Optimal muscle mass

[GJM]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...raft-training/

More muscle, more problems: How one metric could change NFL training


Basically, the body hits that five-to-one ratio, and after that it only adds fat, not muscle. Bigger doesn’t always mean better.

[Cheap Shot]

Interesting. This is worth learning more about.

[FNFAN]

Thanks for this. I think there is a healthy progression towards functional movement vs. bulk muscularity in the fitness world overall. Personally, I'd rather be have the sports abilities and physicality of an Aussie Footballer than an NFL player. The little I watch of NFL, I see lots of 'muffin tops.'

[JTQ]

The little I watch of NFL, I see lots of 'muffin tops.'

Lots of 300 lb'ers in the NFL, because they have to move other 300 lb'ers.

If you look at pictures of NFL linemen in the 1970's & 1980's, they were much trimmer.

I saw Joe Thomas, former Cleveland Brown offensive tackle, being interviewed about six to eight months post retirement. He had gone from 310 lbs-ish, to 250 lbs-ish. They asked him what the key to his weight loss was. He said "stop eating all day long". It was work for him to stay at 300 lbs, but it was a size he needed to be to maneuver those other large men.

I recall a USA Today article from many years back, before Jim Irsay was the Colt's owner, his father Robert owned the team at the time, and Jim was working out with the Colt's offensive linemen just to see what that was like. They were consuming 10,000 to 15,000 calories a day to maintain their football weight. He commented, without high density protein shakes, it would have been nearly impossible for them to consume that number of calories with regular food.

One NFL observation I often have is in the 1960's, Brown's running back Jim Brown was 6'2" and 230 lbs. His offensive linemen were in the 250 - 260 lb range. Today, the typical offensive lineman is probably in the 320 lb range, while most of the running backs (not counting Derek Henry) are under 215 lbs.

[FNFAN]

Lots of 300 lb'ers in the NFL, because they have to move other 300 lb'ers.

If you look at pictures of NFL linemen in the 1970's & 1980's, they were much trimmer.

I saw Joe Thomas, former Cleveland Brown offensive tackle, being interviewed about six to eight months post retirement. He had gone from 310 lbs-ish, to 250 lbs-ish. They asked him what the key to his weight loss was. He said "stop eating all day long". It was work for him to stay at 300 lbs, but it was a size he needed to be to maneuver those other large men.

I recall a USA Today article from many years back, before Jim Irsay was the Colt's owner, his father Robert owned the team at the time, and Jim was working out with the Colt's offensive linemen just to see what that was like. They were consuming 10,000 to 15,000 calories a day to maintain their football weight. He commented, without high density protein shakes, it would have been nearly impossible for them to consume that number of calories with regular food.

One NFL observation I often have is in the 1960's, Brown's running back Jim Brown was 6'2" and 230 lbs. His offensive linemen were in the 250 - 260 lb range. Today, the typical offensive lineman is probably in the 320 lb range, while most of the running backs (not counting Derek Henry) are under 215 lbs.

Yes, I watched football with my Dad back then and agree there’s a size difference. I guess the league would rather have gargantuan linemen. I’m sold on the AFL league and hope it continues to gain popularity in the U.S. Those are some real athletes!

[JHC]

Story in the OP is quite a read!

"One of their most important findings was that maximal didn’t necessarily mean optimal. Players with higher MBRs than their position’s normative range seemed to struggle more with soft-tissue injuries. “Nine times out of 10,” Wellman said, when he encounters a wide receiver with an MBR of 5.1 or higher, coaches tell him stories about how the player battled such injuries.

“Guys that are 4.8, 4.9, there’s not as many stories,” he said. He paused. “I’m not ready to sit here in front of you and say, ‘Yes, when you get to this ratio, you’re going to be injured.’ I don’t know if we’ll ever say that. But I will say there’s too many anecdotes to ignore. And if we ignore this, I think we’re making a mistake.”

[Maple Syrup Actual]

This reminds me of a piece I read years ago in which NHL players were put through the (IIRC) NFL combine, and NFL players through a series of NHL (tests the details of which I no longer remember.)

Every NHL player placed really well in the combine. No NFL player could perform at a remotely competitive level in the NHL tests.

Obviously that doesn't mean you could hire a bunch of NHL defensemen to be linebackers; presumably they would get killed out there being run over by 400lb gorillas etc and I don't dispute that NFL players are extremely fast and strong. But to me they appear to have radically exceeded a point of diminishing returns for any practical application outside of their sport. I would guess a lot of them could drop 50-100 lbs and be scary big and scary fast by any other standard, and that it would be MUCH more sustainable.

[45dotACP]

To say nothing of the health concerns of what you must do to get so big.

Pharmaceutically speaking, that is....

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[MVS]

To say nothing of the health concerns of what you must do to get so big.

Pharmaceutically speaking, that is....

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

Both of my younger brothers competed in Strongman contests. One still does. They used to try to compete at heavyweight and did OK but it was a constant struggle to eat enough to maintain the bodyweight when not using steroids. (Not that it is easy with them either.) After a while they gave up and went down a weight class.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4LcZgqqV_0g?feature=share

[Hizzie]

Makes sense to me. Everything has a maximum load tolerance.