Comparison Of Pre- And Post-season Body Composition Measures In Female Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Body composition plays a crucial role in athletic performance among collegiate athletes over the course of a season. Decreases in lean mass or increases in fat mass across a season could lead to decrements in performance. PURPOSE: To investigate pre- and post-season changes in body composition among female Division I collegiate athletes across five sports. METHODS: Body composition of female athletes from gymnastics (GYM n=10), swimming (SW n=19), track (TR n=16), volleyball (VB n=10), and basketball (BB n=12) was assessed pre- and post-season using air displacement plethysmography via BodPod. Paired samples t-tests were used to compare pre- and post-season differences in body fat percentage (BF%), fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM) and total body mass (TBM); one-way ANOVA was used to compare pre- and post-season differences in body composition between sports. A Bonferroni correction was utilized. RESULTS: Based on paired samples t-tests, there were significant decreases in BF% and FM for all athletes (n=67), while FFM significantly increased. When examined by sport, a significant decrease in BF% and increase in FFM were noted for SW (23.9±5.5 to 20.1±5.0%; 50.9±3.6 to 52.5±3.9 kg) and VB (22.0±5.1 to 19.3±3.6%; 58.5±8.7 to 59.6±8.8 kg, p<0.05 for all), while TBM did not change. TR athletes demonstrated an increase in BF% (16.1±5.2 to 17.7±5.2%) and TBM (61.9±5.0 to 62.8±5.6 kg, p<0.05 for both) with no change in FFM. No changes across the season were noted for GYM or BB. Based on one-way ANOVA, significant differences were observed between groups in TBM. Post hoc analysis revealed that these differences were explained by an increase in FFM for SW with a concomitant loss in BF% for both SW and VB. CONCLUSIONS: While female collegiate SW and VB athletes experienced desirable changes in body composition (i.e., less fat and more lean mass) across the season, TR athletes gained fat. Importantly, none of the athletes lost FFM across the competitive season. However, additional focus on ways to optimize body composition in female collegiate TR athletes may be necessary.