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Development of anthropometric characteristics in professional Rugby League players: Is there too much emphasis on the pre-season period?
Morehen, James C. Clarke, Jon Batsford, Jake Highton, Jamie Erskine, Robert Morton, James P. Close, Graeme L.
Morehen, James C.
Clarke, Jon
Batsford, Jake
Highton, Jamie
Erskine, Robert
Morton, James P.
Close, Graeme L.
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Other Contributors
EPub Date
Publication Date
2019-12-04
Submitted Date
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Abstract
Rugby League is a team sport requiring players to experience large impact collisions, thus requiring high amounts of muscle
mass. Many players (academy and senior) strive to increase muscle mass during the pre-season, however, quantification of
changes during this period have not been thoroughly investigated. We therefore assessed changes in body-composition
using Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) in eleven academy players over three successive pre-seasons and ninety-three
senior players from four different European Super League clubs prior to, and at the end of, a pre-season training period.
There was no meaningful change in lean mass of the academy players during any of the pre-season periods (year 1 = 72.3
± 7.1–73.2 ± 7.2kg; ES 0.05, year 2 = 74.4 ± 6.9–75.5 ± 6.9kg; ES 0.07, year 3 = 75.9 ± 6.7–76.8 ± 6.6kg; ES 0.06) with
small changes only occurring over the three-year study period (72.3–75.9kg; ES = 0.22). Senior players showed trivial
changes in all characteristics during the pre-season period (total mass = 95.1–95.0kg; ES −0.01, lean mass = 74.6–75.1kg;
ES 0.07, fat mass = 13.6–12.9kg; ES −0.17, body fat percentage = 14.8–14.1%; ES −0.19). These data suggest that academy players need time to develop towards profiles congruent with senior players. Moreover, once players reach senior
level, body-composition changes are trivial during the pre-season and therefore teams may need to individualise training
for players striving to gain muscle mass by reducing other training loads.
Citation
Morehen, J. C., Clarke, J., Batsford, J., Highton, J., Erskine, R. M., Morton, J. P., & Close, G. L. (2019). Development of anthropometric characteristics in professional rugby league players: Is there too much emphasis on the pre-season period? European Journal of Sport Science, 20(8), 1013-1022. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2019.1695953
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
European Journal of Sport Science
Research Unit
DOI
10.1080/17461391.2019.1695953
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
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Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Sport Science on 04/12/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17461391.2019.1695953
Series/Report no.
ISSN
1746-1391
EISSN
1536-7290