Summary
Research article - Report
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Extract
Muscle fibre type composition and body composition in hammer throwers.
Introduction
Hammer throwing is a track and field event with high power demands (Zatsiorsky, 2005). Human muscle power is thought to be determined mainly by the fibre type composition of the protagonist muscles, the magnitude of the muscular mass, which defines muscular strength and the neuromuscular activation level during movement (Moritani 2005). However, there are no reports regarding the fibre type composition of the protagonist muscles of hammer throwers while there is only one report regarding the lean body mass of moderate-level hammer throwers (e.g. hammer throwing performance of 55.09 m, Morrow et al., 1982). Previous studies, concerning a related track and field event, the linear shot put throw, have revealed that lean body mass (De Rose and Biazus, 1978) as well as the neuromuscular activation level during the competitive throw (Terzis et al., 2007) are important for throwing performance in well-trained shot putters. In contrast, the fibre type composition of the gastrocnemius muscle could not predict shot put performance in elite shot putters (Costill et al., 1976; Coyle et al., 1978). Moreover, a recent case-study reported that a world-class shot putter possessed a relative low percentage of type II muscle fibres (40 %) in his vastus lateralis (Billeter et al., 2003). Taken together, these data suggest that the fibre type composition is less important in determining performance in a powerful event such as the shot put. However, there are no data regarding the fibre type composition in vastus lateralis muscle of high-cl...See the full content of this document
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