Exercise Duration

"The respiratory system plays a vital role in the uptake and delivery of oxygen to muscle cells throughout the body. Oxygen is inhaled by the lungs and transferred from the lungs to the blood, where the cardiovascular system circulates the oxygen-rich blood to the muscles. The oxygen is then taken up by the muscles and can be used to generate ATP. When the body is at rest, the heart and lungs are able to supply the muscles with adequate amounts of oxygen to meet the aerobic metabolism energy needs. However, during physical activity, your muscles’ energy and oxygen needs are increased. In order to provide more oxygen to the muscle cells, your heart rate and breathing rate will increase. The amount of oxygen that is delivered to the tissues via the cardiovascular and respiratory systems during exercise depends on the duration, intensity, and physical conditioning of the individual.\n\nDuring the first few steps of exercise, your muscles are the first to respond to the change in activity level. Your lungs and heart, however, do not react as quickly, and during those beginning steps they do not begin to increase the delivery of oxygen. In order for our bodies to get the energy that is needed in these beginning steps, the muscles rely on a small amount of ATP that is stored in resting muscles. The stored ATP is able to provide energy for only a few seconds before it is depleted. Once the stored ATP is just about used up, the body resorts to another high-energy molecule known as creatine phosphate to convert ADP, or adenosine diphosphate, to ATP. After about 10 seconds, the stored creatine phosphate in the muscle cells is also depleted. About 15 seconds into exercise, the stored ATP and creatine phosphate are used up in the muscles. The heart and lungs have still not adapted to the increased need for oxygen, so the muscles must begin to produce ATP by anaerobic metabolism, without oxygen. Anaerobic metabolism can produce ATP at a rapid pace but only uses glucose as its fuel source. The glucose is obtained from the blood or muscle glycogen. At around 30 seconds, anaerobic pathways are operating at their full capacity, but because the availability of glucose is limited, they cannot continue for a long period of time. As exercise reaches two to three minutes, your heart rate and breathing rate have increased to supply more oxygen to your muscles. Aerobic metabolism is the most efficient way of producing ATP, producing 18 times more ATP for each molecule of glucose than anaerobic metabolism. Although the primary source of ATP in aerobic metabolism is carbohydrates, fatty acids and protein can also be used as fuel to generate ATP."