title: The physique and body composition of students studying physical education: a preliminary report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Young people who study physical education are a priori regarded as having proper body structure and body composition. This assumption cannot be confirmed in the subject literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the basic auxological parameters in youth who study physical education.
  
  
  METHODS
  235 first-year students studying physical education were examined: 32% women (n=74) and 68% men (n=161). The students' body height, weight, waist, and hip circumference were measured. Body composition (bioimpedance method), specifying the body fat percentage (FM%) and fat free mass (FFM%) was also assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean normalized height of the female body was 0.48±1.07 SDS, and for the male body 0.51±1.04 SDS. The mean normalized weight for women was 0.4±0.94 SDS, and for men it was 0.83±0.9 SDS. The mean fat percentage in the body composition of women and men was, respectively, 21.5±5.06, ranging from 10.16% to 35.06%, and 12.5±3.97, ranging from 4.36% to 22.28%. In one-third of the women, the percentage of fat in the body composition was higher than 25%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  1. Young people who choose to study physical education and physical culture are characterized by greater height and greater body weight than the general population, regardless of gender. 2. Short persons study physical education less often than tall individuals. 3. The greater body weight observed in the majority of students studying physical education, in comparison to that of the general population, was caused by a dominant percentage of lean body mass in body composition; unexpectedly, however, some women were observed to have relatively high fat content. 4. Use of the body mass index and waist-hip ratio was not a sufficiently sensitive screening examination to detect fatness in physically active young adults; therefore, it should not substitute for the determination of fat content in body composition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Games, Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education, Warszawa, Poland. marcin.smolarczyk@awf.edu.pl
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smolarczyk
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wiśniewski
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Czajkowska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kęska
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tkaczyk
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Milde
authors.forename: Henryk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Norkowski
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gajewski
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trajdos
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majchrzak
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D011044:Poland; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult