Fast and slow twitch muscles
Have you ever looked at sprinters and long distance runners and wondered why sprinters are so ripped yet the long distance runner, despite running marathons, has no where near as much muscle? Even a marathon runner’s legs, while muscular, do not compare to the sprinters.
You may be surprised to hear that the reason for the difference is due to the sprinter focusing their training on the generation of fast twitch muscles, which bring bulk and short bursts of power but little stamina. Whereas the long distance runner focuses on developing their slow twitch muscles, which bring stamina but less bulk and less instant power.
In martial arts it’s important to have a balance between stamina and power. Knowing the difference between these muscles and how they are created can really help revolutionise your marital arts training as well as give you the body you want.
Fast twitch
Fast twitch muscles are the muscle fibres that are better suited at generating short bursts of speed. They use a lot of energy very quickly so they also become fatigued fast. To build these types of muscles you need to work at your absolute maximum for a short period. This is why you see burly men in gyms lifting huge weights very quickly for a short space of time. They may just be showing off but they might understand that if they want big muscles they need to focus on building their fast twitch fibres.
Slow twitch
Slow twitch muscles on the other hand are better suited to slow, low resistant work over a longer time frame. They consume much less energy so they take more time to tire out. To build these types of muscles you need to work at a comfortable rate for a long period of time. These muscles don’t have the same type of bulk as the fast twitch variety so while a marathon runner may be smaller than a sprinter or body builder, the runner can sustain activity for much longer, whereas the sprinter or body builder is more powerful but only in short bursts.
There is still a lot of research being done into the differences between these two muscles and already scientists have discovered other muscle types in-between these two ends of the spectrum. There is also research about whether the muscle fibres we are born with influence which sports we are better at and whether we can train to change out muscle make-up through training.
Further reading
For more information on fast and slow twitch muscles I recommend the following sites:
BBC Science – Muscles: Fast and slow twitch
About.com – Fast and Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers: Does muscle type determine sports ability?
eHow – How to Build Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers
Jamie, this is very interesting. I am training for the Bath half marathon in March and its good to know i don’t need to look like a beefcake (i never have and probably never will) to accomplish it in good time.
Thanks Jon. I don’t think I’ll ever be a beefcake either but once I learnt about this I started to train differently and it’s made a big difference to my explosive power.
Good luck with the half marathon too. One more tip, as soon as you can, after every run drink lots of water and eat something high in carbs and protein as it’ll help your muscles refuel quicker and stop them aching so much the next day.
Thanks Jamie, it is one thing i’ve always been in the dark with, the best diet to help with fitness, so your advice is helpful.
Great article – serious marathon runners do a lot of both types of training to build up speed endurance; long runs at threshold pace for endurance and track session (short reps and intervals) for power. I’ve only really ever dabbled with track sessions, but always thought that playing football gave me a bit explosive training…
Thanks Tom. I do a lot of mixed stuff for my martial arts too and have recently been exploring the possibilities of plyometrics (which is whole other post), focusing on punching and kicking. Due to my history of injuries I’m being very careful but so far I’ve been impressed with the results.
I have run a few marathons. I found every pound you put on you had to drag round the course. Carbohydrates the night before a cup of coffee it has thamine which helps the transfer of oxygen in to the blood stream.
We used to do Fartlek training which is sudden burst training to build up strength. I used to run about 70 miles a week which seemed to provide the samina to do the run. You can do less training it just means it takes longer to recover after the race. They say there is a wall at 18 miles which is supposed to be when you start breaking down muscle never noticed it myself.
Chocolate gives an up for about 3 miles then the buzz goes so carbs are a more consistant food to run on.
Exercise, in particular aerobic exercise, is a great strategy to boost your energy. Aerobic exercise lets you keep an increased heart rate by performing a series of moderate exercises for an extended period of time (15-20 minutes). Aerobic exercise is usually as complicated as a entire routine or as straight forward as swinging your arms at your sides – anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there for at the least 20 minutes.