Characteristics of body composition and cardiometabolic risk of Japanese male heavyweight Judo athletes

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of body composition and cardiometabolic risk of Japanese male heavyweight Judo athletes compared with heavyweight athletes of other sports.MethodsNineteen heavyweight Judo athletes (mean age, 20.4 ± 1.1 years), as well as 22 heavyweight (mean age, 21.5 ± 0.9 years) and 17 nonheavyweight (mean age, 21.1 ± 0.8 years) American football and Rugby football athletes in Japan participated in this study. Body composition was assessed by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and magnetic resonance imaging. Cardiometabolic risk was evaluated by measuring blood biochemical variables.ResultsHeavyweight Judo athletes had significantly heavier body mass (122.7 ± 13.1 kg vs. 99.0 ± 8.1 kg), higher body fat percentage (27.5 % ± 5.2 % vs. 19.4 % ± 4.7 %), and larger visceral fat cross-sectional area (118 ± 35 cm2 vs. 67 ± 24 cm2) (P < 0.01) compared with heavyweight football players. Although the cardiometabolic risk was higher in heavyweight athletes compared to nonheavyweight athletes, there were no significant differences between heavyweight Judo and heavyweight Football athletes in the blood biochemical variables, except for high concentration of uric acid in heavyweight Judo athletes.ConclusionsEven though heavyweight Judo athletes had more excess fat mass, especially VF mass, their cardiometabolic risk in terms of blood biochemical parameters was not significantly higher compared with heavyweight athletes of other sports. Therefore, excessive fat accumulation may not necessarily increase cardiometabolic risk for heavyweight Judo athletes.Trial registrationThis trial is registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trial Registration (UMIN-CTR) UMIN000020564.

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations Are Inversely Correlated with Hepatic Lipid Content in Male Collegiate Football Athletes

“…Guo et al [ 3 ] found that professional athletes of strength sports in the heavier weight class usually have a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its individual components, including central obesity. The same results were also observed in Japanese collegiate heavyweight Judo athletes and National Football League players [ 4 , 5 ].…”

“…Since athletes perform a large amount of exercise training, they usually have been regarded as a healthy model with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. However, according to recent studies, the heavy athletes are usually at significantly higher risk of cardiovascular diseases [ 3 , 4 ]. To enhance athletic performance, American and rugby football athletes usually have the intent to consume more energy to gain more weight [ 32 ], which was suggested to lead to lipid accumulation in adiposity and ectopic tissues [ 6 , 7 ].…”

“…Young collegiate athletes undertaking regular and intensive exercise have presumably been considered to have a very low risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases; however, the clustering of metabolic risk factors has been recognized, especially in young heavy athletes [ 3 , 4 , 5 ], who often intentionally try to gain weight by increasing energy intake, where weight gain is associated with increases in body fat content and in risks of cardiovascular diseases [ 6 , 7 ]. Guo et al [ 3 ] found that professional athletes of strength sports in the heavier weight class usually have a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its individual components, including central obesity.…”

Analysis of respiratory function and muscle strength of elite judo athletes and sedentary females

“…Our study is on judo, which is one of the popular martial arts. It can be seen clearly from the literature review that due to factors such as place and training systems, etc., martial arts with different systems and types have different physical and physiological characteristics (Chaabene et al, 2012;Murata et al, 2016;Ouergui et al, 2015). When respiratory functions (FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, MVV, PEF) were analysed in our study, no statistically significant difference was found between EG and CG.…”

Why is low body fat rarely seen in large‐sized male athletes?

“…The offensive and defensive linemen of American football have both large amounts of fat-free mass as well as fat mass, resulting in greater body mass compared to athletes in other positions (Dengel et al, 2014;Morehen, Routledge, Twist, Morton, & Close, 2015). Notably, a study reported that there was an inverse correlation (r = −0.449) between body fat percentage and functional movement screen scores among college football players (Nicolozakes, Schneider, Roewer, Borchers, & Hewett, 2018). Further, there were inverse correlations between the percentage of body fat and high-speed movement performance in sprint and distance running (Abe et al, 2020;Alvero-Cruz et al, 2019;Herrmann et al, 2019), cycling (Schabort, Killian, St Clair Gibson, Hawley, & Noakes, 2000) and soccer matches (Radziminski, Szwarc, Padron-Cabo, & Jastrzebski, 2019).…”