February 09, 2007
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Corbis
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What's the best way to build muscle yet retain speed?
— Mick
Denver, Colorado
 Well here's a wide open question... My question in return would be: "Speed for what?" However, since I don't have the answer to my question, let's talk about building muscle and retaining your cycling or running speed.
Having muscle isn't necessarily detrimental to your speed (just look at elite sprinters), as long as you focus on maintaining full range of motion in your hips, knees, and core. On flat ground, speed is more a function of range of motion and leg turnover than it is a matter of how much weight you're carrying.
Do you have a question of your own?
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This changes, of course, when you start going uphill. Then you're fighting gravity, and the added weight will cut into your running or riding speed. If weight-training and building muscle causes your hamstrings to get tighter and keeps you from fully extending your leg or producing all the power you can, then the added muscle will slow you down on any terrain. However, with proper attention to flexibility and hydration, you can retain your range of motion as you build muscle and not lose a step in terms of speed.
Adding lean muscle mass can actually increase your speed—again, look at 100-meter-dash sprinters in running. Their muscular legs, torso, and shoulders are all involved in making them super-speedy, and to a lesser extent some additional muscle throughout the body can help endurance athletes maintain faster paces in long events.
There is, however, a point at which adding muscle yields diminishing returns as far as speed goes. Mass plus strength doesn't always equal increased speed. In order for the equation to work, you have to address the neuromuscular adaptations that allow you to activate all the muscle you have, and activate the muscle you gain. Neuromuscular exercises are often high-turnover workouts, like pedaling very fast in a light gear or running short intervals at a very fast leg turnover rate. These exercises have to be sport-specific to be effective as well.
Now, there is another way to look at your question. The effort and time of training to build muscle takes away from the time and capacity you have to train for speed. It's very difficult to have an effective speed workout the same day—or the day after—you complete a weight training workout strenuous enough to cause muscle growth. You may be able to get around this by grouping your training—a two-day weight training block, a day of rest, a three-day speed training block, and another day of rest.
Chris Carmichael
Founder, CEO, and president of Carmichael Training Systems, Chris Carmichael is the personal coach to seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. In 2004 he was awareded the USA Cycling Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in May 2003. He's been honored as the United States Olympic Committee's Coach of the Year and athletes under his tutelage have won 33 Olympic, World Championships, and Pan American Games. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller "Chris Carmichael's Food For Fitness: Eat Right to Train Right" and "The Ultimate Ride," and co-author of "The Lance Armstrong Performance Program," with Lance Armstrong. Carmichael coaches a host of elite athletes including Discovery Channel rider and four-time Olympian George Hincapie and World Record Swimmer Ed Moses.
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