From another thread:
> I have no interest in short distances since I have no fast-twitch fibers to speak of.
It's been decades since I was a physiology student, but I have to wonder if fast twitch fibers would be really all that useful to swimming, even to the short sprints. Maybe for 25s. I would think that larger cross sectional area of the swimming musculature (more available power) and the ability to recruit more muscle fibers simultaneously (using a larger fraction of the power on tap) would be more important for sprinting. Are there published studies which demonstrate that drop dead sprinters have a significantly different distribution of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers than the rest of the swimming population?
I can't explain Dara except that maybe she missed her true calling, but this does explain why you're able to blast from the 50 to the 1650.
Odd, I just watched a video on Dara Torres this weekend where she herself says that only her results and one other teammate were 75% fast twitch and the others were closer to 50/50.
It's somewhere in this mess: http://youtu.be/lQsdJiT1OQM
If I have time later I'll find the correct spot.
I can't explain Dara except that maybe she missed her true calling, but this does explain why you're able to blast from the 50 to the 1650.
Odd, I just watched a video on Dara Torres this weekend where she herself says that only her results and one other teammate were 75% fast twitch and the others were closer to 50/50.
It's somewhere in this mess: http://youtu.be/lQsdJiT1OQM
If I have time later I'll find the correct spot.
