When Do Men & Women Reach Their Physical Peak?

Although men have more muscle mass than women, both sexes reach their physical peak as young adults or anywhere from their late 20's to early 30's, according to “Human Development: A Life-Span View” by Robert Kail and John Cavanaugh. After this point, your physical strength will decline slowly throughout the remaining years of your life. Sensory abilities peak in your early 20's. Depending on the individual, vision typically begins to deteriorate in middle age. However, hearing starts to decline in your late 20's. The ability to taste, smell, balance and feel pain or changes in temperature, remains the same until your later years.


Men and women typically reach their physical peak in their late 20's to early 30's. After this time, muscle mass, strength and flexibility begin to decline.

Consider Muscle Mass

The muscle strength of men and women peaks anywhere from 20 to 30 years old. If you’re not suffering from injuries or disease, you can maintain this strength for another 20 years. When you reach middle age, your muscular performance gradually declines at a rate of approximately five percent every ten years. While men and women generally experience a loss of 30 to 40 percent of their functional strength, people can counteract the loss of muscle mass in later years by engaging in a strength training regimen.

Build Your Bone

Although bones continue to build until age 30 to 35 years old, the skeletal bone mass of women is almost complete by the age of 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you acquire high bone mass as a young adult, you’re more able to sustain that bone mass until late in life. If you don’t consume enough calcium and engage in physical activity as a child, you may not gain peak bone mass upon reaching adulthood. Women typically lose a large degree of bone mass after menopause while men begin losing bone mass after age 65, according to the "Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine and Science."

Lower Metabolism and Heart Rate

Resting metabolism, which accounts for a major part of daily energy consumption, will peak in early adulthood for men and women. By the time you reach retirement age, it has decreased by about 10 percent and then drops another 10 percent after that. The slowdown in your metabolism can be attributed to the increase in fat coupled with a loss of muscle mass. As you age, your maximal heart rate also decreases due to a lower level of response to catecholamines, or hormones released into your bloodstream during periods of emotional or physical stress, according to the article Aging and Exercise in “Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine and Science.”

Monitor Your Flexibility

Over the decades of your working life, you’ll lose about three to four inches of flexibility in your hips, lower back and hamstrings as measured by the standard “sit and reach” test, according to the "Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine and Science." Collagen consists of fibrils that begin to develop cross-linkages over time, contributing to reduced elasticity of ligaments, joint capsules and tendons. If you gently move your major joints through their entire range of movement on a daily basis, you can counteract age-related loss of flexibility.