CHAPTER 4:
ENERGY SUPPLY AND
THE EFFECTS OF
EXERCISE ON THE BODY
T0PIC 1
AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION
AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION
Movement is created by contracting, and to do this muscles need energy.
Energy comes from food, which is a mixture of different substances i.e.
Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and fibre. Food is broken
down into a liquid in a process known as digestion.
Digestion- the process of breaking food down in the gut.
During digestion, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose. Some glucose is
stored in the liver and it is released when glucose levels in the blood fall too
low. Some glucose gets stored in the muscles as glycogen, and the rest is
carried to other cells in the body.
AEROBIC RESPRATION
Aerobic respiration is respiration that takes place in the presence of oxygen.
Oxygen is transported to the muscle cell through red blood cells. The oxygen combines with glucose inside living cells
to release energy. This allows the muscles to contract and create movement.
Glucose- an important energy source needed by all cells and organs of our bodies; commonly called sugar.
Glycogen-a form of glucose stored in liver and muscles; it is a form of energy that muscles can use immediately.
Most of the time our bodies rely on aerobic respiration. Activities with low to medium levels of intensity such as walking
and jogging.
The process of converting glucose can be summarized as an equation;
Glucose oxygen Water + Carbon dioxide (+energy)
During this process several things happen:
Heat is produced. In normal respiration this heat is used to maintain our high body temperature.
Water molecules are created and transported by the blood, either to be used by the body or expelled from the body as
urine.
Carbon dioxide is created and removed by the blood and exhaled through the lungs
ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION
This is the process of converting glucose into energy without the oxygen.
It can be summarized as a word equation;
Glucose ________ Lactic acid (+ energy)
During this conversion from glucose to energy, a waste product called lactic
acid is created. Lactic acid makes your muscles tired and painful. It also
prevents further energy from being created until it is removed.
Lactic acid- a waste product formed in the muscles during anaerobic
respiration, causing muscle fatigue.
Oxygen is needed to break down lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water,
which is then removed from the body.
The extra oxygen needed to do this is called oxygen debt.
Getting this extra oxygen is essential to return the body back to its resting
TOPIC 2
RECOVERY
One of the consequences of lactic acid is that it builds up to a point where muscles can no longer
operate and the lactic acid must be removed before muscles can be used again.
After intense exercise, the body requires more oxygen than is normally needed to remove the
lactic acid in the cells. This is essential to bring the body to its resting state.
The amount of oxygen needed to bring the body back to normal is called the oxygen debt, as the
body needs to ‘pay back’ oxygen into the cells.
This process of taking in this additional oxygen is called excess post exercise consumption (EPOC)
Oxygen debt- a temporary oxygen shortage in the body tissues arising from exercise.
EPOC- the process of talking in the additional oxygen needed by cells in the body in order to
remove the lactic acid created by anaerobic respiration.
Lactic acid + Oxygen Water + Carbon dioxide + glucose
The oxygen is used to convert the lactic acid into;
Water-which can be used elsewhere in the body or excreted in urine
Carbon dioxide- which is carried to the lungs by the blood and exhaled
A small amount of glucose- which can be re-used as energy by the muscles.
Deep breathing and recovery
Deep breathing is an essential part of recovering after an intense period of exercise. Large
quantities of oxygen are needed to convert lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water.
Our breathing rate increases, becoming deeper and faster in order to supply more oxygen
to the blood.
The heart pumps faster to maintain this increased volume of oxygen through the body. The
high breathing rate will continue until oxygen debt has been paid off.
In extreme cases oxygen can be given directly through oxygen tanks. This has happened
when athletes have collapsed during or after races.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE RECOVERY
Factor Explanation
Overall The stronger your muscles are, the quicker they will be at
strength and absorbing the oxygen needed to remove lactic acid
Fitness
Genetics Some people inherit from their parents the ability to recover
quickly from exercise; they will recover quickly from hard
bout of exercise, whereas others will feel exhausted
Age As you get older, you will generally need a longer recovery
time.
Gender Physically fit women have a greater resistance to fatigue
than their male counterparts, especially at low to moderate
intensities.
Sleep The amount of sleep you get, and its quality, can affect
recovery rate. Good sleep helps your body recover
physically and mentally; poor or interrupted sleep has the
opposite effect.
Therapies to increase recovery
Hot and cold contrast therapy- with this technique
you alternately apply heat (via heat packs or a hot
bath) and cold (via ice pack or a cold bath) to muscles
in order to improve blood flow and reduce
inflammation.
Massage therapy- this is also used to improve blood
flow and relax muscles.
TOPIC 3
SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF EXERCISE
The body reacts to exercise from the moment you start to move.
When a performer begins to exercise, the first thing the body will need to do is to
distribute (spread) extra oxygen to the muscles that are working harder.
1. Heart rate and breathing
The body will increase its breathing rate.
The depth of breathing will also increase. This increases the tidal volume of the breaths
(more air taken in with every breath).
This means gaseous exchange can happen at a faster rate in the lungs. This lets more
oxygen enter the blood and means a person breathes out more carbon dioxide.
Heart rate increases, as the heart pumps faster to send more oxygen through the blood
to the muscles to turn glucose into energy.
Exercise also causes adrenalin to be produced, which is sent to the heart, causing it to
beat faster.
Heart rate- the number of times the heart beats in a minute.
Adrenalin-a hormone created in the body that causes the heart to beat faster.
Breathing rate-the number of breaths taken in a minute.
2. Heat control and reddening of the skin
When you begin to exercise you probably start sweating and your skin may
turn red. This
heat is a result of aerobic exercise. Heat occurs when muscles are
contracting. The
body has to control the temperature. If it didn’t, the muscles would stop
working to
prevent damage to vital organs.
The skin will become red as a result of blood vessels close to the surface of
the skin
becoming enlarged (vasodilation.)
The body sends warm blood to the surface of the skin, where it can be cooled
by the
air.
3. Increase in Body temperature
The body temperature will increase because the muscles are contracting
more often
and creating more heat.
To cool down, the arteries leading to the vessels of the skin vasodilate
(widen). This lets
more blood flow to the surface to remove heat, which is why performers go
4. Sweating
Sweating enables body control its temperature by sending water to the surface of the
skin, which is then released by sweating glands. The sweat evaporates from the skin,
removing the body heat and cooling the body down.
Water is very effective at cooling the skin, which is why it feels so good to splash water
on your face after exercise or in hot weather. This is because water is 25 times better at
conducting heat than air. The water absorbs the heat and takes it away from the body.
This quality of water also explains why you quickly begin to feel cold when stepping out
of a swimming pool. The water on your skin and your damp swimming costume are
both ‘stealing’ your body heat, so as soon as you dry yourself, or change out of the
damp clothing, you stop feeling so cold.
5. Light-headedness
After exercise, a performer may feel as though they are dizzy or light-headed.
This is because the performer’s blood pressure drops, as when you exercise, your heart
works harder to pump more blood to your muscles. This causes your blood vessels to
enlarge to allow the stronger flow of blood.
When you stop exercising, your heart rate reduces, but your blood vessels may take
longer to get to their normal size. Hence your blood pressure can drop, causing you to
feel light-headed or dizzy. This is normally not something to be worried about.
Sweating can cause light-headedness and using glucose during exercise can also
contribute.
Deep breathing can help reduce light-headedness, as it increases the amount of
oxygen into your body.
Another approach is to lie down and raise your legs up onto a chair to help the blood
flow back to your heart.
6. Nausea
This is the feeling of sickness that can come on during or immediately after
exercise.
Over-exerting or ending exercise too abruptly (quickly) can cause this.
A lack of water can add to these effects. So can exercising on a full stomach of
food
when blood is redistributed (respread) to working muscles.
Nausea is as a result of blood flow being diverted away during exercise from
the
stomach to the working muscles, to meet these muscles’ need for oxygen and
to
remove waste products. Digestion in the stomach slows down, and a feeling of
sickness
can result. If there is anything in the stomach at this time, it may lead to
vomiting.
Dehydration (lack of water) can cause the feeling of nausea if the right
amount of
water has not been drunk. Drinking water too much water during exercise
(over-
hydration) can also lead to feelings of nausea. This is because the excess
water dilutes
7. Fatigue
Performers may feel tired after heavy exercise.
This is because the muscles have worked extremely hard, become swollen and feel
heavy.
In fast twitch fibres the fatigue is caused by the lactic acid, which causes pain and
stops energy being supplied to the muscles cells. Fatigue may be felt all over the body
or it can be localized to a few muscles, or even to just one muscle.
Slow twitch fibres can work for several hours before they suffer fatigue. If the exercise
was quite low intensity, the fatigue will be caused due to the body running out of
glucose (energy). After a marathon, fatigue will be felt throughout the body, as there is
no glucose left to provide energy to the muscles.
Fatigue- extreme tiredness resulting from physical exertion
LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF EXERCISE
1. Heart size (Hypertrophy)
Heart is one organ that feels the benefits of exercise.
Long term aerobic training will cause changes in the muscle walls of the heart, making it thicker and
stronger. It will increase the size of the heart, making it a more efficient pump. The heart is able to
hold more blood and the muscle walls contract more strongly.
This process, called hypertrophy, means that the body can work harder, stronger, faster and for
longer. In particular, it means an increase in stroke volume, the volume of the blood pumped out by
each ventricle in one beat.
An elite athlete with a hypertrophied heart will also have a low resting heart rate, pumping larger
volumes of blood with fewer beats per minute.
A person’s heart rate when resting is called their resting pulse. An elite athlete will have a resting
pulse of between 40 and 60 beats per minute, compared with an average person’s pulse of 70bpm.
This lower than normal heart rate is called bradycardia.
A person of average fitness has a stroke volume of around 70ml, while for an athlete it is around
90ml. Hypertrophy- the process whereby the muscle walls of the heart get thicker and stronger as a
result of training. Bradycardia-a slower than normal heart rate (typically fewer than 60 bpm)
2. Lactic acid tolerance
Regular exercise will increase the body’s ability to tolerate lactic acid through training programs that
focus on intense activity with periods of rest. This is known as interval training and should match the types
of movement the athlete performs in their sport. During interval training session the body works at high
intensity over a short period of time to the point where lactic acid threshold is reached or exceeded. This is
followed by a period of recovery, allowing lactic acid to be removed. This pattern is repeated several
times. Over time, the body will build up a tolerance to the effects of lactic acid.
3. Joint flexibility
Over time, the tendons (attach muscle to bone) and ligaments (attach bone to bone) surrounding a joint
become stronger. This makes the joint more stable during movement, which reduces the chance of
becoming injured. By repeating movements at joints, a performer can increase the flexibility at the joint.
4. Muscular endurance
Training can be manipulated (changed in a certain way) to develop muscular endurance. By training
anaerobically, a performer can develop muscle definition (shape) over time. Training anaerobically
includes doing a high amount of repetitions and a low amount of sets (15x3).
5. Weight loss
Regular exercise will cause weight loss. This is because the body breaks down fat stores to use the
glucose for energy
6. Increased performance
If a performer trains using fast anaerobic movements (e.g. sprinting), they can increase their speed.
Exercises that help achieve this include short sprints, bounding and box jumps.
7. Muscle size
By training anaerobically, the body will also increase in muscular size (hypertrophy). This happens when a
performer trains using heavy weights at a high intensity. They can do repetitions (lifts per set) and sets
(cycles of repetitions) to build muscle mass and develop muscular strength. This would include a low
amount of repetitions and a high amount of sets (4x6)