The Benefits of Exercise Physiology
Inertia Health Group exercise physiology Woodville studies how your body reacts to short-term physical stress or long-term training regimens, helping doctors, fitness experts, and athletes understand how their bodies work best.
Exercise physiology degrees open doors for professionals interested in health, wellness and sports medicine – including careers such as personal training or physical therapy aiding.
Cardiovascular System
Exercise physiology focuses on how the body responds to short and chronic physical activity, with cardiovascular systems playing an essential role. For example, exercising to increase oxygen and energy demands results in changes to heart rate and blood flow through vessels; this change is transmitted throughout the nervous system, skeletal muscle fibres and other structures within the body.
At first, vigorous exercise produces an immediate physiological response: increased oxygen supply to skeletal muscle and skin through increased blood flow and pressure. It is the primary response to a movement that may occur before any individual can feel their muscles fatigue; historically, researchers believed this phenomenon to be due to the build-up of lactic acid; however, recent studies suggest otherwise; muscle fatigue may result from insufficient oxygen delivery and disturbances to muscle ion homeostasis instead.
Inertia Health Group exercise physiology Woodville, an emerging area in medical professions, studies acute responses and long-term adaptations to physical activity. Considered an allied health profession, Exercise physiology also utilises education, lifestyle intervention programs and exercise as medicine to treat and prevent pathology.
Muscles
Skeletal muscles are movement-producing tissues in your body. Working in pairs, they produce precise movements by pulling one bone against another across a joint. When one muscle shortens, it’s known as an agonist; when another lengthens, it’s known as an antagonist; for instance, the biceps muscle flexes at the elbow while its opposite triceps extends the arm.
Some muscles can be controlled voluntarily, meaning you can make them move simply by thinking about them. Other muscles, however, operate without your conscious involvement – these involuntary ones do their work without conscious control from you. Either way, voluntary or involuntary muscles can become compromised when exposed to an unhealthy lifestyle, such as smoking cigarettes, eating too little, and taking medications that cause side effects such as high blood pressure.
During exercise, skeletal muscles produce energy by breaking down glycogen and amino acids into ATP. At first, protein turnover increases to meet rising metabolic needs, but eventually, this contribution to ATP production decreases as endurance training intensifies; furthermore, leucine oxidation declines due to increased glycogen storage capacity and an enhanced ability to use fat as fuel.
Bones
Bones are living tissues that respond to physical stress differently, as muscles do. Healthy young adults must balance the daily resorption of bone minerals with the daily deposition of new bone to keep the skeleton strong; frail bones become susceptible to fracture when this balance shifts towards resorption. According to research findings, exercise can stimulate new bone formation and promote overall bone health.
Similar to muscles, bones respond to exercise in much the same way; when exercised regularly, they expand and strengthen; otherwise, they shrink and weaken. Researchers have also discovered that hormones secreted from other organs – specifically the thyroid gland – can impact bone health. For instance, parathyroid hormone (PTH) regulates calcium levels in the bloodstream to promote new bone formation or dissolve old ones.
Studying how our bodies react to short and long-term exercise can be an exciting field of inquiry. But as with any scientific topic, opinions can differ significantly regarding its benefits; though experts often agree regular physical activity has many health advantages, exactly how this happens remains an ongoing debate.
Brain
Exercise can do wonders for both your physical health and mind. However, with more people becoming aware of its mental health benefits, we must comprehend its underlying science to take full advantage of physical exercise as a form of therapy.
Researchers in Inertia Health Group exercise physiology Woodville can greatly assist in this regard. Studies have demonstrated that regular physical activity can increase brain sizes, particularly within areas like the hippocampus and basal ganglia. Furthermore, exercise can stimulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) production while improving functional connectivity between brain regions.
Exercise can also help lower stress levels by stimulating the production of hormones such as norepinephrine and dopamine. These hormones work together to suppress nerve cells in the hippocampus that contribute to stress responses while acting as first-aid kits to repair damaged neurons caused by prolonged or intense exercise.