England new boy Ollie Sleightholme packed on 8kg of muscle in five weeks to supercharge his career.
The Northampton wing bulked up last summer in a bid to bust more tackles — and promptly lifted the Premiership trophy as the league's top try scorer.
The 24-year-old hit the weights and bolstered his diet in a gruelling pre-season regime, but admitted he ended up too big.
Once he found his perfect fighting weight, he racked up a league-high 14 tries, even crossing in last weekend's Premiership Final win.
"I went from 90 kilos to 98 kilos in five weeks," said the uncapped Sleightholme, who will on Wednesday jet out on England's tour of Japan and New Zealand.
"It was just loads of gym and loads of eating. But I got to the end and thought, 'I can't play like this, I can't play this heavy it's not going to work'.
"It's then a case of starting to get back into rugby training and it all sort of drops off as you start training, then you're playing like you want to."
At the end of the enterprise, Sleightholme had kept two extra kilos, and that power boost has helped elevate him into England contention.
"I'm 92 kilos now, which is just about where I want to be," he said. "When you're heavier, the turning is the difficult bit, that's when you feel it.
"Running in a straight line it's not too bad, because once the weight is moving, it's moving."
England will face ex-boss Eddie Jones's Japan in Tokyo on June 22, before two Tests in New Zealand in July.
Head coach Steve Borthwick prizes Sleightholme's game-breaking and try-scoring abilities, and the Saints star feels he has now struck the right balance.
"It's a fine line between being too big and being right in a good spot," said Sleightholme.
"I was too bulked up and through the year found where I needed to sit with my body and then got into a rhythm."
