Build Muscle, Retain Speed

A question that frequently appears in my in-box is how to build muscle without sacrificing the speed or agility necessary for various athletic endeavors. Beyond that, I get questions asking just how much speed they are going to lose in putting on a few pounds of muscle? A lot of young football players, for example, seem convinced that if they increase their muscle mass, they are going to get slower.

For the most part, I consider this a lot of worrying over nothing. It's largely a myth that muscle mass is going to slow you down. And, really, quite a strange myth - less muscle equals more speed? With that logic, if Maurice Greene dropped about 25 pounds of muscle, he'd be faster than the speed of light.

For the most part, an increase in muscle is going to speed you up. There certainly is a point where muscle can start to become more of a hindrance than a help, but that point isn't exactly right around the bend for most of us. That point comes when you pack on more muscle than your frame is able to carry, when you start limiting the range of motion of your hips and knees.

Doing that though, isn't exactly easy and isn't going to happen overnight. It shouldn't be keeping the 5'10" and 145 lb. linebacker up at night.

A qood Q&A getting into a bit more into the technical aspects is here.


JP

Essential Fatty Acids and Weight Gain

When your looking for research to provide some help on how to gain muscle weight, sometimes you have to take what you can get...

Fish-Oil Fats May Stop Cancer Weight Loss.

If it is helping cancer patients gain muscle weight, it isn't a stretch to conclude Omega-3 fatty acids are also going to play a positive role in helping interested trainers add muscle weight.

In my opinion, essential fatty acids are a huge plus in a weight gain diet - Food To Gain Weight - Fat (EFAs).

Leave the fat out of your diet and your hormones simply aren't going to be optimized for muscle building.

Still not convinced that Omega-3s are a good thing to get in your diet???

Omega-3s can keep you out of prison

That's right. Studies have shown that Omega-3's can help lower violent behavior.

Need more benefits? There are plenty. I'm not a big supplement nut (at least not in comparison to some), but you'll have to pry my UDO's out of my cold, dead hands.

JP