Not Just a Man's World

That is the conclusion reached by exercise physiologist Vicki Harber from the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta.  An article was published in both Medical News Today and Science Daily at the end of January highlighting research that she had carried out showing that there was a two- to six-fold increase in musculoskeletal injuries, particularly knee and shoulder injuries, in female athletes when compared to male athletes.  She also found an increased probability of re-injury.

The article provides two possible reasons for this increased incidence of injury:

• use of training programs and techniques developed through research carried out on male athletes; and
• poor nutrition.

Training programs for women

Having spent the last few years training with my partner, Chris, I am not entirely convinced that women have to have a different training regime to men.  When I first started out I was as convinced that women needed a very different training program as the next woman, but time and experience have taught me that being a woman is no more a unique factor than any other individual characteristic that decides an appropriate training program.  We may need to work around the worst points in our menstrual cycle, so I sometimes find that I need to have slightly lighter training sessions at the start of every fourth week, but other than that the program needs to be tailored to the individual just as it has to be for men.

Women can train with barbells too

There are some specific muscle groups that have been noted to respond better in the different sexes and there is therefore likely to be some similarity in the choice of exercises for most women.  As an example, women’s quads tend to bulk in muscle size much more easily than the glutes while the ideal female figure instead requires the glutes to be the large muscle that stands out.  Many women therefore benefit from plenty of glute work, such as hip thrusts and weighted glute bridges. 

In terms of numbers of reps and sets and sizes of workouts every individual is different and the choice of sets and reps will depend on factors like the goals for the individual (strength gain through muscle bulk or improved neural efficiencies), type of muscle fibre (fast twitch or slow twitch) and the individual’s work capacity.   

Having only started training properly in my mid-twenties, I don’t have experience of the training ability of younger women.  It is possible that younger women have more similarities in the training that is most appropriate for them and that this training may be very different to programs that are appropriate for young male athletes.  However, I am firmly of the opinion that this is not a firm enough explanation for the greater prevalence of injuries in more mature women.

ACL tears in women – proving the point?

A recent article by Tony Montgomery highlighted the excessive number of ACL tears in female athletes.  He puts this down to coaches not fully understanding the differences in the female body, in particular the Q-angle, and therefore incorrectly getting athletes to run in their off-season, rather than doing some heavy lifting that will strengthen the muscles that support the knee, such as the hamstring.

This could be seen to prove the point of Vicki Harber’s work.  After all, male athletes can be instructed to run in their off-season and they are less likely to suffer from ACL tears.  However, it could also be seen to prove my point.  What is the likelihood that the male athletes are being told to lift heavy weights, but for some reason women are not.  I suspect that most of the male athletes are spending their off-season working at squats, deadlifts and the other big lifts in the gym.  If the female athletes followed this same gym program then, as Tony Mongomery points out, the incidence of ACL tears would be likely to reduce.

Nutrition and diet as a cause of injury

I find diet and poor nutrition to be a much more persuasive explanation for the increased incidence of injury in female athletes.

There is often a lot of peer pressure on young women to maintain slender figures.  Unfortunately poor education about diet means that there is a false belief that this can be achieved through crazy long-term starvation diets.  I may be a believer in calorie-restriction to lose fat, but I don’t stay on a calorie-restricted diet for more than 4-5 weeks at a time and I spend a significant amount of time developing meal plans to ensure that I still get a good balance of nutrients.

If you combine a calorie-restricted diet with the poor nutritional quality of some of the processed and junk foods that frequently feature in the diets of young women, and then add to it a tough training regime, then injury is almost guaranteed as the body no longer has what it needs to heal and recover. 

Learn more

According to the article, Harber has authored a comprehensive guide for coaches, parents and administrators entitled The Female Athlete Perspective and published by Canadian Sport for Life.  If you are interested in the research that she has done then this is a good starting point.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for her future work.  It’s always good to know that people are researching women-specific issues.

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: the female athlete triad
2. Blog-watch: optimal female training
3. Celebrating female strength
4. Blog-watch: Bret’s female strength levels