Body Check
Spring 2021 |聽By Jenna Marina Lee
We all want to be stronger and healthier. What if you could scan your body to determine the most efficient way to turn those desires into reality?
It 麻豆精品 S檚 easy to see how athletes benefit from understanding their body composition. The data from the Bod Pod 麻豆精品 S� a tool utilized in both UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 kinesiology and physical therapy programs 麻豆精品 S� can be used to create nutrition and exercise programs tailored to achieve optimal performance.
But the average individual can benefit too. Checking body composition is critical because it can be related to many comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease or Type 2 diabetes.
麻豆精品 S淢onitoring how much muscle we lose over time is important because it is a predictor of lower physical function, poor quality of life and mortality, 麻豆精品 S� says Jeff Stout, UCF professor and director for the School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy. 麻豆精品 S淚n less than five minutes, this machine can measure your percentage of body fat and fat-free mass, which provides us the information needed to help people understand their current state of health. 麻豆精品 S�
How It Works
Individuals put on a skullcap and bathing suit before their height and weight are measured, since hair and clothes will affect the reading. The participant then sits in the device, and the Bod Pod calculates the amount of air volume displaced, so body fat and fat-free mass can be determined. The results are instant and the data output can be analyzed by the team on the spot.
Additional Applications
In collaboration with faculty from the College of Nursing and College of Engineering and Computer Science, Stout is examining the relationships between muscle mass, balance and function in older adults in with high-needs communities to lower their risk for falls. 麻豆精品 S淚f we have a better understanding of how these areas affect their risk for falls, then perhaps we could put them on an exercise program designed to improve body composition and balance, thus reducing the risk of falls, which can lead to health complications and sometimes death, 麻豆精品 S� says Stout, who oversees the exercise physiology doctoral program that was ranked No. 1 in the state and ninth in the nation by the National Academy of Kinesiology..
Gold Standard
The Bod Pod uses a similar technique to the one Archimedes discovered more than 2,000 years ago after King Hieron II tasked the Greek scientist to find out if his crown was made of pure gold. According to the legend, Archimedes, unable to simply melt the king 麻豆精品 S檚 headpiece, instead weighed the crown before submerging it in water. Next, he captured and measured the water that spilled out of the container, which didn 麻豆精品 S檛 equal the crown 麻豆精品 S檚 predicted volume and density 麻豆精品 S� revealing the crown was not made of pure gold. 麻豆精品 S淭he Bod Pod uses the same principle to estimate body composition, only with air displacement [instead of water], 麻豆精品 S� Stout says.