True or False: Women on average have physically stronger legs than men?

Question

i hear that it's true on the internet a bit often but never heard this theory once from a real life personal trainer when I was weight training at a gym nearby my place. Some people have told me that while women usually do have stronger lower bodies than their own upper bodies, looks tend to be deceiving (the part when they mention how a lot of women have big muscle mass size on their lower bodies and not necessarily strength).

ThePragmaticRomantic · Accepted Answer

[Everything here is sweeping generalisations based on an odd mix of scientific research papers, personal experience and assumptions. Dont take it as fact just an informed oppinion. I particularly advise caution when using 'scientific' papers on this topic, as many commentators set out to prove something, and the method is often shoddy.]

Women have less upper body strength than men.
Women have stronger lower bodies than upper, men often have the reverse.
This leads to the general assumption that women have greater lower body strength... but generally it falls flat on it's face. Your average man is generally physically stronger than your average woman, lower and upper body. This is partially because men put on muscle mass more easily, partially due to male proportions being slightly better mechanically for strength, but it is a sum of many factors.
If all else were equal (height, build, excercise background etc) it might be different, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Kinstrome · Accepted Answer

Not true. Women's legs are closer in power to men's legs than their arms are relative to men's arms, but they do not have as much natural muscle. Women are more flexible, though, and can do certain things with their legs that men can't. That's what I understand.

AshleyMD · Accepted Answer

My sister's leg were always the most powerful I had stronger strikes from her legs than I have from any man's hand let alone legs, actually my sister kicking was the only way she could get an upper hand on the fight. When I fight with guys they never use leg kicks and if they did they didn't phase me, they were so weak. (I used to play fight all the time). I never resorted to leg kicks because I didn't need to gain the upper hand that badly and I also didn't want to really harm anyone since it was just play. Maybe there is some truth to this, but that's a bit weird because evolutionary why would women need these strong legs?

crazyincalifornia · Accepted Answer

I voted B.
I take Karate and can register over 600 lbs on a strike machine with a front kick.
I've see guys register 2,000 lbs.
But I'm small, only 100 lbs flat.
We are more agile than guys, and just as fast or even faster.
But that's only partially related to hips, and I took gymnastics.
Athletic girls can outdo most average guys.
But depending on the sport, athletic guys can almost always outdo the girls, at least relating to brute strength.
:)

CamillaX · Accepted Answer

Most of the girls I know have MUCH stronger legs than most of the guys I know. So I think this might be true. I can lift approx twice as much as my current boyfriend on most leg-machines (even though he works out his legs regularly), on some leg-exercises even more than that. Female thighs are in general quite a bit thicker and bulkier I think. However, the roles are reversed when it comes to upper body exercises.

KillerTaco · Accepted Answer

I have yet to see that. My boyfriend's lower legs are smaller than mine. Then again my legs are fairly big for someone my size. But I'm definitely stronger that him when it comes to the lower body. Now if he worked out his lower legs then he'd definitely over power me. Its all about what muscles are more naturally developed.

Willowlock · Accepted Answer

It depends if they're both in shape. Modesty set aside when I go hiking with guys they're always out of breath and needing to stop when I'm perfectly fine.

0112358 · Answer

Not remotely.
here’s some actual data on deadlifts from a huge pool of users:

https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift#standardsFemale

beginner men lift far more than beginner women even if they are the same weight. The average man is significantly bigger than the average woman as well.

training only increases the gap.

musicbrain5 · Answer

I've heard that women have stronger legs because they have to be built to support an extra 40-60lbs of weight during pregnancy, and also be strong for childbirth.

It's a different kind of strength than men have.

Anonymous · Answer

Women's lower body is proportionately stronger. From lifting weights in high school, I'd say a man and woman of close to the same size/strength/build will be closer in leg exercises than in arm exercises. But men, as a whole, are bigger, faster and stronger than women.

cdnSpartan · Answer

If you're looking at this from a men vs women perspective this is completely false... if you look at this from a women's upper body to lower body strength ratio vs men's upper body to lower strength ratio then it's different.

Jersey1 · Answer

In the army, the women were told that they can get cut some lack on pushups but not sit-ups because their abdomens are stronger due to muscles for child birth.

srslyly · Answer

Women's world records in track events are slower than high school boys' state records in most states in the U. S.

demonology · Answer

Womens weight is bottom heavy, this doesn't mean our legs are stronger. Hips maybe.

Anonymous · Answer

Everyone has more strength in their lower body than their upper body. But men usually have stronger legs. Apart from the fact than men are generally stronger, men are usually heavier so they need stronger legs

Watermelonoma · Answer

i don't know about that. It partly depends on which gender uses their legs more often.

Anonymous · Answer

Not sure who told you that nonsense. On average, women's legs are MUCH weaker than men's

Anonymous · Answer

Very much true. Female legs are very much stronger. Nature created it that way. Besides, girls work out their legs much more than guys.

Klaatu51 · Answer

some girls i know have really strong legs.

DaveBor1 · Answer

can women overpower a man's bicep with their leg?

rthomas43 · Answer

Yeah, that's false.

True or False: Women on average have physically stronger legs than men?

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