Muscles
Testosterone is an anabolic steroid which helps build and maintain muscles with physical activity, such as exercise. The amount of testosterone produced varies from one individual to another, but on average, an adult female produces around one-tenth of the testosterone of an adult male, but females are more sensitive to the hormone. The muscles most likely to be affected are the pectoral muscles, biceps and triceps in the arms and quadriceps in the thighs.
On the other hand, estrogens reduce muscle mass. Muscle mass changes over time as a result of changes in testosterone and estrogen levels and exercise, besides other factors.
Read more about this topic: Female Body Shape
Famous quotes containing the word muscles:
“Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
—Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
“As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“What is this beast, she thought,
with muscles on his arms
like a bag of snakes?
What is this moss on his legs?
What prickly plant grows on his cheeks?
What is this voice as deep as a dog?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)