Anaerobic And Aerobic Exercise Flashcards
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise occurs at low to moderate levels of exertion, when energy can be produced using oxygen.
Aerobic activities involve relatively gentle exercises that can be maintained for a long period of time. Aerobic activities are those where normal breathing can be used to supply the oxygen needed to the working muscles.
It involves the performer using oxygen to break down foods such as glucose. This reaction provides the energy needed for the activity and produces water and carbon dioxide as waste products.
Glucose + Oxygen —> Energy + Carbon dioxide + Water
Anaerobic exercise
Anaerobic exercise is where the energy needed for exercise is provided in the absence of oxygen. (Sprinting and shot putting are examples of activities where the energy is provided anaerobically).
Anaerobic activities involve very high-intensity actions that can only be continued for a short period of time. Anaerobic exercises, if continued, will leave you breathless.
In anaerobic exercises, no oxygen is used. Because of this, the glucose is not fully broken down to carbon dioxide and water. Instead, it is converted into lactic acid while producing some energy needed for the activity.
Glucose —> Energy + Lactic acid
Lactic acid is one of the major causes of fatigue. This is why anaerobic exercise cannot be continued for more than a minute or so. The build-up of lactic acid in muscles causes fatigue and eventually pain, and the exercise has to slow down or, if strenuous, stop.
EPOC
Oxygen debt is the temporary shortage of oxygen due to strenuous exercise, it is more properly known as EPOC: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
During recovery, the body needs the extra oxygen to remove the lactic acid produced. This is why the performer continues to breathe heavily, to repay the oxygen debt. The length of the oxygen debt depends on how much lactic acid was produced and in turn how strenuous the exercise was and how long it lasted. It can take several hours to completely remove all the lactic acid produced during very intense exercise.
First immediate effect of exercise - heart rate
The heart rate increases during exercise. The heart will also contract more powerfully, increasing the stroke volume. The increased heart rate and the more powerful contractions mean that more blood is being pumped around the body to supply the working muscles with the glucose and oxygen they need.
Immediate effects of exercise - breathing rate
Breathing rate increases during exercise, but so does the depth of breathing, thus increasing tidal volume. The increased rate and depth of breathing allows for greater gaseous exchange at the lungs, so more oxygen enters the blood and more carbon dioxide is breathed out.
Immediate effects of exercise - body temperature
Body temperature increases during exercise due to the muscles contracting more often, which generates heat so increases the body temperature. Therefore, the body begins to sweat to try to cool it down. It loses heat by the evaporation of sweat, and the skin goes red as the blood vessels near the skins surface open to try to lose heat by radiation.
6 Short term effects of exercise
- May feel fatigued as muscles have worked especially hard.
- Legs feeling heavy as they have become swollen with fluids.
- May feel dizzy or light-head, or may faint. Often caused by low blood sugar levels or drop in blood pressure.
- Nausea - can be caused by a lack of water intake, can be caused by overexertion during exercise, can be caused by blood flow taken away from a full stomach.
- Delayed onset of muscle soreness is the pain and stiffness sometimes felt in muscles after strenuous or unaccustomed exercise. It is caused by the eccentric muscle contractions performed during exercise, which cause tiny tears in muscles fibres, leading to swelling. Usually the muscle adapts rapidly to muscle damage if the exercise is repeated.
- Cramps, which are painful involuntary contractions of a muscle that is typically caused by fatigue or strain of the muscle and is often linked to dehydration and loss of minerals due to excessive sweating.
Recovery process - Cool-down
A cool down should be undertaken after exercise and should consist of 5-10 mins of walking/jogging to help decrease body temperature and remove waste products such as lactic acid from the working muscles. Followed by 5-10 mins of static stretching, helping muscles to relax.
Benefits:
- Aids in the clearing of waste products – including lactic acid
- Reduces the potential of DOMS
- Reduces the chances of dizziness or fainting caused by the pooling of blood at the extremities.
- Allows breathing and HR to slowly return to resting rates
- Sudden changes in heart rhythm can be dangerous
Recovery process - rehydration
- replacing the fluids that are lost during exercise.
- the performer also needs to replace the energy used during exercise. During both aerobic and anaerobic exercise, glucose is used to produce energy needed for muscle contractions. Glucose is a type of carbohydrate and the body will convert any carbohydrates it consumes into glucose, so the performer should take in extra carbohydrates following strenuous exercise.
Recovery process - ice baths
Strenuous exercise causes tiny tears in muscle fibres which is closely linked to DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) between 24-72 hours post exercise.
The ice bath constricts blood vessels and flushes waste products, like lactic acid, out of the affected tissues as well as reducing the swelling.
Once the performer steps out of the ice bath, the muscles start warming up and blood flow increases which helps improve the healing process.
Long term effects of exercise
- muscle and cardiac hypertrophy - muscles increase in size as an individual is continuously challenging the muscles to deal with higher levels of resistance or weight - the muscle wall in the heart get bigger meaning it can pump out more blood during each contraction.
- the body can increase its ability to handle lactic acid, so they will be able to work out harder and for longer.
- bradycardia will occur where the resting heart rate will lower over time due to an increase of stroke volume caused by hypertrophy of the heart.
- cardiac output increases during exercise due to cardiac hypertrophy which enables the heart to pump out more blood.
