Relationship between Body Mass Index and Muscle Strength, Potential Health Risk Factor at Puberty

Abstract

According to some studies, muscle strength (F) is a predictor of health when this motor quality is associated with body mass index (BMI). Based on this statement, our study aims to find out if there is a significant relationship between the two variables, in the context in which the BMI was determined on 160 subjects, selected from students aged 12-15 and who were subsequently included in 4 subcategories: underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. For the assessment of muscle strength, we used handgrip strength and standing long jump (broad jump) (respecting the EUROFIT methodology). The results show a moderate positive relationship between the level of muscle strength development and BMI (rho = .44, p ≤ .01; rho = .43, p ≤ .01). Our data shows that there is a significant, moderate-intensity connection between BMI and strength development, the subjects with excess weight (overweight and obese) having lower strength values compared to normal-weight subjects. Although some authors consider that only the relationship between BMI and strength does not provide conclusive data for predicting the health of adolescents, the results of our study still confirm the existence of an inverse relationship between BMI and muscle strength at overweight and obese subjects. Because the studies on this direction are not very numerous yet, we consider that other observational studies with a larger sample size, especially longitudinal and prospective studies, are necessary.