Differences among Somatotype, Body Composition and Energy Availability in Mexican Pre-Competitive Female Gymnasts

Abstract

Gymnastics is a discipline that has some factors that differentiate from other sports, such as: force, postural control on movement, extreme range of motion, and of the body expression. The objec- tive of the present paper was to compare: somatotype, body composition and energy availability in female gymnasts students in search for a better sport performance. We evaluated 24 healthy female children aged 7 - 12 years by means of a nutritional and anthropometric examinations, somatotype and body composition calculation, and energy availability measurement. We observed a low consumption of real calories intake, carbohydrates, and low amount of the real body weight mesurements among gymnatics students. Mesomorphic and ectomorfic somatotypes were the more frequent somatotypes found. Moreover, we saw significant differences in body composition and in energy availability among the differente somatotypes in student of gymnastics. Differences were located between endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic somatotype groups in body composition while in energy availability were among mesomorphic-ectomorphic, and between endomorphic-ectomorphic groups. In conclusion, our data had important implications for per- formance of gymnastics in students and were discussed here.