Differences in body components and electrical characteristics between youth soccer players and non-athletes

Many previous studies have focused on youth soccer player injuries without body component analysis compared to non-athletes. Only a few studies which have investigated body components of youth soccer players, and studies that look at electrical characteristics used by rheobase and chronaxie as well as body components are even scarcer. Therefore, we feel that there is a need for a study investigating objective clinical analysis of the body components (body structure and body composition) and electrical characteristics of both youth soccer players and non-athletes. Sixty subjects participated in our study, comprising of thirty youth soccer players and thirty non-athletes. The Inbody 520 was used to measure and analyze body composition and the Duo 500 was employed to measure electrical characteristics. It was observed that the soccer players showed markedly lower total impedance compared to the non-athletes. In both legs, it was particularly noted that there were significant differences between the right and left sides. The soccer players showed a higher skeletal muscle mass and lean/ideal lean × 100% compared to the non-athletes. Furthermore, the soccer players had a lower rheobase and higher chronaxie. A comparison of the genders showed a similar pattern. In this study, we were able to separate the differences in body components and electrical characteristics between the subject groups using a systemic approach. Future studies on diverse types of athletes would contribute further to the development of clinical physiotherapy and sports rehabilitation.