Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

19

Issue

2 February

PubMed ID

38359039

Publisher

PLOS

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

Comments

Comfort, P., McMahon, J. J., Lake, J. P., Ripley, N. J., Triplett, N. T., & Haff, G. G. (2024). Relative strength explains the differences in multi-joint rapid force production between sexes. PLoS ONE, 19(2), article e0296877. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296877

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether relative strength explains the differences in the rapid force production (force developed during first 150-, 200-, and 250 ms) of females and males, and to evaluate the relationships between peak force and rapid force production. Sixty-three team sport athletes (females: n = 25, age = 21.5 ± 1.3 years, stature = 166 ± 5 cm, body mass = 60.65 ± 10.04 kg; males: n = 38, age = 21.9 ± 1.1 years, stature = 178 ± 7 cm, body mass = 76.55 ± 12.88 kg) performed a series of isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) trials, with all participants’ data used for correlational analysis. After testing, females and males were divided into 20 strength-matched pairs, based on their relative peak force (peak force body mass). There were no meaningful differences between sexes for relative force at 150 ms (g= 0.007 [95% Cl -0.627, 0.648]), 200 ms (g = -0.059 [95% Cl -0.695, 0.588]) and 250 ms (g= -0.156 [95% Cl -0.778, 0.473]). Similarly, when expressed as a percentage of peak force there were no meaningful differences in force at 150 ms (g = -0.015 [95.0%CI -0.650, 0.680]), 200 ms (g = -0.099 [95.0%CI -0.714, 0.559]) or 250 ms (g = -0.272 [95.0%CI -0.856, 0.328]) between strength-matched females and males. Based on the correlations, there were very large to nearly perfect relationships (r = 0.77-0.94, p < 0.001) between peak force and rapid force production, with peak force explaining 59%, 77% and 89% of the variance in force at 150-, 200- and 250 ms, respectively. When comparing females and males, relative strength (based on body weight or a percentage of peak force) should be considered, and practitioners should be aware of the role of peak force in rapid force production.

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0296877

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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