Evaluation of Athletes' Gender-Related Postural Differences

Abstract

Postural differences have been evident between female and male athletes, but there is insufficient information on how these differences are characterized in different sports branches. Our aim in this study was to compare the static postures of female and male athletes paired into identical sports. We included 172 athlete participants (86 female and 86 males) who were paired by same chronological age, sporting age, and sports branch. We performed posture analyses of these athletes, using the DIERS formetric 4D device. Specifically, we evaluated and recorded their trunk length, sacrum distance, sagittal imbalance, coronal imbalance, pelvic obliquity, pelvic torsion, pelvic inclinations, pelvic rotation, kyphotic angle, lordotic angle, vertebral rotation, and trunk torsion. We found comparable sagittal imbalance, coronal imbalance, pelvic rotation, vertebral rotation, and trunk torsion similar in females and males (p > .05), but females had a wider sacrum, their pelvic structures were more oblique and anteriorly tilted, and they had more pelvic inclination angles and bigger kyphosis and lordosis angles. Male athletes had longer trunk lengths and more pelvic torsion. The kyphosis and lordosis angles of the female athletes were bigger than those of male athletes, but they were still within normal limits. The lumbar lordosis angles of male athletes were below normal limits. In conclusion, female athletes exhibited a more balanced spinal posture than male athletes.