Introduction to Exercise Physiology

By:
Dr. Ahmed Abd El-Moneim
Lecturer of Physical Therapy & Osteopathic
Medicine
Beni-Suef University
Coordinator of Prosthetics & Orthotics
Technology Program (BTU)
Diploma of Osteopathic Medicine, IAO (Belgium)
Diploma of Therapeutic Nutrition, NNI
 Introduction

 Physiology: one of the branches of natural science, which

deals with functional aspect of living organism.

 Exercise: a subset of physical activity that is planed with a

goal of improving or maintaining fitness.
– Series of muscular work or movement that is carried out in a
sequential manner are called exercise.

– This is economical, skillful, coordinated and graceful manner in

order to fulfill a particular task.
 Introduction

 Exercise physiology: Study of how exercise alerts the

structure and function of the human body.
– Exercise physiology is the study, which deals with how the human
body responds and adjusts to exercise.

– Exercise physiology is an applied science that deals with various

interaction and adjustment physiologically before, after and during
exercise.

 Clinical exercise physiology: Study of exercise use in the

treatment or rehabilitation of clinical disorders.
 Importance of Exercise Physiology

 Exercise physiology is an aspect of sports medicine that

involves the study of how the body, forms a functional stand-
point, responds, adjust and adapts to exercise.

 Exercise physiology provides the physiological basis of

physical education fitness and athlete program.

 Exercise physiology provides the physiological basis of

therapeutic exercise which is mostly important for
physiotherapy.
 Importance of Exercise Physiology

 It gives the knowledge about structure and function of various

types of muscle of human body.

 It gives the knowledge about Bio-energetic system.

‫فهم آليات انتاج الطاقه‬

 Exercise physiology provides the information about nervous

control of muscular movement.

 It is helpful for understanding of the functional aspect of

respiratory and cardiovascular system.
 Importance of Exercise Physiology

 Exercise physiology is informative for sports and nutritional

effect on sports performance.

 It gives the knowledge about work and environment such as

summer, winter humid and high altitude.

 Exercise physiology gives the knowledge how to improve

strength, speed, endurance, flexibility and coordinative
abilities.
 Importance of Exercise Physiology

 Exercise physiology is helpful for scientific basis of training

schedule and its evaluation.

 It gives the knowledge about the effect of doping and alcohol

on sports performance.

 It is helpful to know the immediate and long term effect of

physical training.

 It is important for understanding body adaptation.

 It is important for right selection of activity for individual.

 Introduction

 What is exercise?
– Planned, structured, repetitive, and purposeful physical activity.

– Examples: training for or performing athletics, sports, or recreational

activities such as jogging, ice skating, swimming, etc.

 What is physical activity?

– Body movement produced by muscle action that increases energy
expenditure.

– Examples: activities of daily living such as shopping, gardening, house

keeping, child rearing, work-related activities, etc.
 Introduction

 What is exercise training?

– The repeated use of exercise to improve physical fitness.

 What is physical fitness?

– The ability to carry out daily tasks and routine physical activities
without undue fatigue.

– It’s a product of exercise and/or physical activity.

– Can be broken into 2 components, like:

1) Health Related components improved through proper training.

2) Skill Related Components improved through practice of motor skills.

 Components of Physical Fitness

1) Health related components: Those factors that are related to how well
the systems of your body work.
A. Cardiovascular endurance: The ability of the circulatory system (heart and
blood vessels) to supply oxygen to working muscles during exercise.

B. Body Composition: The relative percentage of body fat compared to lean

body mass (muscle, bone, water, etc).

C. Flexibility: The range of movement possible at various joints.

D. Muscular strength: The amount of force that can be produced by a single

contraction of a muscle.

E. Muscular endurance: The ability of a muscle group to continue muscle

movement over a length of time.
 Components of Physical Fitness

2) Skill related components: Those factors that are related to how well the
systems of your body work.
A. Speed: The ability to move quickly from one point to another in a straight
line.

B. Agility: The ability of the body to change direction quickly.

C. Balance: The ability to maintain an upright posture while still or moving.

D. Coordination: Integration with hand and/or foot movements with the input of
the senses.

E. Power: The ability to use muscle strength quickly.

• It can be increased by three general ways: increase the force; decrease the time
it takes; and increase the distance a force acts on one’s body.
 What is Exercise Physiology?

 It is the study of how the body (cell, tissue, organ, system)

responds in function and structure to acute exercise stress, and
chronic physical activity.
 Why has exercise physiology developed as a field separate
from physiology?

 Consider the physiological systems (Cardiovascular,

Respiratory, Nervous, Renal, GIT, Temperature Regulation,
Endocrine, Muscle, Bone, Skin, Immune, Metabolism).

 Exercise tends to disturb homeostasis.

 Adaptations of physiological systems tend to minimize this

disturbance.
 Responses and Adaptations

 Exercise results in responses and adaptations depending on time, type,

Intensity, and frequency.

 Responses: The sudden, temporary changes in the function caused by

exercise.
– These functional changes disappear shortly after the exercise period is over.

 Adaptations: The persistent changes in structure or function following

training that apparently enables the body to withstand repeated bouts of
exercise.
– Adaptations are long term effects and are thus not seen until several weeks of
training.
 Adaptations to Exercise

 Acute adaptations: The changes in human physiology that

occur during exercise or physical activity.

 Chronic Adaptations: The alterations in the structure and

functions of the body that occur in response to the regular
completion of physical activity and exercise.
 Adaptations to Physical Activity/Exercise

 Adaptation to endurance/aerobic training is the result of various

physiological changes, most of which are considered to be beneficial
to the individual in terms of enhanced performance and health.

 Aerobic exercise, when performed regularly, can result in a range of

adaptive physical responses (the training effect or training response).

 The training response: A temporary or extended change in

structure or function that results from performing repeated bouts of
exercise and is independent of the immediate or short-term effects
produced by a single bout of exercise.
 Adaptations to Physical Activity/Exercise

 The extent of these adaptations will depend on the type,

frequency, intensity, duration and mode of exercise.

 These adaptations within the body collectively result in an

enhanced ability to perform both maximal and submaximal
exercise.

 They include cardiovascular changes and changes in skeletal

and cardiac muscle morphology and biochemistry.
 Adaptations to Physical Activity/Exercise

 These adaptations are generally categorized into:

A. Peripheral adaptations or specific local changes.

B. Central adaptations: changes in cardiac performance, most

notably ventricular contractility.

 Changes in the periphery influence central changes, reflecting

the integrated nature of skeletal muscle and the cardiovascular
system.
 Central Adaptations

 Central adaptations, such as changes in cardiac function and

structure, contribute toward an increase in aerobic capacity
(VO2max), and these have been found to be greatest following
aerobic training of large muscle groups.
 Central Adaptations

 The most notable of these adaptations is the increase in cardiac

output (heart rate × stroke volume).
– Initially, this is found without an increase in heart size.

– During exercise, the increase in venous return causes enhanced end-

diastolic filling. This produces a higher stroke volume through the Starling
mechanism and greater emptying of the left ventricle.

– Over time, adaptations take place, which in some individuals result in an

enlargement in the left ventricle (left ventricular hypertrophy).

 The stimulus for this adaptation is thought to be related to volume

load on the heart.
 Central Adaptations

 Other cardiac parameters are often observed in those who have

undergone many years of endurance training, such as an
increase in transverse right ventricular cavity and left atrial
transverse dimensions. Whereas in contrast, strength trained
athletes tend to show normal ventricular volume, but an
increase in septum wall thickness and mass.
 Peripheral Adaptations

 Peripheral adaptations are specific to the muscle groups being

used during training.

 The adaptations that occur enhance the ability of the trained

muscle to generate, aerobically, the substance involved in the
production of energy (ATP).
 Peripheral Adaptations

 Training induces peripheral adaptations such as:

– An increase in capillarization of the specific skeletal muscle
through the processes of angiogenesis and arteriogenesis.

– An increase in the muscle mitochondria.

– Enhanced muscle myoglobin content.

– Greater fat metabolism and oxidization of carbohydrate.

– Metabolic adaptations in different muscle types, which jointly

result in enhanced aerobic metabolism.
 Peripheral Adaptations

 Other adaptations that have also been found to occur are

selective hypertrophy of different muscle fibers specific to the
overload and adaptations to the anaerobic system, if vigorous
PA/exercise is undertaken.
– The latter may include increases in resting levels of anaerobic
substrates, increases in the quantity and activity of key enzymes
controlling the anaerobic phase of glucose breakdown, and
increased capacity for blood lactic acid during all-out exercise.
 Training & Conditioning

 Training:

– Is practicing any activity regularly, which leads to

conditioning.

– The systematic process with the aim of improving fitness in

a selected activity.

– A long term process that is progressive and recognizes the

individual’s needs and capabilities.
 Training & Conditioning

 Conditioning:

– The physical effect of training (↑ flexibility, strength, and

endurance).

– Training is what you do.

– Conditioning is what you get.

 Benefits of Exercise

 It increases the size of the muscle fibers, consequently

increasing the muscle mass and muscular activity in the body.

 It increases bone calcium, thus helps in maintenance of bone

mass (in the later age and post-menopausal women).

 It increases the cardiac output and stroke volume of the heart.

 It increases venous return.

 It increases hemoglobin concentration in the blood, providing

better oxygen carrying capacity.
 Benefits of Exercise

 It inhibits the blood clotting processes and stickiness of the blood

(contributing reduction in heart attacks).

 It increases oxygen pick up in the lungs.

 It increases oxygen supply in the heart muscles and increases greater

extraction of oxygen at the peripheral level.

 It strengthens the tendons, ligaments, muscles and other tissues

around the joints, lubricating the joint cartilages and capsules,
maintaining proper flexibility of joints (greater the flexibility of
joints, lesser will be the chances of injury).
 Benefits of Exercise

 It decreases resting heart rate.

 It activates the sympathetic nervous system and put the whole body
on the alert.

 It lowers the blood cholesterol, which is a major risk factor in

coronary heart disease, improving blood high-density cholesterol
(HDL), which is cardioprotetive.

 It decreases blood triglycerides.

 Blood pressure increases during exercise, but in the long run, it

decreases the blood pressure.
 Benefits of Exercise

 It decreases insulin resistance and increases insulin sensitivity, thus

ameliorates diabetes mellitus.

 It increases glycogen storage.

 It decreases body fat (benefits the cardiovascular system by reducing

body weight).

 It decreases stress (physical exercise has positive influence on the

psychological functioning, it reduces anxiety and depression, thus
elevates the mood).

 It improves memory and increases self-esteem.

 Benefits of Exercise

 Regular exercise and training reduce the morbidity and mortality through 2
main effects:
A. Direct effects
– Strong and more efficient cardiac muscle.
– Lower blood pressure.
– Better insulin sensitivity and glucose control.
– Improved body composition.
– Lower LDL levels.
– Higher HDL levels.

B. Indirect effects
– Better stress management.
– Improved immune system.