How To Get Your Muscle Back

How To Get Your Muscle Back
If you're like most people, you're ignoring 60 percent of
your muscle - and may even have lost it by now...

You may be lifting weights, doing bodyweight exercises,
running on the roads and trails or the treadmill, pedaling
your heart out, stepping endlessly on some cardio
machine… even if you’re doing all of this
training, you may still be missing out.

Truth is, after our teens or early twenties, most of us
quit doing high intensity sprinting and jumping. This is a
huge mistake. Here's why:

You see, there are actually 3 different types of muscle
fiber in your body. The first is slow-twitch or Type I and
it makes up about 40% of your total muscle tissue.

The other two types are both fast twitch fibers and
together make up about 60%. Type IIa is just called
fast-twitch. Type IIx is called super-fast.

Now here's the scoop. When you stop doing fast, explosive
type training, you lose fast twitch muscle fiber. If you
don't do any of this training, you are ignoring 60% of your
muscle tissue. Ouch.

Even if you do slow cardio, long distance running,
non-explosive strength training, etc. you're only
maintaining the other 40%. You're letting the other half
(+) simply waste away.

So, how can you avoid this atrophy?

Well, the good news is that you can stop the loss of muscle
tissue - and even gain it back. Yes, actually reverse the
muscle loss.

And the best way to do it is to run sprints (to develop
Type IIx muscle) and do explosive plyometric type movements
(to get back your Type IIa)

But, wait you say... aren't sprinters ignoring the
slow-twitch 40%? Well, it turns out that they’re
not. Studies show that sprinters generally have more
overall muscle (including slow twitch) and a much higher
percentage of super-fast twitch. Doesn't seem like their
training is creating fast twitch fibers at the expense of
slow twitch.

So, when you’re ready to get back to working your
fast fibers, increase your intensity gradually so you
don’t put yourself at risk for injury. But, if you
do it smart, you can boost your fast twitch muscle tissue
(and ultimately your total muscle tissue) no matter what
your age or what shape you’re currently in.

Remember too that more muscle tissue means a higher
metabolism... you'll be burning more calories and fat -
even when you're just sitting around.

Anyway, if you've been ignoring a large part of your muscle
by avoiding high intensity exercise, then I'm sure this
advice won't fall on deaf ears. Start getting your muscle
back NOW. Reverse the old-aging and the middle-aging
processes. Start sprinting and jumping right away.

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Tim Alan Kauppinen, or Coach K, has over 20 years
experience as an athlete and coach. He has developed
champion athletes across multiple sports through speed
training, strength improvement and conditioning. Coach K
is the author of the Uphill Fitness Training, and publishes
a FREE daily training email newsletter. Tim can be
contacted through his website at http://www.makesyoufast.com