Vive la difference - not in PL?

[Guest guest]

One interesting feature of this study is that it reports on lack of

differences as well as presence of differences. Typically, published

research on sex-gender emphasizes differences rather than

similarities, because given our conception of sex-gender as discretely

bifurcated " opposites " , a finding of no/minimal/insignificant

differences is as exciting to journal editors as " no effect " or " null

hypothesis not disproved " in clinical trials.

W. L. Keogh; Patria A. Hume; Simon N. Pearson; Mellow.

To what extent does sexual dimorphism exist in competitive

powerlifters? Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 26, Issue 5 March

2008 , pages 531 - 541

Abstract

We examined sexual dimorphism in the anthropometry of 68 Australasian

and Pacific powerlifters (14 females, 54 males) who were competing in

one of two national or international powerlifting competitions held in

New Zealand. All powerlifters were assessed for 37 anthropometric

dimensions by ISAK (International Society for the Advancement of

Kinanthropometry) Level II and III accredited anthropometrists. While

the powerlifters were highly mesomorphic and possessed large girths

and bone breadths, both in absolute terms and when expressed as

Zp-scores compared through the Phantom (Ross & , 1974), these

characteristics were often more pronounced in male than female

lifters. No significant inter-gender differences in any of the

measures of adiposity were observed. When normalized through the

Phantom, the female and male powerlifters had relatively similar

segment lengths and bone breadths, indicating that regardless of

gender, competitive powerlifters possess comparable skeletal

proportions. These results indicate that although competitive

powerlifters exhibit sexual dimorphism for many absolute

anthropometric measures, little dimorphism is found for measures of

adiposity and for proportional segment lengths and bone breadths.

These results further support the importance of anthropometric

profiling for powerlifting, and suggest that successful male and

female powerlifters will possess similar proportional characteristics.

Krista -Dixon

Toronto, ON

kristascottdixon@...