Bod Pod Invasion

Mat drills continue and one of the things being used to assess the players is the Bod Pod. The Bod Pod, which looks like a giant ornamental egg with a window, is being used by FSU, other universities, and professional football teams to assess body fat.

"It's a diagnostic piece, not an evaluation piece," Colts general manager Bill Polian says. "For example, if a guy was 340 pounds, and it told us the fat content was incredibly high, we'd say there is a problem here. The guy might have an eating disorder, or he's not disciplined, whatever it may be.

Body fat has been measured for years with skinfold calipers, bioelectrical currents and underwater weighing. Calipers and bioelectrical currents can be off by as much as 8 percent. Underwater weighing is as accurate as the Bod Pod, but it's not as quick and convenient. For a Bod Pod reading, the subject wears a pair of Lycra shorts and a hair cap and sits in the machine for a few minutes.

You've probably heard of hydrostatic weighing, where the amount of water your body displaces while submerged reveals how much of you is lean meat and how much is flab. The Bod Pod takes that concept a step further, using air instead of water to see what you're really made of. It measures mass and volume, and from that it can extrapolate your whole-body density.

Even though the Bod Pod, a fiberglass chamber, has a nice big picture window up front, it still must not be much fun for the claustrophobic. But it only takes five minutes to complete the procedure, it's noninvasive, and it can be used to weigh even the biggest bruisers—even 500-pounders can fit into the thing.

Offensive Linemen coach Rick Trickett and Conditioning coach Jon Jost want all of the offensive linemen under 25 percent (body fat). Acoording to Jost,the Noles have ranges for every position and everybody has to be under 25 percent. Ideally FSU would like them under 22 percent.