Long term effects of exercise

• Long-Term Effects of Exercise

  • Leads to adaptations in the body's systems
  • Benefits your health and different components of Stress (see pages 19-21)
  • Helps improve your performance
• Exercise Improves the Musculo-Skeletal System


  1. Doing regular exercise will make your muscles thicker and your muscle girth larger- which can change your body shape

  2. This thickening of muscles is called hypertrophy

  3. The thicker a muscle is, the more strongly it can contract so this increases your muscular strength

  4. Hypertrophy also improves your muscular endurance and increases your resistance to fatigue-so you can use your muscles for longer
• INCREASED BONE DENSITY


  • The denser your bones, the stronger they are
  • Exercise usually puts stress or forces through bones, and will cause the body to strengthen those bones
  • Stronger bones are less likely to break or fracture
• MUSCLE HYPERTROPHY


  Strong muscles and bones can help improve your performance
• heart gets bigger and stronger

  1. A bigger, stronger heart will contract more strongly and pump more blood with each beat-so your resting stroke volume and maximum cardiac output will increase

  2. A larger stroke volume means your heart has to beat less often to pump the same amount of blood around your body-your resting heart rate decrease
• MORE CAPILLARIES


  • There is an increase in the number of capillaries in the muscles and at the skin. This increases the blood supply to the muscles, so they receive more oxygen. This is called capillarisation.
• LARGER LUNG CAPACITY


  1. Your respiratory muscles (the diaphragm and internal muscles) get stronger- so they can make your chest capacity bigger. The number of alveoli in your lungs also increase.

  2. This increases your maximum tidal volume and minute ventilation during exercise - you can breathe in more air.

  3. This means you can get more oxygen into your lungs and bloodstream per breath so you can take in the same amount of oxygen with a lower breathing rate
• • These changes increase your aerobic capacity -the body's ability to get oxygen to the muscles-
  • This means you can exercise more intensely and for longer, as well as recover more quickly after exercise.