The physique of sportsmen: a study using factor analysis.
A range of anthropometric measurements was taken on 116 sportsmen who were successfully involved in a variety of sports. The measurements included 11 skeletal lengths, 4 bone widths, 14 trunk and limb circumferences, and 15 skinfold thicknesses. The greatest inter-subject variability occurred in the skinfold measurements. The variability of limb bone lengths and muscle circumferences was generally high, particularly in the case of lower thigh circumference and leg bone lengths. The variability of trunk length and biacromial diameter was low. Alpha factor analysis produced seven factors as follows (the percentage of the total variance explained is in parenthesis): 1) circumferences and bone widths (32%), 2) skeletal lengths, particularly of limb bones (17%), 3) skinfolds on the trunk (10%), 4) leg and triceps skinfolds (8%), 5) muscle size specific to the legs (6%), 6) trunk length (5%), and 7) pelvic depth (4%). These seven factors were stable across other factoring solutions. Canonical factor analysis produced five additional factors corresponding to proximal limb-bone lengths, distal limb-bone lengths, hip width, shoulder width, and a further skinfold factor. Step-wise multiple regression analysis of factor scores indicated that 83% of the variance could be accounted for by six anthropometric measurements and 95% by a total of twelve measurements.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009132:Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013008:Somatotypes; D013177:Sports