title: Relationship between lifting performance and skeletal muscle mass in elite powerlifters.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Aim of the study was to examine the relationship between whole body skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and powerlifting performance in elite powerlifters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty elite male powerlifters, including 4 world champions, volunteered. Muscle thickness (MTH) and subcutaneous fat thickness (FTH) were measured by ultrasound at 9 sites on the anterior and posterior aspects of the body. FTH was used to estimate body fat and fat-free mass and SMM was estimated from ultrasound-derived prediction equations. Best lifting performance in the squat (SQ), bench press (BP), and dead lift (DL) was recorded from competition performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant strong correlations (P<0.01) were observed between absolute and relative (divided by height) SMM and performance of the SQ (r=0.93 and r=0.94, respectively), BP (r=0.88 and r=0.87), and DL (r=0.84 and r=0.85). Relative lifting performance to SMM for squat (SQ/SMM ratio) and bench press (BP/SMM ratio) were constant throughout a wide range of weight classes (56kg-145kg) and there were no significant correlation between the SMM and those performances (r=0.21 for SQ and r=0.12 for BP). However, the DL/SMM ratio was negatively correlated to DL performance (r=-0.47, P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SMM is a good predictor of powerlifting performance throughout all weight classes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Exercise Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA - t12abe@gmail.com.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Loenneke
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Fahs
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Rossow
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Thiebaud
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Bemben
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014891:Weight Lifting / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult