Trojans44 wrote:Aden wrote:If you try and stay in fighting shape all year round, you'll never come close to your potential and you'll be far more susceptible to injuries. Plenty of NFL and NBA guys get fat in the off-season and cyclists like Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Jan Ulrich would tip-up at the start of a training block looking obese. We live in a culture where image is sold as everything, but that doesn't mean image actually is everything. Fighters boxing twice a year should peak on two days each year.
Sorry but that's just not true. The NFL is the most competitive league in sports. Even excellent players often only get 5 years in the league before their replaced and can't get back in. Any player coming in out of shape would be cut immediately.
The idea its better for your body to be out of shape at any time is plain daft. Why is your body less susceptible to injury if your fat?
I didn't say they came in out of shape, I said they came in fat. Being fat, up to a certain point that shifts on a case by case basis, can be a good thing for sportsmen depending on where they are in their particular training cycle, particularly if they don't use PEDS but even if they do there's arguments for, again case by case. body by body. If a guy is going through a strength training cycle (as I know Fury has incidentally) carrying that extra bodyfat increases hormone production, boosts energy, helps the body absorb vitamins, and protects the joints. It also aids leverage enabling the sportsman to lift heavier weights with a reduced chance of sustaining injury.
Laymen have a concept of 'in shape' that has been sold to them. Sportsmen either know, or are manoeuvred, to periodise their training and don't, or shouldn't, attempt to maintain a competitive peak year round. As I said earlier, the consequence of that is always underachievement. Not all coaches and athletes get the balance about right.
Re: NFL, guys turning up to training camp very heavy still happens but not to the degree it did 10 or a dozen years back, for a number of reasons, including commercial ones, more players have been arriving lean. Studies are now being done to find out why injury rates in the league are rising despite the fact contact has been lessened by rule changes. I'm confident that one of their findings will be that a lot of guys are turning up to pre-season at peak fitness levels (not match fitness), they are then losing significant amounts of muscle mass and bodyweight during camp and starting the season overcooked, hence the injuries and the under-performance. We'll see.
