Htqe.2025.10

https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2025.10 | 137-144 | PDF

Body Composition of Physiotherapy Students with Different Levels of Physical Activity

Lyubomyr S. Vovkanych¹, Tetiana M. Kutseryb¹, Myroslava Y. Hrynkiv¹, Fedir V. Muzyka¹, Stanislav I. Kras¹
¹Ivan Bobersky Lviv State University of Physical Culture, Ukraine

Abstract
Our study investigated the impact of non-professional sports activities on body composition of physiotherapy students. The study involved 102 physiotherapy students (aged 17–18): untrained (M1, F1) and non-professionally trained (M2, F2). Non-professional training lasted up to 5 hours weekly at a moderate activity level. We observed the larger muscle component in group M2 (42.51%), than in group M1 (40.18%, p ≤ 0.05), and in F2 (29.56%) than in F1 (28.33%, p ≤ 0.05). The fat component was larger in group M1 (18.74%), compared to group M2 (16.30%, p ≤ 0.05), and in F1 (30.82%) compared to F2 (27.58%, p ≤ 0.05). The highest percentage of individuals with normal body mass was found in groups M2 and F2 – 84.2% and 75.0%, respectively. There were no individuals with underweight in group M2, as well as no individuals with overweight in group F2. There was no significant difference in the visceral fat content between groups of trained and untrained students. We found, that increase in body mass index is accompanied by an increase in body fat content and a decrease in the percentage of skeletal muscle tissue in the bodies of both untrained and trained students. We conclude that extracurricular non-professional sports activities lasting up to 5 hours per week induce significant changes in the content of muscle and adipose tissue, and do not affect the visceral fat content in the body of physiotherapy students.

Keywords: non-professional training, body mass index, muscle component, fat component, underweight, overweight

In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2025. Proceedings of Scientific Papers = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2025. Rakstu krājums.  Ed. L. Daniela. Riga: University of Latvia, 2025. 698 p.
ISBN 978-9934-36-461-7 
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2025