Many people have the misconception that the major concern of people engaged in team sports is gaining weight. The image of the three hundred pound player leads many people to see it from this perspective. The truth is that most athletes are more concerned with weight loss than with weight gain. The reason for this is fairly simple. It is very easy to gain weight. It is a little harder to get those pounds off you once you have gained them.

Athletes have ideal playing weights, and they spend a great deal of time in weight rooms. Of course, much of this time is devoted to building strength and muscle tone, but often times it is spent shedding pounds. The fact that muscles actually weigh more than fatty tissue makes this an ongoing problem. As fat is replaced by muscle, the total weight will actually spike upwards at first. Although being heavier due to excess muscle seems to be the goal for an athlete, most often just the opposite is going to be true.

Team Sports that involve a great deal of running like basketball, soccer, rugby, and even track are good examples of this fact. Although weight and muscles might be good for the center on the basketball team when he is trying to push people aside to get a lay up inside the paint, he is going to have to carry that excess weight up and down the length of the court, too. Unless the player in soccer or hockey is wearing the goalkeeper gloves and staying in front of the goal, he is going to have to run or skate from end to end as well. This is where the concept of ideal weight comes into play. Sometimes, you'll need team kit football training aids

Ideal weight can be best defined by the exact weight at which an athlete can gain the most advantage from his weight without it becoming a handicap to the ideal performance and level of fatigue involved in participation in a team sport. In order to maintain this ideal weight and at the same time to insure maximum athletic ability, it is not wise to use dieting for weight loss. The subsequent loss of energy that dieting could produce is not going to help the athlete perform to expected standards. A well balanced and energy rich diet is going to be much better. Weight loss must be accomplished by exercise and diet should refer only to the selection of the healthiest foods rather than to not eating food at all.