Current status of body composition assessment in sport: review and position statement on behalf of the ad hoc research working group on body composition health and performance, under the auspices of the I.O.C. Medical Commission.
Quantifying human body composition has played an important role in monitoring all athlete performance and training regimens, but especially so in gravitational, weight class and aesthetic sports wherein the tissue composition of the body profoundly affects performance or adjudication. Over the past century, a myriad of techniques and equations have been proposed, but all have some inherent problems, whether in measurement methodology or in the assumptions they make. To date, there is no universally applicable criterion or 'gold standard' methodology for body composition assessment. Having considered issues of accuracy, repeatability and utility, the multi-component model might be employed as a performance or selection criterion, provided the selected model accounts for variability in the density of fat-free mass in its computation. However, when profiling change in interventions, single methods whose raw data are surrogates for body composition (with the notable exception of the body mass index) remain useful.
School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia. tim.ackland@uwa.edu.au
Timothy R
TR
Ackland
Timothy G
TG
Lohman
Jorunn
J
Sundgot-Borgen
Ronald J
RJ
Maughan
Nanna L
NL
Meyer
Arthur D
AD
Stewart
Wolfram
W
Müller
D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition; D050218:Body Fat Distribution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001837:Body Weights and Measures / Q000379:methods*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000592:standards; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler / Q000379:methods; D014904:Western Australia; D055815:Young Adult