Women and superior lower back strength

[Konstantinos Kavos]

This is not strictly on topic for this board, but I read an interesting article in Science Illustrated on how women's backs have adapted to support the strains of pregnancy (Harvard and Uni of Texas study). A bit of googling found a Harvard Uni article on the same:

http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/fo...rain-pregnancy

Here is an excerpt:

The research also demonstrates, for the first time, that human lumbar
vertebrae differ between males and females in ways that decrease the
shearing forces that the lumbar extension of pregnancy places on the
lower back in pregnant mothers.

"In females, the lordosis is subtly different than that of males,
because the curvature extends across three vertebrae, while the male
lordosis curves across only two vertebrae," says Whitcome. "Loading
across three vertebrae allows an expectant mother to increase her
lordosis, realigning her center of gravity above her hips and offsetting
the destabilizing weight of the baby."

In addition to the difference in the number of vertebrae across which
the lordosis spans, the female joints are relatively larger and flare
out further down the spine than those of males, improving the spine's
strength. All of this contributes to an increased ability to extend the
spine, so that the woman can lean back, realign the body's center of
gravity, and safely maintain a more stable position. These differences
in the lower back may even reinforce her capability to support and carry
her baby in her arms after the baby has been born.

In your books you have discussed womens' strength to bodyweight ratio compared to mens mens', and I have read elsewhere that lower body muscle strength in both sexes tends to be a lot closer than upper body. I was thinking maybe this has a effect too. It could explain a few of those tiny girls with scary-heavy squats I have seen.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It explains nothing, other than that females have a very slightly different spinal morphology than men due to the requirements of balancing the fetus and later the baby. If anything, a predisposition to overextend the spine -- which many of us have noticed in far more females than males -- carries an increased risk of extension-related disc injury. Training is a perfectly adequate explanation for a scary squat, and steroids help, but not a different lordotic curve.

[Konstantinos Kavos]

Ok thanks.