When a muslce is rock hard, what type of fibre is it made up of?
For example, my stomach, and leg muscles literally feel like bone they are so hard (no jokes!), but my arms, back and chest always feel slightly spongy. BUT, I always train all body parts.
Is this because of the type of muscle fibre that predominates in that area?
My theory is that ‘slower twitch’ muscle fibre is harder and ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibre is softer, but with greater propensity to grow
My bullshit-theory- that-could-be-totally-wrong is I think that the harder muscles are the ones you use most during the day. Your ass, quads, hams, and calves move more than any muscle throughout the day, possibly. Lower back and abs seem to be the second most used… it seems what you’re talking about makes sence.
I could be wrong, but I thought abs were fast-twitch, which would put a hole in your theory. Granted, I don’t know what the actual reason is, but I would be inclined to agree with Podge that the ones you use most often are the ones that feel the most solid. Just my two cents.
I don’t either except that higher reps (10-12) make me gain size but sets of 4-6 tend to make the muscle firmer. In a periodization book I have it says that size gains from the high rep workouts are a lot of fluid and stuff and following up with a more intense low rep workout help to make the gains more permanent- more hard muscle.
Perhaps I should have added, that when I do train my legs they tend to get harder first then grow second…same with my abs…but, you guessed it, my pecs, back, arms tend to grow without really getting hard
Its an interesting question, and yes I think you guys are probably right…any experts out there??
I am not sure either, but I think its because of distribution of fat cells on an individual’s body. If my understanding is correct, there is no such thing as spot reduction, so even if you use a group of muscle a lot more than the others, it should not make them leaner.
i’m pretty sure the abdominals are mostly slow twitch,and i was under the impression that the muscle fiber makeup of the legs can be either predomialty fast twich or slow twicth depending on the individual and depending on witch leg muscle.I’m not an expert though,so don’t take my statements to be valid ,but I can throw up some theory’s why some muscle are harder then others,
maybe certain parts of the body have muscles that are just more dense then other?
could depend on the amount of bodyfat in the area?
there are many different types of msucle fiber maybe it is not just fast and slow,maybe one part of the body is more type 2b muscle fiber while another is more type 2a muscle fiber?
It doesn’t matter. And you should not want your muscle hard all of the time, it slows you down. The ideal is to be like a cat. Muscles complete relaxed until you need them then rock hard in a flash. Martial artists partice this. To make their muscles harder, they practice what are know as dynamic tension katas and iron shirt Chi gung. Alot of time is also spent making their muscle relax. Best of Luck.
Checkout Ian King’s article train right for your type. The abs naturally are slow twitch however steroid use can change that. Legs can be either but are usually both depending on person. This doesn’t explain the hardon though. Good luck.