Classification of body shape of male athletes by factor analysis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the body shape of athletes in comparison with adult non-athletes by factor analysis. The subjects were 210 male adult non-athletes and 485 male high school age and adult athletes participating in 13 different sporting events. Physique, skinfold thickness and body composition of each subject were measured. Measured values from adult non-athletes were analyzed by factor analysis, and body shape of the athletes was then analyzed according to these factors. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Four main factors, that is, body fat, mass, leg length to height ratio and length, which could explain 88.5 percent of total variance, were extracted from the measured values from adult non-athletes. 2. Similarity of body shape between sporting events was analyzed by cluster analysis. Body shape of the athletes could be classified into 3 categories: muscular and well-balanced type; rich muscular and large-built type; and rich muscular and long-torso type. Compared with adult non-athletes, male athletes had less body fat and greater mass except for long-distance runners. The present results suggested that the athletes had body shapes suitable to their sporting events.