gms | German Medical Science

7th EFSMA – European Congress of Sports Medicine, 3rd Central European Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Annual Assembly of the German and the Austrian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Austrian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

26.-29.10.2011, Salzburg, Österreich

Anthropometric features that affect on the placement at elite ice climbers

Meeting Abstract

7th EFSMA – European Congress of Sports Medicine, 3rd Central European Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Salzburg, 26.-29.10.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11esm240

doi: 10.3205/11esm240, urn:nbn:de:0183-11esm2404

Veröffentlicht: 24. Oktober 2011

© 2011 Vujic et al.
Dieser Artikel ist ein Open Access-Artikel und steht unter den Creative Commons Lizenzbedingungen (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.de). Er darf vervielfältigt, verbreitet und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden, vorausgesetzt dass Autor und Quelle genannt werden.


Gliederung

Text

Objective: Ice climbing as competitive sport exists in some countries for many years but as Word Cup is organized in the last ten. Still anthropometric profile of ice climbers (IC) is unknown. The aim of this paper was to determine main anthropometric features of these elite athletes and their impact on placement.

Material/Methods: The 23 male (age 26.7±5.9) participants of the Ice climbing World Cup were measured day before competition. Control group (age 23.8±2.6) was made of 23 non climbers (NC), students from Faculty of sport. The variables measured included age, height, weight, body mass index, % body fat by bioimpedance, % segmental body fat (trunk, left and right arms, -legs ), fat mass, leg length, arm span, ratio of arm span to height (Ape index), right and left handgrip strength, handgrip strength to body mass ratio (SMR), pincer strength (dominant hand, i.e. thumb and forefinger), handgrip endurance (dominant hand), endurance of shoulder’s muscles, foot raise, hip flexion, hip abduction and climbing ability trough standing position [1], Mermier CM; 2000, [2], [3].

Results: Elite ice climbers compared with NC have less height, weight, % body fat (IC 9.4±2.3; NC 13.1±3.8 %), BMI, BMR, FFM and TBW (p<0.05). They have the same arm span and leg length but higher Ape index. Tests of strength, endurance and flexibility are the same, except that Ice climbers have significant better hip abduction (IC 90.9±9.8; NC 81.6±7.9 degree), (p<0.05). Age, handgrip endurance, SMR, foot raise and hip abduction had significant influence on competition rank in Ice climbing (p<0.05) while handgrip strength (left and right) shown significance of (p<0.01).

Conclusion: Elite ice climbers have moderate body composition with low fat % and good hip flexibility. This anthropometric profile of elite Ice climbers have shown that except endurance, strength and flexibility, success on competition is influenced by experience which coming with age, as well as with improvement of climbing techniques.


References

1.
Grant S, Hynes V, Whittaker A, Aitchison T. Anthropometric, strength, endurance and flexibility characteristics of elite and recreational climbers. J Sport Sci. 1996;14:301-9.
2.
Watts PB. Physiology of difficult rock climbing. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2004;91:361-72.
3.
Giles LV, Rhodes EC, Taunton JE. The Physiology of Rock Climbing. Sport Med. 2006;36(6):529-45.