ORIGINAL PAPER
Correlates of body image in Polish weight trainers
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Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Online publication date: 2018-03-22
Hum Mov. 2015;16(2):88-94
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ABSTRACT
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to determine body image and body satisfaction in Polish adult men involved in resistance training and to investigate their relationships with objective anthropometric and training characteristics.
Methods:
The study included 176 males aged 18–31 years with 1–14 years resistance training experience. The Figure Rating Scale, Body Satisfaction Scale and a self-designed questionnaire were administered.
Results:
Approximately 62% of the participants would like to be more muscular, only 29% accepted their appearance and 9% would like to be less muscular. The body selected as the personal ideal (M = 5.34) was less muscular than the body considered by the participants to be ideal by other men (normative body; M = 6.07) and was more muscular than the body thought to be most attractive to women (M = 5.10). Actual and ideal body muscularity correlated positively with age and body mass, height and BMI. Dissatisfaction with trunk and motor characteristics correlated positively with ideal body and the body considered most attractive to women as well as with the discrepancy indices between the above factors and the actual body.
Conclusions:
Men regularly involved in resistance training were found to strive for a muscular physique. The normative body, the physique believed to be desired by other men, was more muscular than what was considered preferential to women. However, the latter constitutes a stronger determinant of the level of body satisfaction in men engaged in resistance training.