Body composition

Body Composition, Rather Than Masculine Physical Traits, Linked to Aging Markers in Middle-Aged Men, Buffalo, New York, 28 October 2026.

A new research paper was published in Volume 18 of Aging on 6 October 2026, titled Body Composition, but not Morphological Masculinity, is Associated with Biological Aging Markers in Middle-Aged Men.

The study found that masculine physical characteristics were not independently associated with biological aging markers in middle-aged men.

Instead, body composition, particularly fat-free mass percentage and body fat distribution, showed stronger relationships with inflammation and growth hormone levels.

However, these associations disappeared after adjusting for adiposity, suggesting that body fat may help explain the observed relationships.

The research was led by first and corresponding author Agnieszka Zelazniewicz, affiliated with the University of Wroclaw.

Aging involves changes in hormonal regulation, immune function, metabolism, and body composition.

In men, testosterone influences the development of masculine physical characteristics, muscle mass, and reproductive function.

But

for us treating the problem, we look at body composition.

Like I would do body composition in my office for free for a patient.

They bring it back and they look at their fat storage and muscle mass.

So you could be a smaller weight with a higher fat storage than someone who has a higher weight than you and carry way more muscle mass.

So we would look at the body composition and we would look also on the fat deposition.

Is it more like a visceral fat that carry more cardiometabolic risk factor versus someone who has a different fat distribution?

Got it.

Next question.

The topic of this one is body recomposition splits and long-term periodization.

So...

Can those splits also be used as the foundation for a regular program design rather than only for a specific body recomposition goal? And if so, how would you integrate the body recomposition splits into the long-term periodization resource and an overall long-term training plan?

So here's the thing.

The question is, can it be done? Yes, it can be done.

It's more a question of understanding why you're using a microcycle structure.

Is it because you really want to focus on the specific body parts or you're using one of the body part bias of body recomp? or is it simply on the psychological perspective because trying try client x loves to do this type of split so you're using this type of split okay that's a different story but that's not the optimization optimization of physiological components again just to recap on this the microcycle structure used in body comp are used to medicate the stress of body recomp and the volume associated to it with a cool body part bias depending on what you want to emphasize during the process but it's not necessarily a microcycle structure that will optimize long-term training effect for people who see the highest level of strain and hypertrophy

So it's kind of like, and I didn't mean that in a, in a bad way at all, but it's like, it's the same for everybody, right? If you, sometimes if you catch people from certain angles or height and yeah, sort of genetic anthropometry, like it all makes a difference.

I also, for people that aren't regularly weighing themselves and part of what we do in terms of tracking body composition, I'm very skeptical of their awareness of how much they weigh.

Just like you ask someone randomly on the street, like, how much do you weigh? And then they give an answer.

And if you were to weigh them, I bet you they'd weigh quite a bit different because they probably don't weigh themselves regularly.