Sunday, January 25, 2009

Reach for the stars, you dirty animal!

Most training works on your endurance and strength. That's what you are aiming for most of the time, apart from when you want to get up short steep hills - or when you want to explode out of starting blocks.

The best way to build fast twitch muscles is by using plyometric exercises. A plyometric contraction involves first a rapid muscle lengthening movement, followed by a short resting phase, then an explosive muscle shortening movement, which enables the muscles that work together in doing the particular motion.

Things like Karate, Thai Kickboxing, Capoiera all rely on the ability to expel energy quickly. The movements, forms and training used within them all help develop tast twitch fibres. Kung Fu's tend not to rely on explosive power and instead rely on smooth movement, reading body language and technique over the strength required in the external martial arts.

So how do you know if you need to develop fast twitch muscle fibres?

Try this. Stand next to a wall, feet flat, now raise your arm so that you reach up the wall as far as you go. Mark it (mentally if you dont want to put a mark on your wall), now standing in the same position and without crouching, jump as high as you can and touch the wall with your arm upstretched again. You should be able to get at least 30cm (1ft) higher, if you can manage more then you have plenty of fast twitch fibres. If you can only manage about 10-20cm more then you need to develop the fast twitch fibres.

Fast twitch fibres get tired really quickly, exercising them wont help their stamina, however it will help the efficiency and the number of fibres, thereby making you able to explode out longer when you need to.

Feel free to leave a comment!

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