Abstract
It was the purpose of this study to determine body composition by two methods in two excellent female athletes. One sportswoman (SRH) was national wheelchair marathon champion in 1977 in 3 hours, 40 minutes on the Boston course. She still competes internationally and has won three gold medals and set three world records in the last Olympiad for the handicapped in 1980. The second woman athlete (LSJ) competes in wheelchair basketball and track on a national level. Body density was determined by the standard underwater weighing procedure and residual volume determination. A second method to calculate cellular body mass was the measure of potassium 40 (40K) activity by whole body scintillation counter. The characteristics of these athletes are listed as follows:
The results show that both methods of determining adiposity produce results differing by only one percentage point. It is important to determine body composition in these wheelchair athletes since their cellular body mass is decreased because of their disability.
Article PDF
References
Akers, R & Buskirk, E R (1969). An underwater weighing system utilizing ‘force cube’ transducers. J. Appl. Physiol, 26, 649–652.
Allen, T H, Peng, M T, Chan, K B, Huang, T F, Chang, C & Fang, H S (1956). Prediction of total adiposity from skinfolds and the curvilinear relationship between external and internal adiposity. Metab., 5, 346–353.
Behnke, A R & Wilmore, J H (1974). Evaluation and Regulation of Body Build and Composition. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Boileau, R A, Massey, B H & Misner, J E (1973). Body composition changes in adult men during selected weight training and jogging programs. Res. Quart., 44, 158–168.
Brozek, J, Grande, F, Anderson, J T & Keys, A (1963). Densitometric analysis of body composition: Revision of some quantitative assumptions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 110, 113–140.
Cameron, J R & Sorenson, J A (1963). Measurement of bone mineral in vivo: An improved method. Science, 140, 230–232.
Cohn, S H, Vartsky, S Y & Sawitsky, A et al, (1980). Compartmental body composition based on total-body nitrogen, potassium and calcium. Am. J. Physiol., 239, E524.
Katch, F I & McArdle, W D (1973). Prediction of body density from simple anthropometric measurements in college-age men and women. Hum. Biol., 45, 445–454.
McArdle, W D, Katch, F I & Katch, V L (1981). Exercise Physiology, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, PA.
Sloan, A W, Burt, J J & Blyth, C S (1962). Estimation of body fat in young women. J. Appl. Physiol., 17, 967–970.
Twardock, A R, Lohman, T G & Smith, G S et al. (1966). The Illinois animal science counter. J. Animal Sci., 25, 1209.
Vaccaro, P, Morris, A F & Clarke, K (1981). Physiological characteristics of masters female distance runners. The Phys. Spts. Med., 9, 105.
Wilmore, J H (1969). A simplified method for determination of residual lung volumes. J. Appl. Physiol., 27, 96–100.
Wilmore, J H & Behnke, A K (1970). An anthropometric estimate of body density and lean body weight in young women. Am. J. Clin. Nutrit., 23, 267–274.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lussier, L., Knight, J., Bell, G. et al. Body composition comparison in two elite female wheelchair athletes. Spinal Cord 21, 16–22 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1983.3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1983.3
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Body segment parameters of Paralympic athletes from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
Sports Engineering (2016)