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Anthropometry and Rugby

There are many components of fitness that are important for success in rugby. Body size and composition (anthropometry) is one factor that should be considered. Important measures include body fat (skinfolds), body weight, and height.



Body fat can be measured using the skinfold method. If this is not available, monitoring body weight changes would give an indication of body fat changes, assuming no change in muscle mass. Excess body fat would affect the player's ability to move freely around the field, and the extra weight will increase fatigue. 

Anthropometry and Olympic Athletes

Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Here is average data from the analysis of the anthropometric data of the rugby 7s players at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

  Age (years) height (m) weight (kg) BMI
AVERAGE (all sports) 26.8 1.77 72.0 22.9
rugby (all) 26.5 1.75 78.7 25.4
rugby (females) 26.6 1.68 66.6 23.7
rugby (males) 26.5 1.83 90.5 27.0


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