Body Composition Body Composition is the body’s amount of fat relative to fat-free mass. Athletes who maintain optimal body composition are healthier and tend to display greater movement efficiency during competition. Monitoring of body composition can highlight important shifts in an athlete’s body composition. Tracking athletes’ body composition temporally across preseason, competitive, and post-seasons as well as in response to specific training regimens or dietary changes is important to help delay onset of fatigue, prevent injury, maintain health and performance. In Synergy’s Performance Lab, we use bio-electrical impedance (BIA) and skinfold calipers for body composition analysis. BIA determines body composition is based on the rate at which an electrical current travel through the body. In comparison to fat-free mass, body fat causes greater resistance slowing the rate at which the current travels. Skinfold caliper measures the thickness of a fold of your skin particularly the underlying layer of fat. By collecting 7 skinfolds at various sites of the body it is possible to obtain an accurate estimation of an athlete’s total body-fat percentage.
