Assessment of Aerobic Fitness

Unit 1 Anatomy and Physiology Mike. Genge

Introduction

In this report I will be examining the information gathered from two contrasting athletes, after they participated in the V02 and Blood lactate transition test.

I will be focusing on the physiological response to exercise and evaluating the different responses of the two contrasting athletes. Furthermore I will be looking at Minute ventilation, V02 and VC02, V02 max, HR and Blood lactate levels. These factors discussed in full will aid me in working out the physiological responses.

The two athletes I will be looking at are Mark. Read (Athlete 2) and Mike. Genge. (Athlete 1). Both the athletes participating in the test were male.

Mike. Genge is 19 and Mark. Read is 22. So as you can see athlete 2 is 3yrs older than athlete 1.

Both athletes participate in some form of training, however Mike. G is considerably more trained than Mark. R as Mike. G trains more frequently and at a higher intensity.

Athlete 1 participates in some form of physical activity 4 times per week and is very active.

Athlete 2 participates in football training once a week with games at once a week and is fairly active.

So from the information I have gathered above I can make assumptions on who would of performed better in the test before seeing the results of the test. I will then look at the test results and see if my assumptions were right, moreover I will look at the points that I assumed right and why I got these right, also I will look at the assumptions I predicted wrong and evaluate why I got these wrong.

The two athletes participating in the test are both male. This factor would not give me much indication as to who will perform better in the test, as there would be no major physiological difference between the two athletes. If the test was to be performed by a male and a female then I could of made assumptions on the physiological differences to males and females such as: females having a wider pelvis and females tend to be smaller with smaller lungs which would effect their V02 Max etc.

There is a slightly significant age gap of three years with athlete 2 being the older participant in the test, although this age gap is fairly small it highlights the fact that athlete 1 is still growing and developing into their adult body and athlete 2 should be fully developed into their adult body. This tells me that athlete 2’s respiratory system and circulatory system should be more developed and efficient, meaning he will have a greater number of alveoli and capillaries to allow gaseous exchange to happen more effectively.

Looking at the training I can see that athlete 1 is considerably more trained than athlete 2. Athlete 1 trains for longer and at a higher intensity. So this would indicate that athlete1 even though he is younger it is not by much and he is nearly developed into his full adult body. Furthermore athlete 1 will have made vast improvements to his respiratory and circulatory systems.

I can now make the assumption that athlete 1 will perform better in the test. I believe this will be correct as there is not much to tell between the two ...

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I can now make the assumption that athlete 1 will perform better in the test. I believe this will be correct as there is not much to tell between the two athletes when looking at age and gender differences. However the fact that athlete 1 is considerably more trained than athlete 2 tells me that athlete 1 should perform better in the test.

There are a few variables that could also affect the outcome of the test. These are:

How motivated were the athletes before taking the test
How strict were the conditions of the test
Were the same staff conducting the test and maintaining their roles during the test

Tables of Results from Tests

Mark. Read (athlete 2) Mike. Genge (athlete 1)

I will now look at the information from the two graphs and compare the similarities and differences.

As you can see from the graphs on page 1, athlete 1 ran for 35mins, which was longer than athlete 2 as he ran for 22mins.

From the graph you can see that the VE is roughly at the same levels on the first minute but as the test progresses athlete 2’s VE increases at a much quicker rate than athlete 1. This is because athlete 2 is breathing at a much higher rate to get the oxygen that his muscles are demanding.

You can also see that athlete 2 is taking in more oxygen and producing higher levels of carbon dioxide than athlete 1. This is because athlete 2’s body cannot use the oxygen as well as athlete 1 so needs to take in greater volumes of oxygen and so the carbon dioxide levels expired are high as this is the resulting by-product.

From the graph you can also see that the HR of both athletes increases as a steady rate and both athletes are close to there max heart rates by the end of the test. Due to the heart pumping faster to enable all the desired nutrients and oxygen to reach the working muscles.

Now I will look at the blood lactate levels of the two athletes.

As you can see from the graph athlete 2’s blood lactate levels increase at a much faster and higher rate than athlete 1’s.

This indicates that athlete 1 has a higher lactate threshold than athlete 2

From the table above, the graph and my conclusions I have taken from the table I can see that my prediction was right as I predicted that athlete 1 would perform better in the test.

I have looked at the results of the test taken by the two athletes and said briefly what is happening to them during the test. I now need to analyze why these physiological changes happened to them. Furthermore why athlete 1 performed better than athlete 2.

Firstly I will look at the energy systems involved.

The body is powered by one compound only and this compound is ATP. However the body only stores a small amount of this compound, only enough to power us for around a few seconds of maximal intensity exercise. So the body must find a way to resynthesize the ATP. The body uses three pathways to resynthesize ATP, these are called metabolic pathways. One of these pathways will predominate depending on activity.

(http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/energysystems.html)

There are a numbers of energy systems that are used for an athlete to work to their best during performance.

At first the athletes would have been working using the Anaerobic (ATP-CP) Energy System. This is where ATP is used and resynthesized by CP. This system does not last for long and runs when the entire CP is used up which is around 10secs.

Then the athletes would of moved into the Anaerobic Lactate (Glycolytic) System. The athlete’s bodies will now resort to using glucose that is stored. This system peaks at around 1min and can go on for around 3-4mins.

As the two athletes ran for over this time the athletes would begin to use the Aerobic System. This is where the body can resort to using fats and carbohydrates, with carbohydrates being the first fuel depended upon if the intensity is relatively high and then a gradual switch will be made to fats as a fuel if the intensity is lower.

The athlete’s performances

So from the table above, the blood lactate transition graph and my conclusions above, it is clear to see that athlete 1 performed better in the test. The main reason for this is the fact that athlete 1 is more trained than athlete 2.

I now need to investigate what advantages training has given athlete 1 in order for him to perform better in the test.

Athlete 1 uses various training methods working Anaerobically and Aerobically. Athlete 1 has been training using these methods for a few years. So athlete 1’s body will have experienced a number of long-term adaptations to give him the advantage over athlete 2.

Athlete 1 will have a bigger and stronger heart, so the heart will have to work less as the increased size and strength will allow it to get the desired amount of blood to the required location more efficiently.

Athlete 1 will have increased his resting and maximal stroke volume, also during exercise cardiac output increases.

Athlete 1 will have a decreased resting heart rate. As the stroke volume has increased the heart rate has lowered.

Athlete 1 will have increased the volume of blood. This is due to an increase in blood plasma and also a small increase in red blood cells.

Athlete 1 will have improved the Vascular system and as a result will have increased the elasticity of the arterial walls which helps to with stand greater fluctuations in blood pressure.

(Class hand-out ‘The body’s response to exercise’)

From the graph it displays athlete 2’s blood lactate levels as a much steeper curve that would indicate that athlete 2 came to fatigue quicker than athlete 1.

Athlete 1 has a higher lactate threshold. This means that his body can tolerate higher levels of lactic acid in the blood whilst performing.

Athlete 1 will have achieved this through his anaerobic training doing this type of training will aid the body in increasing its ability to deal with lactic acid and delay the point at which it gives us great discomfort, this point is referred to as onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA). This could also be because athlete 2:

Is not getting enough oxygen inside the muscle cells
Does not have adequate concentrations of the enzymes necessary to oxidize pyruvate at high rates
Does not have enough mitochondria in his muscle cells
His muscles, heart, and other tissues are not very good at extracting lactate from the blood

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Athlete 1 will have increased the amount of capillaries in his body, this will result in oxygen being transferred more efficiently to the working muscles.

Athlete 1 will have an increased amount of Mitochondria that stores oxygen in the muscles.

Athlete 1 is able to recruit more alveoli that help to make gaseous exchange more efficient. O2/C02 can be diffused more efficiently between the alveoli and the capillaries. With the help of athlete 1 having more efficient lung ventilation and blood flow.

(The Performer in Action – Information on Respiratory System sheet 2003)

Overall athlete 1 performed better in the test as I predicted. It seems evident that athlete 1’s success was due to the fact that he is a trained athlete where as athlete 2 is not. This gave athlete 1 a big advantage as he had gained beneficial long-term adaptations from the training. These adaptations meant that his circulatory, respiratory and muscular systems were more advanced and more efficient.

I have been able to make these conclusions from the information I was given. This information was a table of results from the test also a Blood lactate graph. One problem with this information is the table of results may not be 100% accurate. This is because there is no way of knowing what is happening at each stage of the test. As the test involves 3min intervals, the table of results does not say what time the athletes started the test. This means that during minute 6 for example athlete 1 may have been running and athlete 2 may have stopped at the interval to have his blood taken. As a result of that my conclusions are from the results as a whole and I could not analyze the results as specifically as possible, by analyzing each minute of the test.

References:

Websites:

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(Class hand-out ‘The body’s response to exercise’)

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(The Performer in Action – Information on Respiratory System sheet 2003)