Putting Mass on the Athlete

Wow it has been a crazy few weeks and now I finally have some time to write.

Almost every call I get at the gym revolves around parents wanting their kids to improve sport performance - run faster, jump higher, ect. Along with that, I have a ton of adolescent boys who simply need to get bigger. They want to get bigger to get better at their sport (football, lacrosse, soccer, ect). Let's face it, they also want to get bigger because its cool to be "jacked up".

So do we just bodybuild the heck out of these kids with no regard for their sport performance? Uh no. The ultimate goal is to put mass on a kid AND have them get faster. It happens a lot with my clients who have never trained in a comprehensive system like ours. If you are skinny, weak and slow, there is a good chance you will get a lot faster by getting stronger.

But, what about the kids who are already fast for their position but need to get bigger? Now, I am not in the business of making kids slower, but what if their speed stays the same? This is when we consult the magic Force equation.

Force = Mass x Acceleration

Think about it like this


Who would you rather be in a collision with?

A 160 lb running back that runs a 4.7 40.

OR

A 190lb running back who runs a 4.7 40.

I think the answer is pretty obvious. Even though the number is the same on the stop watch, the amount of force the kid can produce now will pay major dividends on the field. Plus, size is one of the major things that college coaches look for when they are recruiting. A lot of kids are automatically excluded because they are too small.

So before spending your entire off-season running with a parachute on you, analyze if getting bigger will be an even more effective way of improving your performance.

In team sports, more times than not, BIGGER IS BETTER!