Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers–What are They and How do They Help me Jump Higher

Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers: What Are They?

Fast twitch muscle fibers play an important role for launching the human body in the air. People are separated in two types when it comes to these muscle fibers. The first type is the person who is born naturally with a high density of these muscle fibers. Type two will have to work to gain a high density of them and makes up the most of the athlete population. However, it is possible. Here’s how.

To learn what fast twitch muscle fibers are, let’s look first at the three types of muscle fibers.

The three types of muscle fibers are listed below:

Fast twitch (Type IIa)

Fast twitch (Type IIb)

Slow twitch (Type I)

Slow twitch muscle fibers are resistant to fatigue but can’t produce a great amount of force. They contract slowly and can sustain the contraction for a pretty good amount of time and they are the ideal muscle fibers for endurance events.

Fast twitch IIb muscles are the most crucial in the vertical jump.  However, they fatigue quickly but can produce a great amount of force in a short amount of time.

Meanwhile, fast twitch type IIa is less important to someone’s vertical jump. These are recruited to a lesser degree in vertical jump training. They have less power than the type IIb but the don’t fatigue as fast as them. These are muscle fibers which fall between the two spectrums.

How will knowing the difference between slow and fast twitch help me improve my vertical jump?

There is a big number of vertical jump programs out there which focus on jumping endurance, not explosion. In essence, these programs train your body to recruit slow muscle fibers, instead of fast. This is where training can be harmful to your vertical jump instead of beneficial.

You may feel that the more frequent and harder you work , the more results you will see. But in actuality, every good personal trainer knows that both RECOVERY and EFFECTIVE training are essential aspects to athletic enhancement.

Training your endurance (slow twitch muscle fibers) for vertical jump training will not help your vertical leap, but longer. However, training your explosion and power (fast twitch muscle fibers), will benefit your vertical. Understanding how your body functions when you’re working out will help you understand why it is more important training your explosion than training your endurance in order to increase your vertical leap.