MadSci Network: General Biology |
Well Ryan, since you are talking of theory, lets get to know a bit of theory as well. You might be knowing most of this, but still, i'll explain it to you once again. Our body muscles are of basically three types - striated or skeletal muscle, smooth and cardiac muscle. Skeletal muscles are the ones which we work upon in the gym. Smooth muscles are found in various organs of our body mostly the digestive tract. Skeletal muscles, on basis of their function can be divided into two - red or slow twitch fibres, and white or fast-twitch fibres. The basic difference being in the way they consume energy for working. Red muscle uses what is known as "oxidative metabolism" or aerobic ie energy is derived in the presence of oxygen. These muscles are capable of doing work at a slow and steady pace, such as muscles for posture. White muscles use anaerobic methods for energy production ie oxygen is not used. These are used in fast processes and tire out soon, as in sprinting. Our body muscles contain a proper balance of boh red and white muscle fibres, to be used as per condition. For example, while walking we use red muscle fibres, where as in a short sprint of about 100 metres, white muscle fibres are used. Now, when we work out in the gym, we are preparing or toning both these fibres, and so Donovan Bailey wont be tired at the end of his 100 mt sprint, whereas we will be. If we train properly, even we might not tire, and gain a lot of strength and stamina!!Enough to make others call us superhuman!!!! Also having an unbelievable amount of both fibre wont be of any help, since knives and bullets being sharp and having velocity, would pierce through the muscle, albeit to a lesser extent than normal muscle mass. But that's theory, and no even Arnold Schwarzenegger wont be able to stop bullets and knives except by dodging them or with an armour ;-) !!! If you want to know more about muscle fibres, visit this site: I got quite a bit of information from there. http://www.mfi.ku.dk/ppaulev/chapter2/Chapter%202.htm
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