Editorial Summary: Exercise: Men's balance benefits more than women
Men and women may respond differently to measures to counteract balancing difficulties caused by long-duration spaceflight.
Men and women may respond differently to measures to counteract balancing difficulties caused by long-duration spaceflight. The suggestion comes from a microgravity simulation study by US researchers led by Timothy Macaulay at the University of California, San Diego. Eight pairs of male and seven pairs of female identical twins undertook 30 days of bed-rest with their heads tilted downward–a standard method to simulate the microgravity conditions of spaceflight. One member of each pair exercised regularly with a treadmill while still lying supine in negative pressure conditions on their lower body. At the end of the study, the males who had exercised performed significantly better than their twins in a single-leg balancing test. However, the females who exercised showed no statistically significant benefit relative to their twins.