Longitudinal Body Composition Changes in NCAA Division I College Football Players.
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Trexler, ET, Smith-Ryan, AE, Mann, JB, Ivey, PA, Hirsch, KR, and Mock, MG. Longitudinal body composition changes in NCAA Division I college football players. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 1-8, 2017-Many athletes seek to optimize body composition to fit the physical demands of their sport. American football requires a unique combination of size, speed, and power. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate longitudinal changes in body composition in Division I collegiate football players. For 57 players (mean SD, age = 19.5 0.9 years, height = 186.9 5.7 cm, weight = 107.7 19.1 kg), body composition was assessed via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in the off-season (March-Pre), end of off-season (May), mid-July (Pre-Season), and the following March (March-Post). Outcome variables included weight, body fat percentage (BF%), fat mass, lean mass (LM), android and gynoid (GYN) fat, bone mineral content (BMC), and bone mineral density (BMD). For a subset of athletes (n = 13 out of 57), changes over a 4-year playing career were evaluated with measurements taken every March. Throughout a single year, favorable changes were observed for BF% ( = -1.3 2.5%), LM ( = 2.8 2.8 kg), GYN ( = -1.5 3.0%), BMC ( = 0.06 0.14 kg), and BMD ( = 0.015 0.027 gcm, all p 0.05). Across 4 years, weight increased significantly ( = 6.6 4.1 kg) and favorable changes were observed for LM ( = 4.3 3.0 kg), BMC ( = 0.18 0.17 kg), and BMD ( = 0.033 0.039 gcm, all p 0.05). Similar patterns in body composition changes were observed for linemen and non-linemen. Results indicate that well-trained collegiate football players at high levels of competition can achieve favorable changes in body composition, even late in the career, which may confer benefits for performance and injury prevention.