Women Tumbling and muscles

[gymgurl]

Okay so I went to the physio a couple of days ago for some pain in my lower leg and it had to do with a muscle being over worked and poor alignment. She also brought up an issue i never thought i had. My quads (only on one leg) are incredibly weak. Being one of the strongest tumblers in the gym I would never have though me of all people would have this problem. So my question is:

When tumbling what gives you more power muscle or technique?

I tumble with a lot of power as long as its a tumble row. comes to anything standing i.e. standing back tuck, i struggle. Could this be because I have good technique and weak quads?

 

[iwannacoach]

Technique over strength any day.....unless your name is Clark Kent.

 

[BlairBob]

Well, of course it's easier to tumble bigger skills from a run and hurdle. Momentum.

Lack of a standing back generally related to Lower body strength/power from a standstill.

Power comes from EFFICIENT technique besides proper physical preparation (strength). Well, it also has do with neuromechanical processes such as adaptation to stimuli (think plyometrics).

If you body is not strong enough in certain positions, it will just lose the "shape" or collapse when you are moving say through a back handspring series to layout off the floor.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

slow muscle twitch.

 

[gymgurl]

slow muscle twitch.

Dunno you are going to need to elaborate on that one are you trying to say i can't do standing back tucks etc because i have slow muscle twitch?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

you stated that you do fine in a "tumble row" which i interpret to mean a round off into a series of back handsprings and something at the end...like a layout. linear force and angular momentum are present when more that 1 thing is done in a row.

when you do something standing we call that static. there is no linear force or angular momentum present. you must generate power for a standing back just from the arm swing and then the push from your legs. all things being equal like height, weight, power coming from strength/weight ratio, anthropometric measurements, etc; if 1 gymnast is slow twitch and 1 fast, the fast will win out in overall performance due to the muscle fibers "firing" faster than that of the slow twitch athlete.

without seeing you do the standing back tuck, and you stated that you "struggle", i am making an educated assumption that you are slow twitch.

to answer your question: muscle twitch and strength weight ratio (SWR) and excellent biomechanical techniques (precise and refined movement patterns and body positions) all contribute to create "power" or energy stored if you will.

 

[BlairBob]

Gymgurl, to tack on a bit to what Dunno has said, everyone has a blend of slow and quick twitch muscle fibers.

In fact certain muscles in your body sometimes have more slow twitch muscle fibers than other muscles.

Genetics probably has something to do with the amount of type IIb quick twitch muscle fibers but our bodies will transform muscle fiber from type I (slow twitch) to type IIa/b. A lot of this has to do with what we do with our bodies (training or tv surfing).

Understanding Muscle Fiber Type

Many athletes, especially in gymnastics tend be quad dominant. Most people will also have one side slightly stronger than the other. This is especially common when it comes to a sport that uses one side more than the other. Gymnastics tends to be fairly ambidextrous but generally you tumble off one leg that becomes stronger over time. Other sports will use one side more than the other and be strength dominant on that side (golf, baseball, shotput, basically everyone out there that uses a weight shift or implement).

Bottom line, get stronger and do more plyometrics.

 

[gymgurl]

I find all this really quite interesting which is why i may be killing you with questions

It seems that I am more slow twitch muscles as the skills that I tend to be stronger at are those that start from a hurdle of few steps (even my split jumps are pretty ugly because i can't get high enough) Is their anyway that I can build my fast twitch fibres or is there anyway of strengthening them?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

no, not really. working out can give you a small gain but you can't change what you are born with.

 

[gymgurl]

Oh well, will work with what i've got, though my coaches idea of a back tuck on beam for next year might be tricky if i struggle with them on floor

 

[BlairBob]

Sorry, Dunno. Muscle fiber types can change. Do the research, it's out there.

Now, we are definitely predisposed to being born with greater percentages of TypeI or TypeIIb muscle fiber types but it seems they will change pending activity.