Do women have stronger legs than men?

hehehaha

So many people say that women have stronger legs. Some people say no. What does the biological evidence say? I thought men legs are stronger than women. What do you think? Please be honest.

arildno

So, I don't have to be serious as long as I'm honest?

hehehaha

You could have replied since you knew the answer.

arildno

Well, I dunno. That's my honest opinion.

hehehaha

LOL, I know men are the stronger sex. But which gender has strongest legs?

gravenewworld

umm this guy has squatted 1200 lbs. which is the world record.


http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/vid...-1220Squat.WMV

hehehaha

I mean leg muscles (calves, thighs). What has squat to do with legs? Anyway squat also requires other than your leg like your back.

Rade

See here:
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/2/644

Women have less "absolute" strength within muscles, but the difference is not present when strength is normalized for muscle mass. Thus, find a women with larger leg muscle mass than you, and you find one stronger than you.

See also:
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/conten...ract/83/5/1581

hehehaha

What do you mean? You are confusing me. You are trying to say that women have stronger legs than men? Or are they equal?

Moridin

The average male has a larger amount of testosterone in his body that females, which is a big factor to consider here.

hehehaha

Oh man. Read the thread carefully. I said *lower body* (legs). Not upper body. How many times do I have to say that? Because some people say that women legs are strong than men's which is wrong.

Moridin

That is completely irrelevant. Testosterone has an effect on the entire body, even on the lower body.

Newbie says Hi

I'm a little confused why you would ask this question and answer it yourself here.

By strength, I assume that you mean absolute strength. Are you comparing a man and a woman that both have the same weight? Or are you comparing an average sized man and an average sized woman? Is there an age range for your test subjects? How much strength training exercises is in the test subjects' history? etc...

If you don't want to use squats to guage lower body strength, then what are you going to use?

The squat has a LOT to do with legs (although I agree the back is a major supporting group) so it can DEFINITELY be used to guage the strength of legs. HOWEVER, the barbell squat is just one of MANY variations of the squat. Other variations of the squat, such as dumbbell squats, have even more to do with legs than the typical barbell squat and less to do with the erector spinae. SO certainly, one could use a variation of the squat to gauge lower body strength.

One could use the leg press to guage strength, and men can press more here also.

Another point I'd like to bring up is that the lower body is made up of many groups of muscles... the quads, the hamstrings, the calves (the 3 that immediately come to my mind, but there are many others). Is it possible that women have stronger muscles in some groups while weaker muscles in the other groups? I'm not sure.. but I don't think we can lump all those muscles into one group called "lower body" because it is too general.

Are women stronger in stiff-leg deadlifts (it works the hammies), or how about calf raises (works the calves)? I don't know... I don't know how one is defining the test subjects.

My point is... we have to know exactly what you are measuring, and how you are measuring before we can answer your question in a scientific way.

Nonetheless, if one were to have average-sized men and the average-sized women perform exercises that primarily target the lower body, then based on my experience, I would say the men would lift more.

Newbie says Hi

Right, and doing squats shoots testosterone levels much higher than exercises that primarily target just the upper body.

gravenewworld

It seems that you are not satisfied with a reply unless they state somehow that women's legs are stronger than a man's. have you even ever done squats? if you are using your a lot of back muscles you have a extremely good chance of seriously injuring yourself because you are not doing them properly.

Evo

I agree.

hehehaha, you've gotten your answer. Thread closed.