ABSTRACT
Visual observations of the human body form are instinctively based on general characteristics. The whole human body is a phenotype, which constitutes the visible properties of an organism arising from the interaction of the genotype and the environment. The characteristics evaluated in the human organism depend upon what we are looking for and the methods used in the observations. Much of modern medicine and physiology is concerned only with quantifying fatness, ignoring other parameters which determine overall morphology. This chapter considers these often overlooked variables, and the contribution they can make to our understanding of health and performance.
