By, Trey Lundquist and Jacob Graves

What Makes Athletes so Advanced?

Muscle Fibers• The body is made up two kinds of muscle fibers. Fast twitch

and slow twitch• The average person has about 50% fast twitch and 50% slow

twitch muscle fibers.• Advanced athletes have about 70% fast twitch and 30% slow

twitch muscle fibers.• Fast twitch fibers are 10 times faster than slow twitch fibers.http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:10511642&startTime=01:07

Muscle fiber functions• Slow twitch- these fibers are more efficient at using

oxygen to generate more fuel, for extended muscle contractions over a long time

• Fast twitch- these fibers are much better at generating short bursts of strength or speed. They use anaerobic metabolism to create fuel. They fatigue quickly because no oxygen is being used.

Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber Slow Twitch Muscle Fiber

Exerted force• Force = mass x acceleration• In football athletes can exert up to 3,000 pounds of force with

a hit.• While average people can only exert about 1,000 pounds of

force.• http://

espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:7636553&startTime=02:00

Body Fat• The average male has 18-24% body fat.• Elite male athletes have 6-13% body fat.• Some fat is needed in the body such as

essential fat.• The average in men is 2-5%.

Cardiovascular Fitness• Cardiovascular fitness – The ability of the heart and lungs to

supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscle tissues.• Advanced athletes have better cardiovascular strength than

average people.• Lots of elite athletes gain cardiovascular strength by running

for long amounts of time.• It increases metabolism, which means they lose more body

fat.

Strength• Athletes need more strength than the average

person in order to perform at a higher level.• The strength of the athlete, most of the time,

depends on their weight.• Male athletes, generally, bench press 300-500

pounds. • Now days, there is medication that makes you

stronger faster and easier.

Strength (cont.)• A steroid is one example of one of these

medications.• It has nothing to do with genetics.• Genetics also has something to do with how

elite an athlete can be.• if your parents were good athletes than there

is a good chance that you will be.

So what does make athletes so advanced?

• A lot of it has to do with genetics.• It is sort of like evolution.• There are artificial ways to become more

advanced like steroids.• Also advances in science have created new

techniques and new training exercises.