The purpose of this investigation was to establish a relationship between the number of repetitions an individual can complete at a predetermined load and their percentage of type II muscle fibers in their quadriceps. Subjects included 22 untrained women between the ages of 18 and 35. Day 1 consisted of noninvasive anthropologic testing, 1 repetition maximum (1RM) testing, and recording repetition performance at 70% 1RM. Day 2 consisted of isokinetic dynamometry to determine muscle fiber composition. Results were obtained and analyzed using the Pearson product correlation coefficient (r). The results demonstrated a fair-to-moderate relationship (Pearson r = -0.48, p = 0.02) that individuals with greater percentages of type II muscle fibers performed fewer repetitions at 70% 1RM. The results of this study demonstrate that muscle fiber type composition is an important variable to consider when designing training or rehabilitation programs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.