The Types of Muscle Fibers

I came across a website that talks about muscle fibers. And surprisingly, it is kinda interesting to learn about it. Some previous blogger wrote about it but I had a hard time understanding it, but this website makes things rather easier to understand. Or maybe I'm just too dumb to understand complicated things :P

So now I know why some people can run longer without panting while some can lift weight more than the others. Our body consists of two types of muscles fibers - Slow Twitch and Fast Twitch (type I and II).

Slow Twitch muscle fibers are usually used in endurance training which requires a lot of stamina, such as marathon, swimming and etc. This muscle fibers do not increase in size, hence you'll see a lot of marathon runners or other endurance athletes look rather slim and with no definitions.

These people mostly train with high reps and light weights for better conditioning as slow twitch muscle fibers do not increase in size. They also tend to have higher ratio of these type of muscle fibers, which explains why they are better runner than others. The down side of it is that, they might have to work double hard if they want to build muscles at the end of the day.

Marathon runner

Fast Twitch (type I and II) muscle fibers are used in all the explosive training such as sprinting or other explosive weight trainings. These muscle fibers, though cannot increase the amount, can increase in size. Hence these muscle fibers are put in good use during weight training. They tire easily but are capable of much more powerful contractions.

Fast twitch fibers are further classified into two subdivisions: type I and type II.   Although considered a fast twitch fiber, the type I fibers are often referred to as an "intermediate" fiber type, since they have the potential to be explosive, but also posses a degree of aerobic ability. Type II fibers on the other are the most explosive, powerful muscle fibers in the body, and have no aerobic ability.

The best way to train these muscle fibers are definitely through low reps and heavy weights in order to activate them. These people with higher ratio of Fast Twitch muscle fibers will definitely gain muscles faster than those who have lower ratio of it, and will definitely excel in explosive movements ie sprinting, relays, and etc.

 

Relay runners

Now I know which type of muscle fibers I have more compare to the other, and that explains why I still can't run like any other marathon runners. But I believe, maybe I can still strike a balance between endurance and muscles, probably 70% muscles and 30% of endurance. I mean, it's not like I wanna be a marathon runner or whatnot, but I just wish that I can last for about an hour when it comes to do explosive trainings.

But wanna know what I think? I'd prefer to be a sprinter than a marathon runner. It just bores me to death if you ask me to run for 10km.

What about you? Which muscle fibers do you think you have more?