MYTH: Lifting Weights Makes You Slower

The myth! Lifting weights and building muscle makes you slow, there has been a massive misconception on the idea that lifting weights and building muscle makes you slower. While some aspects of it certainly do prove true, there are many reasons as to why lifting weights and building muscle does not make you slower and how it could actually have the opposite effect. Majority implications we compare sporting athletes with physique competitors such as bodybuilders who purely aim to build up muscular hypertrophy rather than performance. In this article we explain why building muscle and lifting heavy actually can make you faster.

Muscle Fibers

First off, we need to understand a little bit of physiology to get things rolling. We have two muscle types, Type I muscle fibers which are slow twitch and then we have Type II muscle fibers which are fast twitch. The Type II fibers are split into two categories with Type IIa and Type IIb. Type I fibers are predominantly slow and low intensity fibers which are involved and highly developed in athletes who perform exercise at long distances or durations. Athletes such as marathon runners or tri athletes are going to comprise predominantly of Type I fibers as it is the most efficient way for them to perform and cope with the aerobic demand of their sport. Type II fibers however are your anaerobic fibers which are involved in high bursts of energy for intramuscular contractions. These are your sprints, jumps, throws or lifting maximal weight. If you compare the athletes within the picture at the top, you can see which fibers they are leaning towards more depending on their sport. 

Specificity

This is where the line segregates the type of lifting to the type of muscle fiber being developed. If you lift slow, you will ultimately be slow and if you lift fast, you will be fast. While there are some sports that demand you to have both a mixture of Type I and Type II fibers, we need to look at how lifting weights and building the appropriate muscle composition can increase or decrease speed. For example, if you play Rugby and require the aerobic demand to last an 80 minute game but also the demand to be able to sprint and tackle a bigger opponent, your training is going to be specific at building both muscle fiber types to enhance performance on the field. For a MMA fighter, this is similar as they require the explosiveness for takedowns or knock outs whilst being able to last the duration of their fight especially at a pro level which can last up to 25 minutes. This is the exact reason why bodybuilders are not the best speed athletes in the world as their main objective is to build muscle. The specificity of the sport does not require them to build specific Type II muscle fibers or lift extremely fast but to enhance overall muscular size which could be a combination of Type I and Type II fibers. A sprinter however performing weight training will be doing so with the goal of improving velocity and force output with each rep. 

Force x Velocity curve

While what we said above this was about lifting fast, there is also an aspect to lifting heavy to improve the force aspect in the force x velocity curve as both ends are crucial to improving overall speed. If you constantly lift heavy which is done at lower velocities, again you will only be accustomed to that. Strength allows for a higher output of force which is crucial to be able to exert maximal power frequently. Understanding what your goal is and the overall outcome of your training will help determine whether or not you should be lifting heavier or lighter to improve your speed. 

Lifting Weights Fast Makes You Fast

To finalise this article, you are basically how you train similarly to you are what you eat. If you lift weights or move external load fast, you are training to be faster and if you do it slow then you are teaching yourself to be slower. Understanding and evaluating your needs versus your wants is crucial to optimize your performance to build a solid functional foundation. 

We hope this article helps debunk the myth of lifting weights making you slower. Tune in for our next week for our next article!

Peace out Movement Fam!

Coach Matty