Weight Vs. Performance

My pre-bedtime discussion this evening will focus on the topic of weight vs performance, more specifically, weight vs uphill performance. I was riding along with a visiting friend of mine today who is a competitive cyclist. He's about 21 and a very strong rider with some solid results. As is a common problem with young cyclists in America, he's never had a coach. As we rode, the topic turned to body weight and climbing in cycling races. He was talking about how he felt his strength was in the hills, and he tried to keep his weight down because he wants to continue to be able to excel there. This is a pretty common sentiment among cyclists, especially younger ones, and is a myth which I think sometimes pervades skiing as well, which is why I would like to address it.  

When going uphill, it is not a matter of WEIGHT, but USABLE weight. While carrying extra bodyfat up a hill isn't going to help you out any, carrying larger amounts of muscle up a hill is not going hurt. In fact, it often helps. 

Of course, the best climbers in cycling look like skeletons with skin.....

but there is a big difference between a race that requires more than 3 hours of climbing, like a mountain stage in the tour de france, and a ski race where the total time climbing MIGHT be a half an hour. 

The biggest problem I see with athletes who try control their weight, which was this young cyclists problem, is that they end up shorting themselves on recovery. If you are counting and cutting calories, your body does not have the protein to repair muscle damage, nor the carbohydrates necessary to refuel muscle. So you end up with a toss-up, do you gain weight, but weight that enables you to generate more force, OR, do you keep your weight down so you don't have to generate as much force? Well, it seemed to me like an easy question to answer, but like many cyclists, my young friend remained unconvinced. So I steered us towards a long climb, told him to keep up. At the top I sat and waited a few moments for my friend to catch up. When he made it up, I asked him how much he thought I weighed, and we determined that I outweighed him by about 50 pounds, him being about 5' 9" and 135lbs, and I being 6' 1" and 185 lbs. I asked him again what he thought was better, being more fit, or being more light? He seemed to have changed his mind.

As I said before, it is not about the WEIGHT, it is about USABLE weight. As my friend noticed, it doesn't matter if you weigh very little and don't have much to carry, you still have to be STRONG to climb a hill fast, whether that be on two wheels or two skis. It comes down not to weight, but the ratio of specific-strength to weight. 

So the take home message is don't worry about what you weigh, toss the scale, and focus instead on optimizing that ratio, trying to be as absolutely specifically strong as you can, and eating well to minimize body fat, and then just kick some ass! 

Until next time.