Exercise physiology and substrate metabolism 20-2-2020
Throughout evolution, our ancestors decided to start walking upright. At this time, we
were hunters and gatherers. We had to hunt for our food to survive. This meant that we
had to be physically active to stay alive. Our body was made to be physically active. We
also had to be efficient to store food, because at some moments there won’t be enough
food available, we would still need energy.
Nowadays, our genotype is still made to be physically active and we still store energy,
but if we don’t use it, we get into trouble overweight.
Physical activity needs nutrition, but nutrition also needs physical activity.
Exercise physiology
Studies the body’s physiological process and adaptive response to exercise
o Both acute and long-term adaptation
Skeletal muscle tissue
- You need your muscles to generate force to be able to be active (main factor in
mobility)
- Muscle is 50% of the body weight very important!
- Major metabolic organ
- Major factor in health, quality of life and mortality
- Highly adaptive tissue muscles will respond quickly
Acute exercise (high intensity)
- The whole body substrate metabolism increases 20x
- Also a 20-30x increase in oxygen consumption and blood flow
- 100-fold increase in muscle ATP turnover
- Mechanical, contractile, hormonal and metabolic stress
Throughout evolution, our ancestors decided to start walking upright. At this time, we
were hunters and gatherers. We had to hunt for our food to survive. This meant that we
had to be physically active to stay alive. Our body was made to be physically active. We
also had to be efficient to store food, because at some moments there won’t be enough
food available, we would still need energy.
Nowadays, our genotype is still made to be physically active and we still store energy,
but if we don’t use it, we get into trouble overweight.
Physical activity needs nutrition, but nutrition also needs physical activity.
Exercise physiology
Studies the body’s physiological process and adaptive response to exercise
o Both acute and long-term adaptation
Skeletal muscle tissue
- You need your muscles to generate force to be able to be active (main factor in
mobility)
- Muscle is 50% of the body weight very important!
- Major metabolic organ
- Major factor in health, quality of life and mortality
- Highly adaptive tissue muscles will respond quickly
Acute exercise (high intensity)
- The whole body substrate metabolism increases 20x
- Also a 20-30x increase in oxygen consumption and blood flow
- 100-fold increase in muscle ATP turnover
- Mechanical, contractile, hormonal and metabolic stress
