Why Men Get Achilles Pain Twice As Often As Women

So there was this big study that looked over 3000 runners and followed them to see what kind of injuries they got.

And they found that 5% of the male runners got Achilles tendon pain, whereas only about 2.5% of the female runners did.

And this tracks through other research studies as well.

Men are overrepresented in cases of Achilles tendon pain from running.

Now, men are heavier, generally speaking, which would put more stress on the Achilles tendon, but men are also generally stronger and men don't have higher rates of things like patellofemoral pain or hip joint arthritis compared to women.

It seems to be the Achilles tendon is the particular spot where men in their middle ages have more trouble than women do.

So why is that? Well, we don't know, but I have a theory.

And part of the reason is to do with the makeup of the calf muscle itself.

You see your Achilles tendon is that big tendon that inserts into your heel bone on the back of your foot.

And it comes from two muscles, your soleus and your gastrocnemius.

Your gastrocnemius is the big muscle, the calf muscle that you can see.

And the soleus sits underneath that closer to the bone.

The two come together to form the Achilles tendon before it inserts into the heel.

Now these two muscles have very different functions.

So your gastrocnemius is like the powerhouse.

It's a big, powerful muscle that's mainly involved in explosive, propulsive movements.

Whereas your soleus muscle is smaller, and it's more of a slow twitch muscle.

It's more of an endurance type muscle, contrasted with the gastroc, which is a fast twist.

So sprinting, jumping, powerful, explosive movements, that's your gastroc.

Slower, endurance, walking, standing, running slowly, that's your soleus.

And interesting, some researchers in Japan did ultrasound scans of the muscles of regular people to see how they changed as we age.

And the gastroc muscle, the big calf muscle, the big powerful one, as we age, gets smaller.

However, in the soleus, it stays about the same size.

So as we age, it would seem that that big powerful gastroc calf muscle gets smaller, but the soleus doesn't.

And really interestingly, this happens earlier in men than it does in women.