Jacked / Built distance runners of the past

sky wrote:

Armstronglivs wrote:

How could anyone leave out Snell?

Snell was middle-distance.

Distance means 5000m and up.

Not to Lydiard. Il take his view over Letsrun.

snell hooks wrote:

Armstronglivs wrote:

How could anyone leave out Snell?

Hardly a distance runner but you're also avoiding the issue that the only way an athlete can run high volume while maintaining the mass Snell did is with drugs.

Too obvious. Try again.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Protein_etc wrote:

How was it that guys like Pre and Rod Dixon were able to train like distance runners and still look strong? Did they not run high mileage? Were there daily lives significantly more grueling than the pros of today, necessitating a more physical lifestyle?

Do I just gotta eat more BEEF? (Currently running over 100mpw)

None of the guys you mention are jacked. Solinsky....the patron saint of jacked runners....is not jacked.

You are confusing leanness with being jacked. Due to genetics and diet a skinny runner could look very lean, thus having the appearance of larger muscles.

They are all normal skinny runners. Some, again due to genetics, may have slightly larger arms/shoulders OR again have the appearance of larger arms/shoulders.

When standing next to anyone who is actually jacked they would all, again, look like normal skinny runners.

Alan

It's a fact that Solinsky was one of the tallest and heaviest elite distance runners of all-time. He was 6'1" and 165 lbs (185cm 75kg). He was the one guy looking like a monster on a track race, that could solo beat up 10 of his competitors in a real fight. Others were just skinny sticks compared to him. Even at his best race weight, when he got the sub 27 10k, he still had 157 lbs (71 kg).

In BMI terms, he had 21.9 (most years) to 20.7 (lowest ever). Sure it's lower than a sprinter (~23 BMI optimum) and a human optimizing physique for looks (~24 BMI), but for a long-distance runner it was extremely high.

There are other runners with similar height - Jaeger, Tegenkamp, Tergat (for a Kenyan), Culpepper but they were all around 17-19 BMI.

LOL at the word "jacked" in the header

Rod Dixon is the greatest porn name of all time.

It really all boils down to genetics. If Solinsky wanted to, he could have been a yoked 195-200 had he turned to the weight room primarily. Just look at his frame. He just had a huge aerobic engine to go along with his frame. He resembled more of a Wide Receiver.

Doesn't surprise me one bit that he did a lot of body weight exercises, as contrary to what many believe here, with the amount of running volume, if your diet is dialed in, developing some decent lean muscle mass doesn't take all of too much volume, and noooo you won't bulk up.

Problem is, too many are afraid of some push and pull ups.

Armstronglivs wrote:

sky wrote:

Snell was middle-distance.

Distance means 5000m and up.

Not to Lydiard. Il take his view over Letsrun.

Lydiard is dead and besides individual single views don't matter.

Jeff Atkinson was tall and yoked.

I can assure you... high rep situps and pushups will not aid in looking like these two individuals. They are both classic mesomoprhs, also while being tall. They are pretty close to what they would look like untrained

there is no such thing as just having big arms and shoulders. these two were proportional. they just happen to have a bigger build and are taller

Rob de Castella (Australian marathon champion runner from the 80s - he won Boston in 2.07 in 1986).

This guy is /was very big boned and muscular, naturally. I saw him run at the tail end of his career - he's naturally much larger than most distance runners:

https://www.runnerstribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dee3-1024x628.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Castella

jonnyjinlondon wrote:

Rob de Castella (Australian marathon champion runner from the 80s - he won Boston in 2.07 in 1986).

This guy is /was very big boned and muscular, naturally. I saw him run at the tail end of his career - he's naturally much larger than most distance runners:

https://www.runnerstribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dee3-1024x628.jpghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Castella

I was 6-2 and 142 when I met and ran with Deek. He was tiny compared to me.

Zatopek was fairly jacked as you can see here:

https://imgur.com/gallery/T5g3tNw

jonnyjinlondon wrote:

Rob de Castella (Australian marathon champion runner from the 80s - he won Boston in 2.07 in 1986).

This guy is /was very big boned and muscular, naturally. I saw him run at the tail end of his career - he's naturally much larger than most distance runners:

https://www.runnerstribe.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dee3-1024x628.jpghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Castella

Only his legs. After NYC in '86 he was shirtless in the press tent and he looked like a death camp prisoner.

I am 25 pounds heavier at the same height and just barely start looking a bit large for running.

Bolotnikov was quite muscular as well. He looked more like a boxer. None of the guys mentioned so far really have that feature.

Paul McMullen. Former football player who came to running late. Ran 3:33 (3:50 mile) in the 1990s. He started out jacked, but slimmed down a lot during his running days.

WaitUntilYouHoist wrote:

I lift 4-5 times a week and have done so for years. I also run 20-25 mpw. If you lift heavy weight, you might be able to emulate a Prefontaine, Goucher, or Solinsky build, but you’ll look small to anyone who lifts. Keeping weight on past 30 mpw is a big challenge.

Lifting heavy increases muscular strength but the muscles don't get as large as when you do many high rep sets at lower weights.

Um, yea, the sit ups and push-ups gave him enough CORE strength to run 100 mile weeks at a fast pace. That sentence makes me laugh, all that damn running when all it takes is sit-ups and push ups.