The Relationship Between Body Composition with Peak Force and Anaerobic Power in Collegiate Baseball Players

Abstract

While total lean body mass accretion (TLBM) has been shown to have a positive association with performance in professional baseball players (Hoffman et al., 2009), there is a paucity of data demonstrating the relationship between body composition with power performance in collegiate athletes. PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between multiple body composition parameters with peak force and anaerobic power in division II collegiate baseball players. METHODS: This was a retrospective study in which four years of body composition data was analyzed to determine its association with peak force and anaerobic power performance for 95 collegiate baseball players (age: 21.1±1.0 yrs.; height: 1.84 ±0.05m; body mass: 87.9±11.1kg). Each subject performed a DEXA scan as well as a performance test of either a countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) (n=66) and/or a Wingate test (WIN) (n=43). Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze the association between body composition parameters (i.e., TLBM, lower body lean mass [LBLM], body fat percentage [BF] and body mineral component [BMC]) with vertical jump peak force (CMJPF) and anaerobic power (i.e., absolute peak power [PP] and absolute average power [AP] on the Wingate test,. RESULTS: TLBM was strongly correlated to WIN (PP: r=0.777; p<0.0001, AP: r=0.808; p<0.0001), but only moderately correlated to CMJ (CMJPF: r=0.488; p<0.001). LBLM was also strongly correlated to WIN (PP: r=0.0.660; p<0.0001, AP: r=0.738; p<0.0001) but only moderately correlated to CMJ (CMJPF: r=0.467; p=0.002). BF had a weak correlation with WIN (PP: r=0.244; p=0.049, AP: r=0.295; p=0.042) and no significant correlation with CMJ (CMJPF: r=0.026; p=0.869). BMC was strongly correlated to WIN (PP: r=0.713; p<0.0001, AP: r=0.776; p<0.0001) and moderately correlated to CMJ (CMJPF: r=0.519; p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our data suggests a strong positive relationship between lean body mass, including bone, with anaerobic power but only a moderate relationship with peak force. Moreover, BMC was strongly correlated to performance probably because athletes with more TLBM had greater BMC. Surprisingly, there was no association between body fat percentage and performance.