Seasonal Changes in Whole Body and Regional Body Composition Profiles of Elite Collegiate Ice-Hockey Players

Abstract

The monitoring of a collegiate hockey player's body composition can reflect fitness characteristics and may help players, coaches, or strength and conditioning specialists optimize physiologic gains during an off-season, whereas simultaneously preventing performance decrements in-season. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes in whole-body and regional-body composition of fat and lean tissue. The body composition profiles of 19 elite Canadian collegiate hockey players were assessed using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Players completed end-of-season, preseason, and midseason assessments with questionnaires relating to their off-season and in-season training. Statistically significant changes in body composition profiles were observed between the different time points because players showed various tissue gains and losses depending on the region assessed. Overall, players gained (1.38 kg, p ≤ 0.01) and lost (0.79 kg, p ≤ 0.01) fat tissue during the off-season and in-season, respectively. Players also showed a significant gain of leg lean tissue (0.29 kg, p = 0.02) and loss of arm tissue mass (-0.25 kg, p = 0.02) during the first-half of the competitive season. Several correlations emerged that may provide insight into potential trends that could be more pronounced during longer and more demanding schedules. Collegiate hockey players show changes in body composition during the off-season and in-season. The understanding of body composition profiles, body composition fluctuations, and potential variables that may influence the composition of collegiate hockey players can help coaches and athletic programs tailor their team's training, nutrition, lifestyle, and informative resources to further support their athletes.

Interpretation of Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry-Derived Body Composition Change in Athletes: A Review and Recommendations for Best Practice

“…Most studies used fan beam systems (Lunar iDXA, Prodigy or Hologic Discovery, Hologic Explorer) and four studies used pencil beam technology (Lunar DPX-L, and Norland XR800) [10,12,15,34]. Fourteen studies were published between 1980 and 2013 [10][11][12][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] and eleven studies between 2014 and 2016 [13][14][15][16][17][45][46][47][48][49][50]. The duration of follow-up ranged from pre and post a sports event [13,44] (where changes are likely to be 'biological noise' rather than true body composition change) to 12 months [12,39].…”

“…The duration of follow-up ranged from pre and post a sports event [13,44] (where changes are likely to be 'biological noise' rather than true body composition change) to 12 months [12,39]. There were fourteen studies with two testing points [10,13,[34][35][37][38][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][48][49] and nine with three or more testing points [11][12][14][15][16][17]37,39,[47][48].…”

“…Three of the studies were conducted in female athletes, [35,41,46] twelve in male athletes [11][12][14][15][16][17]34,36,44,[48][49][50] and ten studied male and female athletes [10,13,37,[39][40][41]43,45,47]. Sample sizes varied from n=1 [51] to n=212 [47] and mean age ranged from 15.5 [37] to 43.8 years [44].…”

“…Three studies were conducted in junior athletes [37,42,45]. Sports included rugby union, [16] rugby league [11,12], Australian football [15], ice hockey [17], rowing [10,47], aquatics [35,41], basketball [42,45], handball [41], judo [38], wrestling [37], soccer [14,36,44,49] endurance events [13,50] and mixed sports [39][40]46,48].…”

“…These studies have included the body composition profiling of competitive athletes [3,4], and in relation to bone density [5][6][7] and nutritional status [8,9]. Serial DXA measurements are increasingly being used to explore the effects of training and diet on athlete body composition changes [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. DXA is regarded as the preferred method for measuring absolute body composition by the International Olympic Committee [18] and is gaining popularity across elite sport Centres of Excellence, professional sports clubs and the wider public commercially.…”