Use Your Legs: Gender Differences

This post relates more towards those who will participate in EnduWOD or something athletic. I saw a research paper that talked about the differences between men and women with knee kinetics. The gist of the paper was that women had more "torque" and strain in the knee's than men. Both genders were tested in the single leg squat; women have a more upright squat position while men lean forward.[1] It was assumed that women sit more upright because of tighter gluteus max. and weaker upper body and core strength; men leaned more forward due to stronger thoracic strength and midfoot balance preference.

What this tells us:
We should realize that technique comes into play with this. The number one sport for ACL tears is women's soccer. The body position noticed by female athletes was that they created more strain in the knee and therefore had a weaker knee. However, this is not just isolated to women as men can have weak technique as well. This leads me into today's topic.

Training both men and women this summer i got plenty of "clinical" practice. What i noticed was that women do follow this protocol and are more likely to drive knees in. When performing an oly lift we need to focus on using your legs. Drive knees out, pop your butt, create a lordartic curve. If you don't perfect technique you'll wind up having a nagging injury.

1. Dwyer MK, Boudreau SN, Mattacola CG, Uhl TL, Lattermann C. (2010). Comparison of lower extremity kinematics and hip muscle activation during rehabilitation tasks between sexes. J Athl Train. 2010 Mar-Apr;45(2):181-90.