Knee and Hip Joint Biomechanics are Gender-specific in Runners with High Running Mileage

Abstract

Female runners are reported to be more prone to develop specific knee joint injuries than males. It has been suggested that increased frontal plane joint loading might be related to the incidence of these knee injuries in running. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if frontal plane knee and hip joint kinematics and kinetics are gender-specific in runners with high mileage. 3D-kinematics and kinetics were recorded from 16 female and 16 male runners at a speed of 3 m/s, 4 m/s, and 5 m/s. Frontal plane joint angles and joint moments were ascertained and compared between genders among speed conditions. Across all speed conditions, females showed increased hip adduction and reduced knee adduction angles compared to males (p < 0.003). The initial peak in the hip adduction moment was enhanced in females (p = 0.003). Additionally, the hip adduction impulse showed a trend towards an increase in females at slow running speed (p = 0.07). Hip and knee frontal plane joint kinematics are gender-specific. In addition, there are indications that frontal plane joint loading is increased in female runners. Future research should focus on the relationship of these observations regarding overuse running injuries.

Joint moments during sprinting in unilateral transfemoral amputees wearing running-specific prostheses

“…The time-course profiles of the hip and knee joint moments in the INT obtained in this study were similar to those of able-bodied subjects (Gehring, 2014). According to Gehring (2014), the hip joint in able-bodied subjects was typically in an adducted position during running, as the foot must be placed almost directly beneath the center of mass of the body in the frontal plane.…”

Whole body kinematic sex differences persist across non-dimensional gait speeds

“…This literature has been more focused, with much of it analyzing lower limb posture during landing, knee and hip loading, or hip muscle activation. Compared with males, females generally appear to land with more knee extension [24] and have greater peak hip adduction and internal rotation [9,[25][26][27][28] as well as greater gluteal muscle activation [9,29]. Most of these differences have been preliminarily attributed to the sexual dimorphism of the human pelvis [30][31][32].…”

Are Females More Resistant to Extreme Neuromuscular Fatigue?

“…Bam et al (3) further suggested that females have an advantage over longer distances because they are more resistant to fatigue than their male counterparts. Potential explanatory factors include anthropometric sex differences, the effects of reproductive hormones in females and sex differences in substrate utilization (6), tendon characteristics (21) and running biomechanics (8). Conversely, the capacity for females to maintain running speed better than males as race distance increases has not been established in ultra-trail running races (UTRR) (13).…”