Fast twitch and slow twitch

Slow-manvey wrote:

They say that people with high levels of fast twitch muscles fibers are likely to be good sprinters, and that people with high levels of slow twitch are likely to be good endurance athletes. My question is if you take all those elite long distance runners and even good long distance runners at lower levels like high schools or colleges etc- they are way faster for short distances then non athletes people (who more or less have the same body type- not people who run slow because they’re fat). Elite long distance runners can run 200m in 24 seconds and even faster. So what’s going on here?

There are a few problems here:

1. You are calling a :24 200m "fast".

2. You are comparing highly trained slow twitch fibers to untrained unknown fibers.

3. the weakest point: you have no idea how fast the non-athletes can actually run.

4. than*

Can’t you read?

I’m comparing unknown fibers fit people with known slow twitch fibers athletes. And the slow twitch fibers athletes are way faster!

You have millions fit bulky amateur runners who can’t even go below 30 sec for 200m and they train. And you have those slow twitch fibers athletes who run 200m in 24 sec. And trust me when they were kids they were super fast too. Farah said many times that he and his twin were the fastest in school when they were kids. He didn’t talk bout 10k fastest. You think Gebrselassie and Bekele as kids were slow??

At elite level, from 100m to marathon, there isn't that much difference as people assume. You give up incrementally quick speed and muscles in exchange for endurance. There is no reason to talk about the rest of folks who don't have either fast or slow twitch. They're just non-twitch.

STFU

The 'known' slow twitch athletes are elite level athletes in peak condition - they would beat almost any human on the planet in almost any running event.

Put them in an elite level sprint field and the differences would start to show. Putting on my speculation glasses - I'd guess an elite marathoner could beat High School level runners at 200M. By the time you got to state championships I think the fast-twitch sprinters would dominate and by NCAA or national level competitions the marathoners would be left for dead.

Conversely - if you took a world class sprinter and tried to turn him into a marathoner - you could probably make a pretty fast marathoner. These are great athletes, with training discipline, determination, etc. You could get them to sub-3 hours, maybe approaching 2:30 which is a fast marathon by almost any standard. The only standard it is NOT fast against is elite level marathon.

Talent, training and hard work will take you a very long ways - but to get to the absolute peak you need some specific physiology.

Slowmanvey wrote:

Can’t you read?

I’m comparing unknown fibers fit people with known slow twitch fibers athletes. And the slow twitch fibers athletes are way faster!

You have millions fit bulky amateur runners who can’t even go below 30 sec for 200m and they train. And you have those slow twitch fibers athletes who run 200m in 24 sec. And trust me when they were kids they were super fast too. Farah said many times that he and his twin were the fastest in school when they were kids. He didn’t talk bout 10k fastest. You think Gebrselassie and Bekele as kids were slow??

You brought up Farah. He's the 10th fastest 1500m runner of all-time. We do not know if Farah will be a great Marathon runner.

Fast twitch/slow twitch are real. We've all seen chickens. We can see the slow twitch muscle; we can see the fast twitch muscles. Our human muscle fibers are malleable. Humans have slow, slower and slowest twitch muscle fibers. We are all slow twitch relative to fast mammals. No humans have great vertical jumping ability compared to other mammals. Humans are the best long distance running mammals on earth. How we train throughout our lives shows how we will perform. If one sprints from age 6 playing basketball and T-ball one will be faster than a child who stays in the house playing a musical instrument or playing video games.

We all come from nomadic hunter/gatherers. There were differences within the tribes. The bigger and stronger men stayed near the women and children to protect the tribe from outsiders and to repel large predator animals. The bigger and stronger men had more breading opportunities than the elite smaller hunters. The hunters had to run well at all distances.

People are fast because: 1) Strength to weight ratio; 2) inseam to height ratio; 3) neuromuscular coordination.

You state slow twitch. Are you weak for your weight? Can you free weight squat 2 1/2 times your weight? What about neuromuscular coordination. What sports do you play well? If you say bowling and golf that says one thing. If you say tennis or hockey that says something else.