Body composition as the biological factor of choosing sports

Body composition: muscles, bones and the quantity of fat may also affect what sports children will choose. Ideal physique and fitness presuppose low fat and the presence of high rate muscles in contrast with high fat and low muscle content. It is thought that, for example, sprinters and combat or fighting athletes have little body fat and they are very muscular. Long distance runners’, road cyclists’ and high jumpers’ muscle mass is relative high compared to their body weight. There are sports where high body fat rate is advantageous, such as weight lifters, fighting athletes, discus and hammer throwers and wrestlers.

Krisztián Pars (www.erdelyifoto.hu)

Body fat is inversely proportional to the density of the body. Lower quantity of fat means greater body density. For example, water polo players’ advantage is that their body density is lower therefore they can float on the surface of water.

Swimmers’ lighter bones mean lower body density. In team sports centre players’ body composition contains more fat than their team mates. Naturally these athletes’ higher body fat content does not mean obesity. Their muscle mass compensate their body fat.

Richárd Mezei (www.otossuli.hu).

As soon as athletes would-be have chosen a sport or their post it makes easier to measure their relative (percentage) bone-, body-, muscle mass and body fat compared to the total body weight. For this test only few data of simple body size are needed. To determine athletes’ bone mass the data of their elbow-, wrist-, knee and ankle width are needed; meanwhile for measuring muscle mass mainly the circumference of their forearm, upper arm, thigh and shin are given. The quantity of body fat is calculated by measuring the thickness of skin folds on different points of the body (see Mészáros’ test). Nowadays body composition can be measured with several devices, for example, bioelectronical impedance analysis (BIA).