Muscle was cool, at least it used to be. In the 70’s, you’d be hard pressed to find a young boy who wasn’t obsessively flipping through every muscle magazine reading about the workouts that built Arnold’s biceps or Tom Platez’s legs. These guys were bigger than you, cooler than you, and got all the girls. Why? Muscle of course. Sculpting ones appearance through the use of “cosmetic exercise” was officially now a thing, and everyone wanted to look like a superhero.
Whether you believe it or not, Bodybuilding is what popularized the idea of general fitness in the eyes of the public. Before guys like Arnold brought bodybuilding to the forefront in the 70’s (often referred to as the “Golden era”), personal trainers barely even existed, and were only available to high-level athelets and a very small percent of the population.
From the popular Nautilus equipment and HIT workouts that followed, all the way to the spandex wearing aerobic junkies and “yoked” movie stars, these “Golden Era” bodybuilders paved the way for it to happen. Like it or not.
Fast forward to now. With the rise of the “functional ” and “sports specific” training paradigms, the bodybuilding school of thought has unfortunately fallen to the wayside. We hear common misconceptions surrounding this type of training like:
“isolation and machine exercises are not functional”
“People with lots of muscle are uncoordinated”
“People with muscle are slow”
“People with muscle are inflexible”
Because terms like this have tarnished the reputation of bodybuilding in regards to performance oriented goals, and likewise almost ALL of the training methodologies which it employs, many people started looking for answers elsewhere. If people couldn’t out muscle the Bodybuilders, they had to find something else to make themselves feel good. Now, we have coaches teaching athelets single leg squats on half rubber balls, and other “exercises” that look more like a circus act than actual training. Where did we go wrong?
In their pursuit of pointless novelty, athelets and coaches alike have forgotten the most important aspect of training: To give athelets a solid structural foundation first and foremost. Then, and ONLY then can we start talking about methods aimed ramping up the performance capacity of that structure.
With that being said, lets examine WHY bodybuilding style training DOES have practical application for athelets by deconstructing two common misconceptions surrounding it.
Myth Number 1: Bodybuilding makes you slow
Lets get one thing straight. Very few people will ever be able to attain the amount of muscle mass that professional bodybuilders posses, Regardless of how good they eat, how many pills they pop, or anabolic agents they inject. Therefore, using an ACTUAL Bodybuilder to critique the effectiveness of high-volume training, isolation, or machine exercises (I.e bodybuilding style training) on sports performance makes absolutely no sense.
Now, lets ask ourselves: what is the prime driver of movement? MUSCLE. By improving the strength and even size of a given muscle, our POTENTIAL for powerful and efficient movement goes up. Just take a look at elite sprinters. The majority of them have a decent amount of muscle mass on the gluteus, hamstrings, quads, and calves. Hell, even sprinting itself can add some muscle to your legs. Studies have also shown a high correlation between added muscle mass and improved pitching velocity.
When it comes to muscle, one thing is for certain: a bigger muscle has the potential to be a stronger muscle, and a stronger muscle has the potential to be a faster or more powerful muscle. Therefore, bodybuilding modalities and training parameters DO in fact have their place in a broad training program. Does this mean that we should ONLY focus on muscle size, or that we need to get “big and bulky” to reap the benefits? Of course not. However, labeling this training paradigm as “non functional” is a mistake. Athelets take steroids for one main reason: to take advantage of the force generating capacity that a BIGGER muscle provides. Sure there are androgenic effects and improved recovery capacity, but lets not forget about how heavily muscled many of these athelets are. If muscle did not improved performance, then athelets would not take steroids. Regardless of the sport, we find athelets all across the board that are heavily muscled, and it sure isn’t slowing them down one bit.
Whenever the body experiences a localized (one muscle) or global (multiple muscles) increase in muscle mass, the nervous system knows exactly what to do with it. Whenever an athlete has a weak or lagging muscle here at Fowler Fitness, we ISOLATE IT! Yes, this means that we often perform “Bodybuilding style” single-joint exercises like curls, hamstring curls, tricep extensions, and lateral raises. By bringing up these weak links, we can improve the overall function and capacity of the movement chain as a whole. For example, lets say that I am a sprinter. My hamstrings, quads and calves are strong, but my gluteus are lacking in size and strength, thus holding back my performance. Instead of foolishly choosing “functional” exercises like the squat which would likely overwork my already dominant hamstrings and quads, my best option would be to ISOLATE the gluteus instead. Remember,”isolate to integrate”. In fact, so called “functional” exercises may actually reinforce compensatory movement patterns if proper measures are not taken to specifically target weak muscles FIRST.
Myth Number 2: Bodybuilding makes you “muscle-bound”
Put simply, muscle SIZE has nothing to do with flexibility. In fact, strength training (performed correctly), has been shown to be a powerful stimulus for actually IMPROVING range of motion and tissue extensibility, in addition to decreasing the chance of injuriey, especially in hypermobile positions. On the flip side, weighted stretching (think about the bottom of a chest fly or a dip), has also been shown to benefit muscle hypertrophy and size through the occlusion effect, reactive hyperemia, and optimal muscle fiber recruitment. Yes, you read that correctly. You can build muscle and not have to worry about losing mobility. This is very evident when we examine male gymnasts who exhibit large amounts of muscle mass and extreme flexibility.
In fact, a larger muscle actually has MORE potential for mobility. We know that muscle sarcomeres are important for tissue extensibility, and a loss of muscle (muscle atrophy) actually decreases tissue extensibility, movement capacity and function via loss of these sarcomeres. If the the idea of being “muscle-bound” were true (I.e muscle being the ACTUAL cause for a decrease in mobility), then everyone that had less muscle would be more mobile, and that’s simply not what we find. If you still think muscle “immobilizes” you, simply watch the video bellow. Instead of blaming muscle as the culprit, we need to start looking elsewhere for the source of our dysfunctional movements patters and lack of mobility.
Other benefits
In addition to everything mentioned above, a bodybuilding approach to training also has a few other benefits:
- Injury prevention: While we’ve already talked about bodybuilding and its ability to prevent soft tissue and muscle injuries through improved mobility, tissue resiliency, and the correction of muscle imbalances, there’s one more thing we forgot: force displacement. We know from physics that a larger surface area will dissipate impact forces much better than a smaller surface area. In contact sports like football and MMA, think of muscle as body armor that protects internal organs, bones, and other important structures from blows and hits. The more you have, the better you are able to dissipate these powerful impact forces, and the less likely you are to get injured.
- Improved capillary density: Capillaries are an important component in the circulatory system, that feed oxygen to cells. More capillaries available/improved capillary efficiency = more ATP to muscle cells. More ATP = better muscle performance, it’s as simple as that. By improving the density and multitude of these capillaries through bodybuilding oriented “pump” training, we can effectively supply nutrients to working muscles while simultaneously removing fatigue byproduct such as lactic acid. That equals better performance on the field, and improved recovery capacity! Remember, cardiac output is composed of two things: Stroke volume + Heart rate . Whenever we engage in intense exercise in the higher rep ranges (10 + reps), the heart must work hard to supply working muscles with enough blood. Unlike typical aerobic exercise like jogging, this jacks up BOTH the heart rate (how fast the heart is beating) AND the stroke volume (how much blood is being pumped with each actual beat). If you want the perfect recipe for improved cardiorespiratory efficiency and heart health, look no further than this.
Sample Bodybuilding Program For Athelets
Here is a sample bodybuilding style program using some of the principles mentioned above. This type of program would fall into the early prep phase of our sports performance programming model. NOTE: We’d probably only perform this type of training for 1-2 months depending on the goals of the athlete. This is not a long term training model, as strength and performance also needs to be addressed in the following phases.
For each exercise, you will perform 3 sets of 10 with approximately 65-70% of your one rep max. Each week, you will alternate between
1) Improving the density of the workout. Here you’ll want to time yourself, and then try to beat that time (complete the workout faster).
2) Add reps. Once you can hit 3 sets of 15 on all exercises, add 5-10lbs and start over at 3 sets of 10.
Again, these will be cycled weekly. So on week 1, you’ll want to record times for all the workouts. On week 2, attempt to add reps to each set. Week 3, attempt to beat week 1’s time. Week 4, attempt more reps than you did on week 2. By effectively cycling density and training volume using this pendulum periodization approach, we can accomplish multiple goals at once without the risk of overtraining.
Athelets should rest 1-2 days (depending on recovery capabilities) between training sessions.
Day 1: Full body
A1) Box squat
A2) Bench press or push-up
A3) Horizontal pull variation
+ 15-20min isolation or weak point training. Include 1 weighted stretch movement
DAY 2: Full Body
A1) Sled or prowler push
A2) Weighted or bodyweight dip
A3) Vertical pull variation
+ 15-20min isolation or weak point training. Include 1 weighted stretch movement
DAY 3: Full body
A1) Posterior dominant deadlift variation
A2) Standing overhead press
A3) Horizontal pull variation
+15-20min isolation or weak point training. Include 1 weighted stretch movement
With this set up, we combine a moderate volume of work with a high-frequency training approach. For athelets who can only train 3x a week, this approach is ideal because it combines the perfect amount of attainable volume. Since we will be working the ENTIRE body 3x a week, it’s important to not go overboard. Athelets may want to consider using specialty bars like the safety squat bar, football bar, cambered bar ect to avoid pattern overload.
Because each workout is done in a circuit fashion, it will assist athelets in regaining any lost work capacity over the season, while simultaneously shedding body fat and gaining lean mass.
The Final Verdict
While being as big as Ronny Coleman might not be beneficial or necessary, being scrawny as hell isn’t either. Regardless of what you’ve been told in the past by CrossFitters or “functional” gurus and geeks, Bodybuilding has a wide variety of training application for EVERYONE. While there are many other equally important elements of training that go into improving on field performance, we can’t forget about this valuable training methodology. Put your notions aside and give it a shot!