Body Mass and Femur Length Are Inversely Related to Repetitions Performed in the Back Squat in Well-Trained Lifters

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Description

The purpose of this research note was to examine whether relationships existed between anthropometrics (body mass, body fat percentage [BF%], and femur length) and descriptive characteristics (age and sex) with repetitions performed to failure at 70% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM) in the back squat. Fifty-eight subjects (males = 43, females = 15; age: 23 +/- 3 years, training age: 5.5 +/- 2.5 years, body mass: 80.65 +/- 16.34 kg, BF%: 10.98 +/- 3.53%, and femur length: 47.1 +/- 2.6 cm) completed a 1RM squat followed by one set to failure at 70% of 1RM. Total repetitions performed at 70% of 1RM were 14 +/- 4 (range: 6-26). Bivariate correlations showed significant inverse relationships between body mass (r = -0.352, p = 0.003), BF% (r = -0.278, p = 0.014), and femur length (r = -0.265, p = 0.019), with repetitions performed. No significant relationships existed between age and sex (p > 0.05), with repetitions performed. All these variables entered into a standard multivariate regression. The model R2 was 0.200, and body mass had the largest influence (p = 0.057) because relative importance analysis demonstrated body mass to contribute to 43.87% of the variance (of the R2) in repetitions performed. No other variable was significant or approached significance (p > 0.05). Our results reveal that body mass, BF%, and femur length all are inversely related to repetitions performed at 70% of 1RM in the back squat.

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