Originally Posted by
FinkFloyd
I have read many times that the following matters relevant to track cycling are essentially fact:
1. Athletes in general, and track sprinters in particular, are born and not made; you need to have picked your fast-twitch parents well.
This is actually not true. There is a significant and measurable amount of fiber type switching due to training. Dr. Andy Galpin is a field-leading researcher in this very phenomenon.
Originally Posted by
FinkFloyd
2. A preponderance of fast-twitch muscle fibres are needed to make someone a good sprinter.
This is true
Originally Posted by
FinkFloyd
3. Anyone can improve through training and practice, but having the wrong genes will essentially be a hard ceiling on things like this.
Again, if you can convert fiber types, there's probably some genetic ceiling we all have, but it's not a given from just looking at your untrained fiber makeup. Some one who is born on a farm and grew up moving hay all day gains a very large advantage because of something call "epigenetics". Your training history, your lifestyle, etc. all help determine your epigenetics and thus help determine your future potential.
Originally Posted by
FinkFloyd
My question, therefore, is this: is there any way of finding out? I'm assuming that there is a method of analysing an athlete's body (besides anecdotally in terms of how they respond to training) to work out whether they are ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph, and what sort of fast/slow twitch ratio they have. Obviously, in some ways, it doesn't matter; you play the hand you're dealt and you go as fast as you can, and if you aren't genetically blessed, that's no reason to give up on a sport that you enjoy. On the other hand, it is something I find interesting from an analytical point of view - does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
You can get a muscle biopsy and have your fiber type and percentage make up calculated/measured/analyzed.