Muscle fiber type determines your sport

Coaches say the sport chooses the athlete. In America we say we choose our sport. Recreationally, I say we can choose or the sport can choose. Will power can help any athlete reach the top of any sport with margins. Endurance athletes have more red muscle fibers. Powerful athletes have more white muscle fibers. Type 2b muscle fibers are transitional.

Duck breast is red meat. These birds fly hundreds if not thousands of miles and need to produce energy to do so. The myoglobin is the viscous fluid which feeds the electron transport chain and in the mitochondria is where this occurs. Oxygen and fat are needed for these chemical reactions. This is red muscle.

Chicken breast is white. Chickens do not fly very long. A few seconds at the most. White muscle fibers are more explosive than red. They contract two or three times more frequently and more completely per second than red muscle fibers. This contributes to strength and power. ATP/CP and glycogen are needed for these contractions. This is white muscle fiber.

There are type 2b muscle fibers which adapt according to the stresses applied. An endurance athlete has these fibers changing to produce energy over a longer duration. A power athlete produces more contractile proteins and a motor unit patter which contracts more frequently and thoroughly. This is almost a joke 2b or not 2b is a real transitional muscle fiber type and they help us meet the needs of the sport we picked.

If you are like Lance Armstrong and can do 20 reps with 90% of your 1RM you will not win a powerlifting meet. If you run a 40 yard dash in less than 4 and a half seconds you will most likely not win an Iron Man competition. Those are the breaks. It does not mean you cannot participate. Have fun. Go after anything you want. Understand the limits of your physiology.

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