Sex Differences in Pelvic and Hip Flexibility in Men and Women Matched for Sit-and-Reach Score

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test sex differences in sagittal plane thoracic (T), lumbar (L), and pelvic (P) angles measured during the sit-and-reach (SR) test and hip joint angle during a passive straight leg raise (SLR) test in men and women matched for SR scores. Thirty-five men and 35 women performed a standard SR and SLR test. Among the 70 subjects, 25 male and female pairs were identified using <5% difference in the SR score as the pairing criterion. Both SR and SLR tests were videotaped and subsequently analyzed using a computer software angle tool to measure T, L, and P angles during the SR test and hip joint angle during the SLR test. In paired men (M) and women (W), P angle (M: 96.6 ± 9.4° vs. W: 104.7 ± 12.4°) and hip joint angle (M: 87.1 ± 10.5° vs. W: 100.4 ± 12.1°) were lower and L angle (M: 26.3 ± 10.8° vs. W: 21.1 ± 7.6°) was greater in men. There was no difference in the T angle (53.3 ± 11.6° vs. 51.2 ± 11.4°) between men and women. Correlation coefficient indicated that the SR score was moderately associated with the P angle in both men (r = 0.82) and women (r = 0.83), whereas the traditional criterion measure for hip flexibility, SLR hip joint angle, demonstrated a relatively low correlation to SR scores in both men (r = 0.60) and women (r = 0.56). These data indicate that the SR score does not distinguish spine and pelvic flexibility differences in men and women and does not adequately assess hip flexibility.

Associations Between Body Fat Percentage and Fitness among Police Officers: A Statewide Study

“…The sit-and-reach test is a common measure of flexibility, and specifically measures the flexibility of the lower back and hamstring muscles. Previous research has suggested that women have more flexibility in this area than do men [30], [31].…”

Contributions of Hamstring Stiffness to Straight-Leg-Raise and Sit-and-Reach Test Scores

“…The PSLR test is considered the standard assessment for hamstring extensibility and is one of the most widely used measure-ments in both clinical and research settings [2,6,23]. In this line, several studies have examined the validity of the classic or modified SR test for assessing hamstring extensibility, using the PSLR test as the criterion measure [1,6,19].…”

“…Namely, the involvement of other muscles such as the mono-articular gluteus maximus should be negligible. Another possible reason is the variation in the pelvic position [22,23] and stiffness of non-muscular tissue such as nerve, fascia, and tendon [27]. Further studies are warranted to clarify these issues.…”

Validity and Reliability of a New Device (WIMU®) for Measuring Hamstring Muscle Extensibility

“…Passive stretching is a commonly observed clinical intervention for reduced hamstring extensibility [21], and the passive straight leg raise (PSLR) test is one of the most commonly used tests for evaluating hamstring muscle extensibility [14,18,23,28,29,34]. Furthermore, because of its reliability and validity, the PSLR test has been extensively used as the gold standard in studies evaluating several hamstring extensibility tests [2,15,16,18,19,27,39], for which the instrument of evaluation was the Unilever inclinometer (ISOMED, Inc., Portland, OR, USA) [2,18,19,27,38].…”