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Do you want to be a Popeye kind of guy or a lean and mean endurance machine?
Do you exercise for the look or the feel? What is the best body, and which
sport gets you there?
“I think body image is one of the key reasons that people get into
exercise—they want to change something about themselves,” says sports
nutritionist and triathlete coach Bob Seebohar. “The emphasis for body
change is often on losing body fat, and too often, to extreme levels. If you go
by science the best body is a balance between a healthy amount of body fat
and a healthy amount of muscle.”
Athletes are often overconcerned with the “showy” muscles, those in popular
public demand. “Nobody says, ‘Wow, what a great set of spinal erectors you
have,’” said Harvey Newton, executive director of the National Strength and
Conditioning Association. “A lot of that is being driven by public perception
and marketers.”
But recent media attention is shifting away from runway models and the Arnold
Schwarzeneggers of the world and towards a more naturally fit image. The women
of the USA World Cup team are splashed on magazine covers everywhere. The heroin
chic fades. Enter stage right: an athlete who trains for performance and looks
good as a result.
“Definition defines the best body. For a man I like that inverted triangle
look with somewhat natural definition,” says an Expert.
Most popular endurance sports won’t help you achieve this perfect body alone. The benefits and shortcomings
of sports like running, cycling, and swimming are obvious, and unless you
combine complementary activities, your shortcomings will be obvious too.”
Cycling concentrates on your quads and your glutes, and your upper body only
when you climb out of the saddle or handle intense terrain on a mountain
bike. Picture a redwood tree trunk growing straight into sapling branches.
Runners work their hamstrings, quads and calves, but are typically lean and
receive miniscule upper body benefits. Picture sapling branches. Unless you
hike with a heavy pack on steep terrain, walking develops your body much the
same as running.
Swimmers develop great upper body physique, and tend to hold slightly more body
fat because it keeps them warm and buoyant. But, unless you do consistent
kicking drills, your legs will thin in comparison to your lats, chest, and
arms. You get the lower body development from cycling and running, balanced by the upper
body strength associated with swimming. This concept is the prescription for
building the best body: Cross train.
Expert advocates swimming complemented by running or cycling, depending on
whether you want to build efficiency or mass. Most people don’t have time to
excel at three sports, and two are enough to achieve great gains, she says. One
of the key components of cross training is to be able to balance out the deficiencies
in specific sports.
“The solution is to pick the sport you really like to do, find out what it doesn’t
develop, and supplement that with weight training or another sport,” says Expert.
“If you like to run, you’re going to run a lot. If you hate to swim, you’re not
going to do it.”
And if building muscle mass, bulk and explosive power is what you’re after, then
endurance sports probably won’t get you there at all, expert adds. Cycling and
running will improve definition and shed fat, but your muscles won’t grow much.
You’ll be better off weight lifting.
In the end it’s about individual goals and realism. Everyone can get fit and be
healthy, and when it comes to fitness goals, don’t let anyone hold you back.
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