Body Fat Is a Predictor of Physical Fitness in Obese Adolescent Handball Athletes

Souhail Hermassi, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Lina Majed

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examined the relationships between body fat (BF) and field measures of physical fitness in adolescent handball players. Twenty nine players (age: 16.6 +/- 1.72 years; body mass: 79.8 +/- 17.0 kg; height: 1.70 +/- 0.12 m; body fat: 27.7 +/- 8.67%) from Qatar handball first league performed a series of anthropometric and fitness tests related to their performance in sprinting (i.e., 15 m and 30 m sprint), jumping (i.e., countermovement and squat jumps), throwing (i.e., 3 kg medicine ball seated front throw) and running (i.e., agility T-Half and Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 tests). Significant differences between obese and non-obese groups, classified based on age-stratified %BF norms, were found, with the largest difference being attributed to aerobic performance on the Yo-Yo test. Results indicated no significant relationships between anthropometric variables and sprinting or jumping abilities. %BF predicted a significant 8-15% portion in running performances of agility and aerobic capacity, while the latter were mainly explained by body height and mass. %BF was the only and strongest predictor of throwing performance, being an important determinant of performance in handball. Optimizing %BF should be considered as a training and nutrition goal in order to improve sport performance.
Original languageEnglish
Article number8428
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume17
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anthropometrics
  • Body fat
  • Body mass index
  • Handball
  • Obesity
  • Physical performance

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