And I was off!

In my brand-new Nike Free’s, with my IPod bumping to some new Chamillionaire.

I made a left out of my driveway as I began my first jog in more than 3 years (but I then quickly stopped because I had an undeniable urge to write this article)…

Why has it been 3 years?

Well, you see, for the previous 3 years, I had been training for speed.

And contrary to popular belief, running or jogging for long-distances has no place in a real speed training or vertical jump training program.

I’ll explain…

Let’s start with your muscle fibers.

Your muscle are made up of tons and tons of these fibers that contract and allow you to move, run, jump, dive and even throw turtles.

But, not all of your muscle fibers are the same.

There are actually different types of fibers running through your body, and everybody has some percentage of these different fibers.

While there are more than just these 3, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus only on these 3:

• Type I fibers.
• Type IIA fibers.
• TypeIIB fibers.

Your Type I fibers are commonly referred to as the “slow-twitch” fibers.

They are smaller than both Type II’s, contract slower and are fueled by oxygen for the most part, which is also why they are endurance-based and can go on for a long time without fatiguing.

Your Type IIB fibers are your major “fast-twitch” fibers.

They’re bigger, contract explosively and are fueled by ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

So, while they are the most powerful fibers around, they also fatigue the fastest.

And then your Type IIA fibers are somewhere in between Type I and Type IIB.

So, back to running, training for speed/explosiveness, and why I don’t mix the two.

Your body is an adaptive machine.

Whatever you throw at it, it will try and adapt to.

This is the basis for weight training and making your muscles bigger.

By lifting weights everyday, you’re telling your body it needs to get stronger so you can handle the weights easier and more efficiently.

So, it responds by laying down more muscle fibers (making you stronger and bigger in the process).

Armed with this omni-present adaptive capabilities, when you start jogging around at a medium pace for long distances, your body starts to see that this is what it needs to adapt to.

It starts converting your Type II fibers, or the ones that are more explosive-based to Type I fibers (this is its way of adapting to the long distance running).

So, let’s take a step back and look at this:

Type I fibers- Slow-twitch, endurance-based and if you have a lot of these, you’re not going to be very explosive, but you will be able to run for long-distances at an average pace for a long time.

Type II fibers- Fast-twitch, explosive-based and if you have a lot of these, you’re going to be very fast and explosive.

And if we know that when you start running for long-distances, you’re body will adapt to it by taking on a more slow-twitch profile, then we also know that if you start running for long-distances, you’re going to get SLOWER.

And then your speed will suffer.

And we also know that if you do a lot of sprinting and explosive-related training, then your body will adapt to that by taking on a more fast-twitch profile, making you run faster and jump higher.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

If its speed and explosiveness you’re going for in your training, then it would behoove you to avoid running long-distances (aka jogging) for the most part.

Once in a while won’t hurt you; everyday will.

And now, I got to get back to my jog. I’m not necessarily training just for speed anymore, so I’m allowed to go running every once in a while, ya dig?

About the author:

Alex Maroko is a Certified Personal Trainer and former college athlete. You can read his most recent ramblings and thoughts at his speed training blog.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.