Exercise Physiology

Ever wonder how your muscles contract to create movement
during exercise? When you move your body, your various body
parts respond. The study of the body's functions is Physiology.
In physiology, we study how these body parts are integrated
and have interrelationships to regulate our internal
environment.
Exercise physiology is concerned with the study
of how the body adapts physiologically to the acute
stress of exercise and chronic stress training. These
responses include changes in metabolism and physiology
of different areas of the body like heart, lungs, and
muscles, and structural changes in cells. It is the study
of how our bodies' structures and functions are
altered. The goal of exercise physiology is to recover
the strength and fitness of an individual.

When you exercise, you're helping build a strong and
healthy body that will be able to move around and do all the
things you need it to do. Exercise physiology is simply an
understanding of how your body responds to exercise. It falls
under the umbrella of kinesiology, which is the scientific
study of human movement.
Exercise physiology examines how your body's cells and

organs, such as your cardiovascular, muscular and respiratory
systems, are changed when exposed to acute (short) and chronic
(long, over time) bouts of exercise.
Click and visit the link to watch a video about the definition and goals of
Exercise Physiology
https://youtu.be/qPlGuIqzbow?t=14
There are two distinct goals of exercise physiology:
1. The use of exercise to further understand how the body

functions
2. The use of that knowledge to develop activities and programs

that establish, maintain, and promote physical fitness
Knowing how your body responds to short-term bouts of

physical activity and how it adapts to repeated bouts of
physical activity over time can have a profound impact on your
health and help you reach a higher level of fitness and/or
health long-term.
For example, cardio or aerobic
exercise can affect your mood.
Immediately after a brisk, 30-minute walk,
your body releases endorphins, which are
natural pain-reducing substances that can
give you a sense of well-being. Knowing that
walking has a positive effect on your mood
tells you that incorporating walking into
your fitness program long-term may help
with health issues and can reduce stress,
depression, anxiety, and tension.

When you begin your study of exercise, you must first
learn how the body responds to an individual bout of exercise,
such as running on a treadmill. This response is called an
acute response. An acute physiological response refers to an
immediate response of one or more of the body's systems to
exercise, such as heart rate increasing as a gym member sits
on the bike and starts their warm-up.
You can then understand the chronic adaptations that the

body makes when it is challenged with repeated bouts of
exercise. Chronic training adaptations are long term
physiological changes in response to training that allows the
body to meet new demands.
Click and visit the link to watch a video

about the Physiological Responses and
adaptation to Exercise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV7ucBVtrow
An acute physiological response refers to an immediate
response of one or more of the bodies systems to exercise,
such as the heart rate increasing as a gym member sits on the
bike and starts their warm up.
A chronic adaptation refers to the long term effects on

one or more of the bodies systems as a person sustains their
exercise habit.
Chronic adaptations are essentially the benefits a client

receives over the long term if they ‘stick to it’. An example
of this is an increase in muscle mass and a reduction in fat
mass as long term adaptations to resistance exercise
Acute physiological responses are a vital part of our
ability to respond to the changes and demands being placed on
our bodies various systems.
Just the act of getting up in the morning and walking to

the bathroom requires acute physiological responses such as
an increased heart rate, increased respiration rate, release
of hormones, increased neuromuscular activation.
The type of and degree to which physiological responses

occur is down to the demands being placed on the body. For
example only very small changes are required in the
cardiovascular and respiratory systems in order to walk to the
bathroom in the morning, whereas significant changes are
required if you go for a 30 minute run.
Without acute physiological responses we simply would not

even be able to get up in the morning, let alone exercise.
Chronic physiol ogical adaptations are a vital part of our
ability to develop and improve over time. Allowing us to cope
with changes and demands being placed on our bodies various
systems more efficiently.
For example, if you are not very fit and you decide to go
for a 5km run you will likely find it hard on the bodies
various systems, as your heart rate rises sharply and your
respiration increases drastically. You will also likely find
that over the next couple of days your muscles will be a little
sore as well.
If you then don’t do any exercise for a few weeks and you
try and repeat the same run you will get the same outcome –
as your heart rate raises sharply, respiration increases
drastically and your muscles will be sore.
However one of the great things about our bodies various

systems is their ability to adapt.
Instead of doing one 5km run in three weeks, if you were

to run 5km every third day over a three week period your body
would adapt.
This is because you are repeatedly asking it to do more
than it is used to but you are allowing enough recovery time.
As a result your bodies systems have the stimulation and the
time needed to adapt and become more efficient at coping with
a 5km run.
Without chronic physiological adaptations we simply would

never improve our fitness or strength as a result of training.
In fact if our bodies didn’t adapt to the chronic stresses
that it experiences we would not even change from the day we
were born!

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Ever wonder how your muscles contract to create movement

Exercise physiology is concerned with the study

of how the body adapts physiologically to the acute

stress of exercise and chronic stress training. These

responses include changes in metabolism and physiology

of different areas of the body like heart, lungs, and

muscles, and structural changes in cells. It is the study

of how our bodies' structures and functions are

altered. The goal of exercise physiology is to recover

the strength and fitness of an individual.

Exercise physiology examines how your body's cells and

1. The use of exercise to further understand how the body

2. The use of that knowledge to develop activities and programs

Knowing how your body responds to short-term bouts of

For example, cardio or aerobic

exercise can affect your mood.

Immediately after a brisk, 30-minute walk,

your body releases endorphins, which are

natural pain-reducing substances that can

give you a sense of well-being. Knowing that

walking has a positive effect on your mood

tells you that incorporating walking into

your fitness program long-term may help

with health issues and can reduce stress,

depression, anxiety, and tension.

You can then understand the chronic adaptations that the

Click and visit the link to watch a video

A chronic adaptation refers to the long term effects on

Chronic adaptations are essentially the benefits a client

Just the act of getting up in the morning and walking to

The type of and degree to which physiological responses

Without acute physiological responses we simply would not

However one of the great things about our bodies various

Instead of doing one 5km run in three weeks, if you were

Without chronic physiological adaptations we simply would

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