Abstract
[Purpose] This study investigated the sexual differences and relationship between body flexibility and joint laxity. [Subjects and methods] The subjects were 42 healthy people (28 males, 14 females) who were second-year students at a university. We evaluated the body flexibility and the joint laxity score. The evaluation of the body flexibility was performing using the Finger-Tip of toes-Distance (FTD), Finger-Floor-Distance (FFD), Knee-Floor- Distance (KFD) and Middle finger-Middle finger-Distance (MMD). [Results] We compared the measured values of the body flexibility and the jointlaxityscore between males and females, and recognized sexual-associated differencesinthejointlaxity scores. We then analyzed the relationship between the joint laxity score and body flexibility, but there were no measurement items with regard to the body flexibility which showed a significant relationship with the joint laxity score. However, between the measurement items of body flexibility, a very strong correlation was shown between the FTD and FFD, and a weak correlation was shown between the FFD and KFD. [Conclusion] Our findings suggested that female joint laxity is higher compared with that in males. The present findings indicated that the body flexibility indices and joint laxity indices were not related.
