Fast Twitch

In cycling, the differing muscle types work depending upon the type of terrain that is being ran. If the terrain is a steep climb, then the more fast twitch muscles are required to work in tandem with slow twitch muscles. On the other hand, if it’s a long low terrain then slow twitch muscles are required to work more than the fast twitch ones.

In order to develop these kinds of muscles, then you need to work on them separately. You need not be on the road as you work on them and you can use a stationary bike for it. For slow twitch muscles, set the resistance of the stationary bike to low and ride it continuously at a pace for fifteen minutes and then stop to rest for a minute. This is one repetition and you need to complete four repetitions for one set. This kind of training must include exercises on breathing as the slow twitch muscles are worked on during this part of the training.

As for the fast twitch muscles, you need to set the stationary bikes resistance to high. Then ride it for five minutes continuously then stop for a minute. This makes for one repetition and do this for three times to make one set. Try to complete three sets as this would work on your fast twitch muscles as you do the inclines and steep hills of the cycling route.

It is important that you follow the clock in this so as not to overwork your muscles. Also it is important to hydrate and keep your breathing constant so as not to tax the muscles of needed oxygen. After working on the stationary bike, try to see if there is any difference in your performance as you do actual roadwork on your bike. You will see that the worked on muscles would perform better as you pedal your way on the countryside.

The muscle fibres being affected are dependent on how many repetitions you do and what weight you are lifting. Also, different exercises would affect different sets of muscles at different angles of resistance.

Type II muscles are those called fast twitch muscle fibres which create explosions of strength and speed. These are called explosions because these bursts of power occur only in short periods of time. On the other hand, Type I or slow twitch muscle fibres are the muscles for long-term activities and endurance.

Here is the recommended repetition scheme so that you can work on both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles in your workout:

a) The first five sets are for strength. So what is key here is having very heavy weights but low repetitions, like the whole set would be five repetitions as this builds up fast twitch muscles. What you can do as you progress the number of sets, you lower the weight but increase the repetitions until you reach the fifth set with a light weight but have twelve repetitions.
b) Then for sets six until ten, you use the same weights from sets one to five and reverse the repetitions per set. So, you would be building mass in this set, by a low weight, low rep on the first set (sixth set actually) and by the time you put on the very heavy weights, you try to lift them in twelve reps. This makes your muscles rip for mass building. Just be sure you have a spotter for this part of your workout.
c) For the last five sets, set your weight to medium heavy weight. This would work on your slow twitch muscles because it is a manageable weight with high repetitions. Having reps of twelve per set would be ideal for this.

By having all three sets done, you would be working on all the kinds of muscles in your body. And this helps your martial arts as the first sets would be for power, the second set would be for form and the third set would be for endurance.

The muscles contract in different levels and intensity. In the process, they produce adenosinetriposphate or ATP oxidatively or glucolotically. Oxidatively means by expenditure of oxygen to generate heat and glucolotically through the chemical processing of glycogen for heat. The generation of heat makes up the energy for the contraction. In general, slow twitch fibres are resistant to fatigue, but fast twitch muscles are glycolitic and thus easily fatigable by the accumulation of glycogen by-products in the body.

The characteristic of fast twitch muscles is that they have less myoglobin in them. This results in their white coloration and lesser amount of oxygen in their fibres and this is why they need glycogen to contract. On the other hand, slow twitch muscles have more myoglobin in them and thus use oxygen, which creates little or no by products thus the muscles are geared for endurance.

Fast twitch muscles are the muscle groups used to create sudden explosive movements of the body. Explosive muscles, when they contract, generate speed and quickness but the downside would be there would be more energy expended it in its use. That is why they say that dunking a ball would require more energy than laying it up, but still it would count as two points nonetheless.

So in developing these kinds of muscles for sudden exertions such as jumping, it is recommended that you do calf dips to increase your vertical leap. This can be done by standing on an elevated platform, let your balls remain on the edge of the platform and let your heels hang freely. Lower your body as far as you can and then lift up your body up by using your calf muscles and the balls of your feet as leverage and you can do this on the edge of a stair step. Do the activity for four reps then stop. Increase your intensity by increasing the number of reps per set. You will see the difference that the developed fast twitch muscles in the calf to develop your leaping ability.

In a gym, the most worked on muscle group would be the biceps, followed by the pectorals and then the abdominal muscles. But in the arms, the biceps only comprise one third of the total muscles, with two thirds as the triceps muscles. So to make bigger arms, or guns, you need to develop both the biceps and the triceps muscles.

There are many workout activities that specifically target triceps. Simple ones like open stance push-ups, chin-ups or pull-ups help in this area. If in the gym, the best one is the skull crusher dumbbell and lateral pulls that will help develop this area. By doing high weight but low rep exercises like the ones mentioned, you can develop the fast twitch triceps muscles.

The game of football involves both short sprinting and power movements to block or to tackle. These kinds of activities are essentially fast twitch muscle fiber activities. So rather than going on long runs, it would be better if you exercise using short power sprints to better help the muscles get used to the sudden contractions needed to play the sport. Arm curls, dead lifts and heavy weight bench presses are activities that train fast twitch muscles. Other workouts you can do is doing squats and other power lifts, using high weights but low reps. Since you need short bursts, these high intensity but low repetition exercises make the muscles develop for the creation of those short bursts of energy and movement.

As in the game of football, there are rest periods between quarters and plays. You must also assimilate this activity in your workout by resting for a minute after succeeding repetitions to complete a set. Since fast twitch muscles can only perform their contractions for at most thirty seconds, you need to train to maximize the power generated in that short span of time.

What kind of athlete you are determines which set of muscles need to be developed more in training to make them excel in their respective sports.

Myocytes are individual muscle fibres that when bundled together make up skeletal muscle issue. Each separate myocyte contains myofibrils that grab and pull on each other. Myofibrils are strands of proteins, namely actin and myosin, which when activated compresses the muscle to contract.

It has been generally accepted that there are two muscle fiber types that are the Type I muscles or the slow twitch fibres and the Type II muscles are called fast twitch fibres. The fast twitch fibres can be further broken into Type IIa and Type IIb fibre muscles.

The kind of activity you undertake determines the types of muscles that are being used in the body, and each fibre type is contracts differently. Human musculature is genetically predetermined as to its component mixture of slow or fast twitch fiber types. There is a basic fifty-fifty percentage as to the muscles in the body.

Slow twitch muscles use oxygen much more efficiently and thus more fuel is created for more continuous and extended muscle contractions over a long period of time before fatigue sets in. On the other hand, fast twitch muscles use anaerobic metabolic activity to create nitric oxide to generate short, quick bursts of speed and power that makes them more susceptible to fatigue.