Monitoring and tracking: weight, % body fat, body mass index, VO² max | Golden Skate

Monitoring and tracking: weight, % body fat, body mass index, VO² max

sowcow

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
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The monitoring and tracking of skaters' weight, body mass index, % body fat, VO[SUP]2[/SUP] max, and other body/conditioning parameters.


Several posts from the broader "Angelica Krylova interview" here and here discuss the appropriateness of the more extreme methods she uses to ensure her skaters maintain an appropriate body weight; including, paraphrasing from the interview: "daily weigh-in; say[ing] unpleasant things [and] scold[ing]."

Taking a step back ... does anyone know:

  • What conditioning or physical body parameters elite skaters are monitored/tracked for nowadays?
  • Is it similar between most countries?
  • What about within countries (e.g. between the various national training centers)?
  • What 'measures' receive the most focus?




I can only speak from my own experience (...which admittedly was ~15 years ago) but when skaters/coaches spoke of 'weigh-ins', it was more about measuring and monitoring their "body composition" (or % body fat) than it was about the skaters "body weight". Does the same holds true today??

Certainly when I was training, it was commonplace at the big national training centers here in Canada that your weight and (more importantly) your % body fat was tracked. Specific to my training center: monitoring started at the pre-novice level, and we had our weight and % body fat tracked bi-weekly. Nowadays, it would not surprise me to learn that the number of 'body/conditioning parameters' monitored has increased both in count and in frequency!

With bi-weekly body mass index monitoring, only slight changes (if any) would register week-over-week. You'd never see any 'big' swings week-to-week -- nobody "gets fat" overnight! Instead, you'd see small incremental increases in % body fat over many testing periods.

One advantage to having such frequently tracked measures was it allowed coaches (or nutritionists nowadays I suppose) to intervene and determine what was causing the changes; which ranged from:

  • issues directly related to diet;
  • sleeping conditions;
  • stress;
  • depression;
  • fatigue;
  • issues unrelated to skating (such as family problems or relationship issues);
  • etc.
Oh, and this fact might horrify some ... :jaw:

Where I trained, the bi-weekly results (for men, and women) were not only distributed to everyone, but also listed ALL the skaters in order of their % body fat from highest to lowest (or visa-versa ... it's been so long I cannot recall).


Bon Appétit!
Steve
 

dress

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 9, 2014
To post the fat % is just rude. It's puting kids at risk of eating disorders. I think it's okay to track weight or things like % of fat if it is used as a way to help the skaters to have better nutrition, conditioning, training...

The shaming is unacceptable
 
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gravy

¿No ven quién soy yo?
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
If sky_fly20 were still on GS ...

Ohhh, the lovely ramblings about about Gracie's 'quintessential hollywood ice princess look' and the blue-eyed beauties that are S/K. And all the fat-shaming of course. What a treasure sky_fly20 was.

Where I trained, the bi-weekly results (for men, and women) were not only distributed to everyone, but also listed ALL the skaters in order of their % body fat from highest to lowest (or visa-versa ... it's been so long I cannot recall).

Whaaaaa? That's terrifying.

In gymnastics, the athletes' weights were always included in the little bar on television that includes their name, age, and hometown. They stopped doing that several years ago to curb the eating disorders that were (are) so prevalent in the sport.
 

Scovies

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
I'm sure this thread will go well.

There are two issues here:

1) It is the best interest of an elite athlete to maintain a healthy weight that allows them to best perform their sport. HOWEVER...
2) Women and girls are subjected to unreasonable standards of beauty, many of which are tied to weight. Figure skating is a subjective sport, and one where a feminine ideal (i.e., thin) is often prized.

There's a reason "packaging" is such a hot topic around here, and why The Skating Lesson (and many posters here) think Ashley Wagner should tone down her hair color. While neither of those are necessarily related to weight, the way a female skater looks is highly scrutinized. It just occurred to me that I even posted in Courtney Hicks' fan thread that she needs new dresses -- not because I think she needs to lose weight (she doesn't), but because I think her current outfits make her look shorter and stumpier than she is. Looking as tall and lean as possible can only help a skater in the judges' eyes.

Basically, female athletes are often encouraged (or scolded, or shamed) into losing weight not because it will benefit them physically, but because people accuse them of looking fat. I remember feeling worried for Gracie Gold at last year's nationals because she looked so thin -- it's one thing if a skater decides to drop a couple of pounds for the specific purpose of helping their jumps, but she already had MONSTER jumps before she went to Frank Carroll. That, and the fact that she had an Instagram not too long ago about going to a "spa" that's basically a sweat lodge, makes me concerned that people are telling her to lose weight and not caring about how she accomplishes that.

There's no problem with skaters working to maintain a healthy diet and good eating habits, and, for example, trying to maintain a consistent weight once they've stopped growing (quickly losing or gaining weight could alter someone's jumps, just like we see young skaters who struggle when they go through a growth spurt). Heck, if a skater wants to improve their jumps, dropping a couple of pounds IN A HEALTHY MANNER may be able to help them, and that's fine as long as they're staying healthy. I'm a fairly new runner, and the activity became much easier for me after I lost a few pounds via a healthy diet.

That said, daily weigh-ins are possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

I'm an average-size adult woman and have gone through ups and downs with my weight, and I've seen a change of several pounds in one day, depending on what time of day I stepped on the scale. In the space of a single day, simple things like whether I'd eaten breakfast or lunch, having several cups of coffee, whether or not I'd used the restroom, whether I'd had a lot of sodium the day before and thus was retaining water, or (sorry for the TMI) if it was "that time of the month" and I definitely WAS retaining water. Weight fluctuations for ladies can be drastic when you factor in menstruation. And when you consider that so many top skaters are teenagers, their coaches won't always consider their increasing height if their weight increases, not to mention that a young woman's body fat percentage will increase regardless (Elene Gedevanishviili is tiny, but also well-endowed, for example. What kind of a**hole coach would punish a fit young lady for developing hips and/or breasts? Lots, apparently.) Another contributing factor to this is allowing junior, pre-pubescent skaters to jump with poor technique that only works because they are tiny and won't hold up when they go through puberty.

It's nice that the coaches you worked with had a better standard for judging the changes in a skater's body (body fat % as opposed to just weight), but even that can be extremely problematic for all the reasons I outlined. It'd be one thing if coaches like Krylova told their students, "Stick to lean proteins and lots of veggies," but it's clear that isn't the case.

Full disclosure: I'm a former competitive gymnast who thankfully never had weight issues, real or invented by my coaches. I also witnessed one of the girls I trained with being forced to quit the sport when she developed anorexia. I haven't seen or heard from her in 15 years. I hope she's OK.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
I also find this horribly disturbing, but mixing apples and oranges with one indicator: the VO2 max.

I can see an elite athlete monitoring oxygen use. A friend who is a competitive runner does this regularly. He does *not* monitor weight, body fat,etc. Particularly for a female athlete, I see no good that can come from that.
 

louisa05

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
I think I've posted this somewhere around 1000 times. But here it is again:

Discussing weight does not cause eating disorders. They are far more complex than that. Causes include biology and physiology, and complex psychological issues. There is even some speculation that there may be a genetic element as the tendency appears in families.

To explain it as simply as possible, if discussions of weight caused eating disorders every woman in America would have one as we are surrounded by that all the time.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
It's a tricky issue, because obviously you have to be a certain weight to be able to get into the air for the jumps. However, we can't be naive to the fact that skating is an image sport and, unfortunately, how fit a skater looks can impact judges' perceptions. Even watching Mirai now versus 2010, I feel like she looks like she lacks energy; I wonder is it my own bias because she looked fitter in 2010 or if she actually lacks energy now?
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
I think I've posted this somewhere around 1000 times. But here it is again:

Discussing weight does not cause eating disorders. They are far more complex than that. Causes include biology and physiology, and complex psychological issues. There is even some speculation that there may be a genetic element as the tendency appears in families.

To explain it as simply as possible, if discussions of weight caused eating disorders every woman in America would have one as we are surrounded by that all the time.

Yes, eating disorders are complex, as you say -- so please don't turn around and vastly oversimplify them.

Not every person who drinks and drives causes an accident.
Does that mean we should condone driving under the influence? My answer would be No.

Body image often is one of the complex psychological issues involved in eating disorders.
And discussion of weight can affect body image.

Supportive PRIVATE -- i.e., one-on-one -- conversations btwn a supportive coach and an individual skater are one thing.
Discussions of body weight in a group setting and in interviews are quite another.
 
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peg

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
I think I've posted this somewhere around 1000 times. But here it is again:

Discussing weight does not cause eating disorders. They are far more complex than that. Causes include biology and physiology, and complex psychological issues. There is even some speculation that there may be a genetic element as the tendency appears in families.

To explain it as simply as possible, if discussions of weight caused eating disorders every woman in America would have one as we are surrounded by that all the time.

While discussions of weight are not in and of themselves the sole cause of eating disorders, an emphasis on slimness is a major trigger for them. They can be a significant contributing factor.

Smoking is not in and of itself the sole cause of heart disease. There are other factors involved, including diet, exercise, and genetic factors. Does that mean we should ignore the role of smoking in heart disease?

It is not simple coincidence that rates of eating disorders are much higher in sports/activities such as gymnastics, figure skating, and ballet than they are in sports like basketball, cycling, hockey, etc. The focus on weight does play a role. Ignoring this does not serve anyone, particularly young athletes in high-risk sports.

And shaming someone about weight is never helpful.

Also, what golden said.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Re VO[SUB]2[/SUB] max, @charliebilodeau coincidentally posted this photo/comment of getting a measurement :):

Institut National Du Sport Du Québec
Some days, I feel like a rat in laboratory! #insq #vo2max #jaipudejambes !
http://instagram.com/p/wuS9pTrvIn/ (posted Dec 17)​
 
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