Research

Human muscles are composed of two different types of muscle fibers: fast and slow. The fast (white) fibers can generate bursts of speed and high power. The slow (red) fibers on the other hand have excellent endurance capacity.

On average, humans have an even distribution of both. Yet, some have a lot more fast fibers: they are born to excel in explosive sports. Others have mainly slow fibers, making them destined to become endurance athletes.

This muscle typology is largely genetically determined and is only to a small extent trainable. For developing athletes, muscle typology is therefore a telltale for sporting talent. For established athletes it’s valuable for individualizing training-recovery cycles, and thereby minimizing risk of muscle injuries and overreaching.

Scientists and sport practitioners recognized the importance of muscle typology since more than 50 years. Yet, it did not become a success because it involved an invasive and painful muscle needle biopsy.

Finally, we provided a fast, reliable and non-invasive technique, replacing the muscle biopsy. While lying down in the MRI scanner, it measures the chemical composition and recognizes the presence of a typical fast-twitch metabolite in your calf muscles. With this knowledge, the Victoris team at Ghent University developed a new method to measure the muscle fiber type composition, named the Muscle Talent Scan.

Recent discoveries:

• Baguet et al. 2011- A New Method for Non-Invasive Estimation of Human Muscle Fiber Type Composition
• Baguet et al. 2012 - The influence of sex, age and heritability on human skeletal muscle carnosine content
• Bex et al. 2017 - Cyclic movement frequency is associated with muscle typology in athletes
• Lievens et al., 2020 - Muscle fiber typology substantially influences time to recover from high-intensity exercise
• Lievens et al., 2020 - Muscle Typology of World-Class Cyclists across Various Disciplines and Events
• Bellinger et al., 2020 - Muscle fiber typology is associated with the incidence of overreaching in response to overload training
• Bellinger et al., 2020 - Determinants of last lap speed in paced and maximal 1500-m time trials
• E. Lievens, 2021 - Myotypes, the relevance of muscle fiber typology in sports