The Science of Working Out Part Two
Once the ATP and creatine has run out however the body will have to look elsewhere for energy and the next port of call is glycogen stored in the muscles. This glycogen is then split into glucose and then again to yield four ATP molecules. This system is known as the glycogen lactic acid system and can provide an additional 1.5 minutes of energy. It is however much slower than the phosphogen system and also results in the unwanted by-product ‘lactic acid’ which collects in the muscles and creates that ‘soreness’ that you feel in your abs after a minute or so of sit ups.
If exertion continues further however the body will move on to its third system of extracting energy – the ‘aerobic system’ (which is where the term aerobic exercise comes from). Here the body ‘burns’ fat and carbohyrdrates stored in the cells around the body and transports them around the blood to the muscles for energy. This can sustain and athlete for two hours or more. Any exercise that lasts longer than 1 minute and 43 seconds then becomes aerobic exercise and will cause the individual to begin burning calories and losing weight. Unfortunately the order in which the body burns fat for energy can not be dictated making targeted fat loss impossible. However over time extended aerobic activity will begin to remove fat cells in the flesh covering the abs and so expose them.
This explains how the body uses energy to continue exertion. The other piece of the puzzle however is understanding how it uses exertion to build muscle. Here, by using resistance against the muscles, the gym goer purposefully causes tiny tears in the muscle fibres called ‘microtears’. While recovering the body then repairs these tears using the protein (amino acids) from other plant and animal sources consumed in the diet to repair these tears using satellite cells (cells that wait around the area). When the tears are repaired however, they are repaired to be thicker than they originally were leading to ‘hypertrophy’ – the technical term for muscles increasing in size. Protein and rest then are just as important for building muscle as exercising, and combining this with aerobic training to burn the fat will result in large, strong and visible abs.
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