An objective method for measurement of musculo-skeletal size to characterize body physique with application to the athletic population.

The purpose of this paper is to present an objective method for estimating the musculo-skeletal size in relation to height for use in the study of body physique in athletes. The method can be applied to various male and female athletic groups and indicates the relative musculo-skeletal size by the extent to which each group falls above or below the regression of FFB on height as derived from the non-athletic male and female populations. Athletes within both sexes are found to differ greatly among performance events in this aspect of physique with track runners having the least amount of FFB related to height (within 1 standard error of the non-athletic population regression line) and professional football players having the most (2 to 3 standard errors above the non-athletic population line). Measurement of FFB can be obtained by underwater weighing or anthropometric dimensions and thus this approach offers application to the study and assessment of relative musculo-skeletal size in a variety of laboratory and field settings.