The regional placement of bone mineral mass, fat mass, and lean soft tissue mass in young adult Rugby Union players

Abstract

The body composition of athletes is generally interpreted in terms of total body fat only. Little attention has been given to components such as bone mineral mass and lean soft-tissue mass. The present study analysed and discussed the regional distribution of these components as they affected young adult Rugby Union players compared with control subjects. The nature of the findings has implications for sports medicine, talent identification and development, fitness and conditioning, and sports performance. Bell designed the study, contributed to data collection/analysis and wrote the manuscript.