Distance runner Paula Radcliffe has won dozens of long-distance races and held the women's world record for the marathon since 2003. Scientists, trainers, and athletes alike have wondered about the extent to which muscle structure and function contribute to success in athletes such as Radcliffe.
What makes elite distance runners so good?
Are their muscles somehow different from those of less successful athletes and non-athletes?
Predict who would likely have a greater proportion of fast glycolytic fibers in their gastrocnemius (calf) muscle—an elite distance runner or an elite sprinter. Explain.

Question

Distance runner Paula Radcliffe has won dozens of long-distance races and held the women's world record for the marathon since 2003. Scientists, trainers, and athletes alike have wondered about the extent to which muscle structure and function contribute to success in athletes such as Radcliffe.

What makes elite distance runners so good?

Are their muscles somehow different from those of less successful athletes and non-athletes?

Predict who would likely have a greater proportion of fast glycolytic fibers in their gastrocnemius (calf) muscle—an elite distance runner or an elite sprinter. Explain.

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone, welcome back, let's look at the next problem here. It says a sprinter usually has a blank proportion of blank muscles. Let's recall for more content videos, that there's two types of muscle fibers the fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers and the fast twitch muscle fibers rely mainly on anaerobic respiration, which is fast but inefficient, generating less 80 P per molecule of glucose. And so that's good for um short bursts a fast muscle movement but can't be sustained over long periods of time. The slows twitch muscle fibers depend mainly on aerobic respiration, which is slow with great oxygen needs but can be substation and over long periods of time. So good for exercise that involves a lot of endurance. So when we think about sprinters, we can assume that they need a high proportion of fast twitch muscles or a low proportion of slow twitch muscle for muscle fibers. So we'll put high nearby fast twitch and low by slow twitch. And sprinters need to put on a burst of speed that isn't sustained for that long. So let's look at choice A here Choice A says a large proportion of slow twitch muscles. Well that's not correct. We need a lower proportion of slow twitch choice B says high proportion of fast twitch muscles. Well that is our correct answer, we'll go ahead and highlight that, but just for thoroughness sake, go through here, Choice C. Says low proportion of fast twitch so incorrect since we need a high proportion of fast twitch and finally choice D substantial portion of slow twitch muscles. Again, we want more of the fast twitch muscles, so Choice D. Is not the answer. So again, a sprinter usually has a choice be high proportion of fast twitch muscles. See you in the next video.

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Key Concepts

Muscle Fiber Types

Gastrocnemius Muscle Function

Athletic Performance and Muscle Composition