Super Muscle – Can you build it?

If you’ve been around the iron game around I’m sure you’ve read that everyone comes with genetic predisposition of muscle fibers. Red fibers for endurance, white fibers for strength, etc. use to be the entire thought on muscle fibers was that it was either slow twitch or fast twitch. You were either real strong, or real fast, but neither the twain shall meet.

However recently research has shown that there are subtle muscle types and that they can be modified. I.e., muscle types which while it remains its own individual type will take on the qualities of other fiber types if you train for it. Actually that’s sort of a “Duh,” science moment. I mean – what you train for specifically is what you get out of life: If you train for health you get health, if you train for strength you get strength, if you train for endurance you get endurance. However at one time it was thought that you could be either one or the other, but never be both.

I believe I’ve come to some of the conclusions of how to get there, that you can be both incredibly enduring and incredibly strong. How can you do this? Can you change your muscle fiber types? If you’re very strong, but lack the ability to run across the parking lot without falling apart? Can you fix that? If you’re very enduring but can’t lift a sack of groceries can you fix that?

Obviously you can fix all of these things, but I’m talking about really an upper level of performance. I’m talking about the ability to go from doing any kind of aerobic or muscular endurance type exercise for long periods of time with incredible performances there and the ability to lift incredibly heavy things together at the same time. Not individually, not at different phases throughout the year, I’m talking about both at the same time.

Can you get that? Is it possible? I believe it’s completely possible and the molding of fiber types to do what you want them to do is to a significant extent within your control. So how do you do it? It’s actually pretty simple. You train for it.

Now there are certainly ways to make it maximize which I think I’ve found several of, but here are a couple of the keys. You have to train very heavy with repetition on several things. It’s simple. If you never do the power stuff, never get the maximum power strength exercises you’ll simply never build that ability into your muscles whether it comes naturally to you or not.

You have to do explosive endurance work. Now I believe that certainly any endurance work you do long slow distance style will produce endurance but it won’t produce the kind of endurance most people really want. That’s the ability to go hard for long periods of time not the ability to simply cruise for long periods of time. I believe it will interfere if you over do it with your maximum strength so if you do repetitive explosive long term training and especially if you mix it with heavy endurance training both in multiple formats one of which is to mix it into your actual individual workouts for instance five minutes of sets of kettlebell swings followed immediately by one to two heavy lifts repeated for a pre-set period of time is one of the secrets to building that particular super muscle. Building fiber types that are super strong and super enduring all at the same time.

Are you doing that in your training? For now be sure to get the Twisted Conditioning books as I’ve been telling you how to do this for years. Soon we’ll have my latest and greatest findings…