Analysis of Body Mass Components in National Club Football Players in Republic of Macedoni 191 Med Arh. 2014 Jun; 68(3): 191-194 Analysis of Body Mass Components in National Club Football Players in Republic of Macedonia Slobodan Nikolic 1 , Lidija Todorovska 1 , Vesela Maleska 1 , Beti Dejanova 1 , Ljudmila Efremova 1 , Vujica Zivkovic 2 , Jasmina Pluncevic-Gligoroska 1 Institute of Physiology and Anthropology, Medical Faculty, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, R. Macedonia 1 Faculty of Physical Education, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, R. Macedonia 2 Corresponding author: Jasmina Pluncevic Gligoroska MD, PhD. Institute of Physiology and Anthropology, Medical Faculty, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, R. Macedonia. Phone:+3897533563; e-mail: jasnapg65@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Aim: his study aims to analyze body composition in adult male football players and its changes during adulthood. Methods: Adult male football players (n=942, mean age 24.11 ±4.69y), all members of national competitive clubs from Macedonia were included in the study. he absolute and the relative body components were calculated: lean body mass (LBMkg), muscle mass (MMkg; MM%), bone mass (BMkg; BM%) and fat components (FMkg; FM%), using the anthropometric protocol by Matiegka. Results: Mean values of an- thropometric measures for all included participants were as follows: height=178.39±6.11cm; weight=77.02±7.57; LBM=65.65±6.38; MM%=53.23±2.78; BM%=17.05±1.27; FM%=14.58±1.48. Descriptive statistics for these parameters was made for age speciic groups. Conclusions: he results obtained could be used as reference values for adult football players in Republic of Macedonia. In the examined age span (18-35 years) a slight increase of absolute values of all three body components has been registered with advancing age. he most signiicant increase in the absolute values was registered for the muscle component, followed by the fat and bone components, respective- ly. Regarding the relative values (%), the muscle and the fat components showed an equally slight positive correlation with the age increase of 1 year, whilst the bone component decreased with advancing age . Key words: body composition, football player, muscle mass, body fat, anthropometry. 1. INTRODUCTION It is very important to determine the body composition in football players since it is an essential evaluation factor of their sport-medicine status. All high demanding sports impose permanent need of monitoring of all parameters that are important for every sport performance (1, 2). In addition to the physiological, biomechanical, psycholog- ical and cognitive variables, all morphological variables are equally important. Anthropometry is a method that is used very often in evaluating of all morphological aspects of football players. his is a method which uses measur- able values of the body surface that are applied in equa- tions necessary for calculation of body composition (3, 4). he body composition is divided into three compo- nents: muscle, bone and fat. It has become an important part of the assessment of football players. All body com- ponents are expressed as relative values (% of the whole body mass) as well as absolute ones (kg of the whole body mass). Body composition analysis is an ideal method of understanding the current status of individual’s fat and muscle mass. It is necessary to have a baseline reference of body components that could be used as itness mark- ers and dietary goals. It might be hypothesized that an increase in body fat would have a negative impact on athletes’ performance (5, 6). he body components in football players demonstrated better values than in the reference group; lean body mass was higher and body fat lower. An inverse correlation between general physical it- ness and body fat has been found in high school athletes, where average performance in a battery of upper and low- er body tests was impaired by excess fat, and endurance performance was poorer when the body fat in these young men exceeded 10% (7). It was concluded that the body composition is important for all elite football players, but that homogeneity between the players in top professional clubs resulted in small variations between individuals (8). Morphological features and sport performances in football players are thoroughly studied, but in spite of the fact that there is a positive correlation between them, this association still remains speculative. In order to present more evidence on the association of the physical perfor- mance and the body composition, much research has been done in diferent sports (9, 10, 11). In one study, body mass and fat free mass (FFM) were related to the total distance covered in international players (12). Adult male players had a lower percentage of body fat (BF%) compared to the control group (10% vs. 16.7%) (13). Most of the relevant studies have included elite or professional football players and have examined the diferences between elite and non- elite players. In a study conducted Hazir et al. it has been shown that all of the players from the First Turkish League possessed diferent body features compared to those who ORIGINAL ARTICLE doi: 10.5455/medarh.2014.68.191-194 Med Arh. 2014 Jun; 68(3): 191-194 Received: April 15th 2014 | Accepted: May 28th 2014 © AVICENA 2014