Could Slow Twitch Fibers have affected my squat proficiency?

[Mombow111]

I used to do a lot of running back in high school... typically 13 miles a day, 3-5 days a week... well long story short, I've been working out for 2 years and my squats just seems to lag. Particularly, when it comes down to 1 rep maxes, my bench was 10 lbs less than my squat, and they both were mid 300s. Could all of the running I did, still be affecting the fiber composition of my legs and if so, what should I do to rectify/train them efficiently (what is the furthest distance that I should be running)?

[BendtheBar]

Interesting question.

Not sure if this aids the discussion, but I was an avid runner for 14 years. I ran for cross country, pleasure, and played endless basketball.

I also performed a lot of step ups, which probably had the opposite impact of running,

[Mombow111]

I'm going to try cutting out all but 1 cardio session a week, and just do very short bursts of explosive training, like sprints, and pylometrics a few times a day and see how that works out. It's funny, I've developed a taste for explosive cardio like interval training as of lately seeing as it reminds me of weight lifting in the gym (plus the added bonus of being able to throw your body weight around I find is a little more entertaining and dynamic.

Actually I found a interesting article here Finding The Ideal Training Split | Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield which pertains to this subject. Do you find that working out bodyparts in different rep ranges to be effective? I know for instance- most people opt for higher rep ranges with calf muscles and such but I've never heard much about it for differences in the larger compound exercises.

[MikeM]

That was a very interesting article. However, I was a runner too in high school. Mile and cross country, and played soccer too. I don't think any of that has anything to do with my squat now. If anything, those hard core full leg workouts probably help me now adjust to heavy leg workouts as opposed to the average joe squatting and deadlifting after sitting at a desk all day long.

That said, I couldn't press for sh** ever in my whole life, but when I started doing push presses and cleans, all of a sudden I could static press way bigger numbers. I think activating the fast twitch fibers helped my slow twitch ones to make me stronger overall.

Bottom line, in my opinion, if you only train slow twitch static lifts, you are limiting yourself. If you add in dynamic lifts to add fast twitch to slow twitch fiber growth, then you maximize your ability.

Some of that thinking got Jimmy the greek fired, but I actually think he was onto something.

My .02

[big_swede]

Originally Posted by MikeM

Bottom line, in my opinion, if you only train slow twitch static lifts, you are limiting yourself. If you add in dynamic lifts to add fast twitch to slow twitch fiber growth, then you maximize your ability.

Some of that thinking got Jimmy the greek fired, but I actually think he was onto something.

My .02

I agree with this, when i added cleans and snatches into my regular workout, it had a great impact on the static lifts too.