The latest news from the world of kinesiology world is that the BMI is inaccurate for people with high amounts of muscle mass... even the BMI wouldn't help if you're trying to figure out how overweight you are if you have a high proportion of muscle.

If you really want to find out how fit you are, the best tests will be your bone density test, an underwater weighing analysis, and a skinfold caliper test that took measurements from at least 6 sites on the body.

It is true that the type of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers you have is to a large part, a genetic factor. However, with people who have more slow twitch than muscle twitch fibers, they can work on getting their slow twitch fibers more efficient, and they can work to stimulate as many of their fast twitch fibers as possible.

At the end of the day, as you get older, the amount of fast twitch muscle fibers decreases with age (will quote the studies introduced at the latest convention I went to a few weeks ago with the information since I'm at work right now). At this point, the best thing you can do is exercise that will at least allow those lost fast twitch muscle fibers to develop into slow twitch fibers, then work on keeping the maximum amount of slow twitch fibers operating at maximum effort.

In N C's case, if he wants to get faster, it's a combination of many factors- among them being overweight and needing to work on cadence to bring up his speed. Also, it would be good to work on power output too, but as it's a bit too late in the season to really develop this (assuming you're on a training program), the best thing he can do is work on dropping a few pounds and some cadence drills. Try some intervals- like 3 times a week varying heart rate from 70- 85% heart rate max. Do one day of hill work if you've got hills in there, and take a day or two for tempo training.

Get the nutrition under control. In most cases, it's like being a cook- you have to figure out what works for you with the amount of fitness work you're doing. Keep it healthy and and don't overeat. Drink a lot of water too.

Doing all that, the weight will come off slowly, but surely over time. And measure progress by how loose your clothes get and how much better you feel, rather than getting on the scale. The scale is a scary, psychological tool that can really mess up your mind, man.

Koff