Muscle Fiber Types and MMA, BJJ Training

There are three primary types of muscle fibers. Each type has different abilities. For mixed martial arts, MMA for short certain muscle fibers are more predominately used. By the use of proper training a person will condition those muscle fibers best geared towards BJJ and MMA fights.

MMA is a sport that relies on explosive power for punching, kicking and for going for take downs and submissions. The methods in which a person trains can go a long way towards a person achieving goals in this type of event. Even if a person is not a fighter or has desire to train in any martial art the ability to train correctly will enhance ones ability to do well.

Your muscle are made up of three types of muscle fibers; slow twitch (Type I), fast twitch (Type II), and there is a type that is a fast twitch type but has some limited endurance capability (Type IIb). Each muscle fiber type is trained differently than the other types.

The slow twitch fibers have little overall strength, however they have excellent endurance capabilities. These are the fibers that are mainly trained while doing high repetitions of exercises at slow speeds such as running for two miles.

The fast twitch fibers have almost no endurance capability, but they are strong and quick, and therefore important in speed and power. These are the types of muscle cells that are trained when lifting heavy weights for low reps (4-6 reps). Power-lifters when they train are training this muscle fiber type. Power-lifters can move tremendous amount of weight but they would likely have a difficult time exerting themselves continuously for several minutes due to fatigue setting in.

The Type IIb has strength and speed but also has a better endurance capability than the Type II. They do not have the endurance ability to the extent of the Type I, however. The Type IIb muscle fibers are the ones most important in a fight. If trained properly and enough they give the individual the ability to move and strike hard and fast repeatedly without fatiguing too rapidly. Having poorly conditioned Type IIb muscle fibers will leave a person depending upon the Type I fibers which are too slow and weak, and depending upon the Type II muscle fibers which will tire out far too quickly.

When training for an event that relies on a mixture of speed, power and endurance it is important to train each type of muscle fiber. This is done by a carefully planned conditioning program designed for bjj mma exercises geared towards competition.