How to active more muscle fibers?

[John Harmonic]

I read somewhere that humans only activate 30% of their muscles where as other animals like Chimpanzee have 100% activated which is why they are very strong pound for pound compared to humans. How to active my muscle fibers?

[Janus]

According to one study, ape have less grey matter in their spinal cord.   This leads to fewer neural connections to the muscles.  Basically, a single nerve impulse triggers more muscle fibers than it does for humans.  This gives ape more brute strength. 

  The greater amount of grey matter and larger number of neural connections human have means each nerve impulse controls a smaller group of muscles.  While this reduces the strength potential for humans, it increases their fine motor skills.  Apes are strong, but are poor at doing delicate tasks, while humans are not as stronger but are capable of doing all sorts of delicate tasks.    

It's a trade off between fine muscle control vs. pure strength.

You just can't "have it all".

Even in your post about breeding faster and stronger humans. The truth of the matter is that you would likely be forced to choose one over the other.  People genetically disposed to be great weight lifters aren't going to be particularly fast on the race track, and a great marathon runner isn't going to excel at the clean and jerk.

You probably would even have to qualify what you mean by "fast"; a good sprinter isn't going to fare well as a long distance runner and vice versa.

For one thing, muscle fibers come four types that are categorized by their "twitch speed" and fatigue factor. 

Type I is a slow twitch fiber.  It doesn't contract as fast but has good endurance as it also doesn't fatigue quickly

Type IIA is a fast twitch fiber. contracts quickly, but fatigues rapidly also.

Type IIB is a combo, doesn't twitch as fast as IIA, but doesn't fatigue as quickly either.

Type IIC  fastest response, but fatigues the easiest also.

What separates these types of fibers is where they get their energy. 

Type I gets it aerobically (by using the oxygen we breathe)

Types IIA and IIC get it anaerobically (using stored energy sources which deplete rapidly)

Type IIB uses a mixture of both.

A good sprinter might have an abundance of Type IIA, while the long distance runner might have an abundance of Type I.

 

[koti]

11 minutes ago, Janus said:

According to one study, ape have less grey matter in their spinal cord.   This leads to fewer neural connections to the muscles.  Basically, a single nerve impulse triggers more muscle fibers than it does for humans.  This gives ape more brute strength. 

  The greater amount of grey matter and larger number of neural connections human have means each nerve impulse controls a smaller group of muscles.  While this reduces the strength potential for humans, it increases their fine motor skills.  Apes are strong, but are poor at doing delicate tasks, while humans are not as stronger but are capable of doing all sorts of delicate tasks.    

It's a trade off between fine muscle control vs. pure strength.

You just can't "have it all".

Even in your post about breeding faster and stronger humans. The truth of the matter is that you would likely be forced to choose one over the other.  People genetically disposed to be great weight lifters aren't going to be particularly fast on the race track, and a great marathon runner isn't going to excel at the clean and jerk.

You probably would even have to qualify what you mean by "fast"; a good sprinter isn't going to fare well as a long distance runner and vice versa.

For one thing, muscle fibers come four types that are categorized by their "twitch speed" and fatigue factor. 

Type I is a slow twitch fiber.  It doesn't contract as fast but has good endurance as it also doesn't fatigue quickly

Type IIA is a fast twitch fiber. contracts quickly, but fatigues rapidly also.

Type IIB is a combo, doesn't twitch as fast as IIA, but doesn't fatigue as quickly either.

Type IIC  fastest response, but fatigues the easiest also.

What separates these types of fibers is where they get their energy. 

Type I gets it aerobically (by using the oxygen we breathe)

Types IIA and IIC get it anaerobically (using stored energy sources which deplete rapidly)

Type IIB uses a mixture of both.

A good sprinter might have an abundance of Type IIA, while the long distance runner might have an abundance of Type I.

 

Very informative, thank you Janus. I can’t back up my claim by any research or evidence but I’m willing to bet that body builders loose some part of their fine motor skills as a tradeoff to muscle mass.