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The Science of Performance |
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Muscle Factors
I have termed my training program and the physiological beliefs supporting them “power running” because I believe that muscle factors are primarily responsible for endurance performance. This belief in the primacy of muscle factors stands in stark contrast to the long-held belief that the aerobic system is the dominant influencer of endurance performance.
I’ve written extensively about these muscle factors and the multiple research studies supporting my beliefs that muscles exert the most influence on endurance performance. To the best of my knowledge I have been the sole proponent of these ideas for the past few years. Today it appears I am no longer alone in promoting the influence muscle factors play in endurance performance. Quoting from Matt Fitzgerald’s recently published book, The Cutting-Edge Runner (1):
“Characteristic #4: Raw Speed The importance of raw speed to distance running performance is often underestimated. In fact, studies have shown that maximum sprint speed is a strong predictor of performance in distance running events. In other words, the fastest runners over long distances are typically also faster than other distance runners in short sprints. Clearly then, certain physiological characteristics that underlie raw speed are not incompatible with the fatigue resistance characteristics that are also critically important to distance runners…
…there are type I muscle fibers that are able to contract as quickly as some type II muscle fibers; it is likely that talented distance runners have a lot of these “fast slow-twitch fibers…
So it appears that fast distance runners have a nice blend of muscle fibers types that support raw sprint speed and fatigue resistance.”
The reason I think the information above is significant is because beyond the cursory "slow twitch / fast twitch ratio" contained in most lay publications on running, there is no discussion or reference to the role muscle plays in endurance performance. My observation has been that generally in most lay publications on running once the very minor discussion of the slow twitch / fast twitch part is done, just about any reference to muscle factors is then dropped so that the focus can then be directed to VO2max, lactate threshold, running economy, and how to best improve them. Even training terminology is aerobic/anaerobic biased. Additionally, when I've written about the influence of muscle on endurance performance on running forums the howls of protest and high volume of name calling that have resulted have led me to conclude that many runners are not only not aware of just how dominant a role muscles play in endurance performance, but that the idea that something else might play a more prominent role than the old aerobic/anaerobic model is repulsive and not to be tolerated. So, while this isn't a new revelation to some, I think it will be a revelation to quite a few others. The research supporting this has been around for quite a while, it just hasn't been included in any sort of significant way into popular dogma. Will the publication of this information about the influence of muscle factors on endurance performance open the floodgates? Will runners now recognize the important role muscles play in endurance performance with a coincident focus on confirming training methods that most influence these muscle factors? Only time will tell, but I personally find it encouraging that this information has finally been published by a well known publisher and has been made widely available to the running community.
1. Fitzgerald, M. The Cutting-Edge Runner, Rodale, 2005, pgs 12-14
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