26 March

White meat and red meat, it's only in recent years I learned why there two main types. It's all to do with the fibres, fast-twitch (white) or slow-twitch (red). White meat is muscle used for short (anaerobic) explosive bursts of energy, and tires quickly. Red meat is aerobic muscle, used for basic support or 'posture', and doesn't tire, it can be active all day. Fish meat is white because fish don't need to support themselves, water does it for them. So their muscles are generally fast-twitch (white), for explosive bursts of swimming. Humans and some other animals have both red and white meat, because we need to be supported as well as needing to occasionally do 'explosive' things. What's truly amazing, and my friend David Gorman has done a lot of work on this, is that red and white can change into each other, depending on how you use a body. Two people can have quite different distributions of red and white muscle in their bodies, and the same person can have a different proportion over time. For example, if you strain against 'gravity' all day, or do a lot of high intensity gym work, you'll tend to develop more white, easily-tired muscle. Whereas if you learn the types of skills David teaches, of using gravity to support you and energise your tissue, your proportion of red muscle will increase, you'll live without feelings of strain and won't tire easily.