WHAT IS PROTECTIVE HYPERTROPHY & SHOULD ALL ATHLETES BUILD MASS?
Functional Hypertrophy
There are different reasons you may or may not want to gain mass for a sport. One reason you might is "protective hypertrophy."
Some level of protective hypertrophy can be useful in contact sports for giving and taking hits, according to Coach Leigh Egger.
Although a majority of coaches are biased towards mass gaining, some in the sports training ("functional") world skew a little too far in the opposite direction-citing that mass gaining in any context is useless and/or harmful.
The reality is that a healthy level of mass does in fact help protect bones, joints, ligaments, and organs from impact.
When that mass is layered on faulty movement patterns or accrued from training in a less transferrable way (be it physiologically or biomechanically) is when you can run into trouble. That doesn't mean throw the baby out with the bathwater, though.
Coach Justin Rippy said it best when he said if it’s (mostly) mass gained through training that reinforces appropriate neurological and biomechanical adaptations—then it can be beneficial. Though in this context it's more means to an end/byproduct/side effect that comes from effective training that's supported through diet + lifestyle than it is the emphasis of the program itself.
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All this just to say there are still reasons it's advantageous to gain a healthy level of mass whether it's intentional or as a positive means to an end side effect of improving our physical fitness.
