Gains for you slow-twitchers....

[mavsluva]

My body is made up of mostly slow twitch muscle. My current stats are as follows:

Age: 28
Height: 5'7
Weight: 162lbs
BF%: 10-11%
My most recent pics: http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...light=mavsluva

I've made several attempts over the past few years to put on lean mass and I've made minimal progress. I increased my daily caloric intake during these lean bulking phases by around 1000 cals and and altered my weight training regimen to include more weight and less reps while trimming back on cardio. I gained very little strength, which is okay with me. I did gain around 3-5lbs during a 4-6 week lean bulk, but I can honestly say that it wasn't muscle weight. I didn't look as good and I felt like poo with those additional lbs on me. Now my regimen consist of more cardio and less weight training mainly due to summer being here. The weird part is is that I'm finding myself to be stronger, even though I'm burning more calories.

Who here is challenged by their body composition being mostly slow twitch muscle and what have you done in the past to produce some good gains? I've come to realize that my body is truly at its peak and I may be stuck with what I have for the years to come. My diet and training regimen is my pride and joy and I'm extremely dilligent with it. I was a gymnast in my younger days and training my body that way for that long may hender my ability to grow much bigger due to the composition of my body.

Please chime in if you have any thoughts or experiences such as mine.

Grace and peace,
Mavsluva

[lzicc]

How do you know that your muscles are mostly slow twitch? Trial and error?

[S.P.G]

How do you know that your muscles are mostly slow twitch? Trial and error?

Word!!

Even the small muscle groups in your body have over 100,000 muscle fibers. A motor neuron is what stimulates our muscles to contract.

It carries impulses (messages) from our brain and spinal cord to our muscles. One motor neuron controls anywhere from 2-3,000 muscle fibers.

Personally i find it best to incorporate all rep ranges and speed from 6 to 20 - long rest short rest ect.

[mavsluva]

I do extremely well in activities that are very long in duration. For instance, I used to be a competitive gymnast. I've completed 4 marathons (with the last one being back in December of 2003). Completed 1 triathlon. To make a long story short, if it's a suffer festival, I'm great at it.

I no longer do those activities (excluding the gymnast stuff) now that I am and have attempted to build mass these past 2-3 years. I've put on about 5-10lbs of lean mass in my 3 years of training, but my strength has not really increased at all. For example, I can bench press 225lbs 8-10 times, but I can only lift 255-260 once or twice. I can bust out an iron cross for well over a minute on the olympic rings, but I cannot shoulder press more than 60lbs on each arm. I can dunk a soccer ball through a 10ft basketball hoop, but I can't squat more than 245lbs. See where I'm going with that? I continue to exel and improve in my overall physical abilities, but my size and strength stays exactly where it is currently as it has for the past 2-3 years. I've made a number of ball busting efforts to increase the weight that I lift along with the amount of calories that I eat, but my weight and size remains pretty close to the same.

With that being said, I really do feel that I'm at my physical peak. I'm kind of okay with that because there's a lot to be said for being able to do the things that you enjoy in life. But at the same time, I'd love to take it to the next level. I'm afraid that might result in the introduction of illegal synthetics, but since I'll never even entertain that approach, I guess I'll just have to be happy with what I have today.

[CoreyTampa09]

Dude you should be lucky that your able to maintain such a lean physique with overall being as physcially fit as you are. Me and you are complete opposities. I make the strength gains in the gym but my overall physique doesnt seem to change. I run my ass off and my fat deposits never seem to dissapear. I guess its just accepting what you were born with and keep going at it..even if your eventual goal is impossible. BUT HEY IT KEEPS ME GOING!