5.7.10& 5.7.11 – Why some animals are better at short bursts of high intensity exercise while others are better at long periods of continuous activity, the structural, and the physiological, differences between fast and slow twitch muscle fibres

Sprinters need lots of fast twitch muscle, joggers need slow twitch. Therefore, the muscle type of a cheetah or a gazelle will be predominantly fast twitch, whereas the muscle of a camel or an elephant will be predominantly slow twitch.

Muscle type in humans is predominantly one or the other due to inherited alleles. However, different training programmes can cause the % of either type to change slightly.