Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Muscle Fibers

Today in class we spent a lot of the time discussing how women are physically more disadvantaged than men. Some people argued that or society and how we bring up our young children is the reason for the physical differences. Others stated that it is biological that men are more physically gifted then women. Which is partly true because of the muscle fibers associated with our bodies. Everyone has two types of muscle fibers in their bodies, type I and type II. Type I are labeled as slow twitch muscle fibers which are commonly seen more in track athletes and swimmers because these muscle fibers are the muscles that can have much more endurance than type II. Type II muscle fibers are labeled as fast twitch muscle fibers that are seen in body builders, football, baseball, basketball, and other major sport athletes. These muscle fibers are more prevelant in men which is the reason it is easier for men to put on more muscle mass than women. Therefore, both types are in everyone however men have more of both than women and have much more of the type II than women have. But to answer a topic today, the reason the "times" of the track and field athletes for women are catching to the mens times does have to do with the training that is now more accessable to them but it is also because female athletes have enough type I muscle fibers to "hang" with the boys.

Bennett Grissom

kin 338I.S6

1 comment:

Kerrie Kauer said...

To be honest, I question a lot of modern science. Think about it, back in the days of pedestriannism doctors thought it was too much stress on the female body, and the physical exertion would render women incapable of reproduction. This wasn't speculation at the time, it was FACT. In my opinion, to think that we can scientifically prove things beyond the shadow of a doubt is a little naive, and in the case of the scientific community-arrogant. Science tends to leave little room for other possibilities, yet there are many things the scientific community cannot begin to explain. I wonder how many scientific FACTS of today will be laughed at in the next 20, 50, 100 years.

Ivy Chamness
KIN 338 sec 06