Abstract
Background and objectives: Athletes from combat sports are grouped into a series of weight categories that are intended to promote fair competition. Differences in performance are partly attributable to differences in body size. Consequently, ratio standards in which a performance variable is simply divided by an anthropometric characteristic such as body mass are often used, although this application is not recommended. This study aimed to obtain allometric models to interpret Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) outputs among male adult athletes from combat sports. Materials and Methods: The sample was composed of 64 participants aged 18–39 years (24.2 ± 4.6 years). Stature and body mass (BM) were measured and air displacement plethysmography used to estimate fat mass and fat-free mass (FFM). Lower-limb lean soft tissue (LL-LST) was derived from dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. WAnT outputs were peak power (WAnT-PP) and mean power (WAnT-MP). Allometric models were obtained from simple and multiple linear regressions using log-transformed variables. Results: Models derived from a single three-dimension descriptor explained a large portion of variance: WAnT-PP (BM: 31.1%; FFM: 54%; LL-LST: 47.2%) and WAnT-MP (BM: 50.1%; FFM: 57.4%; LL-LST: 62.7%). Finally, the best proportional allometric models emerged from the combination of LL-LST and FFM (WAnT-PP: 55%; WAnT-MP: 65%). Conclusions: The relationship between weight categories and performance did not seem to be explained by the basic principles of geometric similarity.
Highlights
Combat sports include combinations of movement by the whole body and limbs
The current study aimed to identify the best body size descriptors to obtain size-independent scaling exponents for the interpretation of the Wingate Test outputs among male adult athletes in combat sports
Participants visited the laboratory, and data collection started at the same hour of the day (8:00 a.m.) following the same sequence: anthropometry, air displacement plethysmography (ADP), dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT)
Summary
Combat sports include combinations of movement by the whole body and limbs (upper and lower). Anaerobic metabolism refers to the ability to produce energy by intramuscular phosphates (ATP and PCr) and/or anaerobic glycolysis during a specific type of short-duration exercise [1]. Direct measurement of substrate utilization and of the amount of energy obtained by anaerobic metabolism during whole-body exercise is not practicable. In the absence of intra-muscular data, research on anaerobic performance has focused on the assessment of either the rate or the amount of the mechanical energy yield [2], in the context of maximal-intensity protocols that are performed ‘all-out’. There is a variety of procedures for assessing the ability to perform maximal-intensity exercise. Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) outputs among male adult athletes from combat sports. Lower-limb lean soft tissue (LL-LST) was derived from dual energy
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