Using your knowledge of aerobic adaptation, explain why an athlete who has trained intensively following a continuous training programme will beat an athlete who has trained very little over a 5,000 metre race.

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2/11/02                                                                                                      Jonathan de Vletter

Using your knowledge of aerobic adaptation, explain why an

athlete who has trained intensively following a continuous training

programme will beat an athlete who has trained very little over a

5,000 metre race.

        Continuous training is a method of training to work on developing endurance, and so would be an appropriate method of training for an athlete looking to become more competitive over the course of a 5,000 metre race. As such, it could be expected that, all other things being equal, the trained athlete would beat the untrained athlete.

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        One adaptation which could be expected to occur as a result of aerobic training would be the alteration of the structure of the muscle fibres. Aerobic training has a particularly large effect on the slow twitch muscle fibres within the body, and through training can be enlarged by up to 22%. The benefit of such an adaptation to the performer will be greater potential within the fibres for aerobic energy production because there will be greater area for mitochondria to operate within.

As indicated, another adaptation to occur would be an increase in the mitochondria within the body, both in ...

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