부산대학교 도서관

Introduction: Body composition affects endurance sports performance. Triathlon is an extreme sport that includes swimming, cycling, and running with two transitions. Triathletes face a variety of competition environments during the long distance competition that requires lots of energy. This study investigated the effects of a 3-week high-quality triathlon training on the body composition of two different levels of triathletes (elite and non-elite). The relationships between their body composition and the performance during a national championship (with Olympic standard distance) were evaluated. Methods: Ten triathletes participated in this study. Five triathletes who were selected to the national team within one year belong to the elite group (male: 3, female: 2; average age: 21.2 ± 1.0 years old, triathlon training years: 6.0 ± 1.8). Another 5 triathletes who were not able to get into the national team belong to the non-elite group (male: 4; average age: 20.0 ± 0.5 years old, triathlon training years: 3.8 ± 1.0). These two groups of triathletes received a three-week high-quality triathlon training and then participated in a national championship (with Olympic standard distance) after 2 weeks of training. Their body compositions were measured before and after the high-quality training. Results: Muscle mass was increased (+1.05 vs. +0.83 kg, p ＜ .05) and the body fat percentage was decreased (-1.62 vs. -0.82%, p ＜ .05) after 3 weeks of high-volume training in the elite group while their body weights remain similar. Body fat percentage of all triathletes was positively correlated with cycling time, running time, and total race time. Their muscle mass was negatively correlated with cycling time. In addition, elite triathletes had better competition performance compared with their counterparts. Conclusion: Three-week high-quality training can effectively increase muscle mass and decrease body fat percentage for elite triathletes, further the results can conducive to running and overall performance.