A Comparative Study of Body Builders and Weight Lifters on Somatotypes

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare the somatotypes of Body Builders and Weight Lifters. The total fifty (25 body builders and 25 weight lifters) male All-India intervarsity players were selected for this study. The age of the subjects were ranged between 18 to 25 years. The data on somatotypes of the subjects were obtained by using the Carter and Heath method, developed by Carter and Heath (1990). The t test was used to determine the difference between the mean score of the body builders and weight lifters. Results revealed that there was a significant difference between body builders and weight lifters at 0.05 level of significance with 48 degree of freedom. The result of the study showed that there was a significant difference between body builders and weight lifters of their endomorph. Weightlifters are tend to have more fat percentage as compared to bodybuilders. There was not much difference found in the mesomorphy status of the bodybuilders and weightlifters but the bodybuilders showed slightly more musculature than the weightlifters and in the ectomorphy status bodybuilders tend to be more ectomorph than weightlifters.