The Effects Of Sport On The Body

You were once sedentary and decided to take charge of yourself and practice a sport regularly? And now you have a lot more breath, your muscle strength has increased, you feel better and you have lost weight? Discover the effects of sport on the body

Adaptation of teh body to aerobic training (low to moderate intensity exercise)

Lungs

Whether swimming, trekking, running or cycling, the more you practice your sport, the better you will perform. This is due to a number of adaptations. First, your body needs more oxygen during exercise. We are talking here about VO2Max. In a sedentary subject, a good aerobic training program can increase VO2Max capacity by 5 to 30%. The initial condition plays a major role and the gain is greater for people who are initially inactive.

Muscles

When you do aerobic-type training, your muscles go through significant changes. Basically, your muscles are made up of two types of fibers: Slow (slow twich or ST), which are highly stressed during long-term efforts (jogging, cross-country skiing, trekking) and Fast (fast twich or FT), which are heavily strained during explosive efforts of short duration (sprints, hockey). During aerobic training, in order to become more efficient, the slow fibers (ST) see their volume increased by 7% to 22% compared to the fast fibers (FT).

From the first months of training, the number of muscle capillaries increases by 5 to 15%. This capillarization multiplies the gas exchanges between the blood and the muscles and creates an environment favorable to good muscle contraction and facilitates the elimination of muscle waste (lactic acid). Finally, physical activity acts as a natural anti-inflammatory when it is well dosed. This is due to the fact that after several workouts, your body adapts, which limits the risk of injury.

Nutrient Use

To meet your needs during aerobic-type exercise, the body continually draws on muscle stores of lipids (fats) and glycogen (sugar). Your body will therefore adapt according to repeated training in order to meet your energy demands and avoid fatigue.

Carbohydrates

Your body stores carbohydrates in your muscles and liver as glycogen. During exercise, this glycogen will be released in the form of glucose to allow your muscles to function properly. In people who train regularly, the muscle glycogen content is much higher than in sedentary people. This therefore allows the trainer to better withstand the energy demands of training and avoid drastic energy dips because glycogen is more available.

Lipids

In addition to the improved glycogen content, your intramuscular fat stores increase. As little as eight weeks of training will multiply these reserves by 1.8. With the help of oxidative enzymes that burn fat during exercise, your muscles will have an easier time using your fat stores rather than your glycogen stores. At the same time, this will prevent energy drops and deliver better performance when practicing your sport. In short, trained people use more lipids during exercise than people who are not trained.

BMI: body mass index. An international standard adopted to measure overweight and obesity. It is defined as the weight divided by the square of the height (Kg/m2). It helps to assess health risks.

Insulin: Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas. It is called hypoglycemic because it lowers the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood (glycaemia). Its insufficiency in manufacture can cause diabetes.

Lipids and weight loss

It is important to remember that it is difficult to lose weight with, as the only weapon, physical exercise. To optimize weight loss, you also need to change your eating habits. In a pound of fat, there are 3,500 calories. During moderate-intensity physical activity, a 30-year-old person with a healthy weight (BMI between 20 and 24.9) will consume between 600 and 900 calories per hour. This means that in order to lose one pound, a person will need to complete a workout totaling 4 to 6 hours.

The heart

The expression “Having an athlete’s heart” takes on its full meaning with the following lines. In response to aerobic training, your heart weight and volume increase. The heart muscle (myocardium) will be the first to experience hypertrophy (enlargement) and the wall of your left ventricle, which will be under greater pressure, will thicken. The amount of blood your heart will eject with each contraction (stroke volume) will also increase. At the same time, it will improve your endurance sports performance. Also, when you complete a workout, your heart rate will return to normal much faster. As for the volume of blood ejected in one minute (blood flow), it will also increase in people who practice physical activity, which creates a better distribution of blood to the muscles.

Hormones

In addition to having a significant impact on your muscles and organs, exercising on a regular basis will upset your entire hormonal system. The more you increase the intensity of your exercises, the more adrenaline you will secrete. This hormone is partly responsible for the functioning of the nervous system. In addition, when you train, your insulin levels drop since your body becomes much more sensitive to this hormone. This will allow your body to better use your reserves of lipids (fats) and glycogen (sugars) during exercise. Your appetite will also be affected by your hormones: one of the hormones responsible for appetite is the YY peptide which increases during training. Although more research is needed, this could explain why your appetite decreases after prolonged exercise of medium to high intensity.

Your body is a machine that holds many secrets. Minimal effort will lead to maximum results for your health. When you meet someone who tells you that the only virtue of physical activity is weight loss, you can give them a little update.

For more fitness content, click here.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about the effects of sport on the body and found it usefull. Comment down below what you think, do you agree or share with us your own experience.

Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!