Part 3 – Slow Twitch Fibers and Slow Twitch Response and the reason why most speed training programs are disappointing.

This is the 3rd of 8 in a series about maximizing speed and quickness in your specific sport.

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In any athletic activity, strength and endurance will always be an advantage.

But those with blazing speed or quickness in their athletic skill often make the difference between victory and defeat.

Now we are not just talking about running speed. We are talking about any skill that requires the muscles to react and contract quickly. That includes throwing, jumping, swinging, running, and kicking and any just about any other skill in sports like football, baseball, basketball, softball, golf, tennis, volleyball, track and field events, swimming, lacrosse, and many others.

Unfortunately there has been little guidance about how to be both strong and fast.

In fact speed training has been so disappointing in most athletes that it is commonly considered to be genetics that makes a person fast.

Yet you are about to discover the real reason most athletes do not achieve the speed they are looking for.

The most popular way to exercise your skeletal muscles is through weightlifting. For example, the quadriceps are typically trained on a leg extension machine, the hamstrings are typically trained on a leg curl machine, and the pectorals muscles are trained on a flat bench, incline and/or decline bench with dumbbells or machines.

Plyometric training is another popular way to exercise your skeletal muscles. It involves the stretching of a particular muscle and then quickly trying to contract it. Examples of plyometric training include jumping up and down off of boxes, running steps and jumping rope.

Plyometrics and Weight lifting will cause your muscles to get stronger – not faster.

Though there may at times be some modest improvements in speed with weight training or plyometric training, any increases in speed will always be secondary to increases in strength and endurance.

The problem with training your muscles with these strategies is that no matter how fast you perform a repetition, the end result will always be that the muscle gets stronger, not faster. This is because weight training and plyometric training with repetitions conditions your muscle fibers to carry on a slow twitch response only.

Here’s why. Slow twitch fibers are responsible for the strength and endurance of a muscle, and a slow twitch response is defined as one where your muscles can undergo extensive repetitive contractions before fatigue.

Therefore, any training routine that puts your muscles through repetitive contractions (i.e., repetitions), like the ones done during weightlifting or plyometric training, is a slow twitch exercise program. It’s good only for strength and endurance and never for speed.

Now, of course, in some cases there may be some improvement in speed due to added strength and muscular coordination, however, the muscles will not have been conditioned to perform a pure speed function.

And how much faster do you really get? And, how long did it take before you saw any improvement?

Dropping your 40 yard dash time by 1/10 of a second after training for 4 months to a year is not that big of a deal unless you are at the absolute peak of your athletic ability.

That is peanuts compared to the increases in muscle speed I am talking about that should cut several tenths of a second off your 40 yard dash after a much shorter time period.

In fact it is very possible that strength training will cause the muscles to actually become slower while increased coordination may give the appearance of one being faster.

A strength training program that uses repetitions can not condition your muscles for optimum speed.

Extensive repetitive contractions (i.e., repetitions) force the lengths of your muscles to be constantly changing. Muscles contract then elongate, and this process is repeated over and over again anywhere between eight to twelve times. This is what’s known as a ‘set.’

Doing sets of exercises with repetitions programs your muscles with an infinite number of potential stopping points between the beginning of a repetition and the end.

This has the effect of overloading your muscle memory. A specific stopping point that is well-defined in a muscle’s memory, as I will explain later, is necessary to produce faster contracting muscles. Without them, your muscles will always be slower to respond.

Here is an example; biceps curls: You begin with your arm down by your side holding onto a weight. Next, you flex your forearm upwards until you can no longer move it. This process is usually repeated over and over again until the muscle tires. The net effect is the biceps is trained to be strong at the starting point, ending point and all points in between.

It’s been conditioned to contract to and through an infinite number of points throughout the motion of the repetition. The muscle is performing a slow twitch response.

In this biceps example, a specific distance to contract to is not well defined within that muscle. It’s mixed in with an infinite number of other potential stopping points.

The memory of this muscle is now overloaded. With regards to speed, this muscle is now slow to respond. It has no specific target distance to contract to.

On the other hand, speed is determined by how fast the muscle can contract from one point to another point. Proper speed training should condition the muscle so that it will contract to a predetermined distance without hitting any pre-programmed stopping points on the way to it’s final contraction point.

The performance of athletic skills depend upon the ability of the muscles to accelerate movement within a specific predetermined range of motion. The muscles abiltiy to accelerate to it’s contraction point is diminished if the muscles memory is overloaded due to training with repetitions.

To summarize. Any training routine that puts your muscles through repetitive contractions (i.e., repetitions):

1. Is a slow twitch exercise program. It’s good only for strength and endurance and never for speed.
2. Will overload your muscle memory so that it has no specific target distance to contract to.