{"id":896300,"date":"2026-09-18T07:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896300\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T07:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:50:11","slug":"how-female-anatomy-affects-exercise-and-how-women-can-adapt-their-workouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896300\/","title":{"rendered":"How female anatomy affects exercise and how women can adapt their workouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The carry angle is \u201cwhere the forearm and upper arm connect at the elbow, relative to the pelvis\u201d, explained Professor Adam Taylor, a professor of anatomy at Lancaster University. In men, that angle is around 10 degrees but in women, it is about 15 degrees to allow their arms to swing without hitting the pelvis when they walk, he wrote in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carry angle doesn\u2019t just impact how the bones of the upper limb connect to each other and to the torso. It also affects the direction in which the muscles contract,\u201d wrote Prof Taylor. \u201cBy having the hands slightly further apart and turning them slightly outwards, it allows a woman\u2019s muscles and bones to follow their more natural movement patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, you’ll still need some degree of upper-body strength to perform the tweaked push-up.<\/p>\n

FROZEN SHOULDER AND MENOPAUSE<\/p>\n

Middle age and menopause add another layer of challenge to women trying to stay on their fitness journeys. The two can collide to create frozen shoulder or adhesive capsulitis in the 40s and 50s, said Dr Ong.<\/p>\n

It is a source of pain, stiffness and a severely limited range of motion in the shoulder joint with many patients being unable to raise their arms above their heads. \u201cFrozen shoulder is a frequently seen shoulder issue in women,\u201d said Dr Ong.<\/p>\n

According to a 2025 article<\/a>, declining oestrogen levels may play a key role. The hormone has anti-inflammatory effects and prevents tissue thickening. When oestrogen levels drop during perimenopause and menopause, this protection weakens and contributes to the shoulder capsule stiffening.<\/p>\n

Although hormonal imbalances are thought to be a cause, diabetes, thyroid disorders and parkinsonism (a group of movement symptoms similar to those seen in Parkinson’s disease) are other common risk factors, said Dr Ong. \u201cFrozen shoulder often runs its course between one and two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobility exercises can help to manage it, said Dr Ong, including active, passive or assisted exercises like pendulum swings, wall walks, doorway stretches and towel-assisted stretches.<\/p>\n

You can even continue strength training with limited shoulder mobility. In fact, strengthening exercises are important, said Dr Ong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The carry angle is \u201cwhere the forearm and upper arm connect at the elbow, relative to the pelvis\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,283814,538,137,4793],"class_list":["post-896300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-female-anatomy","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}