Comparison Of Muscle Forces Between Genders During Walking: Sports Medicine Prospective

Introduction: Human walking is very complex; and requires coordinate movement in the lower limb, pelvis, spine and upper limb. There is a common belief that men and women walk differently; this study aimed to compare the muscle forces between genders during normal walking pattern and co-relate with important musculoskeletal and clinical gait implication. Aim: To analyse the potential relationships between uses of muscle forces activity pattern of major muscle between genders. Method: The Vicon® motion capture system with force plate was used to collect the normal walking pattern in 26 healthy subjects. Subject Joint parameters, e.g., joint angle, moment, force were calculated using the Vicon® Plug-in-Gait model. Gait parameters were collected using the motion capture system. Suitable captured gait trials after an initial review were input into an in-house Model of Inverse dynamics for calculating muscle force. Result: Gait cycle showed a similar pattern in male and female genders, though female, showed earlier foot off and narrower step width, in comparison to male counterpart. There was a significance difference [p<0.001] between male and female gender muscle forces. Males generated higher muscle forces in all the major muscles of the lower limb while in few females produced higher forces than males. Conclusion: Majority of muscles forces in lower limb were found to be higher in male. Hip flexor and knee extensor muscles force were higher in females. Higher muscle force could be attributed to mass, leg length, the height difference between genders