This is just something that has been playing on my mind because I'm not sure if I'm getting too heavy or not. I'm 5'8" and I weigh 140lbs. I put about 10 or so pounds of muscle mass on over the past year in my upper body.
So is there some sort of height to weight ratio that is seen as "ideal"? Or is the ideal body mass one that allows all of one's ribs to become visible?
u male or female? that makes a difference.
RiPE wrote:
u male or female? that makes a difference.
I'm a guy
If your goal is to run faster, drop the muscle...standard rule of thumb is 2 seconds per mile for every lb of unneeded weight...
When your nonrunner friends start getting on you about being too skinny, you are getting there. The lighter the better. Or to quote Mark Wetmore, "you should look like a skeleton with a condom pulled over its body." All of this of course w/o sacrificing health and energy.
I've calculated your BMI to be about 21.2.
Nick Symmonds has a BMI of 23.7
Solinsky has a BMI of 22.1
Asbel Kiprop, however, has a BMI of 17.5.
So as you can see, both heavy and light people are able to run fast, and there is no standard formula for an optimal weight. I would recommend that you try different weights and experiment to see what suits you best.
(BMI= body mass index, Weight(kg)/height(m)^2
Well I did try to get rid of my arm muscles during the last track season and felt like I lost a lot of power while running so I went back to the weights.
So I figured during track it's alright but is there any merit in trying to keep the muscle for the track stuff while dropping it for the longer stuff? (I prefer the mile on the track so I count 5k and up to be the longer stuff off the track)
Here is a pretty good site.
Some of this depends on the race you want to run. At a mile distance, you are fine. But if you want to go longer you will benefit from losing some weight. I am not sure that you have to give up the upper body strength to accomplish this. You need low weights, high reps and fast. That will provide you with the strength, but not the bulk from heavy lifting.
mwwwin wrote:
If your goal is to run faster, drop the muscle...standard rule of thumb is 2 seconds per mile for every lb of unneeded weight...
Right, but it's not necessarily easy to figure out what is "unneeded". Some people are clearly too heavy, but with others it's not obvious.
Think about how Jesus looked on the cross. If you have obliques like that you're good to go for middle distance. For longer distances, think Jesus minus ten pounds.
I knew I was fit when people would say " are you ok , you look so thin"
No diet , just hard consistent running will take care of the lbs.