In 49ers LB Manny Lawson's recent on-line blog entry, he mentioned his weight gain.
After minicamp some of the reporters picked up on the fact that I’ve put on some weight. It wasn’t a focus of mine and I don’t think it will ever be a focus of mine. If it happens, it happens. Yes, I have gained a little bit of weight. But I won’t gain so much to where it hinders me. Once I start to see my performanc
e drop, I have to start slimming down. That might be tough for me, because I love food. I love sweets and I love snacks.
I usually don't think too much about weight gains for most athletes. Sometimes these things are added mass to the body, mainly muscle. Now for Lawson, it looks like his weight came courtesy of delicious food. And then, he says that he will start to trim down if his performance slows down.
Now by biggest problem with that statement is that Lawson will get in shape when he feels he isn't performing well. But wouldn't it just be better for him to get in shape so he doesn't run that risk? The training staff must have a say in this if he balloons up to 10 more pounds and not running as fast.
And for Lawson's size (6'5"), weight isn't much of a surprise. But when an athlete admits that it's because of snacking, I take that as a red flag. We've seen over the years that unconditioned athletes don't perform to their best potential.
Now, I'm not going to get extremely worried at this point for Lawson. He's still young and could work it off easily during training camp. But this isn't the best thing for him since he's trying to prove management right for not selecting a pass rusher in this past Draft.
Comments
I agree Sam. If he gained the weight in the gym is one thing. Trial is still out since this will be his 1st here playing every down. But dude... if he gained weight eating Twinkies then I'm a gonna be a little critical. more then usual
Singletary is gonna have him back down to size by the 2nd game in preseason.
Are any of you fans of this team or do you even follow the 49ers? Manny beefed up to 250 at the request of the GM and the Head Coach as they plan on using him more as a rush linebacker this year. He has put on muscle, not fat. This fact was reported by Barrows, Maiocco, Lynch and Brown. The 4 beat reports for the 49erse that know a thing or two about the team. Manny's playing weight when we drafted him was 230. Each offseason he has put in hours of work at the weight room to get his size up to 250. I would LOVE to know where ANY of you got the assumption that Manny put on fat and not muscle to reach his 250 pounds. I suggest doing a little research before you jump to conclusions. Its what “journalist” do!!!!
"I have to start slimming down. That might be tough for me, because I love food. I love sweets and I love snacks."
That's what Lawson said himself, and from that quote, it sounds like a part of his weight is due to sweets. I'm just taking what the quote says and how I interpret it.
It may be a bit confusing, but I took this statement as saying that it would be tough to slim back down because of Manny's love of food.
When slimming down you have to limit calories, when gaining weight you increase your calorie intake. You can't eat anything you want when gaining weight but you do have the freedom to eat many foods that you cannot if you are trying to lose weight and maintain muscle mass. Football players are big guys with high calorie diets anyway, and they work out like crazy, especially this time of year. I don't think this is anything to worry about.
You don't deserve a blog and you're clearly not a 9er fan. If you've done ANY homework on this topic you will know that Manny's been in the weight room in an effort to bulk up. For you to state that his weight gain is attributed to "delicious food" is both laughable and unresposible. The guy is a passrusher who's going to be relied on to get to the QB more often this year. He needs to get stronger in order to make that happen. Come on man. At least try to fool your 50 readers into believing you care enought to do your research.
And like I had mentioned, this is just something that he brought up and I felt that it might be a concern, but not right now. I know that his snacking isn't the only attribution to his new size.
And like Lawson said, it isn't a concern until he starts to decline. He said that it's going to be tough for him to trim down if he needs to because he likes to eat. That's what I took and just pointed out what he said.
Sam...please refrain from blogging (or at least do some research before writing) about the 49ers. It seems to me that you don't have a clue about the team, or football in general. This is the second blog of yours that I've read that is way out of context. Learn about the topic you're reporting on, or don't post anymore crap!
Mike and boridge.
This came straight from Lawson's mouth. Lawson is obviously implying that he's not in the best shape, just because you both only want to here positives on the 49ers doesn't mean you can comment on Lam's research(which he has done). How about both of you create your own blog and do your own research and stop freeloading off of Lam's findings.
Come on, for being a "life-long 49ers fan," this article seems to be lacking on knowledge of the team.
The team's been trying to get him to bulk up for awhile, stating that he lacks explosiveness as a pass rusher because he's too lean at 6'5" 230 lbs. They've wanted him up to about 250, so the weight gain is on purpose.
Second, Lawson jokes around a lot on his blog, and I think you're taking his comment about loving snacks and sweets way too seriously.
Thirdly, Lawson is a gym rat. He even tried to keep coming in to the team facilities to work out when they were renovating them, and they had to shoo him away.
After reading my previous entry, I realized that I really didn't get to the point so here is some clarification. I don't think that Manny was saying that junk food led to his weight gain. He specifically says that he did not focus on gaining weight, so I can see where that may lead people to worry about the additional pounds. However, many beat writers reported that Manny had added weight, but their collective opinion seemed to be that it looked like "good weight", and there were no reports that made it seem as if he was out of shape.
What I took from the interview was that Manny gained weight. The beat writers seem to think that it was a good thing and that he does not look out of shape. IMO Manny was only pointing out that slimming down is challenging because he loves food and sweets. Not that he is worried about being able to accomplish it, but that he doesnt want it to come to that because then he has to cut that food out of his diet completely. Too much muscle eventually hinders speed, and flexibility which could hurt performance and when you have to slim down your looking at a lower calorie, low fat diet with tons of cardio.
I don't remember which Niner said this about Manny, but someone compared him to a deer ( this offseason). I took it as meaning he was fast and lean, which I am quite sure was the intended compliment. You don't compare someone who is out of shape to a deer
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