Fitness and injuries - is it a gender thing?

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 25 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT


When carrying out a new exercise programme (US spelling: Program) it seems that women are more prone to injuries than men, according to research carried out in the armies of the USA and UK.

In 1998, the British army required male and female recruits to go through the same basic training programme. Before 1998, women had a gentler basic training programme.

The number of women injured during this basic training programme was eight times higher than the number of men (in the same programme). Women were eight times more likely to be discharged because of injury (than men).

The British army experts thought this was probably due to differences in strength, bone mass and the length of the average woman's stride.

However, another study, carried out in the US army showed similar, while at the same time, different results.

They found that the number of women getting injured during basic training was similar to the British figures. However, they found that further into the training programme, near the end of it, the women had narrowed the injury gap significantly.

The researchers in the American study suggested that what really matters here is not gender, but the initial level of fitness. It seems that the women start at a lower level of fitness than the men do.

It might be advisable when you start an exercise programme to take it easy at first. You will have a lower risk of injury (and hence, dropping out of the programme).

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