In reviewing how the body responds to body building exercises, we must consider energy expenses and production, metabolic changes and blood plasma constituents like glucose and ammonia. We must also consider the expending trend of oxygen, both cellular and cerebral oxygen, and water so as to determine possible respiratory problems and dehydration possibilities. Considering these points will help us determine how exercise intensity and duration affects the body, how endurance can be improved and how fatigue can be reduced.

In this article emphasis will be placed on metabolic and physiological reactions of the body to body building workouts. Humans are able to expend a lot of energy for extended periods during exercise simply because more energy continues while the available depositories are being used up. Skeletal muscles continue to burn more energy when the body building exercises are in progress. Resting muscles consume 0.63W each minute while repetitively active muscles can burn up to 76W of energy. This means that active muscles can produce 160 times more energy to cater for energy demands then resting muscles.

Although energy use and production varies across various individual’s ages and gender, body sizes and exercise intensities, metabolism rates always step up energy production during exercise. The process continues perpetually so as to facilitate sustained workout durations. The ATP mainly recycled from the ADP in the mitochondria is the major source of energy during muscle contractions. Further, the body usually suffers inadequate oxygen during intensive workouts and it makes up for this by stopping aerobic combustion and switching to anaerobic breakdown of the glycogen stored in muscle cells. Glycogen is broken down to lactic acid enabling anaerobic metabolism to quickly generate massive energy levels although only sustainable for short durations.

When the body is at rest, energy substrates produced from aerobic combustion constitute lactate and free fatty acids. But when exercises begin and increase energy demands, plasma glucose is generated in the liver. Exercises first deplete glycogen stores in the muscle cells and then the skeletal muscles are prompted to extract the glucose naturally resident in the blood plasma. That is why professional body builders like taking glucose polymer supplements during workouts in a bid to replace the plasma glucose extracted by skeletal muscles and thus avoid depletion.

One funny thing about how a body reacts to exercises is that one part of the body can compete with the other over plasma glucose during the physical exercise. More notable is legs and arms and the one that looses out on the competition usually tires faster. Legs have more blood veins than legs and that is why bicep reps are usually more tiring than bicycle rides for the same period. The body helps control such competition in areas where it would cause serious threats. For example, the heart muscles can use plasma glucose but don’t. Instead heart muscles have to burn energy from fatty acids. Skeletal muscles usually get energy from burning fatty acids while at rest and it is only after very strenuous and demanding exercises are they allowed to extract glucose from the blood plasma.

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