06/05/2017
BY ANGELO SORRENTI ASIAM
What is the difference between athlete number 1 and athlete number 2.
Well in a simple explanation, in the human body we have two types of muscle fibers. Slow twitch ( type 1) and fast twitch ( type 2) These two types of muscle fibers are completely different.
Type 1 is made for endurance it is thinner, longer and red because it’s richer of myoglobin a substance found in blood, thats why it’s also called red fiber. Myoglobin carries oxygen within muscle tissue that is needed for oxidative metabolism energy production. The extra myoglobin in slow-twitch fibers plays a role in their ability to resist fatigue. This fibers are aerobic.
Type 2 Fast twitch fibers are, thicker, shorter and whiter because they have less blood, that’s why they are also called white fibers. They use a different type of fuel the ATP ( adenosine triphosphate).
These are fibers made to fire very quickly and so better for the short burst of explosive energy like sprints or strength and power performance.
Fiber Type and Performance
Our muscle fiber type may influence what sports we are naturally good at or whether we are fast or strong or we can endure more.
Olympic athletes tend to fall into sports that match their genetic makeup. Olympic sprinters have been shown to possess about 80 percent fast twitch fibers while those who excel in marathons tend to have 80 percent slow twitch fibers.
Can a specific Training Change Fiber Type in the body?
This is not entirely understood, and research is still looking at that question. Science has no evidence yet that it’s possible to alter fiber type composition.
Science group study:
“ The response of muscle fiber type proportions and fiber areas to 15 weeks of strenuous high-intensity intermittent training was investigated in twenty-four carefully ascertained sedentary (14 women and 10 men) and 10 control (4 women and 6 men) subjects. The supervised training program consisted mainly of series of supra-maximal exercise lasting 15 s to 90 s on a cycle ergometer. Proportions of muscle fiber type and areas of the fibers were determined from a biopsy of the vastus lateralis before and after the training program. No significant change was observed for any of the histochemical characteristics in the control group”.
My experiment and challenge
I decided to take on another challenge, to help science better understand the human body. I will tweak once again my ASIAM program to chance my body composition. My case is even harder than that group study as I’m now 39 and half years old and do to my sports and my job, my whole life I have been training and developing the fast-twitch, type 2 muscle fiber that makes me more prone for the 100M sprints or strength and power type of performances.
In the years have created a very strong structure it’s sealed in me and very developed, other than the sedentary group study up above in this article... I will still try to chance my muscle fibers to the ones of a long endurance athlete. All the way up to the NEW York city Marathon, I will try to go from a very developed Fast-twitch muscle fiber to a Slow-twitch muscle fibers structure. From a strong sprinter/ lifter body to a runners physique.
ROAD TO THE MARATHON
Fallow me on :
