A follow-up study of the variations in the body composition of karate athletes

Abstract.   We monitored body composition variations in nine elitekarateists during a 3-year period (T1,T2, T3). Armcircumference (AC) and six skinfolds were measured. Arm musclecircumference (AMC) and area (AMA) were then calculated. Fatmass (FM) was calculated using the Durnin-Womersley, Sloan-Weir(S-W), Katch-McArdle and Lohman equations. The only significantincrease regarded the AC, AMC and AMA measurements betweenT1 and T2. Thetime course of the predicted FM amount using the differentequations was the same. In particular, the S-W equation did notseem to reflect the modifications in the amount of FM asevidenced by the total sum of the six skinfolds. Our subjectswere characterized by a substantial uniformity in bodycomposition parameters measured in this 3-year follow-upstudy.