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!

Muesli - a model for life!

Ok, so here I am back from a very drunken weekend in Prague. That didn't help my training one bit or did it? If you've been following the blog you will know we managed to cycle pretty quickly from Glasgow to Loch Lomond a few weeks ago.

So why the hell did my legs hurt so much from the walking?!

Well once I sobered up after being drunk for four days, I thought about it. When you walk you extend your leg forward, that means your hamstring and calf get stretched by the opposing muscles contracting. However when you press down on the pedal your leg never fully extends so you end up with powerful short strokes of the muscle but no power or strength over a long stroke of the muscle.

The problem doesn't really matter - it won't stop me being able to complete the cycle. What will happen though is that by limiting the movement of the limbs the muscles will start to contract and further restrict the movement causing more problems when trying to extend the legs and is one of the reasons I can't run for a mile despite being able to cycle 20+ miles.
So whats the next step? I could stop cycling and that would allow me to regain the full range of movement without any additional pain.

BUT

We all know thats not going to happen. I am far too stubborn to give in. Doing one kind of exercise is the problem. It's important to mix your exercise up to ensure that you are getting the most out of it - much the same way that Muesli is better for you than Corn Flakes. The wide mix in it has a better range of nutrients than the single ingredient alternative. Think of it this way...would you prefer to live on pasta for the rest of your life or have the option from an all you can eat buffet every day?

I used to do a lot of kick boxing and martial arts when I was younger; and thanks to my incredible sponge of a brain I can still remember all the exercises from then. Muscle Memory is great and helps you realise when you do things wrongly as it just doesn't feel right. So from now on my training will include some kick boxing exercises at home. I'll go over them later - I don't want to bore you with the details. Rest assured I shall not be posting images of me doing splits.

Mauro Masochist?

Well it seems all my friends at work have decided to rename me given my latest adventures. They all think I am nuts cycling the 8 miles to work and then 8 miles home each day - when I told them it was training as I was doing 205 miles in four days in August they nearly fell over!

So, where does this leave me? I gotta train hard over the next few months so planning on cycling a few times to Irvine, maybe Largs once and definitely Edinburgh from Glasgow.

If that wasnt bad enough - I've found myself signed up for climbing Ben Nevis in June. If you see me on the news I'll be the one lying upside down in a hundred foot deep gulley!

What daring adventure next? ... hmm... only thing more terrifying than the stuff above is asking a girl out...dare I?