Originally posted by: Klixxer
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally posted by: Klixxer
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally posted by: Koing<BR>Black guys at altitude generally win middle and long distances because of where they live and altitude. They are born and raised with thinner air and this helps them out when they run races at lower altitudes. Also the other runners from lower altitudes suffer more at altitude.<BR>
<BR><BR>Actually I think it's genetics that provide a lot of "red muscle" slow-twitch muscle tissue which provide for longer endurance over fast-twitch (white tissue). But altitude has a lot to do with it too.
No, there is no genetical differences that makes anyone have any greater amount of either fast or slow twich muscle tissue, it is in training and diet, you could take one of them, feed them a bodybuilders bulk diet and have them train with heavy weights, short workouts with high intensity and they would have as much fast twitch as anyone else doing it.
Remember that the best bodybuilder of all times, Lee Haney, was black.
Altitude training is like blood doping, more red blood cells to bring the oxygen to the muscles will result in better endurance, there is no question if it works, it does.
Shhh, no honey, listen. Oxygen levels in blood play a major roll in maintaining prolonged activity while preventing the onset of muscular lactic fatigue, but in the department of overall stamina when dealing with two different types of muscular activity, slow and fast twitch muscles come into play a more major roll. And the percentage of slow and fast twitch muscle IS attributed to genetics.
A nice read for you.
Article
Human muscles contain a genetically determined mixture of both slow and fast fiber type. On average, we have about 50% slow and 50% fast fibers in most of the muscles used for movement...
... The genetic component of muscle fiber type can not be overlooked when it comes to performance. Olympic athletes tend to be genetically blessed with large variations in fast and slow twitch fibers that perfectly suit their sport. Olympic sprinters have been shown to possess about 80% fast twitch fibers while those who excel in the marathon may have 80% slow twitch fibers...
But by no means are you wrong about altitude training effecting performance, you're just over-estimating it.
Ok, excuse me if i was a bit unclear here, what i meant is that it is not determined by genetics in regards to race.
If not, everyone who trained the same way would reach the same results, it is a given that it is not like that.
However, something that is not so known is that you actually CAN produce NEW fast twitch muscle fibers by training in a specific way, not just make them bigger, heavy training CAN create new sattelite cells that will if the environment is right grow into a new muscle fiber. I don't think the same thing is possible with slow twitch fibers though.
I never said that altitude has extreme effects regarding performance, i just said that it DOES affect performance in the same way blood doping does, blood doping isn't really measurable for the same reason.
I read the article, and actually, what it says nothing of is whether they measured the amount of fibers or the weight when they came up with the ratios (at least i didn't see it) and everyone knows that short intense training WILL increase the volume of the fast-twitch fibers very fast so it is mostly uninteresting facts that i think we all already knew.
Fiber type alone is a poor predictor of performance, even among elite endurance athletes
From your article.
The most important part is of course training and diet, not genetics or altitude.
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