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I am currently in cross country since my schoool sucks and doesnt have a wait lifting class or anyhting else. I was wandering how detrimental could this be to my vaullting. Ive always been told that it is.

You have three types of muscle fibers....fast, slow, and intermediate....your fast and slow are set and there is nothing you can do to change them...the intermediate can be trained to be fast or slow......distance running will train you intermediate to become slow twitch fibers....more slow twitch means less explosive speed......so techinically it is hurting your run

I'd say running cross country is better than doing nothing at all!

I did it my senior year and it definitely helped my vaulting, but that is because I was very new to any kind of running, so running cross made me a better runner period. Oh yeah and I had no cardio fitness at all, so it gave me some of that.

Also, if you talk to your cross country coach about what your goals are, they might be willing to let you do somewhat shorter workouts that are more focused on speed.

As far as I know there are only two types of muscle fibres, commonly known as fast twitch and slow twitch. In fast twitch there are 2 subcategories which can sometimes cause confusion.

Through studies it has been shown that it is highly unlikely that fast twitch fibres can be converted into slow twitch, and vice versa, so this is not something that should worry you.

I good base of cardio is important for every vaulter, just check out the programmes of the top athletes and you will see that most of them include longer runs as part of their preparation period.

If it really worries you, get out and do some sprinting on your own to supplement the longer slower running.

the intermediate twitch muscles have properties of both slow and fast and they can be converted

There is no such thing as intermediate twitch muscle fibres.

Type I fibres are commonly called slow twitch as they take longer to contract and relax.

Type II fibres are commonly called fast twitch muscle fibres of which there are two major sub categories, type IIa and type IIb. Type IIa do have some of the fatigue resistant properties of type I fibres but are still fast twitch type II. It has been shown that through training transformations between sub-types is possible, i.e. IIb to IIa.

If you know of a study that shows type II can be converted to type I then I would love to see it otherwise I refer you to 'Essentials of strength training and conditioning' or any other recent text where the conversion of one type of fibre to another is referred to as highly improbable.

Paul

sounds similar...just different names.

PaulVaulter wrote:There is no such thing as intermediate twitch muscle fibres.

Type I fibres are commonly called slow twitch as they take longer to contract and relax.

Type II fibres are commonly called fast twitch muscle fibres of which there are two major sub categories, type IIa and type IIb. Type IIa do have some of the fatigue resistant properties of type I fibres but are still fast twitch type II. It has been shown that through training transformations between sub-types is possible, i.e. IIb to IIa.

If you know of a study that shows type II can be converted to type I then I would love to see it otherwise I refer you to 'Essentials of strength training and conditioning' or any other recent text where the conversion of one type of fibre to another is referred to as highly improbable.

Paul

I pulled out my Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioing book. On page 8, and 17-18 there is nothing about Intermediate fibers).....then I pulled out my Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Perfromance book. In this book intermediate fibers are defined.....just like scubastevesgirly said, they are the same thing....i just learned them as a different name......Type IIa fibers are know as intermediate fibers or fast-oxidative glycolytic fibers......in my first post i called them intermediate fibers.....then i got a little trigger happy in my second post and called them Intermediate twitch fibers (these dont' exist)......so we were thinking the same thing....just learned it differently.

I also did not mean to make it seem like type I and Type II can change. The type IIa fibers are extremely adaptable. Endurance training can increase their oxidative capacity to levels equal with type I.

Sorry bout the confusion

Not that any of this helped cross bar hopper, but its always good to get things cleared up. Its also sometimes difficult to get your point across in the right context without writing an almost essay length answer, and in shortening we end up with misunderstandings like this.

CrossBarHOpper:
After reading a similar post on another forum with regards to sprinters I have some more advice.

What would be most 'detrimental' would be running non-stop at a slow pace for miles and miles. What you could do is just join in the interval training sessions with the XC team and do sprints while they are knocking out their miles. If you are forced to do the long runs, treat them as intervals, sprint a bit then walk a bit, then sprint again.

Cross country won't ruin your vaulting career, but there are better ways to train for vaulting.[/b]

Well Put.