# 100m sprinters upper body **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 7, 2012, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719 "2012-08-07T10:28:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jakemccoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jakemccoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakemccoy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/41 "2012-08-16T19:22:34Z")
Um, the sprinters aren’t really all that big in the upper body. However, you don’t have to buy that. You can just consider that Usain Bolt, the ultimate sprinter, is 6’5" and only 210 pounds. When you consider that he also has extremely low body fat, that means he is a freakin’ skinny dude! I’m 6’2" and 200 pounds, and many people say I look skinny and need to gain weight. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/42 "2012-08-16T22:51:05Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > It’s true that cortisol is always circulating in the human body, even while you sleep. But as any significant fuel source… I’m sorry, no. Aerobic exercise doesn’t stimulate any significant muscle breakdown, certainly not comparable to strength training, until you’ve been doing it for about an hour (depending on intensity). > > There are about a billion links out there on this subject, feel free to [read up.](http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/cortisol.html) And even then, your body will repair damaged muscle as long as you don’t [overwork it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining), which is how I have always heard it - otherwise, how would ANY exercise increase muscle strength/mass, and your link says that anaerobic exercise releases far more cortisol than aerobic exercise, hence a higher potential for muscle breakdown. Similarly, the article I linked to showed that muscle mass was only lost in the legs of ultra-marathoners; here is a more detailed description of what happened from one of the cites: > [@](#): > > Fat tissue was the first tissue to be affected by the ultra endurance run — particularly visceral fat, which is found deep in the body surrounding the organs and is considered most threatening to cardiovascular health. In fact, runners lost an average of 70% of their visceral fat within the first half of the race. > > Fat wasn’t all that the runners lost: the group also averaged 7% muscle volume loss in their legs. “One of the surprising things we found is that despite the daily running, the leg muscles of the athletes actually degenerated because of the immense energy consumption… Again, there were people running 2,800 miles in 64 days; I’m sure that a more typical runner (just doing it for daily exercise) wouldn’t see any muscle loss because their body would repair the damage, and even gain muscle if they started from none at all (e.g. couch to 5k program). The same is also said with respect to weightlifting - you need to rest to allow your muscles to recover. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/43 "2012-08-17T00:20:53Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Key word here “significant”. Key word here being “read the link.” Which you’re not going to do, so I’ll narrate it for you. > [@](#): > > When we exercise, regardless of whether it is strength training or aerobic exercise, cortisol is released in proportion to the intensity of the effort. _Thus, even when you strength train, cortisol is released, and far more so than compared to aerobic exercise!_ (italics mine) > [@](#): > > Alternatively, when aerobic exercise is performed for durations short enough to not critically lower muscle or liver glycogen (e.g. \< 45 min), then the exercise-induced cortisol release will most likely be irrelevant to muscle protein balance. Also, the theoretical metabolic effects of these increases in cortisol may be overcome by simultaneous increases in growth hormone, testosterone, and muscle specific somatomedins. The net result is the preservation of muscle mass. And finally: > [@](#): > > What Else Could Explain The Difficulty to Increase Muscle Mass When Aerobic Exercise Is Added To Resistance Training? > This is the crucial question that needs answering. The additional explanations are two-fold. First of all, aerobic exercise adds a caloric expenditure to your training that needs to be matched with proper fuel intake. If insufficient carbohydrate is being ingested, which many individuals who strength train may experience due to diets higher in protein and low in carbohydrate, then these situations are ripe for generating the low carbohydrate conditions conducive to the action of cortisol as a carbohydrate sparing, protein catabolizing hormone.\* The problem here is not the aerobic exercise, but the inadequate carbohydrate nutrition!\* (again, italics mine) So there you have it… you’ve been educated, there’s no more excuse for spreading fallacious gym rat mythology. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/44 "2012-08-17T00:48:26Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Key word here being “read the link.” Which you’re not going to do, so I’ll narrate it for you. > (italics mine) > > And finally: > (again, italics mine) > > So there you have it… you’ve been educated, there’s no more excuse for spreading fallacious gym rat mythology. I never made any sort of claim that it was impossible to build muscle while doing cardio. Please go back and read my posts. What I said was aerobic exercise always has _a degree_ of catabolism (muscle burning), or muscle tissue used for fuel; regardless of the stage in which the body is in as far as energy utilization. Even when glycogen levels are full, the body uses _a small amount_ of muscle for fuel sources. However, the glycogen is the _primary source._ When those stores are empty, the body moves to fat for that primary source. But muscle will still be _part_ of the total energy used. Just a small amount. That is until one has gone long enough (in excess of an hour) and the body then goes to muscle for it’s primary source. But for MOST cardio, this small amount of muscle being burned for energy is EASILY overcome by various means in order to become anabolic. Usually it just takes eating more. But my original point was that _marathon runners_, who chronically engage in this high-calorie burning exercise, can’t eat enough to “get out of that metabolic hole” and build muscle while continuing to run marathons. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/45 "2012-08-17T10:25:45Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > I never made any sort of claim that it was impossible to build muscle while doing cardio. Please go back and read my posts. What I said was aerobic exercise always has _a degree_ of catabolism (muscle burning), or muscle tissue used for fuel; regardless of the stage in which the body is in as far as energy utilization. Even when glycogen levels are full, the body uses _a small amount_ of muscle for fuel sources. And I’m saying that’s wrong, but I’ll reconsider if you can provide a link from a reputable source that says otherwise. The body defends muscle; it does not want to use any of it for fuel while glucose is available. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/46 "2012-08-17T18:18:30Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > And I’m saying that’s wrong, but I’ll reconsider if you can provide a link from a reputable source that says otherwise. The body defends muscle; it does not want to use any of it for fuel while glucose is available. [Ok, here.](http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Substrates.html) It clearly shows that even during bouts of aerobic exercise less than an hour, the percentage of fuel coming from muscle tissue is greater than zero (less than 2% but still _some_). Of course, this percentage increases as the time exceeds an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/47 "2012-08-17T19:20:21Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > People don’t need drug tests to come back positive to know someone is on drugs. Ever see/smell someone that was high from smoking pot? Don’t need a drug test. > > I’ve seen kids on coke, meth and pot… and everyone knew (without a drug test) but the parents, who were far from being objective about their own kids; they just never recognized what was really going on. People love celebs and athletes… and this taints their ability to be objective. > > Athletes on drugs are spotted daily by people who know the tell-tale signs of those drugs. Again, people who know what the drugs do can name the cycle, the drugs, etc. > > So, yeah… Bolt’s coach is a chemist… A Balko drug genius. Proves nothing. I know. > > . The problem with this sort of thinking is that it just isn’t true. I am a gym rat, I’m one of the bigger guys in there, and I see plenty of other big guys. I’ve seen some of them accused of using steroids; some of them do, and some of them don’t. For instance, there is one guy in the gym I see regularly who is more or less my size, give or take 5-10 lbs; he has said he uses steroids, I never have. Yet, to an outside observer, yet someone like you would think both of us do. The difference is, his natural size without it would be considerably thinner and he needs that to reach what I have naturally. Similarly, two of the biggest guys I’ve seen in there who probably got as many accusations as anyone else in there definitely didn’t use, but I’ve known a couple guys considerably smaller than me that did use and I never heard them accused of juicing. And none of us are world-class athletes, yet there is that much diversity there. When you get to world class athletes, you’re picking out of the very top of people naturally gifted among people who train to an enormous extent, where even a small can have a large affect on the outcome, where a Gold medal and no medal are separated by, at most, tenths of a second. That margin could be made up by PEDs, but even minor differences in genetic gift, training, or just plain feeling good that day. That’s not to say there aren’t PEDs, I’m sure at least some of them are, and the testing definitely isn’t rigorous enough to catch them all, but it’s ridiculous to say that you can just look at them and tell. Hell, take a clean Olympic athlete, even one that had no chance of medalling, so no one even thinks twice of accusing him of cheating, throw them in a typical gym around normal people and I guarantee you he’ll be accused of PEDs to a ridiculous extent. Sure, there’s other things to look at like, famously, seeing images of Barry Bonds over the course of his career, along with measurements of his hat size indicating his head was growing. But it’s not the same as looking at a kid and going “he’s high on pot/acid/ecstasy”, but you can’t just say someone has a big head and say he’s used HGH, some people just have big heads. That’s something that would need to be sussed out with careful measurements over time, rather than just a urine or blood test a couple times. ---
**Author:** ![jakemccoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jakemccoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakemccoy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/48 "2012-08-18T01:19:14Z")
The comparison to pot is completely irrelevant. The type of doping these athletes do is refined and monitored to the highest degree to increase their performance in the specific event. Heck, the comparison to doping for bodybuilders is not relevant either. Bodybuilders dope with the intent of increasing muscle mass on purpose. An Olympic athlete would dope with the intent of being 0.10 second faster in the 100 m for example, to fool the testers by using proper timing and peaking, and to keep muscle mass looking as normal as possible. With technology, all that is possible. The idea that doping automatically causes muscles and heads to swell is an ignorant notion. ---
**Author:** ![jakemccoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jakemccoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakemccoy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719/49 "2012-08-18T01:34:30Z")
The main incentive for an Olympic athlete NOT to dope is if the particular athlete values their personal integrity. Otherwise, the advantages are greatly in favor of doping. Let’s see. An athlete who dopes can potentially have the accolades that Usain Bolt gets and the life that naturally comes with those accolades. A downside is the athlete may get caught and may even spend some time in jail. As the chances of getting caught have gone down, the likelihood of the athlete doping has gone up. Perhaps the doping causes long term health problems, but what elite athlete wouldn’t trade long term health problems to be a living legend right now? On the flip side, if the athlete doesn’t dope, there may be no way even to be in the final with Usain Bolt. The athlete ends up being forgotten, retires, becomes an accountant, and can’t even get a job as a sports commentator. The burning desire to be center stage will be there for the rest of the athlete’s life, and the athlete will forever wonder what could have happened if he had utilized the services of that great chemist who hooked up other athletes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100m-sprinters-upper-body/630719.md?page=2)