Dreams

When I woke up this morning I was already debating the merits of my current exercise plans; even before I rolled out of bed. As you can tell, I’m not a dedicated fan of exercise, yet once I begin, I’m quite good at it. It’s the “beginning” that is so darn difficult.

I’m sure it’s my personality type that dictates this behavior. You see, I’m a very impatient person at heart. I want things to happen right now; because I have other things to do…even if those other things are simply thinking about things to do. Also, I really dislike constraint of any kind, and exercise is certainly that.

Jill told me the other day that a friend of hers, a Boston Marathon runner, had expressed some concern about her doing a walking marathon, “How can you stand to walk that long? Running it is bad enough.” In her mind, a runners mind, it’s the time spent in the activity, not the activity itself that is important.

I have a runner’s mind and a walker’s body. Simple. What I mean by a walker’s body is that I have more of the slow twitch muscle fibers than fast twitch muscle fibers. I understand that this is genetic and although you can work on muscle development, some things won’t change. If you weren’t born a sprinter…it’s very difficult to become one!

Fast Twitch Muscles. The purpose of this type of muscle is to provide rapid movement for short periods of time. Fast twitch muscles do not use oxygen - they use glycogen. Reactions using glycogen require anaerobic enzymes to produce power. Glycogen is stored in the muscles and liver and is synthesized by the body using carbohydrates. There are also two types of fast twitch muscles. These two types of fast twitch muscles will function during moderate and maximum muscle effort. Fast twitch muscles provide you strength and speed.

Slow Twitch Muscles. As their name indicates, these fibers have a slower contraction time. Slow twitch muscles use oxygen for power and have a predominance of aerobic enzymes. These types of muscles are large muscles found in the legs, thigh, trunk, back, hips and are used for holding posture.

Muscles change and develop with regular exercise but the effects differ, depending on whether you engage in strength, speed, or endurance training.

Strength and burst training cause the muscle fibers to enlarge. Individual muscle fibers increase in diameter as a result of an increase in intracellular protein fibrils.

Endurance training causes more blood vessel formation than does speed or strength training, which produces an increased capacity for aerobic metabolism within the muscle cell. This change is seen after a few weeks of training and is maximized in about three months. The aerobic enzymes that metabolize carbohydrates, fats, and proteins double.
It is important to develop your strength and speed systems, but if you want to continue past about two minutes of high intensity workouts, you need to have your aerobic systems developed.

In high school I was on the track team for awhile, until asthma took me out. And I tried out for various events, hoping to find the perfect one for me. In my mind, I could see myself leading the pack in a dash. Breaking the tape while adoring fans screamed. In actuality, I was dead last in a dash. As it turned out, my event was the 440, and the coach recommended that I try out for the cross-country team. Slow twitch muscles had done it to me; ruining my dreams of fame and glory as the sprinter of the century.

Where was I? Oh, yes…debating my exercise plan. I guess it will be the park today, and at midday. I will need some water for sure!