How accurate is muscle fiber testing?

[African_Triceps]

"Low reps.. heavy weight is the secret"
"wtf are u talking about... Med rep... avg weight is the secret"
"both of you are wrong... it's high reps... middle to low weight"

Ever hear this shit in the gym? Especially for calves!?

I'm not sure how many years it's been out now... But I guess they can test your muscle fibers for fast twitching / slow twitching per muscle.

That way you don't waste years trying to figure out how your muscle reacts to what... Anyway... Does someone have legit source information on studies done on this type of testing and pricing etc.

 

[bebop]

I've heard of this kind of testing. Yes it can be done. I'm no expert on this, but from what I've heard "it's pretty accurate" (but to what degree I don't). Also, apparently it's very painful. A muscle biopsy is someone cutting out a piece of muscle, ouch! I Hope I gave you a little more info.

 

[LT3]

listen bro, its not like they take a chunk of the muscle, they'll put a big syringe in your calf and cut a little muscle fibre from the calf and thats it. it does hurt obviously, but its not agonyzing pain. i know of a few people that did it, and its accurate. i know of a few universities where if you need a few extra bucks you can volunteer for a muscle biopsy (if any one is offering it) and they'll pay you to do it, so they can research the tissue.

 

[maldorf]

listen bro, its not like they take a chunk of the muscle, they'll put a big syringe in your calf and cut a little muscle fibre from the calf and thats it. it does hurt obviously, but its not agonyzing pain. i know of a few people that did it, and its accurate. i know of a few universities where if you need a few extra bucks you can volunteer for a muscle biopsy (if any one is offering it) and they'll pay you to do it, so they can research the tissue.

Yeah, I helped a professor at the univeristy I was studying at during my masters degree. The biopsy really isnt that bad, although I never had one taken myself! The guys we took samples from did not seem to experience too much pain. My job was to look at the slides in the scope and count muscles cells by their types. Each type stains a little different. One thing that most people do not realize is that muscle cells are not really just fast glycolytic and slow oxidative. The cells exist in a continuum, like the spectrum of light does, things are not so simple. One amazing thing the study showed was that muscle cells changed their "type" after training, but then went back to their original status once detraining happened.