Twenty years ago common wisdom said eggs were bad for you.

Thirty years ago 'Fat Free' foods were everywhere.

Forty years ago coaches in every sport but football said weightlifting would make you 'muscle bound', or unathletic.

Today we know eggs are not evil, and fat free foods are only great if you want to develop Type II Diabetes.

Not to mention, strength training is now recommended for all sports.

But what about that muscle bound thing? Is there any truth to it?

To answer that, we need to clearly define the muscle bound fear coaches had.

Their concerns stemmed from the idea that you could either be a smooth, fluid athlete or a big, powerful one.

They didn't believe one person could be both.

And if you were, like legendary baseball player Mickey Mantle, then you were destined to be as injury prone as he was.

Yet in over 25 years of training athletes I have never seen a direct link between strength training and a loss of athletic ability.

If fact its been the exact opposite - athletic kids who strength training see their abilities play up to an even greater degree.

What I have seen, many times over, is a misplaced emphasis on strength development over other priorities that were more in need.

Not spending enough time on sport skills.

Not addressing obvious injury risks until its too late.

Not doing enough speed training.

Neglecting conditioning.

Gaining muscle and elite strength are time consuming tasks.

It takes up hours of your week for a year or more.

When you add in school, sleep, sports and social events, living in the gym means other things get sacrificed.

And before you know it, a star U12 athlete's skillset can become quite average as a jacked up U18 competitor.

Because they didn't continue to develop the total package.

Coaches, seeing only the end result, naturally come to conclude that lifting weights is the problem.

If you asked those same coaches to describe the physical traits of an ideal player, they'd likely say its someone who has all of the following:

• Speed

• Good health

• Graceful, athletic movement

• A strong, physical play style

• And an abundance of sport skill

Anyone who can lift lots of weight for their size, jump to the moon, skip fluidly, and masters the skills in a specific sport is primed for excellence.

These are universal traits for athletic success.

For those aspiring to develop into that ideal player, the trick is to bring up the pieces of that puzzle that aren't elite.

Think of this like the spider charts created from pro sports combines.

They show a handful of traits critical to success for that sport and position.

The more of the graph that's shaded in, the better prepared you are physically.

On top you'll see a prospect that has a well developed package of athletic skills.

Below is an example of an athlete who is one dimensional, with too many areas to exploit at higher levels of the game.

Some factors, like height or wingspan, are not capable of being developed.

But all the other ones?

A smart player will prioritize building them up with whatever time they have available.

So for those who aren't as strong and powerful as their peers, strength training is exactly what they need to unlock their athletic potential.

If the deficit is in speed, coordination, sport-specific skills, or staying healthy, too much time lifting weights will lower your ceiling.

Everyone needs to put in work, and lots of it, to reach the top of their field.

You just need to be sure you're working on the right things, or that effort is largely wasted.

Strength training does not make you muscle bound, rather it can turbocharge the athleticism you already have.

Provided it doesn't keep you from developing something you needed more.