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Volume 13
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10.3390/sports13020051
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Article

Correlations Between Body Composition and Aerobic Fitness in Elite Female Youth Water Polo Players

by
Mark Zamodics
1,2,*,†,
Mate Babity
1,2,†,
Gusztav Schay
3,
Tamas Leel-Ossy
4,
Agnes Bucsko-Varga
1,
Panka Kulcsar
1,
Regina Benko
1,
Dora Boroncsok
1,
Alexandra Fabian
1,
Adrienn Ujvari
1,
Zsuzsanna Ladanyi
1,
Dorottya Balla
1,2,
Hajnalka Vago
1,2,
Attila Kovacs
1,
Eva Hosszu
5,
Szilvia Meszaros
4,
Csaba Horvath
4,
Bela Merkely
1,2,‡ and
Orsolya Kiss
1,2,‡
1
Heart and Vascular Center, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, 1122 Budapest, Hungary
2
Department of Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, 1122 Budapest, Hungary
3
Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology, Semmelweis University, 1094 Budapest, Hungary
4
Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, 1083 Budapest, Hungary
5
Pediatric Center, Tűzoltó Street Department, Semmelweis University, 1094 Budapest, Hungary
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
‡
Orsolya Kiss and Bela Merkely should be considered as joint last authors.
Sports 2025, 13(2), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13020051
Submission received: 17 December 2024 / Revised: 22 January 2025 / Accepted: 4 February 2025 / Published: 10 February 2025
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Abstract

Body composition and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) are vital for optimizing sports performance, but the correlations between them are still underexplored. Our study aimed to investigate the relationships between body composition and specific CPET variables describing physical fitness in young athletes, also adjusting for age and height, in a less-studied, female population. Seventy players participated in our study (age: 16.10 ± 1.63 y). After determining body composition using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, we conducted treadmill-based maximal-intensity CPET. Data were analyzed in R using multivariate linear regression, accounting for age and height as confounders. Lean body mass (LBM), body fat mass (BFM), and bone mineral content (BMC) showed no effect on resting, maximum, or recovery heart rates and no correlation with resting or maximal lactate values. LBM positively correlated with maximum ventilation (VE-max) (Est: 1.3 × 10−3; SE: 6.1 × 10−4; p < 0.05) and maximum absolute oxygen consumption (VO2abs-max) (Est: 7.710−5; SE: 6.9 × 10−6; p < 0.001)—with age as an influencing factor for VE-max and height as an influencing factor for VO2abs-max. Conversely, BFM showed a negative correlation with maximum relative oxygen consumption (VO2rel-max) (Est: −4.8 × 10−4; SE: 1.2 × 10−4; p < 0.001). Moreover, BFM and BMC were also negatively correlated with maximal exercise duration (Est: −2.2 × 10−4; SE: 8.0 × 10−5; p < 0.01; Est: −3.2 × 10−3; SE: 1.4 × 10−3; p < 0.05) with height as an influencing factor. Our findings indicate complex correlations between body composition and CPET parameters, providing important information for the analysis of individual ergospirometric data. Our results draw attention to the fact that body composition is more precise than weight and height in the evaluation of athletes’ physical fitness.
Keywords: CPET; DEXA; VO2; water polo; lean body mass; body fat mass CPET; DEXA; VO2; water polo; lean body mass; body fat mass

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MDPI and ACS Style

Zamodics, M.; Babity, M.; Schay, G.; Leel-Ossy, T.; Bucsko-Varga, A.; Kulcsar, P.; Benko, R.; Boroncsok, D.; Fabian, A.; Ujvari, A.; et al. Correlations Between Body Composition and Aerobic Fitness in Elite Female Youth Water Polo Players. Sports 2025, 13, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13020051

AMA Style

Zamodics M, Babity M, Schay G, Leel-Ossy T, Bucsko-Varga A, Kulcsar P, Benko R, Boroncsok D, Fabian A, Ujvari A, et al. Correlations Between Body Composition and Aerobic Fitness in Elite Female Youth Water Polo Players. Sports. 2025; 13(2):51. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13020051

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zamodics, Mark, Mate Babity, Gusztav Schay, Tamas Leel-Ossy, Agnes Bucsko-Varga, Panka Kulcsar, Regina Benko, Dora Boroncsok, Alexandra Fabian, Adrienn Ujvari, and et al. 2025. "Correlations Between Body Composition and Aerobic Fitness in Elite Female Youth Water Polo Players" Sports 13, no. 2: 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13020051

APA Style

Zamodics, M., Babity, M., Schay, G., Leel-Ossy, T., Bucsko-Varga, A., Kulcsar, P., Benko, R., Boroncsok, D., Fabian, A., Ujvari, A., Ladanyi, Z., Balla, D., Vago, H., Kovacs, A., Hosszu, E., Meszaros, S., Horvath, C., Merkely, B., & Kiss, O. (2025). Correlations Between Body Composition and Aerobic Fitness in Elite Female Youth Water Polo Players. Sports, 13(2), 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13020051

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