Exercise Physiology Research Paper

What is Exercise Physiology?

Exercise physiology is a scientific discipline that focuses on how an organism responds to exercise. Exercise represents one of the greatest stresses that an organism can encounter. Therefore exercise represents an outstanding model for studying human and animal physiology. Most people are familiar with the study of exercise physiology as it relates to sport performance. However, in the last several decades it has become apparent that the study of exercise physiology is also relevant in clinical settings. This realization has emerged form our understanding of how exercise can be used in both the treatment and prevention of multiple diseases including cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary diseases, diabetes
A number of objective criteria can be used post-test to determine whether or not the peak VO2 value during the test can truly be considered a maximal value. VO2max is thought to be the best indicator of aerobic capacity and therefore of aerobic fitness. It is also a relatively good predictor of endurance performance (however it is not the only predictor of performance). VO2max tends to be higher in men than in women. College age males have an average VO2max of 45ml/kg*min and college age females have a VO2max of about 35ml/kg*min. The highest absolute VO2max values recorded have been in large endurance athletes, such as elite heavyweight rowers (values of over 7L/min have been recorded), whereas the highest relative VO2max values are typically recorded in small endurance athletes such as cross-country skiers, cyclists, and distance and middle distance runners (values of up to 90ml/kg*min have been recorded). VO2max tests can also be used clinically to assess the type and severity of cardiovascular or pulmonary limitations to exercise. Check out http://home.hia.no/~stephens/vo2max.htm for more information about VO2max and aerobic capacity. VO2max can increase with training. An untrained individual may be able to increase VO2max by as much as 15-20%. However, in well trained athletes increases in VO2max may not be as great (they are already nearly as high as they can
Because it is a relatively strong acid, it is usually found in the body in the form of lactate (it dissociates from its hydrogen ions). The amount of lactic acid in the blood at the end of a maximal exercise test reflects 1) the intensity of the exercise for the subject (did the subject give a maximal effort), 2) the degree to which the subject needed to supplement aerobic energy production with anaerobic energy production, 3) the subject's lactic acid tolerance. It should be noted that the amount of lactic acid in the blood at any point in time is dependent on both how much is entering the circulation (produced) and how much is being removed from the circulation (cleared). For example, endurance trained subjects will tend to have lower blood lactate values at any given running speed, or intensity, than untrained subjects; this difference owing partly to 1) better ability to use aerobic metabolism in the trained subjects and 2) a better ability to remove lactate from the circulation. One reason why blood lactate is an important variable to assess is that the hydrogen ions that result from lactate production in the cell are known to cause muscle fatigue via several different mechanisms. An athlete who can perform at high intensities with minimal lactate accumulation in the circulation will be better able to avoid fatigue. On the other hand, during high intensity exercise, the ability