Volleyball Forums

288.86 Points

How can you tell if you have fast or slow twitch muscles? If you have slow twitch muscle fibers, how do you develop fast twitch muscle fibers?

24707.19 Points

Jump!!!

24852.95 Points

It's my understanding that everyone has a bit of both, it's just the ratios of fast to slow that are different (I could be completely wrong about that though). I'd always heard that lifting for power, sprinting, jumping for max and other anaerobic max efforts type things increased either the strength of those fast twitch muscles or their proportion of total muscle fibers.

24707.19 Points

Static shock!

1424.03 Points

Vertical jump performance is a pretty decent indicator of fast-twitch fiber make-up.

The ratio of fast to slow twitch fibers changes from muscle to muscle and group to group. Some serve you better for endurance, and some better for speed.

This is old terminology but tonic muscles are typically more endurance, or postural if you will (soleus muscle of the ankle), and phasic muscles are for more dynamic tasks (such as jumping, sprinting, etc.; eg is the gastrocnemius of the ankle). So you can see that even with the two primary ankle extensors, one is typically (emphasis) better for one role and the other for a different role.

The goal of training is to re-train your slow-twitch fibers to perform as fast-twitch fibers by jumping, sprinting, performing explosive power work in general as noted by himespau.

24707.19 Points

LOL's

try fly swatting! Mr. Green

bare hands!

510.26 Points

By doing heavy lifts that force you to use all of your muscles you can strengthen your fast twitch muscles. But it should take you less then 4 seconds to complete one rep (thats rep not set). Doing endurance training like jogging can hurt you fast twitch muscles. Some people have a higher % of fast twitch muscles then others but everyone can improve there speed and jumping abilites. Here are some links on the subject

http://www.sportandfit-library.co.nr/musclefiber.htm

2610.21 Points

1424.03 Points

510.26 Points

If I would have made it up myself then I am sure that I would have had a good reason. But I didn't

4479.02 Points

There was a recent study done that says you can in fact train and build fast or slow twitch fibers in your body. Basically you have to preform the exercises that would use fast twitch muscle to build it...hmm that makes sense. So sprinting, jumping etc can and will increase your fast twitch fibers.

1424.03 Points

510.26 Points

1424.03 Points

510.26 Points

Frankly I sometimes run into people on forums that I don't agree with but I don't typicaly attack them. I just study and try to make sure that I know more then them. I would love to get two identical clones and let you train one and let me train one then compare them but I don't see that happening.

1424.03 Points

2610.21 Points

24707.19 Points

I'm a simple guy...simple things I can relate to...

You want to be faster, try doing things faster. If I didn't know anything about fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, I'll think that it'll be alzhiemer's disease or something.

I'll avoid the weights alltogether, it's easy to get hurt. It's like weight lifting to weight throwing. Nobody trains to throw weights, especially heavy weights.

Also I know that it has something to do with speed in the range of motion. It's easy to be very fast in a very short distance, but try to be fast over a long distance is hard but still possible.

2610.21 Points

24707.19 Points

I wasn't really clear about the ROM and speed thing.

I.e. sprinting. The faster your feet makes contact with the ground the faster you can run. However not entirely true because you have to have a good ROM and be able to be fast over the ROM. In the process of training and recruiting fast twitch muscles, it's beneficial to train the muscle over the ROM. Fast twitch muscle are very fast over a little ROM, but not as fast over a bigger ROM. Most often in sports performance, you'll need the entire ROM.

73.79 Points

I'm using this supplement, and it claims to recruit more fast-twitch muscle fibers with jumping- www.instantvertical.com. Only been on it for a few weeks though, but I feel better during workouts.