Athletes can be roughly categorized into three groups: strength athletes, endurance athletes, and skill athletes. Skill athletes are those who rely on more than just their physical attributes for success. They include boxers, basketball players, baseball players, and the like.
There is an old, discredited axiom in athletics which states that “skill” athletes (and endurance athletes) shouldn’t engage in strength training or weight lifting because it will make them muscle bound. Fortunately, this is just a ridiculous myth. Proper strength training doesn’t impair athletic performance, it enhances it.
What does it mean to be muscle bound?
NFL quarterback Brady Quinn is heavy muscled, yet highly skilled and extremely athletic.
Some old coaches – who were guilty of muscle bound hysteria – thought bulking up made an athlete slow, clumsy, and inflexible – that, in effect, the muscles restrained the inner athlete and hampered his performance.
While it’s true that rapid bulking can lead to flexibility problems, you can easily avoid them if you train sensibly. It’s for this reason that flexibility training is an important part of every weight-lifting program. There was no justification for the old-fashioned belief that weight training led to inflexibility.
Sometimes, these old coaches claimed that weight training turned graceful athletes into plodding klutzes. Again, this baseless theory can be completely overturned by a simple examination of the facts. All modern, elite athletes carry enough muscle mass to allow them to perform at world-class levels. Even tiny marathon runners have much more muscle mass as a percentage of total body weight than sedentary individuals. Muscle doesn’t detract from your skills; it makes you more effective at whatever you do.
The bottom line is: don’t worry about outdated theories. Stick to observable fact.