Athletes and the "Get Big" Lie

One of the many struggles that male athletes that play youth/high school sports and their parents face is the lie that: they must “get big” to play at a high level. First of all, go look at your favorite athlete while they were in high school or college and compare them to how they look when they play now... they were much smaller than other people might have thought they should have been to be at their best. Shifting the focus of athletic development to “packing on muscle” is a sure fire way to ruin athletic promise. In fact, it is extremely important to long term athletic development that you do not force weight gain in a young athlete if you want to maximize their long term potential. The "get big" lie comes from a lot of places; magazines, movies, peers, lack of self confidence, etc. BUT, there is valid counter research to consider, even beside the obvious evidence of researching pro athletes weight in high school. No trainer is going to bring on puberty any faster and puberty is the all time performance enhancer. You will get bigger from taking out the trash if you are hitting the peak weight velocity part of puberty. In this blog, I will explain why you should focus on all elements of athletic development and never focus your athlete on "getting big".

The Truth

If we train muscles we will forget movements, but if we train movements we will never forget muscles.

The early pioneers of strength such as Mel Siff, listed several strength factors in their research:

max Strength, Speed, Power, Stamina, Suppleness(flexibility), Skill, Spirit.

There is so much to consider while improving "strength". Where does traditional hypertrophy(getting big) fit? Watch any pro sport and tell me where hypertrophy is the difference maker? No NFL quarterback or MLB pitcher looks like the body builders at your gym(maybe 1-2% outliers). No lineman or basketball player does either. Hypertrophy is only useful in function if it is critical mass. What clients that need hypertrophy must have is increased muscle cross sectional fiber which is functional for performance.

The Proof

There are two basic types of hypertrophy: Sarcoplasmic and Myofibrillar

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy- increased volume of sarcoplasm. This is NON functional hypertrophy. SH increases size by concentration of FLUID. Performing SH training has been proved to deter any neuromuscular facilitation for athletic development. SH gains tend to be seen, not felt. So, not great for performance but the primary source for body building.

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy- Enlarged muscle fibers due to increased myofibrillar density and therefore the addition of sarcomeres. This is functional hypertrophy that adds strength and potential for power. Think farm strong- ranchers, blacksmiths, miners. MH is a product of time and intensity.

It is important to understand the science of hypertrophy because so many youth athletes believe that this type of training is king. In addition, some trainers and adults do not understand the shortcomings / consequences of strictly SH training. It’s proven that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy decreases sprint speed and ground reaction speed, thus, decreases athleticism. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can only help an athlete in acute recovery(at isolated joint) and body composition.

In a study conducted by Dr. Todd Miller at Washington University Medical Center in D.C. as little as 2% increases in non-functional mass such as fat or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can decrease anaerobic power production significantly. For example, a 170lb athlete gains 2% or 3.4lbs of non-critical mass: this could decrease vertical jump as much as 2 inches and 0.26 seconds off a 40yd dash. Those are big time numbers for an athlete just moving from 170 lbs to 173.4 lbs, in fact it’s a game changer. So, if your athlete is "getting big" on the pec deck or leg extension machine - you are building non-critical athleticism killing mass. Movements create athletes, isolation trains you to be uncoordinated. Again, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy gains tend to be seen and not felt. When possible, choose strength movements that integrate at minimum 2-3 joints and at best are a full body movement. Don’t buy into the talk about speed coming strictly from the weight room. Strength supports power, but power doesn't always translate to speed. Speed needs a master conductor to combine strength qualities and is coordination specific. Speed combines power, suppleness, and reactivity + skill.

When your athlete will benefit from gaining muscle:

For an athlete to develop athleticism and gain muscle mass at the same time several things need to happen. Youth athletes are not little men or women and cannot be trained as such. Training the ages of 12-18 (roughly) bring unique challenges and, in my opinion, are the hardest athletes to train. Yes, you can do almost anything to make them stronger but it does matter what you do. Within this group you have 4 basic types: Pre-puberty, Peak Height Velocity(shooting up), Peak Weight Velocity(filling out), Post-puberty. All of these stages are very different and very complex. Parents, coaches and athletes have to communicate / evaluate in order to identify which of these stages your athlete is in.

The pre-puberty athlete is an older version of the youth athlete. During this youth stage the only thing that can have an actual training result for performance can be contributed to nervous system development and cerebral maturation. This means that the best thing to do with this type of athlete is develop correct movement patterns, athletic motor skills, and inter/intramuscular coordination. Inter-muscluar coordination is the ability to use different muscles together harmoniously for greater coordination. Intramuscular is the coordination of the small fibers within a muscle working to full function with the proprioceptors. Within this youth stage is a window of opportunity to train the brain and nervous system for goals in which to grow the body. Simply put, you are programming a machine that will reveal itself later in life(post-puberty). After making that point, usually the first thing that comes to parents heads is strength training. A youth athlete can become stronger through training because of inter/intramuscular coordination but NOT because of changes at a muscle-fiber level. So, you can’t actually control getting a youth functionally “bigger and stronger” with a training effect. This desired effect is only possible by unnaturally increasing hormone levels or waiting until puberty when it is trainable. You can, however, damage them mentally and physically forever through the wrong type of endurance and/or strength training at a young age. You can do appropriate strength training for mobility and coordination with you athletes, however, it does not include body building or hypertrophy training.

That is a picture of NFL MVP and Super Bowl Champion Aaron Rodgers in high school. He was very undersized. I think it worked out fine for him.

The peak height velocity athlete is sprouting up at an unprecedented rate. This phenomenon leads to awkward movements and sometimes what looks like a real step back to parents. Pain is possible during this stage of development simply because bones are longer than the supporting tissues are ready to support. Conversely, other bones are short in relation to the proximal and distal bone segments which can also cause severe pain. This neurological regression can be hard on parents and kids. We often get "he/she used to be so fast, what happen?" . Nothing, it's a stage.

Post PHV athletes enter peak weight velocity. This period is characterized by natural body mass increases due to a result of the surge in sex hormone concentrations. No matter your level of nutritional excellence, there will be some odd weight shifting during PWV. Parents should not let kids use this as an excuse to vary from sound nutrition principles. Boys increase in testosterone and girls increased sensitivity to insulin, combined with insulin-like growth factor and growth hormone makes this an ideal time to for them to increase mass and muscle size. Although muscle size will not naturally “pop” like body builders the athletes will be able to increase in strength more consistently and more obviously after PHV and PHW. Let me be clear on something: During this growth spurt athletes’ nervous system maturation, adaptation in muscle mass, body composition, and other structural parameters change dramatically leading to an unparalleled jump in performance of speed, strength, endurance, and power. With any type of training, you will get gains. The problem is that if trained incorrectly, you could effect movement qualities and coordination negatively.

An analogy we often use with athletes: Race horses don't make good plow horses. There isn't a horse out there that can do both. The body adapts and makes a decision. Are you a mover or a lifter? Sure you can do both and you should. But have you over exposed your athlete to sport of lifting MORE than focusing on movement for sport? It should be equal at the least, in my opinion. For instance, if you overtrain the bicep to flex the elbow it will not be proficient at accelerating or decelerating the humorous bone rotation while throwing or swinging or striking. This is one of countless examples of how "mass" training can detrain movement abilities.

Athletes on the other side of puberty have to live out what they set up before and during puberty. They are limited by their movement competency and or by consequences of inappropriate training or oversport specialization in the earlier stages of development.

How to help your athlete Gain Weight correctly:

First of all, focus on true holistic athletic development. Small athletes know they are small and do not need you stressing them out about something they can’t control. In every sport you can point to undersized players that are phenomenal. For your athlete, watch their development closely so you can introduce nutrition habits at the appropriate time, thus ushering in mass gains once the testosterone starts. Be honest with them about what they are currently achieving while waiting on that peak weight velocity. Make sure they understand that they can be be elite now and the weight will come, they have no excuses to avoid greatness now. If they continue to focus on becoming better athletes, it will make them better now and in the long run. On that point, research states that it takes up to 1 month for the body to acclimate to 5 lbs of weight gain and retain current athletic ability. So you can imagine what it takes for 20 lbs of weight gain. The best thing to do is to continue to develop the total athlete as the weight changes are happening. If not, you can lose a dramatic amount of athleticism and possibly never get it back. Under extreme circumstances in a professional environment athletes can gain extreme amounts of weight and increase in testing and game performance. I assure you that this is under the watch of professionals and unlimited time to work day in / out.

Summary

I get to speak to college coaches and pro scouts as part of my gig. They do not want a kid that is prototype size going in to college and sometimes even the pros. They expect for athletes to gain a certain amount of weight and if you are already at the weight they want then they will project you to get too big and slow. I have seen this hurt a lot of great athletes that didn't listen. Research, recruiters and personal experience agree: do not force weight gain, instead developing total athleticism is the king. The weight will come as it always does, however, dynamic athleticism is the king pin that separates athletes.

Fun:

Look at these weight lifters try and compete with real performance based athletes. The difference is there.