How Muscles React to Exercise
Alex Rider
When undergoing exercise it is your muscle fibers that are enabling
most of the movement. These fibers enable energy stored up in chemical
compounds to be released during physical movement.
Coordinated firing of electrical impulses down the nerves to the
effector organs i.e. the muscles allows movement of a body part. The
more you develop particular athletic movements the better concentrated
the coordination of the impulse shots, and therefore the more highly
tuned/ efficient the result.
If you are able to understand the functioning of muscles you are in a
better position to then target the muscles you require most, in your
every day workouts. Whether the activity you most frequently do
involves predominantly short bursts of power, slow muscle contraction
or more lengthy low intensity movement, different muscle types and
biochemical reactions are necessary in order to produce the power that
is needed.
3 main muscle types exist in our bodies:
Skeletal muscle is the muscle that is easily seen and felt. As its name
implies, this muscle is attached to your skeleton and operates in
pairs. Each muscle mass enables an opposing body movement to the other
muscle mass, through muscle contraction. These muscles tend to be able
to do the full variety of muscle movements required, i.e. bursts,
continuous low intensity or slow contraction, in a voluntary fashion
(moved consciously/ voluntarily).
Cardiac muscle, only located in the heart, is especially efficient at
contracting consistently over a lifetime. Contractions are involuntary,
the force exerted is the same as with skeletal muscle, at a fast speed.
Smooth muscle is used in blood vessels, airways, the uterus, bladder
and digestive system. This type of muscle is able to stretch and remain
contracted for protracted periods of time. As with cardiac muscle
contraction is controlled involuntarily by the central nervous system.
Skeletal muscles are often the muscles people want to produce or loose
fat to then be able to see. Frequent exercise benefits the other
muscles, notably creating larger and stronger heart muscles. Fast
contracting skeletal muscle functions anaerobically, slow contracting
skeletal muscle works in an aerobic environment.
Adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) is the main form of energy currency in
your body. Energy is released for use in mechanical movement of the
body's various limbs by the removal of a phosphate to form Adenosine
di-phosphate (ADP). ATP is created via a series of biochemical
pathways, when a muscle is used the following reaction occurs:
ATP in combination with the muscle proteins actin and myosin lead to
the formation of actomyosin, a single phosphate, ADP and the all
important energy.
ATP is a limited resource in you body. More needs to be created to
enable sustained exercise. This extra ATP comes from one of three
enzyme mediated reactions:
1. When seeking strength in your muscles creatine phosphate (CP) reacts
anaerobically with ADP to produce ATP and creatine. Creatine phosphate
stores are typically used up within a few seconds, explaining why your
maximum strength is generally for a very limited amount of time.
2. Anaerobic glycolysis enables short sharp bursts of muscle energy. A
single molecule of glucose in an anaerobic environment is converted to
two ATP molecules and two lactate molecules. When needing to constantly
use muscles in this fashion aerobic respiration is needed, since the
glycogen only lasts so long. With persistent aerobic exercising you can
condition your body to last longer than two minutes of maximum
exertion.
3. If you are in an endurance situation, ATP for your muscles can come
from the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in an anaerobic
environment. Fats produce the most energy at 130 ATP molecules per
oxidized fatty acid. Carbohydrates produce 36 ATP molecules for the one
glucose molecule, proteins single constituent amino acids each
producing 15 ATP molecules.
Carbohydrates, largely glucose, are stored in your muscles and liver,
ready to be released for these metabolic reactions. The required oxygen
comes directly, and constantly, from any nearby blood in the vascular
system. Glycogen stored in the liver and muscles lasts on average for
two hours. The time you are physically able to continue with endurance
exercise is able to be extended gradually with repetition. Once your
glycogen reserves are used up the body starts breaking down your fat, a
painful process that many sportsmen call "hitting the wall". Fat
breakdown is inefficient, your body at this point typically massively
reducing its overall strength and endurance capabilities.
Depending upon what kinds of activities you participate in, your
muscles develop and/ or change. If the majority of your actions involve
frequent strength/ bursts of power your muscle fibers become larger,
largely due to increased muscle fiber contents necessary for the type
of work involved e.g. an influx of protein fibers. A predominance of
aerobic exercise acts to increase the effectiveness of your body to
deliver oxygen via the blood, in combination with other essential
actions e.g. carbon dioxide removal etc. The result here is that a
large amount of blood vessels form throughout your muscles.
If you are interested in physical exercise take a visit to
http://www.fit4fitness.com/The-Benefits-Of-Using-Fitness-Balls.php
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