Skeletal muscles continuously produce ATP to provide the energy that enables muscle contractions. Skeletal muscle fibers can be categorized as type I, type IIA, or type IIB based on differences in their contraction speed and how they produce ATP, as well as physical differences related to these factors. Most human muscles contain all three muscle fiber types, albeit in varying proportions.

Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers

Type I, or slow oxidative, muscle fibers appear red due to large numbers of capillaries and high levels of myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein. Type I muscle fibers contain more mitochondria, which produce ATP through oxidative phosphorylation, than type II fibers.

Slow oxidative muscle fibers use aerobic respiration, involving oxygen and glucose, to produce ATP. In addition to contracting more slowly than type II fibers, type I fibers receive nerve signals more slowly, contract for longer periods, and are more resistant to fatigue. Type I fibers primarily store energy as fatty substances called triglycerides.

Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers

Type II, or fast, muscle fibers often appear white. Relative to type I fibers, type II fibers receive nerve signals and contract more quickly, but contract for shorter periods and fatigue more quickly. Type II muscle fibers primarily store energy as ATP and creatine phosphate.

Type IIA, or fast oxidative, muscle fibers primarily use aerobic respiration to produce ATP. However, they also use anaerobic respiration. Type IIB, or fast glycolytic, muscle fibers primarily use anaerobic respiration, which produces less ATP per cycle than aerobic respiration. Thus, type IIB fibers tire faster than the other fiber types.

More recently, scientists identified additional muscle fibers with characteristics intermediate between the other types, including IC, IIC, IIAC, and IIAB.