Did MK Gain Weight or Strong?
- Thread starter mzheng
- Start date
Mathman,
Rgirl will do a better job with this, but I'll give it a shot. From my experience, it isn't realistic to maintain peak shape throughout the year. It'd be nice, but I am not aware of any athlete that does - although, I'm sure that doesn't mean much. Lance Armstrong could possibly be one of the most dilligent athletes out there, and, while he never completely stops riding his bike, he does cut back considerably on his workload during the off season. For me, a week during my most intense training takes about 22 hours and includes a 100+ mile bike ride on Saturday and 20+ mile run on Sunday. Not only does taking a break let my body recover from the damage incurred during that type of training - muscle and other soft tissue damage - but it allows me to mentally take a break. As much as I love it, it's nice to wake up on Saturday and not think about being on my bike for 5 or 6 hours. While fitness is lost during the time of lesser training, the body is stronger after a period of rest/rehab. and gets back to where it was before faster. So, it seems to me that Michelle's approach is smart. She knows where she needs to be and when. Her relative lack of injuries during her career (knocking on wood right now) indicates that she is being good to her body.
Disclaimer: I'm a finance chick by training and have no sports medicine background. All I can speak from is my experience and stuff I've read. Also, I have no idea if my experience can be related to figure skating at all
Rgirl will do a better job with this, but I'll give it a shot. From my experience, it isn't realistic to maintain peak shape throughout the year. It'd be nice, but I am not aware of any athlete that does - although, I'm sure that doesn't mean much. Lance Armstrong could possibly be one of the most dilligent athletes out there, and, while he never completely stops riding his bike, he does cut back considerably on his workload during the off season. For me, a week during my most intense training takes about 22 hours and includes a 100+ mile bike ride on Saturday and 20+ mile run on Sunday. Not only does taking a break let my body recover from the damage incurred during that type of training - muscle and other soft tissue damage - but it allows me to mentally take a break. As much as I love it, it's nice to wake up on Saturday and not think about being on my bike for 5 or 6 hours. While fitness is lost during the time of lesser training, the body is stronger after a period of rest/rehab. and gets back to where it was before faster. So, it seems to me that Michelle's approach is smart. She knows where she needs to be and when. Her relative lack of injuries during her career (knocking on wood right now) indicates that she is being good to her body.
Disclaimer: I'm a finance chick by training and have no sports medicine background. All I can speak from is my experience and stuff I've read. Also, I have no idea if my experience can be related to figure skating at all
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Mistyeyed, 
Tharrtel, thanks for that perspective. That was an interesting take.
"Police used pepper spray on fans who tried to tear down the gols posts. Many in the crowd of 56,319 stormed the field, but state police and dozens of yellow-shirted security personnel surrounded the gols posts and kept fans at bay.
"It wasn't immediately known whether anyone was arrested or hurt. More than an hour after the game, fire officials reported four fires on nearby Grant Avenue, inclkuding two large bonfires."
Rock on, Mountaineers!
Mathman
Tharrtel, thanks for that perspective. That was an interesting take.
Here's the write-up from the Detroit morning paper
"Police used pepper spray on fans who tried to tear down the gols posts. Many in the crowd of 56,319 stormed the field, but state police and dozens of yellow-shirted security personnel surrounded the gols posts and kept fans at bay.
"It wasn't immediately known whether anyone was arrested or hurt. More than an hour after the game, fire officials reported four fires on nearby Grant Avenue, inclkuding two large bonfires."
Rock on, Mountaineers!
Mathman
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2003
I thought Michelle looked perhaps the prettiest she has ever looked. As far as whether or not she has gained weight. She was perhaps her thinnest at the 2002 Olympics and we know how she performed there. As I recall there was a rumor going around that all she ate on that day was some lettuce and Diet Coke. I thought she looked rather emmaciated then.
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
How sad if that is true. She did look too skinny at that time. Probably a combination of hard training and her stressful situation.Eeyora said:
I also wonder if she was think if a little is good, a lot is better. She had put on some weight in 2000/2001, but got down to her 'fighting weight' by Worlds 2001, and she won. She didn't seem to have gained weight between Worlds and the 2001/2002 season, but I wonder if in her Oly prep. she remembered the benefits of weight loss and tried again. Too much definitely is not a good thing. All random speculation, of course.
Tharrtell, you said exactly what I would have said only much more succinctly
The concept of needing rest so the body can recover applies to every sport or activity, especially those involving competition, whether it's figure skating or chess.
Yes, a woman can be 10% body fat, although even the leanest female athletes tend to be in the 11-13% range. However you do find women athletes way out on the fourth and fifth standard deviation who are 2-3% body fat. When I was getting my master's, the Univeristy of Utah NCAA women's gymnastics team was a dynasty. The team's top gymnast measured less than 2% body fat. When it's that low, genetics is the main factor.
Getting weighed underwater is generally the most accurate way to assess percent body fat, but the administrators of the test have to know what they're doing. Ideally you should be weighed three times and take the average of the two scores with the least variability, but those traveling body fat shows won't do that. Yeah, doing one of those traveling deals would be of interest. I don't know what your schedule is like, but if you're really interested in getting some measurements, contact some of the colleges and universities in the area and see if they have an exercise physiology program, especially a graduate program, and see if they need volunteers for studies. They usually use students but if you tell them you're a triathlete, they might be interested. Probably best to contact a professor working in an area you're interested in rather than a secretary. You never know. Finally, measuring percent body fat is still an estimation at best. The equations used were developed on average caucasion males and females and the biggest variable is bone density. Especially in certain African American male athletes, like pro football players, you can get a negative percent body fat, which of course is impossible. That's because bone density in African Americans tends to be greater anyway and in AAs who compete professionally in high impact sports that also involve a lot of weight training, their bones are super dense, which makes the equations inaccurate. Percent body fat is best used to see trends in an athlete's body composition, that is, to see if the diet and training methods are maintaining or lowering the percent body fat over time. A one-time test can be off by as much as 5-7% either way, depending on the test used and the skill of the testers.
Mathman, yes we do need body fat. Without a certain amount of body fat we cannot synthesize certain hormones and vitamins necessary for life and reproductive health, plus certain tissues need fat, like nerve tissue. It is especially detrimental to women to have too little body fat, but it is not good for men either. Before food was overly abundant for most people in countries like the US, obviously we needed fat stores to survive times of famine. But just physiologically and metabolically, humans need body fat. Most of us just don't need so much of it
Rgirl
The concept of needing rest so the body can recover applies to every sport or activity, especially those involving competition, whether it's figure skating or chess.Yes, a woman can be 10% body fat, although even the leanest female athletes tend to be in the 11-13% range. However you do find women athletes way out on the fourth and fifth standard deviation who are 2-3% body fat. When I was getting my master's, the Univeristy of Utah NCAA women's gymnastics team was a dynasty. The team's top gymnast measured less than 2% body fat. When it's that low, genetics is the main factor.
Getting weighed underwater is generally the most accurate way to assess percent body fat, but the administrators of the test have to know what they're doing. Ideally you should be weighed three times and take the average of the two scores with the least variability, but those traveling body fat shows won't do that. Yeah, doing one of those traveling deals would be of interest. I don't know what your schedule is like, but if you're really interested in getting some measurements, contact some of the colleges and universities in the area and see if they have an exercise physiology program, especially a graduate program, and see if they need volunteers for studies. They usually use students but if you tell them you're a triathlete, they might be interested. Probably best to contact a professor working in an area you're interested in rather than a secretary. You never know. Finally, measuring percent body fat is still an estimation at best. The equations used were developed on average caucasion males and females and the biggest variable is bone density. Especially in certain African American male athletes, like pro football players, you can get a negative percent body fat, which of course is impossible. That's because bone density in African Americans tends to be greater anyway and in AAs who compete professionally in high impact sports that also involve a lot of weight training, their bones are super dense, which makes the equations inaccurate. Percent body fat is best used to see trends in an athlete's body composition, that is, to see if the diet and training methods are maintaining or lowering the percent body fat over time. A one-time test can be off by as much as 5-7% either way, depending on the test used and the skill of the testers.
Mathman, yes we do need body fat. Without a certain amount of body fat we cannot synthesize certain hormones and vitamins necessary for life and reproductive health, plus certain tissues need fat, like nerve tissue. It is especially detrimental to women to have too little body fat, but it is not good for men either. Before food was overly abundant for most people in countries like the US, obviously we needed fat stores to survive times of famine. But just physiologically and metabolically, humans need body fat. Most of us just don't need so much of it
Rgirl
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2003
Michelle most definitely is one healthy, beautiful young lady. My initial impression was that she looked a bit bigger in the upper body and thighs, but comparison with pictures from last year were inconclusive when viewed side by side. Differences in the cut of the costumes can make it deceptive. There is no question that she was noticeably thinner for a while a couple of years ago. I would say that her work on overall strength with her personal trainer is paying off.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Is it body fat or is it muscle? I remember the beautiful (and still beautiful) Gabriela Sabatini who in one year turned her lovely slender body into a very athletic one. Rumors went flying that she was on steroids. Testing proved the rumors wrong.
Joe
Joe
