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
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
posted by JP Clifford at 12:34 AM
2 Comments:
This myth will keep haunting us forever!! Having strong muscles and training them for speeds will improve your speed but gaining muscle will not make you lose some of that speed unless you're competing for Mr. Olympia (then again, if you are, you shouldn't care about your speed anyways!). Thanks for the essential blog, hopefully people will understand the myth a bit better (maybe someday they will stop believing it!).
Hey guys just want you to know this was very helpful! Thanks!
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