Do muscles slow you down? Conan thinks not.
Some myths just won’t go away. And sometimes I’m surprised how even the “experts” still get this stuff wrong.
Case in point:
For my last blog post, I was looking up some stats about Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
During my research, I stumbled across an article detailing how this ultra-strong and ultra-fast running back almost got “tricked” into gaining 10lbs of muscle.
You can read the article here.
For this post, I’ll provide quick recap:
Peterson was hanging out during the off-season and a few veterans convinced him that he’d be even better if he gained 10lbs of muscle. Peterson was convinced but before he set out to accomplish his goal he consulted with a few “experts” (his coach and his father). The “experts” explained that Peterson had been duped by the wiley veterans and that he should NOT sacrifice his blazing speed in the pursuit of an additional 10lbs of muscle.
But this is the part I don’t get: Why do these experts still believe that muscle makes you slower? Would an extra 10lbs of muscle actually make Adrian Peterson slower?
Not likely. In fact, you could even make the argument that the reason Peterson is so fast already is because he carries so much muscle mass.
Using the same logic espoused by the “experts” above, Peterson could actually get even faster if he LOST 10lbs of muscle. We know that doesn’t make much sense, so why would it make any sense that gaining muscle will make you slower?
But unfortunately, people are still confused by this. Yes, added muscle increases your bodyweight. But that doesn’t automatically make you slower. Strength coach Mark Rippetoe talks about this in the terms of adding a bigger engine to your car. Does the bigger engine increase the overall weight of the vehicle?
Of course.
Does a bigger engine make the car slower? Not by a long shot.
So I’ll open this up for comments. What do you think? Do you believe that gaining lean muscle mass slows you down? If you think that’s just a myth, why do you think this myth still persists, even at the highest levels of athletics?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s not that it slows you down,but the bigger guys do seem to tire out quicker.The reason being the more muscle you have the more oxygen you require.Let’s be honest you dont see hulking body builders running in marathons,and most of the top mma fighters are pretty lean athletes.It’s all about functional strength,and most of these giant bodybuilders are not athletes.The navy seals are considered the elite of warriors and they are not sitting around lifting weights all day,there doing traditional body weight exercises and running.In the new season of the ultimate fighter these giant pro-football players admit that training mixed martial arts is much more difficult than anything they do in training for football,and you can see these guys get tired fast after just a few minutes in the cage.Giant muscles may look great at the beach,but in the real world I much rather have functional strength,with a lean ripped athletic physique.
Matt,
I would agree that bigger muscles do not necessarily make you slower. However, I would state that, depending on where the muscle mass is added, gains might be negative. Adding ten pounds of neck/back muscle could surely affect the performance of leg muscles which would translate into a slower speed.
Increasing muscle mass and core strength can lead to some surprising results. Remember Paul Anderson, the great strongman / weight lifter. He raced Jim Lea, the world record holder in the 440yd dash, back in ‘58. In a 50yd dash, Lea only beat Paul by a couple of strides. At the time, Paul weighed 350lbs. About 3 times what Jim weighed.
Amazing, but Paul was no ordinary athlete.
J.
Interesting responses so far.
@ Paul: I think “giant muscles” would help more in the real world than you might think. Let’s remember, MMA is NOT the real world.
In the real world, fights have no rules and are usually over in a few seconds. So in that scenario, the bigger & stronger guy will usually win.
But I agree, if your goal is to run a marathon than getting big and strong won’t help.
@J. Awesome story about Paul Anderson. Hadn’t heard that one yet. Thanks for posting that.
Matt: It’s all about strength to weight ratio. If you are stronger (and probably somewhat bigger) but still lean-you will perform better. Muscle gets a bad rap because a lot of the “big” guys are fat. Also, people look at bodybuilders and wonder how they can be functional? Well, they aren’t. Weight training, even for the most gifted gainer, does not give an athlete a Jay Cutler physique, if you know what I mean. And lets face it, most athletes are born with speed (it can be improved a little but not much). So in the end, the stronger (and thus more muscle), leaner athlete, wins-all other things being equal. This is especially true with contact sports, of course.
Matt:Just because a guy is big it does not make him a good fighter,whether it’s in on the street or in combat sports.I have spent my entire life in Chicago and have seen plenty of real street fights to know.But I think we have strayed from the original subject.
Agreed. Let’s get back on point with this question:
Would 10lbs of muscle help or hinder an N.F.L. running back?
(For now let’s just assume the muscle is evenly distributed all over the body since you can’t really pick and choose where you will gain the muscle.)
Matt,
I would agree the 10lbs of muscle might aid the NFL running back to an extent. But the strength/speed gains might come at the cost of endurance. Remember, larger muscles use more energy. The player might tire at a faster rate.
Paul,
Are you suggesting that an athlete such as Adrian Peterson is not lean, ripped, athletic, with tons of functional strength? I’ve never gotten this mentality that some people have (usually MMA dudes) that just because one form of exercise tires someone out, that it must be more demanding than another form of training - therefor cementing the status of one athlete’s “superiority” over another’s. SOMEONE WHO TRAINS GOING 12 ROUNDS EVERY DAY WILL HAVE AN EASIER TIME WITH IT THAN SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T. It’s not rocket science. Someone like Adrian Peterson may very well get winded after a short MMA specific routine, but that doesn’t mean MMA fighters are in better shape than he is. Conversely, I don’t think many MMA fighters could execute the routine AP does every day. The fact of the matter is: football players are designed to be as fast, strong and agile as humanly possible. In many ways that is similar to the philosophy of fight training, and in many ways it is not. AP might not be able to hang against a GSP in the cage, but if you think that a guy like GSP could handle the kinds of pure energy and force that a pro football player does… well, I donno. I think that’s bogus.
Back to the topic. It’s difficult to say weather or not 10lbs of muscle would make him “faster”. There are many different kinds of fast. Allow me to take Rippetoe’s analogy a little further. Consider a Bugatti Veyron with 1000 and a Porsche GT3. Now, the Bugatti will be faster in a straight like, but the Porsche can weave in and out of cones and around the track at a significantly higher speed. I hate to even lend any credence to the car analogy because it doesn’t make sense to begin with. Theoretically you could just keep adding a bigger and more powerful engine into infinity and the car will continue to get faster, but you can’t just keep adding muscle to the point of ridiculousness and keep getting faster - it just doesn’t work that way.
The point is, athletes all have a certain equilibrium when it comes to an attribute of performance. And speed is one of them. Adrian may get faster and he may not. His body may not move as fluidly as before. Who knows. It certainly was the case for me. In my opinion: why mess with success? Adrian is a startlingly strong athlete for his size with speed to match. And he has been the most dominant football player in the league every year since he entered. If he puts the muscle on and feels his lateral movement is as good/better and his straight line is just as good/better, more power to him. And if not, well, we all know how easy it is to drop those 10lbs of muscle pretty quickly.
Indeed muscle mass increases speed acccompanie with cardio, but if your muscles weigh more than wat they give you, you’ll get slower, also you need to work on all the muscles responsable for speed, it’s not just the quads, you also need muscles on the thigh,hamstring,foot/toes, all evenly, it’s tough, and accompanied by cardio to adjust to the new weight and you need to strech alot.