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Weightlifting and fibers

Sun, 03/04/2007 - 1:20am — Brian W.

Weightlifting and fibers

Interesting article, and a useful one. They do some great work at Memphis.

Just to shed some more light on the situation. In non-steriod using populations, those who have a fair amount of strength/power training will have FEWER IIB fibers than age and gender and race matched controls. This might surprise some people. Well, it turns out these IIB fibers change into (on the spectrum, there is no black and white with fiber typing) IIA.

However, training increases myofibril number inside of the fibers (it is generally accepted hyperplasia - increasing muscle fiber number due to training - does not happen in humans) and increases nervous system effeciency. So, it is not necessary to have these really high numbers of IIB fibers. And actualy, you don't want that many IIB fibers since they fatigue in just a few seconds. So, having more IIA fibers (still high threshold but take longer to fatigue than IIB or IIX) is better.

Sun, 03/04/2007 - 2:50am — Graham

Weightlifting and fibers

That's something I've figured all along but wasn't sure if it was scientifically accurate. The nervous system and one's ability to have better control over their body through training and muscle memory seems to be more important than how much of one fiber type you naturally had to begin with.