Which muscle type are you using?
Over the past month, I have learned something very interesting about the human body and more specifically about how fats and sugars are used to provide muscle energy.
As it turns out, we do not have a single type of muscles in our body. We have a very complex set of differing muscle fibers. Each of these muscle fibers has a specific purpose and function. Although there are many types of muscles we can more generally classify them into two main groups: fast-acting muscle and slow-acting muscle.
Fast-acting muscle is used for times when we need to react very quickly such as catching a falling dish in the kitchen or dodging a collision with a car or bike.
It is tied to what is known as the fight or flight reflex. This type of muscle is powered by simple sugars because of the need for the quick action and sugars' ability to be processed fast in our system. There are also other more common uses for the fast-acting muscles such as when you do fast-paced aerobic exercises such as Tae Bo or when a baseball player pitches a fastball or swings the bat for a home run.
Slow acting muscles are used for almost all of your normal functions such as lifting, walking, running, and even eating. This type of muscle uses fat for its energy source. The body converts the fat into simple sugars by a slightly lengthier process than just using the simple sugars directly.
So why do we have two different systems? The main reason revolves around the length of time that the muscle needs to be used. In the case of the fast-acting muscles, they are usually only used very briefly to accomplish a quick task. While for a slow-acting muscle most of its tasks will be a longer-term such as a 10-mile hike or a 1-hour meal. This is why the body is really good a storing fat and not so good at retaining sugar.
This brings us to an interesting point. If you are looking to lose weight which muscles do you think are best to use? In a lot of cases which muscles
do a lot of weight loss exercises have you using? Right, most experts are recommending high-energy exercises like aerobics but as we now know we are burning mostly sugar and not very much fat when we do this type of exercise.
So what is the best way to know which muscles we are using? One method is to monitor your heart rate. Keeping your heart rate at a moderate level will keep you using the slow-acting muscles. Dr. Phil Maffetone, a well know authority on running, .has developed a system for runners. He calls it the 180 formula. You subtract your age from the number 180 and this is approximately the max heart rate before you start burning sugar instead of fat. As every person is different the exact number may vary slightly. If you do not have a heart monitor another way to know if you are in the fat-burning zone is to just run at a comfortable pace. One way to tell is if you are not gasping for breath but can easily keep the pace then you are likely using the slow-acting muscles. For other types of exercise, you are best to make slower movements instead of fast-paced movements. Think more like yoga than TV aerobics.
As an interesting side note regarding this subject, I just completed reading a book called “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. It is the story of a group of native people in Mexico called the “Tarahumara” that are known for routinely running 100’s of miles almost effortlessly. The main reason they can accomplish this on very little food is that they can tap into their fat reserves. They run at a pace that keeps them using their slow-acting muscles and thus requires very little sugar intake until they can refuel. Note this book also has some great info on which shoes are best for running as well.
Also, you do not have to be overweight to have fat reserves. Even the skinniest person will have an adequate supply for even a long run like the Tarahumara who are trim and fit.
So the take away from this information is if you are interested in losing weight you are best to keep your exercises in the moderate zone.
Attached again, I have a few more recipes along with the articles by Dr. Phil Maffetone Also, I have another video recipe that I have demonstrated on making two