Document Type
Article
Abstract
Upper arm strength, right and left grip strength, and several anthropometric measures were recorded during a comprehensive medical examination in an epidemiological study in Tecumseh, Michigan. In the present analysis the relationship between muscular strength and body size was determined to facilitate comparisons of strength among individuals irrespective of differences in size, and more generally to derive sex, age and size specific standards for evaluating results of strength tests. Preliminary regressions of arm strength and summed grip strength on age and twelve size variables were performed. Most of the explained variation in strength variables was accounted for by five size variables, height, weight, biacromial diameter, arm girth, and triceps skinfold thickness. A canonical analysis was performed on the three strength variables and the five selected size variables, age and sex specific. After comparison of the relative weighting of strength variables in the subgroups, the unweighted sum of strength measures was adopted as a strength index. The regressions of the index on the five size variables provide age, sex and size specific means for use as a standard. Comparison of the multiple correlation coefficients from the regressions with the corresponding canonical correlation coefficients indicates the nearly optimal character of the index.
Recommended Citation
Lamphiear, Donald E. and Montoye, Henry J.
(1976)
"Muscular Strength and Body Size,"
Human Biology:
Vol. 48:
Iss.
1, Article 13.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol48/iss1/13
