ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the various methods to determine skeletal muscle and explores both the advantages and disadvantages of each method. It also examine methods to measure not only total skeletal muscle, but also regional skeletal muscle mass. The chapter discusses the relationship between skeletal muscle mass, muscle function, sports performance, and general health. The measurement of skeletal muscle via ultrasound is complicated by muscle compressibility, site selection, and the subject's hydration status and only produces a cross-sectional area of the site being measured. The chapter also discusses the relationship between skeletal muscle mass, performance measures, muscle function, and injury. It reviews on critical new directions for the application of lean mass, and body composition as a whole, as an identifier of future success. Following the validation of total body composition, the need for regional body composition analysis to assess asymmetries or to provide a more detailed tissue composition analysis within particular body regions has been realized.
