Possible reason for the Small legs/Large Upperbody phenom

[Hustler_dt]

Although my legs are starting to catch up to my upper body they are still the weak point of my physique. I believe that this is attributed to the way that they were trained during my high school/college athletic career.

I have been lifting for about 8-10 years and was involved in high school/college athletics for all but the last 2. The difference in training is that your upper body is trained for size and strength in the weight room. Your lower body is also trained like that in the weight room but when you go out to athletic practice (usually 3+ hours) you are doing an large endurance workout. In my case i believe that this accounts for the difference in my muscle size.

Also, the muscles are still very strong (if not stronger) but just dont have the size that the muscles that arent affected by this endurance work have. Since I have stopped with daily athletic practices I have seen a noticable difference in leg growth.

BTW......I am not saying that this is a bad phenom by any means. I'd love to see a bodybuilder run a mile in less than 5 minutes or a 10.9 sec 100. Athletic ability is just as important as muscle size in my book.

 

[Hustler_dt]

I know that many people neglect their legs in training. I wonder how many are just endurance trained......

By the way.....you do have a certain amount of muscle fibers which can be trained as BOTH fast twitch and slow twitch. I believe that they can be converted back and forth depending on training style.

 

[jc21]

very good point. most athletes train their legs with very fast movements and without good form. which will give good speed and strength, but poor development. unless of course they have excellent genetics. look at pro football players...excellent upper body development....while having not very much development in their legs.

 

[sjhaxp]

i personally think it's all about how some people train. heavy weights and forced reps are done with upper body movements, but i don't see many training partners spotting during squats or leg presses. my .02 cents.

 

[Diesil]

Look if your going to do any endurance running it is going to keep your legs slender. Me i really don't care about running a mile that is what a car is for. Sorry man but im a bodybuilder. You are on your legs all the time so in order to get your legs to grow you have to train the hell out of them and most people don't want to do that. I tend to feel like shit every time i train legs but i do it to get them to grow. Like the saying "Shut up and Squat"

 

[SilverY2KGT]

So fast/explosive movements would be more beneficial towards athletes wishing to improve 40 times? Rather then muscle mass.

 

[mike1107]

some guys are just too lazy to work them as heavy as they do for chests....