[Anthropometric differences in the physical development of apprentices of various occupational groups]

Anthropometrical examinations were conducted longitudinally on 400 male and 140 female adolescents on application for vocational training and in their second year of training. Male adolescents who chose professions entailing severe physical strain and female adolescents opting for professions entailing medium physical strain demonstrate a less favourable physical condition at the time when they selected their profession than did adolescents in either group intended to enter physically less strenuous professions. These differences which relate to physical maturity were restored by the second year of training. All that remained were special characteristics related to the individual's constitution, with a tendency to pyknomorphia in professional groups where the physical strain is greater. The muscular mass and active body mass in the case of female adolescents subject to medium physical strain show a relative decline compared with a very high fat proportion of 24.6%. According to Conrad's body type definition, a tendency to leptosomia was observed in male adolescents up to the second year of training compared with a tendency to pyknomorphia in female adolescents.