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Understanding Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers and Why Most ‘Speed’ Training Programs Will Fail You


I’m always amazed when I see or read about some new way to train your muscles for speed. Just the other day I was watching television and the people were demonstrating how they would train their muscles to get faster.

The exercises they were showing consisted of the following:

1) one person had a very larger resistance band tied around his waist and another person was holding on to the other end about ten feet behind him. The person in front then started to run and the person behind him holding the band was following too, except they were trying to run at a slower pace, thus producing tension in the band to make it harder for the first person to run.

2) Another exercise consisted of yet another large resistance band. This time the band was fixed to something on the wall and the person (facing the wall as well) was pulling the bands with both hands back towards them (similar to a rowing motion on a weight machine), over and over again, as fast as possible.

3) Another of their speed training exercises consisted of what appeared to be markings (made of either tape or paint) on the floor in the shape of squares. The person then began to randomly jump with both feet in and out of these squares, with the coach/trainer, encouraging the athlete to go “faster and faster”.

4) And finally, the last exercise they showed was an athlete holding on to two small dumbells weighing about twenty pounds each. They were performing biceps curls and again, the coach/trainer was encouraging the athlete to do them faster and faster.

At first I thought this was a program teaching people just a few more ways to train their muscles to get stronger. When I heard the host of the show state that these exercises were a breakthrough in speed training, I almost fell out of my chair.

With all due respect to these well meaning individuals, there is no way any of these exercises will ever make you faster. In fact, when you do these and other similar exercises, you should expect to get slower.

Here’s why:

Most people do not understand the complete definition of what a slow twitch fiber is. In case you are wondering, here it is:

“Slow twitch fibers are fibers that are responsible for the strength and endurance of a muscle only, and not the speed in which a muscle contracts. And a slow twitch response is defined as one where your muscles can undergo extensive repetitive contractions before fatigue, that is, before getting tired.”

Now this definition of a slow twitch fiber is not my definition, but rather, one that is taken directly from medical textbooks found throughout the world.

Now, you may have already known about the first part of this definition; that is, slow twitch fibers are responsible for the strength and endurance of a muscle and not it’s speed, but what about the second part that states that a slow twitch response is defined as one where your muscles undergo extensive repetitive contractions before fatigue?

What is the relevance of this statement? More particularly, what is the relevance of the phrase extensive repetitive contractions?

Well let me ask you a question;

What do all of the above-mentioned exercises have in common?

And, what do weightlifting and plyometric training have in common?

How about extensive repetitive contractions. Or, how about just, “repetitions”? Would you agree that all of the above mentioned exercises along with just about every other weight training and plyometric training technique are well known for putting your muscles through a lot of repetitions? The answer is: Yes.

So what does this mean? Well for starters it means any training routine that forces your muscles through repetitions, like weight training and plyometrics do, will by definition train your muscles for better strength and endurance, and not for speed. Or in other words, any training routine (like the ones shown on that TV program, plus weight training and plyometrics) involving repetitions is, by definition, primarily a slow twitch training program and not a fast twitch one.

Be advised: Fast Twitch Fibers – The Fibers You Rely On For Speed - Can Inadvertently Be Trained To Act Like Slow Twitch Fibers

And if you ever hope to become really successful at increasing your muscle contraction speed, then its extremely important that you understand this. Why? Because if all you ever do is weightlifting and plyometric training, or any similar routine involving a lot of repetitions, such as working out with medicine balls and jumping up and down off of white boxes, then not only will you be training your slow twitch fibers for better strength and endurance, but you will also be conditioning your fast twitch fibers to behave the same way.

This is because all skeletal muscles have both slow and fast mixed together, and you cannot separate them from each other and train them individually. They are always trained together and at the same time. And by weight training and plyometric training, which are primarily slow twitch exercises, like it or not, your fast twitch fibers get dragged into these exercises and then they start acting or behaving more and more like slow twitch fibers. This is great for your strength , but bad for speed. And this is why a lot of times, it is not uncommon to actually get slower after doing these types of exercises.

“Why Did I Get Faster After Doing Plyometric Exercises?”

Now I know some of you reading this right now might be thinking, “I don’t know if this is entirely true because I did get faster after doing plyometric exercises or weight training and some of those exercises mentioned in that TV program”. You may have done exercises such as running down the football field with a sled of weights or a parachute attached around your waist. Or you may have run the steps at the stadium, or maybe you did a lot of jumping up and down off of white boxes. These are all plyometric exercises and yes, I’ll admit it is possible to get a little faster by doing these types of things. Whenever you get stronger and increase your endurance at something, you can’t help but get a little faster. But how much faster did 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.

And I think its worth mentioning here that a lot times, what is perceived as getting faster with plyometric training and weight training is really nothing more than an increase in muscular coordination with that particular activity. And the thing to understand is that increasing your coordination is common to all types of training, not just plyometrics, and it will always give you the appearance of getting faster, but it is only the first step to increasing muscle speed. And so, with weight training or plyometric training, any increases in speed will always be secondary to increases in strength and endurance.


Why Extensive Repetitions is Ultimately Counterproductive To Making Your Muscles Respond Quicker

And so let me summarize for you what I have said so far.

Slow twitch fibers are responsible for the strength and endurance of a muscle and a slow twitch response is one where your muscles can undergo extensive repetitive contractions without fatigue.

Therefore, any training routine that involves a lot of repetitions is a slow twitch exercise program and good mainly for strength and endurance, not speed. This includes lifting weights, all plyometric exerices, running down a field with a weight sled or parachute attached to your waist, swinging a baseball bat with a weighted doughnut at the end, running with ankle weights, and any exercise where you try to perform a repetition faster and faster.

Also, since slow twitch fibers are mixed together with fast twitch fibers, they are always trained together and so not only does weight training and plyometric training condition your slow twitch fibers for strength and endurance, they also condition your fast twitch fibers to behave the same way.

This is ultimately counterproductive to speed training.

The only sure and pure way to train your muscles to get significantly faster is by using the resistance band with an isometric training strategy the way we teach it. And, the only place to find such a program is right here at AthleticQuickness.com.

Always glad to help.


And remember, at AthleticQuickness.com, “We’ll bring you up to speed!”

Dr. Larry Van Such