Body physique and nutritional status of Naga wrestlers: A case study of the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland, India

Abstract

The present study was conducted among the Chakhesang wrestlers and the controlled group of Phek district, Nagaland. This study aims to describe the variation in body physique and nutritional status of the traditional Naga-style wrestlers and the controlled group. Altogether, 52 each prominent wrestlers and non-wrestlers aged between 18 and 34 years were included in the present study. Heath-Carter method of somatotyping was employed to determine body physique. Nutritional status was determined using BMI classification for the Asian population given by WHO. Significant variations at different levels of probability were observed in all the anthropometric measurements included in the present study between the wrestlers and the controlled group. Significant variations were also found in BMI (p<0.01), endomorphy (p<0.01), mesomorphy (p<0.05) and ectomorphy (p<0.01). Wrestlers are generally mesomorph-ectomorph and the controlled group is ectomorphic-mesomorph. High percentages occurrence of overweight (38.5%) and obesity (53.8%) was observed among the wrestlers. Despite the coexistence of under nutrition and over nutrition, nutritional status of the controlled group is relatively good. In both the studied groups, age effect on body physique and BMI was observed. Further, it was observed that both the endomorphy and mesomorphy components show increment with the increase in BMI levels, whereas, ectomorphy decreases as BMI increases.

Dominant Somatotype Development in Relation to Body Composition and Dietary Macronutrient Intake among High-Performance Athletes in Water, Cycling and Combat Sports

“…On the contrary, the groups of athletes involved in water and combat sports, namely, canoe paddling and Graeco-Roman wrestling, revealed the highest average values of mesomorphy equalling 5.4 and 5.7, respectively. In our research, the level of mesomorphy expression (5.4) in combat sports athletes was relatively higher compared to the average mesomorphy value (5.0, 95% CI 4.6; 5.4) identified in combat sports athletes (wrestlers, boxers, taekwondists, and judokas) from other countries such as Korea [60], Ukraine [13], Turkey [9,[61][62][63], Mexico [64], Germany [65], Malaysia [66], Spain [67], Croatia [68], Columbia [69], Poland [70,71], Montenegro [72], Algerian [73], Brazil [74], India [75] and Uzbekistan [76]. This study, along with the previous study carried out in Lithuania by Gutnik et al [19], highlighted high values of mesomorphy (5.4 and 6.2) in canoe paddlers exceeding the average mesomorphy index (4.8, 95% CI 4.4; 5.1) found among canoe paddlers representing other countries, namely, Poland [77], India [78], Spain [79] and Britain [80].…”