Assessment of body composition and functional movement patterns in athletes playing different sports

Aim: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the associations between body composition and functional movement patterns in athletes of different sports. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 85 voluntary athletes (age 25.9 ± 5 years), representatives of 5 professional Italian teams: 30 volleyball players, 25 soccer players and 30 rugby players. Whole-body impedance measurements and Bioelectric Impedance Vectorial Analysis (BIVA) were performed in order to assess body composition in the athletes. Functional Movement Screen (FMS) was used to assess the presence of dysfunctional and asymmetrical movements. For a more detailed analysis, FMS was separated into three parts: FMSmove, FMSflex and FMSstability. Results: Total FMS score was significantly negatively correlated with percentage of fat mass (%F) and body mass index (BMI). A one-way analysis of variance showed significant differences in body composition and functional movement patterns measures in the three groups. A Tukey post hoc analysis revealed that rugby players have higher %F and body cellular mass (BCM) values than the other groups; moreover, they showed lower scores in FMSflex. The highest scores in FMSflex were obtained by the volleyball players. Conclusions: The main finding of this study was the significant association between higher %F and BMI with poorer functional movement in athletes. Furthermore, with respect to the sport played, rugby players showed significant differences in body composition and movement patterns compared to soccer and volleyball players. In general, reaching an optimal body composition is essential to improving the quality of movement, in order to achieve high performance. However, a large body mass in rugby players could be advantageous in some phases of the match. Reference 1. Fuller JT, Chalmers S, Debenedictis TA et al. (2017) High prevalence of dysfunctional, asymmetrical, and painful movement in elite junior Australian Football players assessed using the Functional Movement Screen. J Sci Med Sport. 20:134–138.