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Different hip muscles men and women use for soccer kicks affect ACL injury risk
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 Robert H. Brophy |
Data have revealed that during the two most common soccer kicks, the instep and side-foot kicks, men activate different hip and leg muscles than women do, which may explain why women soccer players are more than twice as likely as men to suffer ACL injuries.
The data were obtained for a study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. In it, Robert H. Brophy, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues analyzed the kicking motion in 13 male and 12 female college soccer players using special sensors and video cameras. This approach to studying lower extremity muscles provided new information that furthers the understanding of gender-based variations in athletes, particularly soccer players, according to an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons press release.
“Programs focusing on strengthening and recruiting muscles around the hip may be an important part of programs designed to reduce a female athletes’ risk of ACL injury,” Brophy stated in the release.
The study found that male players more often than female players activated the hip flexors in their kicking leg and the hip abductors in their supporting leg. Based on the results, the men sometimes generated nearly four times as much hip flexor activation (123%) as the females (34%).
Additionally, the male athletes generated in their supporting leg more than twice the amount of gluteus medius activation (124%) compared to the women (55%). The researchers also determined that vastus medialis activation was 139% in men vs. 69% in women, according to the release.
“Activation of the hip abductors may help protect players against ACL injury,” Brophy stated. “Since females have less activation of the hip abductors, their hips tend to collapse into adduction during the kick, which can increase the load on the knee joint in the supporting leg, and potentially put it at greater risk.”
Brophy noted this research may help further the “understanding of what may contribute to differences in injury risk between the sexes and what steps we might take to offset this increased risk in females.”
Reference:
- Brophy RH. Differences Between Sexes in Lower Extremity Alignment and Muscle Activation During Soccer Kick.J Bone Joint Surg (Am). 2010;92:2050-2058.
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