I mean, if you have super ripped big legs, why is it in a lot of cases a detriment to running? Seems like it would help you out if anything, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
I mean, if you have super ripped big legs, why is it in a lot of cases a detriment to running? Seems like it would help you out if anything, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
.
bc mass =fail in endurance running...ripped is not endurance; body builders can barley run a 400m and they are pretty ripped and strong..
there is an australian from the 80s (and I don't remember his name; I'm not that obsessed with running) who had relatively big legs and thought it meant he could handle more tough workouts. I believe you can also hold more glycogen if your legs are a bit bigger.
not a lot of people are the size of the kenyans and can generate that sort of power for extended periods of time. you'd think that you could rig something similar with a slightly different phenotype. but huge fast twitch legs wouldn't work; i think you need intermediate fibers. some expert would know more.
rob de castella
Muscle mass helps in anaerobic events (100m, shot put, etc) but not in endurance events because those bigger muscles require more oxygen, which is a primary limiting factor in endurance. More muscles also mean moving more weight, which limits performance.
You can be toned with well defined muscles and not have big muscles, though.
running involves moving your legs for long periods of time. bigger legs = more weight to move = you fatigue quicker than guy with same strength but smaller legs.
Teepeeformycooter wrote:
I mean, if you have super ripped big legs, why is it in a lot of cases a detriment to running? Seems like it would help you out if anything, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
The size of your legs is going to be correlated with the size of all your other body parts. Muscular legs come as a package deal with a muscular torso and upper body. For the extra power, you're adding a bunch of unproductive (at least in a running sense) weight.
If you could take a runner and jack up their legs while leaving the rest of their body unchanged, they might get faster (assuming the muscular imbalance didn't cause injuries). But that's not how the human body works.
David Epstein says in "The Sports Gene" that skinny legs are one key to the dominance of East African runners. Extra weight on the legs are like adding weights to the end of a pendulum. Rojo reviewed it here: http://www.letsrun.com/news-erik/2013/07/sports-gene-by-david-epstein-a-must-read-for-all-coaches/
because extra weight no matter what it is composed of means more oxygen cost at a given pace, having strength and power output is not solely determined by mass of muscle, the nervous system (research frequency code and population code for motor units) has a very large role especially in endurance running at an elite level which requires a lot of power and endurance at the same time
Proportions wrote:
The size of your legs is going to be correlated with the size of all your other body parts.
There are a lot of men that wish this was true.