INTRODUCTION TO EXERCISE

PHYSIOLOGY
OBJECTIVES
 At the end of the lecture student should be able to
define

 Exercise Physiology
 Discuss why you need to study it.

 Can differentiate between Physical activity and

Exercise
 Physical Fitness and its types
HOW DO YOU DEFINE EXERCISE?

It is a Planned, structured, repetitive, and purposeful

physical activity that maintain or improve one or more
of the components of physical fitness.

e.g.: training for or performing athletics and sports

What is Physical Activity?

It is the Body movement produced by muscle action that

increases energy expenditure.

Physical activity includes exercise as well as other

activities which involve bodily movement and are done
as part of playing, working, house chores and
recreational activities, shopping, gardening, swimming,
house keeping and work-related activities, etc
Physical activity is a bit broader term that includes not
just exercise but things like

Walking to class, work, or the store

Walking for pleasure
Walking downstairs or down a hill
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

 The term “physical activity” describes many forms of

movement, including activities that involve the large
skeletal muscles.

 Activities that involve the small skeletal muscles (e.g.

playing board games, drawing, writing) are important, but
they do not provide the health benefits of activities that
involve the large skeletal muscles and require substantial
energy expenditure.
 PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS DEFINED BY ITS DURATION,
INTENSITY, AND FREQUENCY

 Duration is the amount of time spent

participating in a physical activity session

 Intensity is the rate of energy expenditure

e.g. light or moderate intensity activity

 Frequency is the number of physical activity

sessions during a specific time period (e.g.
one week).
FITT FORMULA

 Frequency
 Number of sessions each week
 Intensity
 Degree of effort put forth by the individual during exercise.
 Time
 Duration of activity
 Type
 Mode of exercise being performed
WHAT IS EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY?

 The study of how exercise and physical activity

alters the structure and function (physiology) of
the human body
OR
 The study of how the body (cell, tissue, organ,
system) responds in function and structure to
acute exercise stress and chronic physical
activity
OR
 It is the study of the acute responses and chronic
adaptations to a wide range of exercise condition
ACUTE RESPONSE TO EXERCISE
 How the body responds to an individual bout of exercise
such as running on a treadmill for an hour or undergoing
a strength training session.

 An individual bout of exercise is called acute exercise and

response to that bout exercise called acute response

 Acute exercise response: What immediately happens

when you begin your routine work out.

 Your heart rate will go up. Same as your stroke volume

(how much blood is pumped from one ventricle during
each heart beat) and blood pressure. Body temperature
will increase
RESPONSE VS. ADAPTATION

 Short term change caused by a stimulus

 Long term change cause by a stimulus

 A chronic adaptation refers to the long term affects on

one or more of the bodies systems as a person sustains
their exercise habit.
WHY EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY
 To understand how the basic physiological functioning of
the human body is modified by effects of short- and long-
term exercises as well as the mechanisms causing these
changes.

 Provide quality physical education programs in schools

colleges and universities that stimulate children and
adolescents both physically and intellectually.

 To become lifelong exercisers, students need to understand

how physical activity can benefit them, why they take
physical fitness tests, and what to do with fitness test
results.
 Apply the results of scientific research to maximize
health, rehabilitation, and/or athletic performance in
a variety of populations.

 Respond accurately to questions as well as

recognize myths and misconceptions regarding
exercise. Good advice should be based on
scientific evidence.
IN SHORT WHY EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY
 Understand the Effects of various exercises on various
systems of the body
 Relationship of energy metabolism to performance

 Effectiveness of training programs

 Effects of environmental factors

 Effects of individual differences on fitness development

and performance
 Identification of factors that limit performance

 Effectiveness of various rehabilitation programs

 Health and therapeutic effects associated with exercise

 Effects of nutrition on performance

SCOPE
 The scope of practice ranges from apparently healthy
individuals with no known medical problems to patients
with documented cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic,
rheumatoid, orthopedic, and/or neuromuscular diseases
and other conditions

 Consider the physiological systems:

 Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Nervous, Renal, GI,
Temperature Regulation, Endocrine, Muscle, Bone,
Skin, Immune, Metabolism
 Exercise tends to disturb homeostasis
 Adaptations of physiological systems tend to
minimize this disturbance
WHAT IS PHYSICAL FITNESS?
 Physical fitness is a general state of health and
well-being and, more specifically, the ability to
perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily
activities.

 Ability of the body’s systems to function efficiently

and effectively.
PHYSICAL FITNESS
 One is “physically fit” if they have the ability to:
 “Carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness,
without undue fatigue, and with enough energy
to enjoy leisure-time

 Participating in physical activity is beneficial to

people of all ages. Physical activity contributes to
fitness, a state in which people’s health
characteristics and behaviors enhance the
quality of their lives

 Divided in to two areas

PHYSICAL FITNESS
AREAS OF FITNESS

Health-related:
 Cardiovascular Fitness
 Body Composition

 Muscular Strength

 Muscular Endurance

 Flexibility
AREAS OF FITNESS

Performance-related:
 Agility
 Balance
 Coordination
 Movement time (related to reaction time)
 Power
 Speed
HEALTH RELATED FITNESS
 Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the heart,
blood cells and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to
the working muscle tissues and the ability of the
muscles to use oxygen to produce energy for
movement

 Ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to

supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained
physical activity.
 Regular exercise makes these systems more efficient to be
pumped with each stroke, and increasing the number of
small arteries in trained skeletal muscles, which supply more
blood to working muscles.

 Exercise improves the respiratory system by increasing the

amount of oxygen that is inhaled and distributed to body
tissue.

 Aerobic activities includes

 Jogging
 Running
 Walking
 Dancing
 Biking
 Swimming
BODY COMPOSITION

 A physical fitness term for the percentage of fat,

bone and muscle in the body.

 The relative proportions of protein, fat, water, and

mineral components in the body.

 Healthy adults males have 6% to 24% fat; healthy

adult females have between 14% and 31% fat.
( Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc.)

Determined by height and weight tables or BMI

 Classifications for BMI

Classification BMI

Underweight <18.5 kg/m2

Normal weight 18.5 - 24.9 kg/m2

Overweight 25 - 29.9 kg/m2

Obesity (Class 1) 30 - 34.9 kg/m2

Obesity (Class 2) 35 - 39.9 kg/m2

Extreme Obesity (Class 3)  40 kg/m2

BODY COMPOSITION IMPROVEMENT

 Decreasing percentage of fat

 Decrease caloric intake through diet.
 Increase caloric expenditure through physical activity and
exercise.
 Moderate decrease in caloric intake and moderate increase in
caloric expenditure.
 Muscular strength:
 Muscle strength refers to the amount of force a
muscle can produce with a single maximal effort.
Size of muscle cells and the ability of nerves to
activate them are related to muscle strength.

 The extent to which muscles can exert force by

contracting against resistance (e.g. holding or
restraining an object or person)

 Muscular endurance:
 Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or
group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions
against a resistance for an extended period of time.
 Flexibility:
 It is defined as the range of motion of your joints or the ability
of your joints to move freely.

 It also refers to the mobility of your muscles, which allows for

more movement around the joints.

 Range of motion is the distance and direction your joints

can move.

 Mobility is the ability to move without restriction.

 Can prevent muscle injuries; improve low-back pain
 Decreased flexibility can be caused by:
 Sedentary lifestyle (lack of use of muscles)
 Age
 High amounts of body fat
 Stress
 PERFORMANCE-RELATED FITNESS
 Agility:
 Ability to change the body's position efficiently, and requires the
integration of isolated movement skills using a combination
of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, strength,
and endurance.
 Agility is the ability to change the direction of the body in an
efficient and effective manner
BALANCE AND COORDINATION
 Balance is the ability to stay upright or stay in
control of body movement, and coordination is the
ability to move two or more body parts under
control, smoothly and efficiently.
 There are two types of balance: static and dynamic
REACTION TIME
 Reaction time is the interval time between the
presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of the
muscular response to that stimulus.

 A primary factor affecting a response is the number

of possible stimuli, each requiring their own
response, that are presented.
 Power:
 It is the rate of doing work.

 It is the ability to exert maximum muscular

contraction instantly in an explosive burst of
movements.
 It is equivalent to an amount of energy consumed
per unit time.
 The unit of power is the joule per second (J/s),
known as the watt
WHAT EXERCISE DO
 The repeated use of exercise to improve physical
fitness

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.
WHAT DOES TRAINING DO?

 Permits adaptations within the physiological

systems to minimize the disturbance to
homeostasis resulting from exercise
 WHAT IS CLINICAL EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY?

A sub-component of exercise physiology that involves the

application of exercise physiology principles, knowledge
and skills for purposes of the prevention, rehabilitation or
diagnosis of disease or disability in humans.

Clinical exercise physiologists are responsible for: Exercise

testing and evaluation and supervision of safe and effective
exercise programs in a healthcare setting