About Muscle Fiber Differences
There are three different varieties of muscle fibers. The amazing body we have now, with over 400 muscles and 1000s of muscle fibers can handle making almost all intricate and varied movements on different velocities, with regards to the body’s need. Movements which are fast, slow, in place, strenuous and much more. Our body is efficient at so much, and what affords it the ability to be this is the type of muscle fibers we have. This is important to know when you are doing your workouts from home or in the gym, to help understand what is actually taking place when you are doing each exercise.
Muscle Fiber Types
We have all heard the word Fast Twitch along with Slow Twitch. In case you haven’t heard of those then this post will explain what they are and how they work. The two varieties of fibers that we know are basically what your muscles are made of. The slow twitch fiber includes a high oxidative ability there by enabling the muscle to accomplish high endurance activities, such as cardio training. The fast twitch fiber has a much less oxidative ability and thereby is used in short bursts of speed and power such as sprints.
These fibers are also known as type I and type II fibers respectively. Type I fibers are slow twitch, and type II muscle fibers are fast twitch. Consider that the type II, fast twitch, can even be dismembered in II a or II b with regards to the motor functions the actual muscle uses.
TYPE I – These are the slow twitch fibers which are generally responsible for the actual performance of distance runners; eg. marathoners, road cyclists, swimmers, etc. The gradual twitch or type I fiber contain more mitochondria along with SDH enzyme, which is really a metabolic accelerator that is bulky and has high degrees of myoglobin, which gives its red colorization.
This gives the fibers this type of high performance associated with oxygen transport and is also the base of the many motor functions inside the human mechanical organism. These fibers will also be used in anaerobic aka. fast powerful actions. These fibers play a major role in almost all action, whether this be aerobic, anaerobic, lactic along with anaerobic alactic.
TYPE II – These muscle fibers have got mostly anaerobic ability. We say mostly considering that the Type II fiber might be split into two categories; type II a and type II b. The type II a fibers have the best anaerobic functionality, being the accurate fast twitch fibers. Whereas the kind that II b is really a hybrid of the two fibers, in which it can perform and grow, trained as either fast twitch as well as slow twitch.
So, how is all this information useful to you?
Well we discover different strengths in different people from almost all walks of life. When we discover athletes perform incredible feats for instance sprinting the 100 meter dash within 10 seconds, or managing to run a four minute mile, we can see the fibers that are predominantly fast twitch and which are using slow twitch.
Even so the question still remains, can a marathoner turn into a sprinter and vice versa. The response so far has come up short. It is generally accepted you are born with a number of percentage of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fiber, and that on your own will determine ones strengths. However there may be still the mystery on the hybrid type II b fiber that baffles professionals. Could a person with majority of these muscle fibers choose either discipline and grow successful in which ever they choose? It’s still got to be answered.
Stay tuned for how to train specific muscle fibers using at home workouts.
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