Your muscles
are made of 2 different types of fibers. Find out what they are, what your
personal fiber make-up is and how to train for maximum results.
Knowing your
personal muscle fiber make-up can be an invaluable aid when it comes to
properly targeting your training program. If you're working your muscles in the
wrong way, you'll be cheating yourself out of hard-earned results.
Every muscle
in your body is made up of a bundle of small fibers. In each bundle, you have
two main types of fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. I will explain exactly
what these are in a moment. The percentages of these different fiber types that
your muscles are made of can help you determine exactly how you should train
each particular muscle group in your body.
The
Different Muscle Fibers
Slow
Twitch:
These are
also known as Type 1 or red muscle fibers. They are responsible for
long-duration, low intensity activity such as walking or any other aerobic
activity.
Fast
Twitch:
These are
known as Type 2 or white muscle fibers (divided further into A and B). They are
responsible for short-duration, high intensity activity. Type 2B fibers are
built for explosive, very short-duration activity such as Olympic lifts. Type
2A fibers are designed for short-to- moderate duration, moderate-to-high
intensity work, as is seen in most weight training activities.
By looking at
elite athletes in different sports, you can see extreme examples of each
make-up of muscle fiber. At the slow twitch end is the endurance athlete, such
as the marathon runner.
These
athletes can have up to 80% or more of slow twitch muscle fibers in their
bodies, making them extremely efficient over long distances. At the fast twitch
end is the sprinter. World-class sprinters can have up to 80% or more of fast
twitch muscle fibers in their body, making them extremely fast, strong and
powerful but with limited endurance.
How
To Train Your Muscle Fiber Type
When you're
training with weights, your goal is to work as many muscle fibers as possible.
Affecting more muscle fibers means greater gains in strength and muscle mass.
If your
fibers in a particular muscle consist primarily of slow twitch fibers, in order
to affect the greatest number of those muscle fibers, you'll need to train that
muscle with higher reps, shorter rest periods and higher volume. This is
because they take longer to fatigue, they recover quickly and they require more
work to maximize growth.
Unfortunately,
slow twitch muscle fibers are limited in their potential for growth so even if
a muscle group is primarily slow twitch, you should definitely include some
lower rep training to maximize the fast twitch fibers you've got in that
muscle.
If you find
you have a hard time gaining size in a particular muscle, it could be because
it has a predominance of slow twitch muscle fibers. Higher reps (e.g. 12 to 15
reps), higher volume (more sets) and shorter rest periods (30 seconds to a
minute between sets) can help you to maximize those muscles.
This doesn't
mean you should use light weight, though. You should still strive to use
weights that are as heavy as possible that will cause you to reach failure in
those higher rep ranges. If you don't use heavy weights, you won't give your
muscles a reason to grow.
If your
fibers in a particular muscle group consist primarily of fast twitch muscle
fibers, you're one of the lucky ones. You'll have a much easier time building
mass in that muscle - fast twitch muscle fibers have greater potential for size
than slow twitch. The more fast twitch fibers you've got, the greater your
ultimate muscle size can be. These muscles are most likely your strongest and
quickest to develop.
To maximize
your muscles with fast twitch fibers, you'll need to train with low to moderate
reps (e.g. 4 to 8 reps), rest periods of around 1 to 2 minutes and a moderate
training volume (too much volume will compromise recovery).
If your
muscles have a fairly even mix of fibers, you can evenly divide your training
between focusing on the lower-rep, fast twitch fiber training and the
higher-rep, slow twitch fiber training. This will help you to develop all the
fibers in your muscles, maximizing your ultimate development.
Conclusion
Training your
muscles according to their fiber type makes sense. It will help you to get
better results from your training by allowing you to more specifically target
your training according to the exact specifications of your muscles.
Good Luck.
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