Does Too Much Muscle Hurt Professional Footballers?

West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo recently banned winger Adama Traoré from lifting heavy weights in the gym. The coach explained that the Spaniard’s extraordinary natural genetics allow him to stay in peak condition with only preventative exercises and mobility work, without additional resistance training.

At the same time, Santo stresses that younger players — like 18-year-old Airidas Golambekis — actually need to build muscle mass in order to cope with the physical demands of top-level football.

The question of the “perfect weight” is familiar to many Premier League stars who constantly adjust their bodies to the league’s brutal physical standards. Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku once had to urgently shed muscle mass after a World Cup in order to regain his agility and pace. Meanwhile, players like Florian Wirtz and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have deliberately added muscle to improve their ability to compete physically with powerful defenders.

Sports physiologists say footballers operate best within what they call a “Goldilocks zone” — the delicate balance between endurance and explosive power. Players run roughly 10 kilometres per match, meaning their bodies need a spring-like stiffness in the foot and lower leg, similar to the suspension system of a racing car.

If added weight softens ligaments or disrupts this balance, a player can quickly lose the ability to accelerate sharply or change direction at high speed.

For specialists, the real measure of useful muscle isn’t visual size but force relative to body weight. If increases in muscle mass don’t reduce a player’s acceleration or jumping ability, then the added weight is considered functional. Problems only begin when extra kilograms slow a player down or reduce their endurance during matches.

In modern football, a bulky upper body is often seen as unnecessary ballast. Extra mass increases stress on joints and consumes more oxygen — something that matters in a sport where players perform repeated sprints totalling close to a kilometre during a single match.

Maintaining large muscle mass is also extremely difficult across a ten-month season. The massive aerobic workload gradually breaks down muscle tissue, forcing players to constantly replenish calories and protein, as noted by The Athletic writer Sarah Shephard.

For that reason, sports nutritionists strongly oppose forcing athletes to artificially reshape their bodies when their physique is dictated by unique genetics. Trying to make a player lose weight through aggressive calorie deficits can destroy useful muscle tissue and cause a sharp drop in performance.

Adama Traoré remains one of football’s rare exceptions — a player whose extraordinary physique somehow does not prevent him from being one of the fastest wingers in the game.

Published by Patrick Jane
13.03.2026