Book Learnin'
Understanding how your body works is important in your fitness life. If someone knows why they are doing something they are much more likely to do it.
Sometimes you'll hear doctors and the like say, "You gotta exercise." And leave it at that. They mean well, and they're right. But, that's about as specific as saying, "You need to earn money to live." There are lots of different ways to earn money. And there are lots of different ways to exercise.
It breaks down to what you are training for, and which energy systems of your body you want to concentrate on. Or maybe you want to train more than one energy system. So we're going to cover some of this stuff over the next few days.
So, let's start with energy systems. Most trainers will tell you your body has two energy systems, anaerobic and aerobic. Anaerobic means "without oxygen." Aerobic means "with oxygen." Okay, so basically anaerobic means your body is producing energy to move your muscles without using oxygen to directly fuel them. Aerobic, you guessed it, IS using oxygen. Now this is all well and good, but it's still kind of boring and overly basic. It doesn't really tell you anything useful.
What you never hear is that the energy systems can be further broken down. There are actually two systems within each of the main two. So there are really four.
Today I'll tell you about the first one. This anaerobic system is responsible for the first 6-10 of all out effort. It's called the Adenosine TriPhospate/Phosphocreatine system, or ATP/PC system for short.
ATP is the fuel your muscles use to move. At rest you have about 6-10 seconds worth of this stuff in your muscles. Once you burn through that, Phosphocreatine kicks in and helps to make more ATP. It's really complicated and it's not to important to know how it all works for the average person. What is important to know is that it does happen.
This is why you can sprint all out for about 10 seconds and then you'll feel yourself slow down a gear no matter how hard you push it. It is physiologically impossible for the human body to sprint wide open for longer than 10 seconds. So don't feel bad. This is why all sprinting events never last longer than 10 seconds. Ever notice how long a football play is? The average is 6 seconds.
If you want to be a football player than it would make sense to train your ATP/PC system wouldn't it?
So what happens after 10 seconds? The second part of your anaerobic system fires up. That's for tomorrow.
Train smart,
RL
Sometimes you'll hear doctors and the like say, "You gotta exercise." And leave it at that. They mean well, and they're right. But, that's about as specific as saying, "You need to earn money to live." There are lots of different ways to earn money. And there are lots of different ways to exercise.
It breaks down to what you are training for, and which energy systems of your body you want to concentrate on. Or maybe you want to train more than one energy system. So we're going to cover some of this stuff over the next few days.
So, let's start with energy systems. Most trainers will tell you your body has two energy systems, anaerobic and aerobic. Anaerobic means "without oxygen." Aerobic means "with oxygen." Okay, so basically anaerobic means your body is producing energy to move your muscles without using oxygen to directly fuel them. Aerobic, you guessed it, IS using oxygen. Now this is all well and good, but it's still kind of boring and overly basic. It doesn't really tell you anything useful.
What you never hear is that the energy systems can be further broken down. There are actually two systems within each of the main two. So there are really four.
Today I'll tell you about the first one. This anaerobic system is responsible for the first 6-10 of all out effort. It's called the Adenosine TriPhospate/Phosphocreatine system, or ATP/PC system for short.
ATP is the fuel your muscles use to move. At rest you have about 6-10 seconds worth of this stuff in your muscles. Once you burn through that, Phosphocreatine kicks in and helps to make more ATP. It's really complicated and it's not to important to know how it all works for the average person. What is important to know is that it does happen.
This is why you can sprint all out for about 10 seconds and then you'll feel yourself slow down a gear no matter how hard you push it. It is physiologically impossible for the human body to sprint wide open for longer than 10 seconds. So don't feel bad. This is why all sprinting events never last longer than 10 seconds. Ever notice how long a football play is? The average is 6 seconds.
If you want to be a football player than it would make sense to train your ATP/PC system wouldn't it?
So what happens after 10 seconds? The second part of your anaerobic system fires up. That's for tomorrow.
Train smart,
RL
posted by Ryan at 10:33 AM
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