You have two types of muscle fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch. Where your slow twitch fibers help you engage in physical activities that tend to be lighter intensity with a longer duration, like when you are running a marathon, your fast twitch fibers help you when you need a burst of speed, such as when you are sprinting toward the finish line. Fast twitch muscle fibers are also important for competitive body builders who lift extremely heavy weights.
What can you do to increase your fast twitch muscle fibers so you have more speed, no matter what your sport of choice? Here are three extremely effective exercises that will give you great results:
#1: Explosive Box Jumps
You can purchase box sets of varying heights, allowing you to increase the height as you increase the strength of your fast twitch muscle fibers. Just make sure that when you jump, you put all of your muscles and energy into leaving the floor and landing on top of the box or platform. The more explosive your movement, the greater your results.
#2: Sprints
Another effective exercise for boosting your fast twitch muscle fibers is to do sprints. Simply place some training marker cones on the ground at various distances and run to them as fast as you can before running back to your starting point. As you get stronger and faster, set up more cones to increase your fast twitch fiber power.
#3: Explosive Squats
The third most effective exercise for your fast twitch muscle fibers is something called an explosive squat. This involves lowering yourself into a squatting position and then jumping up as fast and as far as you can. You can even hold dumbbells to enhance the effect.
Do these three exercises and you will see advances in your short-term speed and force. What exercises do you do to improve your fast twitch muscle fibers?
