- What's going on Jigsaw land, it's Thomas DeLauer.
When it comes down to making sure
that you're recovered and making sure
that you're getting the most out of your workouts,
it's important that we know what
kind of muscles you're actually activating.
So in this video, I wanna give you
a little bit of a low down on the Type 1,
Type 2a, Type 2b muscle fiber types
and how you might be training to aid
a specific muscle fiber type.
So let's get right into it.
Type 1 is a slow-twitch muscle.
What that means is that it has a
very low force output but has a lot
more in the way of endurance capabilities.
So it has the ability to create energy
for a long period of time.
Now a slow twitch muscle fiber is
usually very red in color if you
were to look at it with a muscle biopsy test.
Simply because it has high amounts
of what are called myoglobin bit it also
has a high amount of blood flow
and a high amount of oxygen.
You see that slow twitch muscle
utilizes the aerobic pathway for energy.
It's not using carbs, it's using fats
via beta oxidation.
What does that mean?
It means that those slow twitch muscles,
the endurance muscles use fat as a source of fuel,
which means that the fat has to combine
with oxygen from the air that we breathe
that gets carried in the blood in order
to actually create energy.
Hence why, Type 1 muscle fibers
are much more red and have much more blood flow.
Because they need the oxygen, they need
the blood to actually create energy.
Unlike a muscle that requires strictly
carbohydrates in a chemical process
to create energy.
Now because as oxygen reacts in the
mitochondria to create energy, we also find
that we high levels of mitochondria
in these slow twitch muscle fibers.
And if you've done a low carb diet
or a ketogenic diet or you've watched
some of my videos, then you know
mitochondrial efficiency improves
when you're in ketosis.
Well, it would make sense that when
you're on a low carb, high fat diet
you have a lot more endurance.
You don't fatigue as much because the
mitochondria can actually process it
a lot easier.
Okay, so now, let's talk about Type 2 fibers.
Because as you start to increase intensity
of your workouts, you're gonna start
to recruit more of the Type 2
muscle fibers that you have, but we have
two different kinds of Type 2.
We have Type 2a and Type 2b.
Type 2a is sort of the intermediary, okay.
It can do partially aerobic and partially anaerobic,
which in my opinion is pretty darn cool.
It has the ability to flip flop back and forth.
It has the ability to provide you with endurance
function of the muscle, allowing you to say
run middle distance, like the 800 meter run
or the one mile run.
But it also has the ability to give you a lot of power.
Now, the caveat is it fatigues very fast.
So, it's lot like a Type 1, in that it's a
relatively low force output but it can also
go really, really high force output.
But in both cases, it fatigues pretty fast.
A good example of when you're using
a Type 2a muscle fiber is when you're doing
like an 80 to 90% workout or maybe
you're doing a crossfit style workout
where you're combining endurance
with anaerobic but you're not really
pushing the envelope like you would
be with power lifting.
That's where Type 2b comes in.
Type 2b is strictly anaerobic.
There's very little blood flow
and there's not very red in color
because it doesn't have amounts
of myoglobin and it doesn't get
a lot of oxygen.
It is strictly anaerobic, which means
it's creating energy and creating
force from carbohydrates.
Now, a lot of you watching my channel
probably follow a ketogenic or a fasting lifestyle
and you're probably wondering, well shoot,
can I have strength and power
without carbohydrates in this case?
And the short answer is, well,
you're body's always gonna find carbohydrates.
It's always going to make them no matter what.
So you always will have a little bit
of force output with your Type 2b.
So you don't have to worry about that.
So that leads me into the next part.
Can you shift a muscle fiber into a different
kind of muscle fiber, depending on how
you're training or how you're eating?
Well, yes and no.
So, there's actually some studies to back this up.
In fact, there was a study that was published
in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning
Research that wanted to look at just this.
They wanted to look at the effect
of training and how it would change
given muscle fiber types.
Well, the short answer is what they found
is that you can't shift from Type 1
muscle fibers to Type 2 but you can
very easily shift from Type 2a to Type 2b
depending on the type of training that you're doing.
So, what can we conclude from this though?
Well, depending on how you're eating
and what you're doing with your
given lifestyle in terms of your workouts,
you can dictate how your body's
gonna utilize these.
If you're not in ketosis, it might be
a good time to focus on recruiting
a little bit more of the Type 2b.
Allowing yourself to become stronger.
Allowing yourself to do a little bit more
in the way of power movements.
But then, when you go into a more
ketogenic lifestyle, then you wanna focus
more on your Type 2a, meaning doing
the intermediary stuff.
You don't have to go hardcore just
into endurance work, but you can
go in to a little bit more 80%
workouts where you doing kind of half way
between anaerobic work and half way
between aerobic work.
It's a lot of what I do now.
So focusing on the higher repetition range
but still keeping cardio involved too
so you're leveraging the power that you get
from a ketogenic lifestyle or a low carb diet
but still also keeping that Type 2b portion
a little bit alive by still incorporating
the strength work.
What's interesting, what that study had found
you don't ever increase the amount
of muscle fibers that you have
but you do increase their size.
So for example, if we are born
with 50% slow twitch and 50% fast twitch,
you're never going to be able to make yourself
have more fast twitch.
But you are going to allow those
fast twitch muscles to become bigger.
You're not gonna have hyperplasia
where you're actually creating more muscle fibers.
So for example, some people are born
with a little bit more of one another.
So it depends on what kind of athlete you are.
Some very gifted endurance athletes
might be born with something more like
70% slow twitch and 30% fast twitch.
Doesn't mean that they can convert
that extra fast twitch that they have
at 30% over to slow twitch or vice versa.
They can't take 20% of their slow twitch
and make them more fast twitch.
But they can shrink or enlarge a
given muscle fiber type depending
on how they train.
So, although it's not the answer
that you're probably looking for,
you can't go from an endurance athlete
to being a perfect strength athlete.
You can find that middle ground
by leveraging the power of a Type 2a
muscle fiber, which means train in that zone
where you're doing a little bit of both.
A little bit of strength training,
little bit of endurance work.
(uptempo music) And of course,
recovery is the most important thing of all.
Whether you're training heavy,
whether you're training light or whether
you're running a marathon, you wanna
make sure that you're getting the minerals
that you need, so that's why always an
advocate for Jigsaw's Mag SRT and if you click
on the link, of course, you can learn more
about how that can change your life,
change your workouts, but also just make you
a healthier person all around.
We'll see you soon.
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