ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 September;38(3):253-7

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Relationship of somatotype and physical characteristics to distance running performance in middle age runners

Berg K., Latin R. W., Coffey Ch.

School of HPER, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, USA

Background. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to deter­mine the var­i­ance ­explained by somat­o­type, select­ed anthro­po­met­ric var­i­ables, and mus­cle ­cross-sec­tion­al ­area (CSA) on 10 km run ­time.
Methods. Subjects ­were 19 ­female and 34 ­male mod­er­ate­ly ­trained dis­tance run­ners who com­pet­ed in a ­local 10 km ­road ­race. Mean ­ages ­were 39.7± 9.2 for ­females and 42.7±10.3 yr for ­males.
Results. Endomorphy ­explained 41.0% (R=0.64, SEE=6.5 min) of the var­i­ance in ­females' 10 km ­time, where­as ­body ­mass ­index ­explained 28.0% (R=0.53, SEE=7.8 min) ­with mes­o­mor­phy add­ing 10.4% (R=0.62, SEE=7.3 min) ­more ­explained var­i­ance in ­males' run­ning ­times. With ­data com­bined for men and wom­en, endo­mor­phy ­explained 22.1% (R=0.47, SEE=7.9 min) of the var­i­ance.
Conclusions. It was con­clud­ed ­that somat­o­type and ­body ­mass ­index ­explain a mod­er­ate por­tion of the var­i­ance in 10 km run per­for­mance in run­ners het­er­o­ge­ne­ous in abil­ity. Muscle and mus­cle ­plus ­bone ­cross-sec­tion­al ­area of relat­ed run­ning mus­cles ­does not con­trib­ute to the ­explained var­i­ance in men. Research seek­ing to ­explain sourc­es of vari­a­tion in run­ning per­for­mance ­should con­sid­er includ­ing somat­o­type as an inde­pen­dent var­i­able.