In this workshop, Dr. Cheung discusses new research studies from Belgium and Australia that investigated the relationship between muscle fiber-type density, high-intensity training, and an athlete’s risk for overtraining. The findings have significant ramifications for endurance athletes.
First, it was shown that there are different fiber-type ranges among world-class cyclists across different disciplines (road, MTB, track, etc.).
Second, evidence indicated that athletes with more fast-twitch fibers seemed to have slower recovery from high-intensity interval training (in the case of this particular study, multiple Wingate tests).
Finally, fast-twitch athletes seemed more prone to overtraining from large volume increases.
Dr. Cheung discusses what impact this has on how consistent you can expect to be in your interval sessions, how much time you need to recover, and the affect it can have on overall training load in relation to overtraining.
