Slow Twitch Muscles and Fast Twitch Muscles

During motion the human employs slow twitch muscles and fast twitch muscles. Learn about what each of these muscle fibers do in the following few lines.

Muscles fiber in the human body may be of two types: slow twitch muscles and fast twitch muscles. These are also known as Type I and Type II muscle fibers. Each of these muscle fibers responds differently when the body is put to effort or when we perform certain sporting activities. The slow twitch muscles contract in a different way as responding to a certain type of effort. Sometimes both the slow twitch muscles and the fast twitch muscles are employed and contracted at the same time. However, the usage of the two types of muscle fibers is on average 50- 50% of slow and fast twitch muscles when we are in motion. But let’s take a closer look at what each type of muscle fibers do during movement.

First of all, the slow twitch muscles are using a lot of oxygen during movement, which results in generating more energy for the upcoming activities. The slow twitch muscles are very helpful when it comes to extended effort as it takes long before the muscle gets exhausted. Consequently, the slow twitch muscles are employed during long lasting strenuous efforts and will do a great job at serving the sportsmen in activities such as marathon and long swimming competitions or biking events that will require a well dosage of energy throughout the hours of effort.

On the other hand the fast twitch muscles will provide energy for a short time. The muscle fiber will contract for a short period of time – giving a lot of force but will get tired quickly. So, in sports such as speed running, sprinting and others the fast twitch muscles will perform well and help to get the best results. In many ways, sprinters could benefit of more usage of the fast twitch muscles in order to improve their personal bests. However, as mentioned earlier, during effort, both the slow twitch muscles and the fast twitch muscles are used at the same extent, and it has not yet been proven that training in a certain sport can change this percentage of 50-50 %.
Also, genetics have a saying in the amount of our fiber muscle type, and whether we have a predominance of fast twitch muscles of slow twitch muscles.

All in all, both slow twitch muscles and fast twitch muscles have their own role in movement, while in sports they determine the performance.

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