Dr. Stacy Sims

So when we're looking at, I guess, world records, right, that have been kept, and we see there's a gender gap there. And this is slowly closing in the endurance world, but that has to do with muscle morphology with regards to being able to go long and slow.

When we're looking at the sprint capacity, where we have to have a quick transference of oxygen and quick muscle contraction, that gap isn't closing. And that is because we have smaller, long, smaller heart. We have less blood volume. We have less red cells. So the overall capacity for quickly developing power and speed is at a smaller, I guess it's a limited capacity in women versus men.

When we're looking at the sprint capacity, where we have to have a quick transference of oxygen and quick muscle contraction, that gap isn't closing. And that is because we have smaller, long, smaller heart. We have less blood volume. We have less red cells. So the overall capacity for quickly developing power and speed is at a smaller, I guess it's a limited capacity in women versus men.

So we're looking at resistance training itself. We see that women relative to men can accommodate and develop muscle just as well as men in the lower body, but upper body, not so much.

So we're looking at resistance training itself. We see that women relative to men can accommodate and develop muscle just as well as men in the lower body, but upper body, not so much.

Yeah, because your forces are going to be in a more linear fashion. So you have more even distribution of the force through the knee. But for women, as you're going to describe, our hips are wider. So we have more of an angle to the knee. And the forces aren't distributed evenly when we land. So when we look at that, as well as the quad dominance that develops for women.

Yeah, because your forces are going to be in a more linear fashion. So you have more even distribution of the force through the knee. But for women, as you're going to describe, our hips are wider. So we have more of an angle to the knee. And the forces aren't distributed evenly when we land. So when we look at that, as well as the quad dominance that develops for women.

So that means that we use our front muscles of our legs, our quads, a lot more than our hamstrings, our posterior chain. So we don't use our glutes and our hamstrings by default as well as men do. We're being pulled forward more and we put more emphasis on the front of our body because the quads tend to take the bulk of the muscle work that we're trying to do.

So that means that we use our front muscles of our legs, our quads, a lot more than our hamstrings, our posterior chain. So we don't use our glutes and our hamstrings by default as well as men do. We're being pulled forward more and we put more emphasis on the front of our body because the quads tend to take the bulk of the muscle work that we're trying to do.

Unless we're really trying to train hamstrings and glutes to fire, which isn't the default for women's bodies because center of gravity again is lower and you tend to lean forward. So when we're looking at ACL injury, again, it comes down to one, training stress, two, mechanics.

Unless we're really trying to train hamstrings and glutes to fire, which isn't the default for women's bodies because center of gravity again is lower and you tend to lean forward. So when we're looking at ACL injury, again, it comes down to one, training stress, two, mechanics.

And if we're not taught again how to land, how to run, how to jump with the new angles, it predisposes people to severe ACL injury.

And if we're not taught again how to land, how to run, how to jump with the new angles, it predisposes people to severe ACL injury.

It is a higher rate, but the thing about the research is that there hasn't been a direct comparison because we hear incidentally that women tear their ACL. And so we see a lot of observational studies that women have torn their ACL. And we have lots of retrospective studies that are going back to, oh, where are we in our menstrual cycle when we chore ACL?

It is a higher rate, but the thing about the research is that there hasn't been a direct comparison because we hear incidentally that women tear their ACL. And so we see a lot of observational studies that women have torn their ACL. And we have lots of retrospective studies that are going back to, oh, where are we in our menstrual cycle when we chore ACL?

But there hasn't been a definitive comparison between men and women. If we were to look at the current research, we see a three to four to one ratio of ACL tears of women versus men.

But there hasn't been a definitive comparison between men and women. If we were to look at the current research, we see a three to four to one ratio of ACL tears of women versus men.

So either three to one or four to one, depending on the research that you look. So three women for every one man or four women for every one man.

So either three to one or four to one, depending on the research that you look. So three women for every one man or four women for every one man.

In professional sport, it's not as much as when we're looking at recreational sport. Because when we're getting into professional sport, we have specific warm-ups, especially for football, put out by FIFA to prevent ACL tear, to make sure that you are actually properly warmed up