TITLE:
Differences among Somatotype, Body Composition and Energy Availability in Mexican Pre-Competitive Female Gymnasts
AUTHORS:
Adriana Poblano-Alcalá, Debbie Braun-Zawosnik
KEYWORDS:
Gymnastics; Somatotype; Body Composition; Energy Availability
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.6,
March
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: Gymnastics is a discipline that has some factors that differentiate from other
sports, such as: force, postural control on movement, extreme range of motion,
and of the body expression. The objec- tive of the
present paper was to compare: somatotype, body composition and energy
availability in female gymnasts students in search for a better sport
performance. We evaluated 24 healthy female children aged 7 - 12 years by means
of a nutritional and anthropometric examinations, somatotype and body
composition calculation, and energy availability measurement. We observed a low
consumption of real calories intake, carbohydrates, and low amount of the real
body weight mesurements among gymnatics students. Mesomorphic and ectomorfic somatotypes
were the more frequent somatotypes found. Moreover, we saw significant
differences in body composition and in energy availability among the differente
somatotypes in student of gymnastics. Differences were located between
endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic somatotype groups in body composition
while in energy availability were among mesomorphic-ectomorphic, and between
endomorphic-ectomorphic groups. In conclusion, our data had important
implications for per- formance of
gymnastics in students and were discussed here.