Self Help

The major goals of exercising include improving muscle tone, and increasing strength and endurance. This can be done because of your body’s energy production and usage system. Central to this is ATP (Adnosine Triphosphate), which is a complex molecule.

ATP is the core element in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. This is also known as the Kreb’s cycle. While this process has a complicated name it is actually a very simple cycle.

In this cycle carbohydrates are broken down into sugars that produce ATP. This is a good thing since simple sugar breaks down more easily and more quickly. On the other hand, it takes a lot longer to break down complex carbohydrates. This is why the body has a longer lasting storehouse of compounds. These are what are used to produce ATP. So, as you can see, sugar is not necessarily bad. Excess sugar that is consumed in unhelpful forms is what leads to poor health.

When ATP is then broken down into ADP (Adnosine Diphosphate) energy is released. ADP then picks up molecules that are required in producing more ATP. This is why it is called a cycle, because the process “cycles around” starting over and over again. The energy that is produced here maintains and repairs cells, fuels respiration and organ systems and produces the energy that is required for producing muscle contractions.

Heat and carbon dioxide are the byproducts of this cycle. This heat is eliminated in numerous ways, including through respiration and sweating.

In order to exercise your muscles have to contract and thus ATP has to be continuously produced over the course of time. For this to happen, the body has three ATP producing systems all of them with their own production rates.

ATP is quickly replenished for a short period of time by the phosphagen system. This is helpful for sprinters. On the other hand, the glycogen-lactic works much slower but it only lasts for about 90 seconds. The system that makes the majority of ATP is the aerobic respiration system. This is the normal oxygen breathing system and while it works slowly, it continues indefinitely.

While you are exercising, ATP is consumed. This is one of the main reasons why you have to eat. Food replenishes the building blocks that produce more ATP. When you have more ATP you have the basic molecule that is necessary for exercising and thus the cycle continues.

Clearly, the body is amazing in how it is full of self-regulating interconnected systems. However, none of these systems are more fascinating or important than how energy is produced and consumed. After all, energy is an essential component of life itself.