Slow Twitch vs. Fast Twitch

📊 Slow twitch muscle fibers activate first. They are the fibers that we use for aerobic activities like long duration cycling, swimming, running, and lifting light weights.

*Note: With a lot of heavy and fast training such as olympic lifting you can begin to “skip” the slow twitch and activate fast twitch fibers first. This is called selective recruitment.

But for the most part, you use your slow twitch fibers first then if needed you activate the fast twitch fibers.

📈 Fast twitch fibers are recruited with heavy lifting, fast movements, and lifting too close to failure.

Fun fact, there are actually two primary types of fast twitch fibers in humans. Type 2x and type 2a.

🏋🏽‍♂️ With consistent resistance training, we see a shift from type 2x to type 2a fibers.

Type 2a is a very “athletic” fiber type because it is powerful and fast twitch but also doesn’t fatigue as fast as 2x.

🤓 There’s your knowledge bomb for the day. Come back tomorrow for another.