Muscle Fiber Perspective

by Nick Voulanas
(malvern east)

I think what is not mentioned is fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. They both develop in response to a different stimulus, and the proportion or percentage of one can also be changed.

Dependant on what the athlete is trying to achieve, then modify the training.
The early gains in strength and I suppose jumping is due to neural adaptive changes ie the recruitment of muscle fibers staring to work efficiently.

After this initial stage of say 3 months, hypertrophy begins to occur. The cross section of a muscle is directly proportional to its strength and power output.

With this increase in size comes increase in weight. The increase in weight will start to work against the ability to create momentum. So I expect the graph to be bell shaped with weight and strength.

Once a point is reached- further strength gains with the natural weight gain will start to work negatively on dynamic torque production.

VerticalJumping.com Response: Hi Mick, thanks for your comment. Some interesting points you make but there are a couple of things that need to be addressed.

Firstly the cross sectional size of a muscle is not directly proportional to its power output.

While a larger muscle certainly has the potential to generate more strength and power it is the CNS that sends the signals to fire the muscles quickly that generates the power, not the size of the muscle.

Cheers

Jack