance training for anyone.
• ›Use your pacing edge. If the Berlin data describes you, lean into it: start conservatively and finish strong. If it doesn't, practice it.
• ›Fuel long sessions anyway. Fat use differences don't cancel the case for carbs on long runs and races.
• ›Keep lifting. Strength training sits alongside endurance work. Schedule heavy legs on a hard-run day (run first, lift later) or an easy day, and never the day before intervals or the long run.

The question that matters isn't whether women have more endurance than men. It's whether you have more endurance than you did three months ago. That one is about consistency, sensible progression and recovery, and it's in your control.

How exrsz fits in

exrsz builds a periodized plan from your goal, schedule, level and equipment, with running and lifting balanced in one plan. It adapts each week to how you actually trained and reshuffles missed sessions.

FAQ

Are women better at endurance than men?

At the same relative effort, women are often less fatigable in many tasks (Hunter, 2014). In finishing times, men typically outperform women by 10% to 30% in endurance events (Hunter et al., 2023).

Do women have more stamina than men?

If stamina means holding up at a given share of your own maximum, often yes. A 2020 review concluded female skeletal muscle is more resistant to fatigue from equivalent doses of high-intensity exercise. That doesn't make women faster on average.

Are women better at ultramarathons than men?

Not as a rule. Some studies suggest women and men may perform similarly in ultra-swims of around 35 km, and one found the best women were about 12 to 14% faster than the men in a cold-water 46 km swim (Knechtle et al., 2014). Evidence for a general female advantage at ultra distances is limited.

Do women pace marathons better than men?

On average, yes. In 873,334 Berlin Marathon finishers, 17.63% of men and 9.66% of women slowed by 20% or more in the second half (Seffrin et al., 2026).

Should women train differently for endurance?

No. Women respond to the same training principles: mostly easy running, some hard sessions, strength work and enough fuel. Set your paces and zones from your own results, not from averages.