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Sports Science: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
How Muscles Work
Muscles get stronger when training causes tiny tears that the body repairs, a little stronger each time. Rest days are when that rebuilding happens.
Key fact
Muscles grow during recovery, not during the workout itself.
Fast & Slow Muscle
Slow-twitch muscle fibres power endurance, like marathons. Fast-twitch fibres give quick, powerful bursts, like sprints.
Key fact
Top marathon runners tend to have mostly slow-twitch fibres.
Heart Rate
During hard exercise, the heart can beat over 180 times a minute to pump oxygen to the muscles. Fit athletes often have resting heart rates below 60.
Key fact
Regular exercise makes the heart pump more blood with each beat.
Fuel & Water
Carbohydrates are the muscles’ main fuel for hard exercise, and sweating loses water and salts. Losing just 2% of body weight in water can hurt performance.
Key fact
Marathon runners can sweat over a litre an hour.
Altitude Training
At high altitude there’s less oxygen, so the body makes more red blood cells. Athletes train in the mountains to gain an edge at sea level.
Key fact
Many Kenyan distance runners train at over 2,000 m.
Breaking Limits
Records keep falling thanks to training, nutrition and technology. In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon distance in under two hours, in a special unofficial event.
Key fact
His time was 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds.
Recovery & Sleep
Athletes treat sleep as training: growth hormone released in deep sleep helps repair muscles. Many elite athletes aim for 8 to 10 hours a night.
Key fact
Extra sleep improved basketball players’ shooting accuracy in one study.
Fun facts
Muscles can only pull, never push: they work in pairs, like the biceps and triceps.
Chicken breast is pale because it’s mostly fast-twitch muscle; the darker legs have more slow-twitch.
Some elite endurance athletes have resting heart rates in the 30s.
Drinking far too much water during long races can be dangerous too, because it dilutes the salt in your blood.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, 2,240 m up, thin air helped Bob Beamon leap a long jump record that lasted 23 years.
Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour marathon used a rotating team of 41 pacemakers.
Roger Federer reportedly slept around 10 to 12 hours a night while competing.
Story: Barefoot in Rome
Barefoot in Rome
Rome, 1960. Abebe Bikila, a soldier from Ethiopia’s highlands, lines up for the Olympic marathon. His new shoes don’t fit, so he runs barefoot.
He has trained at over 2,000 metres, where thin air builds extra red blood cells. At night, on the ancient Appian Way, he pulls away.
He won in a world-best time, the first athlete from sub-Saharan Africa to win Olympic gold. Four years later, wearing shoes, he won again.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Muscles rebuild stronger during rest.
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True. That’s why rest days matter.
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Question 2 of 10
Sprinters rely heavily on fast-twitch fibres.
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True. For explosive power.
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Question 3 of 10
Fit athletes often have low resting heart rates.
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True. Their hearts pump more per beat.
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Question 4 of 10
Carbohydrates are a key fuel for hard exercise.
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True. Stored in muscles as glycogen.
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Question 5 of 10
Altitude training can boost red blood cells.
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True. The body adapts to thinner air.
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Question 6 of 10
Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon distance in under two hours.
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True. In Vienna, in 2019.
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Question 7 of 10
Sleep helps athletes recover.
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True. It’s when much repair happens.
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Question 8 of 10
Training causes no damage to muscles.
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False. It causes tiny tears that repair stronger.
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Question 9 of 10
Everyone has the same mix of muscle fibres.
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False. Mixes vary, suiting people to different sports.
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Question 10 of 10
Exercise slows the heart down during activity.
Show the answer
False. It speeds it up.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Sports Science has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- American College of Sports Medicine — Resources
- Mah et al. (2011), sleep extension and athletic performance, Sleep 34
- World Athletics — Eliud Kipchoge and the INEOS 1:59 Challenge
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — muscle fibre types, altitude training
- World Athletics — Technical rules on starts and shoes
- Hoogkamer et al. (2018), carbon-plate shoe running economy, Sports Medicine 48
