Elite endurance athletes have a greater proportion of slow-twitch fibres in the leg muscles
Questions on this topic usually ask you to identify the type of muscle fibre being used as type I, type IIa or type IIb and then to list some characteristics of this fibre type. You also need to make sure you can justify why a particular fibre type is used (Table 1), e.g. a 100 m sprinter uses type IIb fibres because they produce a lot of force, conduct the nerve impulse quickly etc.
There are three main types of muscle fibre:
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