Body Fiber Compostion

Char Dawg my thoughts exactly…what does it even matter

Eric Cressey, I apologize and stand corrected.

Char-dawg: I’m assuming by your last post here that you feel a bodybuilder would be mostly fast-twitch and a marathoner slow-twitch. A successful bodybuilder can be mostly slowtwitch, especially since most traditional bodybuilding methods use slow to medium speed tempos at best. Rarely, if ever, will you see a competitive bodybuilder using explosive movements recruiting the fast-twitch fibres. To paraphrase an Ian King quote, “Anything is possible, but is it optimal”. No matter you’re fibre make-up, you can train to acomplish certain tasks and improve in those areas but that doesn’t mean you’ll become the next champion. Example, I know someone who was a world class 60m sprinter and at 5’7" could slamdunk a basketball. A perfect example of a fast-twitch athlete. He later went on to train for and finish a marathon. He finished with a decent time which was a great accomplishment, but he could never be expected to realistically become a world class marathoner because of his genetic make-up. However, all this is moot unless you want to become the next world champion or so and your goals must be within your genetic reasoning.

[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:

Finally, you recommended that Vaines not “all wrapped up in this.” Knowing your fiber type is, in the opinion of many prominent strength coaches (including Poliquin and King) of paramount importance in designing effective programs. Christian T. even uses them in his block training protocols. I happen to agree with all of them, and I think that Vaines, as a newbie, would be well-served to “get wrapped up in this.” In fact, I think that all newbies need to make an effort to go out of their ways to “get wrapped up” in things; isn’t that why we’re always directing individuals to the search engine?

I wouldn’t have called you on it unless I could support my reasoning with logical arguments. Likewise, I probably wouldn’t have called you on it PERIOD if you hadn’t said something that would deter an enthusiastic, inquisitive mind from exposure to valuable information.[/quote]

How does this contrast with what you said in the think tank?

In the think tank you seem to say what fitone is stating ie dont worry about your fibre type just train for a goal.

Have your ideas changed or are your posts just in different contexts?

[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
Additionally, one can determine fiber type with electronic muscle stimulation (EMS). EMS first activates FT fibers-the opposite of what takes place when a muscle voluntarily contracts (ST fibers fire first, and FT fibers are only recruited as the contraction’s intensity is increased).
[/quote]

How?

There is no way to determine fiber type. Even muscle biopsy is flawed, because distribution is not constant throughout the muscle. The weightlifting tests used to determine fiber type are not even close to accurate.