Body composition, and most particularly the fraction of fat versus muscle tissue in the human body, is one of the primary performance factors in most sports disciplines, because excess body weight as a rule is detrimental to performance. Too much body fat relative to fat free mass is unfavourable because it limits physical performance (e.g. extra weight to carry, limited mobility) while putting excess stress on muscles, tendons and joints and thus increasing the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries. Similar to excess body fat, an extremely low body fat percentage decreases exercise performance (e.g. increased muscle breakdown, reduced immunity against infectious diseases).

Measuring a person’s body composition requires sensitive and reproducible methods. We use a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (Discovery W - Hologic), so-called ‘DXA’, in combination with 12 skinfolds to assess body composition. A DXA scanner divides the body up in 3 compartments: fat mass, fat-free mass and bone mass. Thus the advantage over other methods is the information that is provided about a person’s bone health, reflected by bone mineral density.

The body composition assessment will give information about an athlete’s:

• body fat mass
• fat-free mass
• % body fat
• bone mineral density
• sum of 12 skinfolds

Our body composition reports always include, besides the specific body composition results, personal advice and/or recommendations for improvement. This may include a recommendation for further nutritional advice.