Somatotype profile of a special police unit

Abstract

SUMMARY: The purpose of this research was to investigate the somatotype characteristics police special units to give us a better idea about requirements of body composition and somatotype for training or/and selection process of new candidates. Therefore, an anthropometric analysis was conducted on 17 male members of Slovenian special police unit with mean age 31.12 ± 5.61 years, body height 179.46 ± 5.36 cm and body weight 79.84 ± 6.16 kg. They were assessed with anthropometric variables in accordance with ISAK. The following measurements were taken: upper arm circumference, flexed upper arm circumference, forearm circumference, thigh circumference, mid-thigh circumference, calf circumference, shoulder width, pelvic width, elbow diameter, wrist diameter, knee diameter, ankle diameter, sub scapular skin fold, triceps skin fold, biceps skin fold, forearm skin fold, abdomen skin fold, chest skin fold, supraspinale skin fold, thigh skin fold and calf skin fold. Also, the bioelectrical impedance TANITA TBF-105 was used for measurements of body weight, body mass index, lean body mass, the percentage of fat mass, absolute fat mass and the percentage of body water were measured. Somatotype components and the position in the somatoplot was calculated with the Somatotype 1.2.5. software. The values found in this study indicate a significant importance of mesomorph component for police special units and their nature of work with dominance of balanced mesomorph somatotype (2.59–6.49–1.98).