If you were to stand Muhammad Ali and Simone Biles next to each other, you’d think they had nothing in common. The first was a heavyweight boxer standing at 6’3″. The second is a gymnast of just 4’8″. Yet both changed the face of their respective sports.
When it comes to sports performance, there are factors you can control and factors you can’t, and body type rests somewhere in the middle. You can’t do much about your height, and your weight can fluctuate based on a dozen different factors. How exactly you try to control your size, mass and body fat will depend on your sport.
It’s not just about your weight, but the distribution of muscle and fat. Boxers are divided by weight class, as are martial artists, wrestlers and weightlifters. In all of these sports, strength is associated with power and can lead to success in competition. You may try to bulk up your muscles, but not so much that you cannot stay within the right weight division.
Gymnasts, on the other hand, will want to keep their weight, particularly their body fat, as low as possible. Performing gymnastic feats means overcoming your own mass so you can execute aerial maneuvers. Excess fat can also block flexibility. That’s why you see so many dainty-looking teenage girls in the gymnastics arena. They have a lot of power compressed into a small space.
Endurance athletes like those involved in long-distance running also try to keep their body fat low. They like to be as lean as possible. You don’t want to be carrying anything you don’t need when you might be going for hours. The focus is on being fast and agile while minimizing the strain on your heart, lungs and muscles.
In sports where stability is important, it can be useful to increase overall body mass, even when that involves increasing fat. Take football linemen, for example. They don’t have to run as much as their teammates, but they do need to be ready to protect the players who do move. There’s power in their inertia.
Some people are naturally suited to certain sports. If you’re particularly tall, your chances of being asked to join the basketball team are high. Once you start to play, however, part of your training plan should be focused on maintaining the best body type.
